Mayor Mike Rawlings speaks during an LGBT Pride Month Reception at City Hall in June 2011.
Mayor Mike Rawlings is still debating whether to support two pro-equality resolutions planned by Councilman Scott Griggs.
In a post yesterday, we reported that Rawlings’ chief of staff, Paula Blackmon, said she hadn’t spoken to him about the recent meeting between him and Griggs, who said he thought it was a “positive meeting.”
Blackmon told us today that the mayor did not disclose any information except that he and Griggs had met briefly.
Rawlings told us a few weeks ago that he was still unsure about his position on the resolutions after meeting with Griggs. He said he told Griggs that he personally supports the subject of the resolutions of marriage equality and prohibiting anti-LGBT job discrimination statewide.
“I’m still in the exploring mode at this point because I believe in marriage equality personally,” Rawlings said. “I also believe in the focus of the city of Dallas making sure that we discuss and debate issues that we can impact and we need to decide where this issue is on that scale.”
As for job nondiscrimination, Rawlings said the city of Dallas already protects LGBT people with a city ordinance, so it’s “something that we believe in and actually live.” He said the issue is “complicated at the state level” and questioned whether the resolution supporting the issue was the council’s job.
“The city acts that way and we don’t discriminate in that regard,” Rawlings said. “The question is, do we have jurisdiction over other businesses?”
