Aldermen Said Hurtful Things, But Their Rubber Stamp Hurts More

CHICAGO — Aldermen say stupid things.

“I think about that movie about the two firemen where they were faking like they were gay… to get benefits. That’s a concern of mine,” Ald. Walter Burnett said at Wednesday’s City Council meeting. “How do you distinguish that?”

Burnett’s reference to the “wall-to-wall gay panic” plot of the movie “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry,” while arguing that the city shouldn’t study whether LGBTQ-owned businesses don’t get a fair shake bidding on city contracts was idiotic, above all else.

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His chief concern seemed to be that establishing set asides for gay white men would inspire cisgender white dudes to pull Chuck-and-Larry-esque schemes to get more city contracts.

“Women are already considered a minority. African Americans, Latinos and Asians — all of them are considered a minority," Burnett said. "The only ones in the LGBT arena that are not considered as a minority is the white male.”

Ald. Jason Ervin — in The Second City's “yes, and” comedy tradition — elevated the council debate ridiculousness.

“When it comes down to procurement and dollars, I do have some concerns [about] …creating a situation where individuals could fraudulently assert themselves to be something that they’re not in order to get a financial gain [by claiming] something that has a lot of subjective qualifiers,” he said. “But there truly is not an objective point ... to affirm someone’s sexuality.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who is black and gay, didn’t think their comments were just idiotic. She hammered them for the “offensive nature of the tone” of their comments, and harshly suggested that they be more careful raising “concerns in quotes" with words that “demonize and victimize” others. The mayor urged them not to be so greedy. “My friends,” she said, “the pie is big enough to slice it in lots of other ways.”

Lightfoot got a standing ovation and made national news.

Of course, Burnett and Ervin, heck, every alderperson, should head the mayor’s constructive criticism and choose their words more wisely in the future.

But, more than that, I hope the debate inspires aldermen with voting records like Ervin and Burnett (who voted with former Rahm Emanuel 100-percent of the time, for instance) to scrutinize every any mayoral initiative that doesn't pass the smell test as harshly as they study that could lead to a policy change that benefits gay white men.

If rubber-stamp ward bosses had the guts to question and vote down, say, the corrupt red light contract that preys on the poor, the Laquan McDonald settlement that temporarily covered-up video of a black teenager's murder and the Lincoln Yards deal that steals from schools to fund development in the rich part of town, to name a few — Chicago would be a better, less corrupt, place to call home.

But that's not an aldermanic custom in Chicago. Here, the “Where’s Mine?” way of conducting city business festers like a nagging addiction. And the city has suffered for it.

In a lot of ways, the City Council's lack of independence has been harbored a corrupt culture responsible for widening the city’s stark class divide, protecting people with clout and punishing the poor.

For Chicago taxpayers, that's more offensive than any of the stupid things they say.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and Emmy-nominated producer, was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN. He was a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."