City adding more voices to the group advising it on LGBTQ issues

Hamilton's LGBTQ community will get six more voices at city hall now that councillors have voted to add to their queer and trans advisory committee.

Pending city council approval next week, the advisory committee will go from nine to 15 members with an eye on a more diverse mix. That includes more black and Indigenous members, and more people under age 29.

The move came after Violetta Nikolskaya, the committee's vice chair, told city council's audit, finance and administration committee that the selection process was flawed. No one was interviewed for the spots. Instead, a small group of three city councillorschose members from looking at applications.

"The smaller the group of individualsdiscussing matters near and dear to our communities, the higher the risk of either a lack of diversity of representation, or a tokenization for representing an entire perspective," she said.

The advisory committee has been in the spotlight since earlier this year, when it asked Mayor Fred Eisenberger not to fly the rainbow flag for Pride month in June. It cited multiple reasons, including the employment of an IT specialist with white supremacist ties (who has since been dismissed). The city hadn't done enough to fight bigotry, it said, so didn't deserve to fly the flag.

Eisenberger reached what his office termed a compromise the city flew the flag but didn't have the usual ceremony. Instead, the advisory committee held a community conversation. Several were upset about how advisorycommitteemembership was chosen. Some with long-time committee experience weren't chosen, while incumbent members who didn't apply werereappointed.

Jake Maurice, a 22-year-old member ofSpeqtrum's civic action team, said he distributed a election-time pledge for more youth representation on the committee, which the mayor and two councillorssigned. But they didn't appear to follow through.

"I hope that the selection process is reopened,and that it's actually done properly and with consultation."

It seems like that will happen now.

The current advisory committee submitted a "citizen committee report" Thursday asking to add two youth representatives, to focus on people of colour, and to contact unsuccessful applicants to see if they're interested in having their names stand. The new process will also involve the existing advisory committee and one of its two working groups.

City council will ratify this Sept. 11.