Cedar Falls Mayor Rob Green finally agreed on Monday to sign a Pride Month proclamation.
It all began when Green received a proclamation from his city’s Human Rights Commission, officially marking June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month in the city.
It didn’t sit well with Green, who has served as mayor since 2020 and said he would not be running for re-election in the fall.
He sent a memo to the seven city council members on April 21 saying he did not support or recommend the issuance of this proclamation. He cited “Christian beliefs found in the Bible’s New Testament” as the reason he would not sign the proclamation.
The memo began to spread locally on social media among current and former Cedar Falls residents. Many had already expressed concerns about discriminatory bills passing at the state level.
And it culminated in dozens of residents showing up at the meeting, standing along the wall, and filling an overflow room in the back.
A wide variety of speakers, from high school and college students to older adults and self-identified straight people to transgender folks, expressed their disappointment in Green’s memo.
After more than an hour of public comment, Green, in a surprise turnaround, announced he had decided to sign the proclamation, despite his reservations. #Queer Up The USA View