Standing alongside Mayor Mattie Parker, City Council members and LGBTQ community leaders, 15-year-old Cannon Austin felt proud to be a Fort Worthian.
He joined the gathering June 10 at City Hall to witness Parker declare that “in Fort Worth, y’all means all” with a recognition honoring June as Pride month, which highlights and celebrates the LGBTQ community.
“It is imperative we must embrace people of all backgrounds, identities and experiences to continue to build Fort Worth where every person is valued and truly free from discrimination,” Parker said before reading aloud her Pride recognition. “Our community’s strength lies in its diversity and its unity.”
Austin said they felt inspired to hear their mayor, a Republican in a Republican-dominated county, proudly and publicly support the LGBTQ community.
“I feel like it was very brave and, honestly, inspiring for her to take a stand,” Austin said.
Sharon Herrera, founder and executive director of the youth-serving nonprofit LGBTQ Saves, said Parker sent a powerful message to LGBTQ youth in Fort Worth: They are not only welcome, but valued. Her organization specifically works to provide safe spaces and end LGBTQ youth suicide.
“Our youth has to see the mayor say those words that she said today,” Herrera, moved to tears, told the Fort Worth Report. “Now, she’s truly helping us save lives. That’s how I see it.”
The mayor’s recognition spotlighted the contributions of LGBTQ residents to Fort Worth, stating that LGBTQ residents “strengthen the city’s cultural and economic fabric, creating an economic output of approximately $150 billion as part of the region’s total GDP of over $744 billion.” It recognized LGBTQ residents as “vital contributors” to the city’s “vitality, driving innovation, creativity, and growth across key sectors such as small business, the arts, healthcare, hospitality, education, and public service.”
Roger Calderon, president of the LGBTQ nonprofit Trinity Pride, said it was particularly important that the mayor’s recognition highlighted the contributions of the LGBTQ community. Trinity Pride organizes the largest LGBTQ pride event in Fort Worth, held annually in the Near Southside.
“We’re people who contribute, in many different ways, to the city. … We’re business owners, we work in the arts, we spend money in Fort Worth, and we make Fort Worth our home,” Calderon told the Report. “To have a mayor that recognizes that, and recognizes the importance of our contributions to the city is really great.”
Recognitions are written letters read aloud during council meetings to ceremonially recognize events, individuals and milestones related to Fort Worth. Until last year, the highest form of recognition, a proclamation, required unanimous approval from the mayor and 10 City Council members in order to be presented.
Last June, four Republican council members — Alan Blaylock, Michael Crain, Macy Hill and Charlie Lauersdorf — declined to sign off on a Pride proclamation drafted to recognize the work of several local LGBTQ-serving nonprofits. The incident, in addition to other disagreements over drafted proclamations, ultimately led city leadership to do away with unanimous council proclamations.
Now, the highest form of recognition comes solely from the mayor’s office. Individual council members may also issue recognitions from their offices.
During Tuesday’s meeting, all present council members, except Crain who attended the meeting virtually, joined the mayor on the chamber floor for a photo with LGBTQ residents. The scene was markedly different from last June, when Blaylock, Hill and Lauersdorf remained seated on the council dais while their colleagues stepped down to celebrate the LGBTQ community. Crain also was not physically present at the 2024 Pride recognition.
Lauersdorf told the Report after the meeting that he was happy to support the mayor’s recognition because of its focus on residents. Last year, he declined to sign off on the proclamation recognizing specific organizations, saying he didn’t know enough about each organization and their stances on transgender children.
“The difference in the proclamations from this year and last year is today was about people, not just specific organizations,” Lauersdorf said. “They did exactly what they should have done last year, and they made it about people.”
Reflecting on last year’s failed Pride proclamation, Calderon said he’s happy to see a public official support the LGBTQ community, even if the recognition now comes from one person instead of 11. The city’s return to recognizing Pride month still marks progress, he said.
“Progress is not a straight line — pardon the pun. Progress is two steps forward, one step back. Progress is a hiccup here and there,” Calderon said. “What I choose to focus on is that that situation allowed the mayor and the City Council to reevaluate. And it just feels good being recognized by the mayor.”
Government accountability reporter Drew Shaw contributed reporting.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.
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