Richardson Campaign Ad Criticizes Length of Mayoral Proclamation not its Content

By Paul Gable

There was finally a comment last Thursday about Conway Mayor Barbara Blain-Bellamy’s Proclamation for LGBTQ Month in a full-page ad by the Ken Richardson for Mayor Campaign.

Richardson claimed in a local podcast that he had over 300 phone calls urging him to run for mayor after Blain-Bellamy issued the proclamation. Richardson claimed 41 ministers called him to support his candidacy. Some of these ministers publicly called the LGBTQ lifestyle an abomination and requested the mayor to rescind the proclamation.

Rather than criticizing the content of the proclamation, the Richardson campaign chose to criticize that it proclaimed June as Pride Month while national holidays such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and Veterans Day are only celebrated for one day. It’s not the content of the proclamation, it’s the length it covers.

The criticism, however, is like comparing apples to oranges. National holidays are one-day paid holidays from work. I guess the Richardson campaign is not aware of other special months recognized by various proclamations at the national level and also recognized by state and local governments. There is National Mentoring Month, Stalking Awareness Month, Slavery and Human Trafficking Month, American Heart Month, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, American Red Cross Month, National Autism Month and, yes, National Military Appreciation Month, to name a few.

Specifically in Conway, Halloween is celebrated through the month of October with pumpkins in the trees of the downtown business area and the Christmas season runs from the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas Day.

The ad also criticized the “significant decision” to issue the proclamation was made “hastily.” This demonstrates an absolute lack of understanding of what a mayoral proclamation is not. It is not a significant decision or a decision of any kind. It is not a statement of policy or even the will of the mayor or council at the time.

Last week, GSD requested Richardson to go on the record with answers to two questions:

Will Richardson rescind the proclamation if he is elected as the ministers he claims are supporting him requested?

Will he go on record and agree with the ministers that the LGBTQ lifestyle is a sin and an abomination?

If the Richardson campaign wants to criticize the proclamation, it must answer the above two questions. Instead it chose to spread more gobbledygook word salad with phrases like “balanced decision-making that respects our Southern charm”, “balanced governance” and “preserving our values” without ever going into specifics. Specifics about issues have not been mentioned by the Richardson campaign so far. Exactly what specific issues would he address and how?