True to their word, members of the City's Advisory Council on LGBT Issues are not going down without a fight.
Representatives from the city's eight advisory councils held a press conference Friday, Oct. 28 to voice their opposition to a proposed overhaul of the councils, which stand to be consolidated into three due to budget cuts.
"By losing our seat at the table, we're going to lose our identity in the City of Chicago," said Gary Chichester a member of the council on LGBT Issues. "In our community, it's too easy to hide. We need to have that visibility."
Under the proposed changes, the current councils on African, Arab, Asian, Immigrant and Refugee, Latino, LGBT, Veterans and Women Issues would be reorganized into a council on "Sexuality and Gender" and a council on "Equity" ( the Veterans council remains intact ) .
All eight of the councils currently operate under the Chicago Commission on Human Relations
The volunteer members of those councils argue that three councils cannot possibly do the work of eight and say that the reorganization threatens to undo progress their communities have made in gaining a voice in city government.
"A combined structure would not be able to address the identity, the needs of each community," said Kendra Jackson, chair of the council on women's issues.
Jackson argued that because each council is comprised of up to 21 members, the councils themselves are diverse portraits of the communities they represent. Consolidation would threaten that, she said.
"Ineffectiveness can make efficiency meaningless," said Denise Lam, chair of the council on Asian issues. "These proposals could be seen as reversing Chicago's historic commitment of more than 60 years to an inclusive and nondiscriminatory city."
Most importantly, council members said, they just want to be part of the conversation.
"The fact that we weren't even consulted makes me really wonder what's going on," said Chichester.