24 years after anti-gay resolution, SC county leaders don’t have plans to reverse it
Leaders in a South Carolina county say they don’t plan to reverse a 1996 resolution that condemned “gay lifestyles.”
The recent comments come as an LGBTQ rights group is urging those elected officials to rescind the anti-gay action that passed 24 years ago, according to Facebook posts this month from Upstate Pride SC.
The call for change centers on a resolution the Greenville County Council approved in a 9-3 vote, The Greenville News reported at the time.
In the the May 1996 document, the council said: “lifestyles advocated by the gay community should not be endorsed by government policy makers, because they are incompatible with the standards to which this community subscribes,” according to a copy obtained by WYFF.
Also, Greenville County in the resolution said it “openly and vigorously” supported its community’s standards, which were in line with “traditional family structure,” the document from WYFF shows.
Now, nearly 3,000 people have signed an online petition to show they’re in favor of repealing the decades-old resolution, according to Change.org.
“In this era of divisiveness, it would be a welcome gesture for Greenville County Council to rescind this antiquated statute and recognize their LGBTQ brothers, sisters, friends and coworkers as equal partners in this quest for the betterment of Greenville County,” the petition says.
But council leaders say they aren’t planning to get rid of the resolution any time soon.
Councilman Ennis Fant told WSPA the action is “effectively expired” and was outside the council’s scope in 1996.
“We have three primary responsibilities: public safety, infrastructure and land management,” he told the station. “We don’t go into social issues.”
Butch Kirven, council chairman, doesn’t think his council will act on the old resolution, The Greenville News reports.
“It is not a law, or a rule, and it has no influence on policy,” he told WHNS. “At most, it may represent only a snapshot of a different time and a different circumstance than we have today — it is best left to history.”
Though revisiting the resolution isn’t on the agenda for the council’s meeting on Tuesday night, supporters of Upstate Pride SC’s request plan to speak, according to Facebook posts and news reports.
A history of controversy
Greenville County council members proposed the resolution after another one prompted action from officials who oversaw the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta, multiple news outlets reported.
After its community adopted “similar standards,” the torch relay skipped Cobb County, Georgia, according to The Greenville News.
As the torch came through South Carolina that year, it bypassed Greenville County and was met with signs denouncing the resolution, according to the Associated Press.
“You’ve just entered Greenville County, proceed with extreme prejudice,” one sign read, the news outlet reported.
But the council hoped to “show that Greenville is a place where children can be raised without the chance of becoming gay,” The Greenville News reported 24 years ago.
