Foster understanding, not hate

My name is Allison Tannehill, and I was born and raised in La Grande. I am a graduate of La Grande High School. Throughout high school, I babysat at the First Presbyterian Church and was involved with running Vacation Bible School. I was on the LHS track team for three years and lettered every year. 

My parents are also graduates of La Grande High School and still call La Grande their home, along with my grandmothers, an aunt, an uncle and many of my friends. In addition to the aforementioned things, I am also a proud member of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) community. 

I am a student, and I live a quiet life at home with my partner of two and a half years and our cats. I consider myself a pretty conservative person because I have good values. I don’t use drugs, I don’t party and I believe in treating other people with dignity and respect.

This is more than I can say for someone like Mayor Pokorney who should be using his position of power for good rather than to spread hate.

To call marriage equality an “abomination,” and to say “Washington State. The latest state to transition to Sodam and Gomorrah. The attack on the marriage between a woman and a man continues” is inappropriate, especially on his Facebook profile that is viewable by the public.

It is also inappropriate to allow his religious beliefs to cross over into his job as mayor. Further, I question anybody whose religious beliefs result in them being a hateful, mean-spirited person. I know many religious people who are kind, loving and accepting of the LGBT community.  

My partner and I started a petition on Change.org asking Mayor Pokorney to tender his resignation as mayor of La Grande. 

In the first five hours, we already had 187 signatures. We expect to have many more in the days to come. We are asking him to resign from his position because anyone who spews hate on a public forum lacks common sense and is not competent or deserving of such a powerful position. 

At this time in our country, we need leaders who are going to be on the right side of history and who will not continue to create an unsafe world for people to live in. Children are committing suicide left and right in this country not only because they are being bullied in schools, but because of the words of “leaders” like Mayor Pokorney.

We demand that all of our leaders be loving, caring and honorable people.

Allison Tannehill co-founded the Facebook page Gay Marriage Oregon.