Despite protests, Pueblo city councilor avoids censure over alleged 'transphobic' comments

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2 days ago

An effort to censure Pueblo City Councilor Roger Gomez failed to receive enough support from council members despite roughly 100 people showing up to protest outside Pueblo City Hall on July 28.
A successful censure would have included removing Gomez from his leadership position as work session chair. Censure efforts, spearheaded by Councilor Sarah Martinez and supported by Pueblo Mayor Graham, followed a July 14 statement in which Gomez said his constituents had expressed anxieties about a library employee's gender identity and stated that the library should be "a family center."
The Pueblo City-County Library District reported to city staff that Gomez also visited the library on July 17 to inquire about "LGBTQIA+ collections, programs, and transgender library staff," according to a city of Pueblo background paper.
Protestors crowded City Hall at 5 p.m. while waving rainbow folding fans in the 98-degree heat and calling for Gomez to be censured. By 7 p.m., city council chambers were packed to capacity. Many protestors stayed until the end of the meeting — around 11:45 p.m. — to hear the result of Pueblo City Council's vote on the censure and a citizen-filed ethics complaint against Gomez. The ethics complaint also failed to pass.
Local librarian says Gomez's comments were 'transphobic and dehumanizing'
Lev Frank, a local librarian, told members of council before the censure vote that he and another co-worker received transphobic comments from Gomez.
"The incident report of this is public record... He misgendered me and my coworker repeatedly, and he used dehumanizing language — calling my co-worker an 'it,'" Frank said.
"His conduct has also made me materially unsafe... It's not just because his comments were cruel, transphobic and dehumanizing, but because anybody who wants to cause me or my co-worker harm now knows exactly where to find me."
Frank was one of five individuals who made a public comment in favor of censuring Gomez shortly before the July 28 vote.
Mayor: Gomez's conduct has 'brought embarrassment' to city council
Graham also delivered a statement. In addition to referring to Gomez's July comments as "discrimination," the mayor referred to March 17 email comments made by Gomez about Graham as "sexual harassment."
"His conduct, both in the public and behind closed doors, has brought embarrassment to the city council and dysfunction to our city government," Graham said. "He should not have a leadership role in this council. This resolution before you is to remove him as work session chair, which is a privilege as a stepped-up position to represent this City Council."
Gomez defends comments, censure effort fails
City Council President Mark Aliff and Councilors Joe Latino and Regina Maestri were the three council members who voted against censuring Gomez. Martinez and Councilors Brett Boston and Dennis Flores voted in favor of censure. A majority was needed for the censure to pass.
While Gomez recused himself from voting, he did read a statement prior to the vote in which he said there was "no truth" in allegations of his prejudice toward the LGBTQ+ community and that he did not at any time "insult" or "berate" library staff.
"Furthermore, absolutely no proof of these false and fabricated allegations has been produced nor substantiated by anyone, including the city officials who are making these spurious claims," Gomez said in his statement. "The behavior that has been attributed to me in the media is nothing more than rumors and innuendo and unsubstantiated hearsay."
In addition to reading transcripts from Gomez's July 14 statement questioning a library employee's gender identity and an incident report describing events that took place on July 17, council reviewed audio clips from an interview that Gomez did with KOYC Radio.
In the interview, Gomez described going to the library and seeing a person whom he wasn't sure "what he was looking at," and that children may get "confused" by the person's gender identity.
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Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached at [e-mail]. Support local news, subscribe to the Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Effort to censure Pueblo City Councilor Roger Gomez fails in 3-3 vote
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