I do think that we need diversity and inclusion training because we have people [on council] that frankly don’t understand their queer constitutents.”

Lisa Glover

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HONESDALE, PA — A councilor’s remark at a June Honesdale Borough Council meeting continues to reverberate, and will lead to an anti-discrimination policy statement from the mayor’s office.

On June 27, resident Amanda DeMasi, who uses they/them pronouns, spoke during the council’s public comment period about a pro-choice rally planned in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Councilor David Nilsen said that he was insulted when DeMasi referred to him as a man because he identifies as an eggplant. (His full comment is below).

Community members have used the public comment portions of every borough council meeting since to demand accountability for that statement, both from Nilsen personally and from the rest of council.

Citing statistics about suicide among LGBTQ+ youth and incidents in town—including the slashing of a pride flag on private property and reports of hate speech—at least six people have asked the council to issue a formal apology, attend diversity and inclusion training and create a disciplinary policy for the future.

“Overall we’re looking for the borough to take accountability,” DeMasi said after an August 22 borough council meeting. “This never had to snowball like this had they made a statement saying this kind of speech is not appropriate… As a community, we’re coming together to figure out a solution on how we can all better understand one another.”

Nilsen’s initial remark came at the end of the June council meeting. DeMasi asked the council to consider ways that they could help people affected by the Roe decision locally—through their support of educational programming, for example.

“I’m asking all these men on the council to start thinking about the future and how they’re going to protect people with uteruses,” DeMasi said.

DeMasi finished speaking and the council approved motions regarding the payment of invoices. Before the meeting adjourned, councilor Nilsen spoke up.

These are his full comments: “Before we make a motion to adjourn, Mrs. [sic] DeMasi insulted me, because I identify as an eggplant. So there’s not all men up here, because I’m an eggplant. I just want to get that on the—put that on the record that councilman Nilsen is an eggplant.” (His self-identification as a vegetable remains in the approved meeting minutes.)

Several members of the public say the issue is larger than a single offhand remark.

In July, a pride flag on DeMasi’s property was slashed. They have noticed an increase in people yelling pointed slurs from their cars. At a July council meeting, mayor Derek Williams said he received word that a different pride flag in town had been stolen and “that some homophobic slurs were recently uttered by a patron at a local business.”

LGBTQ+ advocates say formal action from the council would benefit residents facing discrimination outside council meetings.

Response from elected officials has varied.

Councilor Nilsen has not publicly apologized for his remark. Via email he said that “the borough values input from the public at our meetings and encourages people to speak their minds.” He declined to comment further for this story.

Nilsen did propose that a discussion item be added to the August 22 agenda about reducing the amount of time a citizen can speak during the public comment period from five minutes to two. The council’s personnel committee, headed by councilor Jared Newbon, advised against the time reduction when it found that fewer than 11 minutes per meeting would be saved.

Borough president James Hamill has personally apologized for how he handled the moment in June. He and borough solicitor Richard Henry have reminded members of the council to ask the president for the floor before speaking.

Addressing the community member’s requests, Hamill noted that in order for the council to take any action, including a collective apology statement, a motion would have to be made and a majority of the council would need to vote in the affirmative. That has not happened.

Resident Connor Simon gave council members a sample disciplinary policy and notes on best practices at the August 22 meeting, in the hope that they could use it to draft one of their own.

Hamill said that if council were to codify a disciplinary policy—which would again require a majority vote—any sort of censure would be “on paper only.” He encouraged voting as the best recourse for concerned citizens.

Hamill can recommend the issue of diversity and inclusion training to a committee or form an ad-hoc committee to further explore the possibility. He hasn’t taken those actions thus far, but will recommend to the Pennsylvania State Association of Boroughs that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training be added to its boot camp for newly elected municipal officials.

“The community expects its elected representatives to be laser-focused on the business of making municipal government better—paving roads, improving public safety, fixing stormwater issues, improving the quality of life in the parks and the overall borough,” Hamill said. “What the public has not bargained for, and should not have to be subjected to, is bullying from anyone elected to public office, especially not from a public meeting where personal comments and personal views have no place on the record.”

Councilor James Jennings also apologized. “I’m most upset at myself for being silent in the moment,” he said.

Williams, whose office is separate from the borough council, has also apologized. He plans to release an anti-discrimination policy statement from the mayor’s office in September, after receiving feedback from citizens.

Personal apologies are not enough, said resident Heather Hogan-Spencer, who has been vocal on the issue. She said that because Nilsen made the comment as an elected official in a public meeting, met no condemnation at the moment and has not apologized, she considers it the responsibility of the entire council to respond.

She and James Spencer have cited evidence that shows LGBTQ+ youth face disproportionately high rates of suicide compared to their cis-gendered peers.

“The effect of just one adult in their life being supportive changes drastically those statistics, for the better,” Hogan-Spencer said after the August 22 meeting. “I’m trying to explain to them that this going on at all—let alone this long—has the potential to really negatively affect the community and individuals in the community.”

Lisa Glover has personally communicated with Nilsen on the issue, because she serves as vice-chair of the Honesdale Parks and Recreation Commission and works with him in his capacity as chair of the council’s parks and rec committee. Lacking another resolution, she said, “I think that it’s high time that we have a disciplinary policy. I do think that we need diversity and inclusion training because we have people [on council] that frankly don’t understand their queer constitutents.”

Glover, Hogan-Spencer and others say they will continue showing up to meetings. Council members—who did not vote to limit the time cap for public comment—will continue to hear them out.

“It’s just our job to listen to people, take in the information whether you agree with it or not,” said Jennings. “Learning new things in this community, which is rapidly modernizing, is important. It’s literally the base function of our job.”