JEFFERSON COUNTY, IL (WSIL) -- Controversy brewed online over the weekend after lights on a pedestrian bridge over Broadway, lit up for Pride Month in Mount Vernon.
While not all colors of the rainbow symbolizing the community were available, an online post celebrating the lights caught the attention of hundreds for and against the display.
Mt. Vernon resident Trevor Fornwalt says he was somewhat surprised the lights came on for Pride after he called the City and made the request. What came next, surprised him and many others in the LGBTQ community.
"To me, inclusivity is better and better and wider and broader," explains Fornwalt of progress continuing now into 2021. "But, it seems like time stopped in the city of Mt. Vernon and we're trying to figure out where we go from here."
Fornwalt says the LGBTQ community is under-represented in Mt. Vernon, so when the lights came on Thursday night, it felt like a little victory, but not for long.
"When the lights went on there was a mixture of hate and love," says Fornwalt. "The very hateful messages I received, the hateful messages my friends were receiving, it was, beyond appalling."
Lights on the bridge are something new for the city. They were installed as part of a major restoration project last year, but never intended to represent one group over another says Mayor John Lewis.
The mayor says some special requests have been honored, such as the loss of a local child with cancer, but it is not feasible to satisfy every request, which has exponentially increased after this past weekend.
"And now we're inundated with all kinds of requests," says Lewis, stemming from the social media posts.
"The lights were never put up for that," says Lewis. "We can't keep up with all those different request, and they weren't meant to divide the community, they were meant for the community to enjoy."
The Mayor says the social-media posts exacerbated the controversy by suggesting miss-information, just adding fuel to a fire. He took to Facebook, asking the community remain civil, saying the level of vitriol was "troubling."
"They're saying out there that the City was threatened to turn them off, or pressured, and that never happened," says Lewis.
Currently there is no official process for making a request, and Lewis says there are no plans of creating one. When the lights did not return for Pride Month Saturday night, some took it as a victory, while others a loss. Lewis says changing the lights was not to satisfy either party.
"We're going to rotate the lights with no specific reason," says Lewis of moving forward, saying people just enjoy seeing it lit up, which was the goal all along. "Not representing anything specific, unless we have another tragedy, or a national holiday."
Fornwalt says he and the mayor are to meet in the coming weeks and discuss how the LGBTQ community can work to create opportunities to celebrate next year, and move pass the divisional attics taking place online.
"We're your favorite barista, your doctor, your nurse, we exist, whether you like it or not, we exist," says Fornwalt. "So we just ask for inclusivity."
