PORT TOWNSEND — With little fanfare and no opposition, Kellie Ragan quietly listened before the City Council on Monday night as Mayor Mark Welch read the proclamation she penned, recognizing June as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Month.
Saying those she represented made up a broad cross-section of the community, a grateful Ragan told the council: “We have many faiths and we are proud.”
Unlike her effort to push a similar proclamation through the Jefferson County commissioners, Ragan met with no opposition from the City Council or elsewhere in the city.
“One of the things about this community is overall this is a very tolerant community,” Welch said before the council meeting.
A ‘non-issue’
The mayor said he hoped his acceptance and reading of the proclamation Monday night was a “non-issue.”
That, however, was not the case two weeks ago when Jefferson County commissioners approved basically the same proclamation in a split vote of 2-1.
Some cheered at the commissioners meeting May 22 as two of the three Jefferson County commissioners — Democrats David Sullivan of Cape George and Phil Johnson of Port Townsend — voted to approve the proclamation.
Others applauded the reasoning of Commissioner Pat Rodgers, R-Brinnon, who voted against the proclamation.
While Sullivan and Johnson said they were happy about the proclamation because it would make all feel welcomed in Jefferson County, Rodgers said he saw it as divisive.
Rodgers said he did not think there was discrimination in the county.
