Carrboro Mayor Damon Seils spoke with 97.9 The Hill’s Brighton McConnell on Thursday, June 2. This is the transcript where he discussed recent national shootings, Pride Month, and upcoming government meetings. Listen to the full interview here.
Brighton McConnell: Joining me on the phone is Carrboro Mayor Damon Seils. Happy Thursday, Damon. How are you?
Damon Seils: I’m doing well, Brighton. Nice to hear from you.
McConnell: Absolutely. It’s great to have you back a day early. Thanks so much for taking the time. And we’ve got several events that are coming up this weekend, so I’m happy that we’re talking today rather than tomorrow. We’ve got a rally against gun violence set for Chapel Hill Friday afternoon. And I know that you touched on some of this last week with Andrew, but Damon, could you share some thoughts about putting out this proclamation once again and seeing another rally just like this held in our community again?
Seils: Sure. Well, the tragic coincidence of this shooting, of the shooting before that in Buffalo, and of the other mass shootings that seem to happen nearly every day in the United States is that these came just in advance of the annual National Gun Violence Awareness Day, which is this Friday. Wear Orange Weekend, is also this weekend, which asks people to wear orange in recognition of gun violence awareness. And so yes, the town of Chapel Hill is actually organizing a rally on Friday at 12:30 p.m. on Peace and Justice Plaza. And I’ve certainly encouraged people in my proclamation to attend that rally. I hope folks will come out if they can. As I said to Andrew last week, this is just one more example of something that doesn’t happen to this level in any other place in the world, but here in the United States, we seem to have become almost immune to this regular tragedy of school shootings and other mass shootings. And as I said in my proclamation the other day, it doesn’t have to be this way. This is not a force of nature. This is a consequence of policy choices that lawmakers at the federal and state levels make that enable easy access to guns. Those are policy choices and we can change them. So I hope people will take some time if they can to come out to the rally.
McConnell: Now there might be a little bit of overlap in your response to this question, but when you see people show up to rallies like we’re going to see tomorrow and like at the NRA annual convention in Texas just last week, what runs through your mind when you see all of those people who are participating?
Seils: Well, it’s frustrating because I think there’s this sense that people have that somehow we are talking about gun rights and people’s individual liberties and those kinds of things. And, you know, at this point I’m sort of uninterested in having a debate about the Second Amendment and people’s gun rights. When you see incidents like this happening across the country all the time, the conversation has to shift away from that. It’s no longer a meaningful conversation. So, you know, we need to make sure that the narrative and the story about gun violence in this country continues to be told all the time. We can’t let it disappear. We’ve already stopped talking about the mass shooting, the racial terror incident in Buffalo, New York, just a week or so before the shooting in Uvalde, Texas. As I said, it doesn’t have to be this way. We can change it. And so that’s one of the important things about rallies–like the one tomorrow in Chapel Hill and another one this weekend in Raleigh–they give us a chance to come together and show support for making change at the federal level when it comes to gun access. Changes, by the way, which are incredibly popular across the political spectrum.
McConnell: Turning now to a story in the state government. Of course, lots of people following the House bill that’s been kind of deemed the “parents’ bill of rights” that would largely limit what kind of topics concerning sexuality could be discussed. Well in classrooms in North Carolina schools, definitely a lot of comparisons drawn to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill having just seen the start of Pride month on Wednesday. Damon, curious about your thoughts on that bill progressing. Unlikely to be signed into law because of Governor Roy Cooper and where we know he stands on such things, but I imagine that this is also an issue quite close to your heart.
Seils: It is, as I’m one of a handful of LGBTQ elected officials in the state of North Carolina. This is the next issue. That’s very important to me, both as a public person as well as a private person. And you know, for the general assembly to bring this bill to a vote on the first day of Pride month, I think that tells us pretty much all we need to know about what their intentions are for this legislation. And it is mean legislation when it comes down to it. It talks about sexual orientation and gender identity being prohibited from being in early grade-level curriculum. That is not a thing that happens in the real world. This is legislation that is not actually going to change anything other than further stigmatizing LGBTQ young people.
That causes harm to people. People are hurt emotionally; people die because of legislation like this because they are stigmatized. Vulnerable groups are stigmatized more than they already have been. So it’s pretty unacceptable. We know this is right out of the Republican general assembly playbook. We know that this has nothing to do with the substance of the bill that they’ve passed in the general assembly yesterday and the Senate. I believe it has everything to do with politics. They are gearing up for the November general elections and they are looking to reignite a ridiculous culture war around LGBTQ people. And unfortunately, this year, the legislation is putting LGBTQ young people, kids, in the spotlight, which is just really shameful.
McConnell: We’re definitely going to be continuing to follow that. Pivoting now to the local level. Of course, we talk a good bit about the challenges that exist when it comes to divides at the state government level. Locally, we are much more aligned between Chapel Hill, Carrboro and a lot of Orange County in terms of celebrating Pride month and celebrating the LGBTQ community. I know that this is kind of a tough pivot, but there is going to be a Pride promenade in Chapel Hill on Saturday that also very much involves the Carrboro community. It’s another year where we’re seeing the small-town pride campaign done between the two local governments. I’m curious about your thoughts on what you’re looking forward to when it comes to some of the town-planned events for June, Damon.
Seils: Thanks for mentioning that, I’m really excited once again this year. I think this is the second year that we’re doing this in collaboration with the town of Chapel Hill, both towns coming together to plan a series all month long in June for Pride month to celebrate Pride. And you mentioned it being a difficult pivot. I don’t find it to be a difficult pivot at all. Part of the point of celebrating Pride is to recognize the challenges that those of us in the LGBTQ community continue to face, like bullying in the state legislature and violence against trans people. All of those issues that we continue to face in our community are on top of celebrating our community, which is also what Pride is about. So yes, this Saturday afternoon, the first event kicking off pride month is going to be in downtown Chapel Hill, what we’re calling the Chapel Hill Pride Promenade. There’ll be a series of events throughout the month, including a couple in Carrboro, including Latinx pride, which will be on June 11th on the Carrboro town commons. And we’ll wrap up pride month this year with another food truck rodeo and dance party on the town commons on June 24th.
McConnell: I have to say, I attended the food truck rodeo last year to check it out and it’s a party. It’s a very real party and it’s a good way to wrap up the month in celebration style. I imagine that we’re going to see a lot of celebration on Saturday as well with that parade. Historically, has there been a pride parade in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community, Damon?
Seils: You know, I think last year when we kind of reignited it with Chapel Hill and Carrboro, it was the first time in a while when there’d really been a formal one for many, many years now. There’s been the Durham Pride parade. A lot of us here from the western side of the Triangle and the broader region–really from all over the state–have kind of descended on Durham to attend that particular Pride celebration. And so this one kind of reemerged here locally in Chapel Hill and Carrboro just in the last couple of years, and we’re really excited to be adding onto that with these additional events.
McConnell: Turning back to the local government of Carrboro, is there anything else that is coming up that listeners and community members should know about? I know that it’s been a more quiet week for the local government because we have Memorial Day off and there was no Carrboro town council meeting this week.
Seils: Yeah, we do come back to our town council meetings in Carrboro next week. We have three more meetings left through June before we go into our summer recess. During next Tuesday night’s council meeting, we will be wrapping up a couple of public hearings on development applications that began a few weeks ago. One of those is the public hearing regarding the art center and what they hope to make their new location in downtown Carrboro. The other is a public hearing about the property at 201 North Greensboro Street in downtown Carrboro, what people have often referred to as the old CVS lot. Those two public hearings have been continued to this coming Tuesday and we will make decisions on one, if not both of those. And also we have a public hearing on the town budget that the manager presented to the council a couple of weeks ago. The council will have a public hearing to hear from members of the public about the budget next week.
McConnell: Yeah, I imagine all three of those things will be hearings and, and sessions that people will want to probably tune into or maybe share their thoughts on as well. And I was going to say, the first time in a little while where we haven’t had some sort of big ongoing construction or road work project to update on, but actually that’s not true. We still have the repaving of East Main that is going to be happening soon if it’s not already underway. What do you know about that project Damon?
Seils: Yeah, the closer it gets, the more excited I am, Brighton. And as you know, I’ve been a little bit too excited about this project for a long, long time, but yes, the regular schedule of resurfacing for West Franklin Street and East Main Street is getting started this month. I think they’ve actually done some preliminary work already, especially on the Chapel Hill side, but that resurfacing is going to involve not only brand-new surfaces on the roads but some important safety redesigns for both of those roadways. Some new bike lanes and other features will keep everyone on the road safer.
McConnell: As always, Mayor Damon Seils. Thanks for chatting a day earlier than normal, and we’ll talk with you next week.
Seils: Talk to you later, Brighton. Thank you.
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