The Renton City Council discussed creating a proclamation or resolution protecting LGBTQ+ rights before members of the community expressed their support of the latter.

At the April 7 committee of the whole meeting, members of the Renton City Council worked to decide the next step in creating a proclamation or resolution for LGBTQ+ rights. Debate focused on whether a reaffirmation of a 2017 proclamation calling Renton an inclusive city was enough, or if a new proclamation was needed, or if the city should create a resolution.

According to city policies, a proclamation is government speech made on behalf of a city government that is not legally binding and does not constitute an endorsement by the city. It is meant to honor, celebrate or raise awareness for the benefit of the community. A resolution is a change to city code and must be prepared by the city attorney or by bond counsel.

Renton Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Kristi Rowland said the city staff was asked to review a draft from Bothell, but found Bothell had not adopted anything and instead constructed something based on what they already have in place.

“What they did do actually is renew their vows for being an inclusive and welcoming city, which I think would be absolutely wonderful to do here, just generally,” Rowland said. “We have some opportunity here to do some outreach and take a look at what Bothell does indeed adopt or propose and take our own components and build into that celebration of an updated proclamation.”

Rowland said she wants to do more outreach for community input and have a proclamation ready for the June 2 Pride celebration and flag raising. She also said they can update their vows on being an inclusive city in the meantime.

Councilmembers Ruth Pérez and Ed Prince said they want to make sure they hear from all the committees and task forces to make sure they do not leave anyone out of the proclamation.

“My vote wouldn’t be for fast because I don’t think government doesn’t do fast well,” Prince said. “I’d rather us be more deliberate and make sure that what we do is something that represents the values of the city.”

Rowland said the equity commission will not meet for their first meeting until the beginning of May.

Councilmember Valerie O’Halloran said when renewing their vows, she wants to go through the old proclamations to make sure their terminology is up to date, rather than copy and paste something from the past.

Councilmember Carmen Rivera said while they don’t need to be fast or frantic, they should be urgent.

“With the current administration and what we are seeing at the national level, it’s a public health and a safety policy for a very growing community,” Rivera said.

Rivera said it would be good to incorporate the Washington law against discrimination and the gender-affirming care Shield Law into their proclamation or resolution, like similar cities such as Seattle, Olympia, Tacoma and Shoreline.

“I think it is OK to reaffirm these state laws in local legislation and local resolutions because, as representatives of our city, it speaks to us affirming the state law,” Rivera said. “I’ve sat on regional boards recently where we have local leaders and municipalities questioning state law and even have in some cases local leaders, local municipalities or organizations sue the state for the fear of what may happen.”

Rivera said she wants a resolution rather than a proclamation.

“I would really want this to stick to a resolution, which is something that is a little more grounded in my opinion than a proclamation. It’s more of an official statement of commitment,” Rivera said.

Rivera said she wants to work with the Pride Across the Bridge organization because their legislation is being considered in other nearby cities such as Redmond.

“It just really has more teeth and it’s more tangible. I don’t want us to do something that is strictly performative,” Rivera said.

Rivera said she would also push back on calling Renton a “sanctuary” city.

“Being a sanctuary city, I think, can sometimes, in verbiage, provide a false sense of security,” Rivera said. “A protections resolution was something that I kept coming back to because it’s affirming our protections and our stance with these communities that are Renton residents.”

Councilmember Ryan McIrvin suggested doing both a proclamation and a deeper dive into policy. He said the previous proclamation made in 2017 was “of the time,” and they should work to identify the gaps in a new proclamation.

“It does feel a little bit like history repeating, but I think there are relevant things that are not included that are relevant to the times now that we want to bring forward with this that we could,” McIrvin said.

Councilmember James Alberson cautioned that they don’t “become a solution looking for a problem.”

“Some of these protections that we are talking about are already in place … I think it is somewhat redundant to say ‘yeah, we’re going to do this too,’ when it is there,” Alberson said.

Alberson said he would want to stress that there is something novel in what they do and believes they essentially have in place what they are talking about.

“This is not a non-inclusive city, but at the same time, we don’t give preference or deference to any faction or do we treat any faction as less than,” Alberson said. “One of the things that it seems to me that cities are doing is taking action on a national narrative that quite frankly simply doesn’t apply to them … I haven’t heard of any major incidents in the Renton city limits when it comes to this.”

Alberson said they will never legislate away bigotry, mistreatment, prejudice or “knucklehead-ism” — and attempting to do so will fail.

Prince said it is important to educate the public about what Renton can do for them.

“The city is constantly changing and we are getting new people in here and there are people who didn’t know about (the 2017 proclamation.) There are people who may think because we are between the Eastside and the south end, that maybe our values align more closely with cities that don’t share our values,” Prince said

Public comments

During the public comment section, many people who grew up in Renton or currently reside in Renton spoke in support of a resolution to protect LGBTQ+ rights and shared their own experiences.

Bailey Medillo of Seattle, who grew up in Renton, said young people are the “canary in the coal mine” when it comes to being under attack for being a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

Gordon Glascow of Fairwood said he does a lot of volunteer work for PFLAG, an organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for LGBTQ+ people, and is contacted five or six times a week by people in other states asking if Washington is a safe place for members of the LGBTQ+ community. He said that a resolution would make him feel good about encouraging them to come here.

Jas Maisonet of Renton said many of their LGBTQ+ neighbors live in fear of discrimination. They brought up the shooting of Brewmaster Taproom, host of Drag Queen Story Time, in 2022 and the vandalism of rainbow doors at the United Christian Church of Renton in 2023. They then said inclusion and protection are not the same.

“A proclamation is not legal protection,” Maisonet said. “By enacting protections for the LGBT community, we send a clear message that discrimination will not be tolerated here, now or ever.”

Lexi Dias of Renton said she has had multiple members of the queer community tell her they avoid Renton because of how unsafe it feels compared to neighboring cities. She said she had an old roommate say they were shot multiple times with a BB gun and another person had slurs yelled at them and had to retreat to a local business for safety, both in Renton.

Alexis Tran and Odessa Paule, both students, said they supported a resolution to help encourage more inclusivity and LGBTQ+ safety in Renton classrooms.

Fourteen people spoke at the council meeting in favor of a resolution protecting LGBTQ+ community members’ rights.