JAMESTOWN – More than 100 people were on hand outside Jamestown City Hall early last night to hold an anti-hate rally as well as show their support for Jamestown City Council President Greg Rabb (D-At Large).
The rally was organized after Rabb began to be the focus of criticism for a statement he made to the Jamestown Post-Journal newspaper last month. In the article, Rabb said that making the city a gay marriage destination would help to improve tourism and visitors from outside the area. In the following days and weeks, the paper printed an editorial blasting Rabb for his comment, and also printed several letters to the editor that were highly critical.
To show support for Rabb – who is the only openly gay elected official in Western New York – a group of area residents held an anti-hate rally on Tracy Plaza.
“Given the fact that people put that together so quickly and got that many people down there to show support for my work and the work of others in this community certainly meant a lot to me,” Rabb told WRFA following the rally. “I felt like I was doing the right thing, I still feel like I’m doing the right thing, but all those folks there tonight saying ‘You’re doing the right thing. Keep on going. Don’t give up. We’re behind you’…. that to me represented the true city of Jamestown.”
Rabb also said he stands by his comments that by promoting Jamestown as a gay marriage destination, it would help to attract visitors and inject much needed revenue into the local economy with little cost or effort needed by city government.
In addition to the rally outside of city hall, several members of the local LGBT community attended last night’s city council meeting and two spoke during the public comment portion – one supporting the idea of promoting Jamestown as a gay marriage destination, and the other sharing his personal experiences of encountering hate-speak in the Jamestown community because he is gay.
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