In 2008, the City Council of Porterville, California became the first and only government body to formally vote to urge residents to support Proposition 8 on the statewide ballot. That proposition would go on to pass, and banned marriage equality (AKA gay marriage) in the state. In 2013, after appeals and rulings, the United States District Court would strike down the initiative as un-Constitutional. (In 2015, the United States Supreme Court would rule that marriage equality bans were a violation of the US Constitution as well, and struck down all bans.)

What has this to do with Liberty Hill, Texas? That’s the déjà vu all over again.

On June 14, 2023, Mayor Liz Branigan of Liberty Hill, Texas, issued a proclamation, designating June as Pride Month.

I’m sure Liberty Hill has, like most communities, a lot of issues for local government to deal with. It takes something like a Pride Proclamation to get the folks of the town to pay attention. They showed up at the city council meeting, most of them not happy. You’d think the Mayor had just imposed ‘wokeness’ on them, and the citizens now have to wear stylish clothes and listen to Drag Queens read them children’s stories.

Here is the text of the entire proclamation:

PRIDE PROCLAMATION
Whereas, Liberty Hill is a Loving, Wholesome and Family-centered community; and
Whereas, Liberty Hill is an inclusive and supportive community; and
Whereas, We value all of our citizens because of the unique and precious nature of all of God’s children; and
Whereas, We oppose hate, abuse, discrimination or bullying of any person,
Now Therefore, I, Liz Branigan, as Mayor, do proclaim the month of June as Pride Month in Liberty Hill, in harmony with the larger community of the United States.
Proclaimed this the 14th day of June 2023.

Mayor Liz Branigan

That’s rather bland, isn’t it? It doesn’t even specifically refer to LGBTQ. That didn’t stop the “loving Christians” from flooding the council chambers and going off on the ‘slippery slope’ the city was forcing on them.

This is almost a replay of the events of June, 2013, in Porterville, California. Porterville is a small city in Central California, smack in the buckle of the state’s very red, very conservative Bible belt of the central valley. Kevin McCarthy is the Congressman for the area, as Devin Nunes was before him.

Here’s a blog I wrote about the Porterville proclamation, before it was issued.

When the proclamation was issued by Porterville’s mayor, all hell broke loose. (Kudos to Liberty Hill for not having a scene anything like Porterville’s.)

It should be noted that up until this proclamation, the process to issue one in Porterville was similar to Liberty Hill’s. The mayor gets an application from someone in the community, they decide if it meets the very basic requirements, and if so it gets placed on the agenda. Someone on city staff prints up the proclamation, it’s slipped into one of those blue folders, the Mayor and, if they desire, the city council members sign it. It’s then presented at a council meeting, usually to the person that initiated the request.

The only person to sign Porterville’s proclamation was the Mayor, Virginia Gurrola. Here’s the Porterville proclamation.

Another one of those “divisive” “gay agenda” things being “rammed down their throats”.

The proclamation did not go over well.

Other city council members decided enact another first in the nation (as far as we can ascertain), and rescind the proclamation in a formal vote. That didn’t work out as first planned, because the council members were in such a rush to undo what the Mayor had done that they didn’t add it to the agenda correctly. Thus began a Keystone Kops caper stretching over the summer as the other council members struggled to get it right. They eventually did, and rescinded the Pride proclamation, and ‘replaced’ it with a proclamation of “A Month of Community Charity and Goodwill to All in Porterville”. Doesn’t that sound like something that was said in the Liberty Hill meeting?

So now Liberty Hill Texas has a choice. Will they wish their LGBT community a happy Pride Month, or will they go the Porterville route, and fight tooth and nail to remove a rather milquetoast proclamation? Will they vilify the mayor?

The Visalia Times Delta published a blog post I wrote about the entire situation in the September 21-22, 2013 print edition of the Opinion page. You can read it here.

It’ll be interesting to see what Liberty Hill decides to do.

Like I said, déjà vu all over again.