Submitted by Sean Goldrick, Riverside
Seemingly out of the blue, Greenwich GOP First Selectman Fred Camillo recently proposed a town statute that would regulate which flags could be flown at Greenwich Town Hall. Camillo claimed his objective was avoiding “chaos” in deciding which flags could be raised. But look closer, and one sees that Camillo’s flag bill is one of hundreds proposed by Republicans nationwide to provide legal cover for their prohibiting the Gay Pride flag from being flown. Those bills are part of a tsunami of anti-LGBTQ legislation introduced by MAGA extremists across the country, manifesting the inherent bigotry of the Trump GOP.
Camillo initially agreed to “grandfather” flags previously flown at Greenwich Town Hall. Those would have included the Gay Pride flag, as well as the Juneteenth flag commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. But just before the bill’s last reading and final vote, Camillo published his final draft that made no mention of flags to be grandfathered. Instead, his legislation stipulated that once a year, a list of permitted flags would be adopted by the board of selectmen, meaning that he or any other GOP first selectman could act on their anti-LGBTQ bigotry to block the Gay Pride flag from being flown.
Camillo’s action in passing a flag bill to block the flying of the Gay Pride flag comes a year after Darien, another GOP-controlled town, issued its own ban of the flag. That action was excoriated by Hearst opinion editor John Breunig, who wrote that Darien’s leaders were “not just tone deaf to the LGBTQ+ community, but to the shameful reputation Darien has pretty much had since it was incorporated 202 years ago. That notoriety was burnished by Darien’s long-held status as a ‘sundown town’ where minorities were not permitted after dark.”
Sadly, this is not Fred Camillo’s first manifestation of anti-Gay bigotry. Earlier this year, Camillo joined the national book banning mania of his fellow MAGA extremists by forcefully condemning Greenwich Library’s keeping the book, “Gender Queer-A Memoir,” by Maia Kobabe, on its shelves, calling the book “disgusting.”
Indeed, belying the bigotry and racism that characterizes this book banning movement, books targeted for banning are overwhelmingly by or about Gay, transgender, Black, or other people of color. They are also overwhelmingly works of significant merit. The book Camillo called “disgusting” was awarded the American Library Association’s 2020 Alex Award, presented to books written for adults that have special appeal for young adults 12-18. It also received the Stonewall Book Award-Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Honor Award for books with exceptional merit relating to the LGBTQ experience. That award, according to the ALA, is “the first and most enduring award for LGBTQIA+ books sponsored by the American Library Association’s Rainbow Round Table,” and honors books that feature “exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/
According to the author, Maia Kobabe, the importance of their book stems from the fact that “Queer youth are often forced to look outside their own homes, and outside the education system, to find information on who they are. Removing or restricting queer books in libraries and schools is like cutting a lifeline for queer youth, who might not yet even know what terms to ask Google to find out more about their own identities, bodies and health.”
Camillo has praised the rabidly bigoted GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, claiming he had done “a very good job” as governor of Florida, and that DeSantis “certainly has back bone.” DeSantis has enacted a raft of anti-LGBTQ bills, including, according to Human Rights Campaign, those that would penalize providers of trans-gender care by inflicting criminal penalties (including felony penalties) on providers, and taking away licenses from those providers; criminalizing transgender people for using the restroom that matches their gender identity; in an intentional effort to erase transgender and non-binary people from the curriculum, ban instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity from Pre-K through Grade 8, and create an anti-LGBTQ+ definition of sex based on reproductive function; and would force school staff and students to ‘deadname’ and misgender one another. That’s what Camillo considers “doing a very good job.”
Sadly, Camillo’s record of anti-Gay bigotry doesn’t end there. In 2008, Camillo accepted the endorsement of the anti-Gay and anti-abortion hate group, Family Institute of Connecticut. In 2009, after the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, the state legislature proposed enacting legislation (SB 899), the vote on which was expected to be pro forma. But Fred Camillo voted “no,” refusing to support the legal right of same-sex couples to marry. As activist Hale McSherry stated, “When Camillo had the opportunity to stand for equality, he did not.”
In 2011, Camillo demonstrated his hostility to transgender Americans by voting against legislation outlawing discrimination against transgender individuals (HB 6599). Supporting the bill, the ACLU of Connecticut stated that it, “will codify statutory protection for transgender people. . .and educate the people of Connecticut that it is unlawful to discriminate against them.”
In 2018, Camillo voted against the nomination of the openly gay Connecticut Supreme Court justice Andrew McDonald to serve as the court’s chief justice. Though Justice McDonald had compiled a brilliant record of service to the state of Connecticut, Camillo and his fellow Republicans, with the sole exception of Greenwich’s Livvy Floren, demonstrated their staunch bigotry toward Gay Americans by blocking his nomination.
This November’s election for first selectman will tell the world whether Greenwich values diversity and tolerance. Or whether Greenwich is a place of bigotry and intolerance. Fred Camillo’s anti-LGBTQ bigotry is on the ballot.
Note: Deadline to submit letters to the editor for candidates in the Nov 7 election is Oct 30 at 12:00 noon.