LGBT groups are praising the city's budget committee for opting to include the acronym "LGBT" in the current proposed advisory councils after it was slated to be replaced with the word "sexuality."
The Advisory Council on LGBT Issues, longtime seen as a seat at the table by LGBT Chicagoans, was set to be dissolved and combined with a council on women's issues in the 2012 budget proposal. Consequently, it was to be renamed the "Council on Gender and Sexuality Issues."
LGBT activists took exception with the removal of the "LGBT" acronym, stating it was an erasure of their identities.
"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 a press conference on the issue. "In our community, it's too easy to hide. We need to have that visibility."
But the city's Committee on the Budget and Government Operations has changed that proposal, renaming the council the "Council on Gender and LGBT Issues."
Anthony Martinez, executive director of The Civil Rights Agenda, said in a statement that he is pleased that the term LGBT has been put back into the council names.
"The term 'sexuality' was an almost insulting way of describing what this council addresses in terms of issues related to the LGBT community," Martinez said. "Also, most people have come to know the term LGBT, but the term sexuality was just too vague to be directly linked to the LGBT community within the general public."
Equality Illinois also released a statement, praising the retention of the "LGBT" acronym.
Both organizations are part of the LGBT Citywide Coalition, a grouping 30 LGBT organizations formed last year during mayoral elections. That coalition conducted a letter-writing campaign to top officials and aldermen, asking that "LGBT" remain in the councils.
Under the new proposal, the LGBT council will still be combined with the council on Women's Issues, a move that concerns both of those current councils who say the combination of the two groups threatens the visibility of their communities.
The city's other seven advisory councils also opposed changes that collapsed the eight councils into just three. Under the proposed budget, the current councils on African, Arab, Asian, Immigrant and Refugee, Latino, Issues would be combined into a council on "Equity." Only the Veteran's council would remain intact.
The fate of those currently sitting on the councils further remains uncertain.
The next steps, said Martinez, will be ensuring that the structure of the new councils supports LGBT people and that the makeup of those on the new council reflects the LGBT community it will serve.