Mayor Barnett issues Downers Grove ‘Pride Month’ proclamation amid ‘viewpoint diversity’ debate, ideological favoritism allegations

A Downers Grove resident who opposed the village's Pride Month proclamation says local officials are ignoring community concerns and advancing an agenda that does not reflect the views of many residents.

Ilene "Chick" Briner, who spoke against the proclamation during public meetings in May, criticized village leaders after Mayor Bob Barnett officially recognized Pride Month at the June 4 Village Council meeting. 

“At last night’s Village Council meeting, Mayor Barnett proclaimed June as Pride Month in Downers Grove,” a Facebook post from the Village of Downers Grove municipal government reads.  

A Downers Grove Facebook post noting the official proclamation of June as Pride Month at the June 4 Village Council meeting included this photo. (Facebook / Village of Downers Grove, Illinois - Municipal Government)

The proclamation followed weeks of debate that began at a May 5 council meeting. At the following meeting on May 19, residents and outside supporters packed Village Hall to weigh in on whether the village should continue its annual recognition, first issued in 2022.

Briner argues the annual observance has become increasingly divisive and believes government should remain neutral on issues related to sexuality and gender.

Barnett defended the proclamation process as an executive function of the mayor’s office, saying during the May 5 meeting, “[Proclamations] are a mayoral privilege I'm going to take and that's just the end of it,” Barnett said. “So that's not a great way to act like an elected leader, I suppose, but there's a little reality behind proclamations. So it is what it is.”

At the same meeting, Republican state House District 81 candidate Laura Hois urged the village to "discontinue" Pride Month. 

“We the people don't want this anymore,” she told the council. 

“It's harming our children, sometimes irreversibly. It violates parents' trust, it violates the law, and it's working against the will of the people,” Hois said. 

Briner also opposed the proclamation during the May 5 meeting. 

“This proclamation caters to only one genre of thought on sexuality and gender,” Briner said. “By elevating Pride Month as the village's signature June observance while issuing no comparable month-long celebration for Christian perspectives on family. Marriage or biological reality. The village is in effect discriminating against most everyone else.”

Supporters of the proclamation, including Trustee Leslie Sadowski-Fugitt, countered.

“Calling someone out for just who they exist to be, that's not an opinion, that is bigotry,” Sadowski-Fugitt said at the May 5 meeting. 

Resident Ed Brainard disagreed. 

“Please note, disagreeing with DG Pride Month does not make someone a homophobe or a hater, it makes them someone with a different point of view,” Brainard said at the May 5 meeting. “In a free country, people are allowed to question, decline, or simply not support certain movements. That's not intolerance. That's freedom.”

Two weeks later at the May 19 meeting, more than 100 attendees showed up as the debate over the proclamation became more heated, with speakers split between strong support and opposition, according to NBC 5. 

Supporters described Pride as “the antithesis of dehumanization” and “the celebration of love over shame, community over isolation, visibility over fear,” while opponents argued such recognition was inappropriate for government, with one resident saying, “Homosexuality is a personal matter” and that “no other sexual orientation receives this level of government recognition.” 

Some opponents also urged the village to “eliminate month long proclamations entirely.” 

After the May 19 meeting, Briner sharply criticized the turnout, saying she believed many attendees were not Downers Grove residents.

“(EQuality Downers Grove) put out a blast on Facebook to Naperville Pride and telling them to all come to the village council meeting,” Briner told the DuPage Policy Journal. “Now I've been a resident of Downers since 1982. There were a lot of faces there I did not recognize. So it's fair to say that a very good number of those people were not Downers Grove residents.”

“There were just a few of us there and I knew it was going to be a shit show so I didn't really ask a lot of people to come, because I knew they were bringing all these people from Naperville,” Briner said.

Briner also criticized Commissioner Chris Gilmartin’s public defense of the proclamation after the May 19 meeting, saying he mischaracterized opposition arguments. 

“I'll be honest: I'm not sure why NBC 5 covered our council meeting last night,” Gilmartin wrote in a May 20 Facebook post. “A Pride proclamation in a welcoming village is not news. Manufacturing the impression of division, however, apparently is. Their story ran under a lower-third graphic calling Downers Grove a ‘community divided.’”

Gilmartin pushed back against the vocal opponents of the proclamation, such as Briner and Hois. 

“This small group does not represent Downers Grove,” he wrote. “They represent a small minority, many of whom, we've learned, don't even live in this village, who have convinced themselves that their views are not just correct but righteous, and that anyone who disagrees is not just wrong but morally suspect. They cloak themselves in the First Amendment while working to strip rights and recognition from their neighbors.” 

She specifically pointed to Gilmartin’s characterization of opposition arguments.

“I think personal choices need to remain personal,” Briner said. 

“He said something about, they're so righteous. I'm like, well, wait a minute. When you think you're right, you are righteous. That's exactly how you sound, Chris,” Briner said. “I thought he sounded rather righteous in his demagoguing of us.”

“The Village of Downers Grove should just be silent on it,” she said. 

A new Gallup survey highlights declining support for several LGBTQ-related issues. 

The May 2026 survey shows 65% of Americans still support legal same-sex marriage, down six points from its recent high, while moral acceptance of gay and lesbian relationships has slipped to 62%, its lowest level since 2016.

Gallup also finds that only 38% of Americans now say identifying as an alternate gender is morally acceptable, compared with a majority who say it is not.

“I just know that they're liberals and this is what liberals think,” Briner said. “So they're following a political agenda. Why and and none of them are bad people. I think they in their heart think they're doing what's right. They're not doing this out of maliciousness.”

Downers Grove has a large contingent of those identifying as conservative and voting Republican.

Based on the precinct-level results provided for Downers Grove and nearby included precincts, Kamala Harris received a total of 18,619 votes compared to President Donald Trump’s 12,484 votes across the 39 precincts listed in the 2024 presidential election.

Briner said she and others will continue to speak out on such issues and "viewpoint discrimination."

As the village moves forward with Pride Month recognition, Briner said she expects continued engagement from opponents.

“I'm not going to stop shining light in the darkness,” she said. “The light always exposes and expels the darkness.”