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Gay Rights Group Cancels Protest After Meeting with Troy Mayor

New events are planned to help bring community back together, organizer says. The group protested Janice Daniels on Dec. 5 after her anti-gay Facebook comment went viral.

 

The group that protested Troy Mayor Janice Daniels for her anti-gay Facebook post outside Troy City Hall before the Dec. 5 City Council Meeting has canceled today's scheduled protest after meeting with the mayor last week, according to a post on the event page on Facebook.

Four members of the Troy High School Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), including senior Skye Curtis, met with Daniels on Thursday to discuss the recent controversy surrounding the mayor. Although Daniels refused to attend a Troy High GSA meeting, Curtis said, she did agree to speak at an anti-bullying event in January.

"She repeatedly refused to attend a GSA meeting, but invited the club to 'her community center' at a time convenient for herself," Zach Kilgore, a Troy High School senior and member of the GSA, wrote on the Facebook event page for the protest. "We came to a compromise of sorts and decided to hold an event featuring her as a speaker."

"We’re going to host some kind of ant-bullying conference where we’re focusing on how her words have hurt others, and how others’ words have hurt her,” Curtis said. “We’re trying to pull something positive out of all of this."

The group canceled tonight's protest as a compromise, Curtis said, though she and other members of the GSA are still bothered by Daniels' words and actions.

"It bothers me so much that she keeps trying to be the victim," Curtis said. "I do understand that she’s been very hurt by this and that it’s gone too far, but she won’t acknowledge the fact that this has really hurt a lot of people.”

Instead of protesting, the group is now encouraging people to meet at the Troy Public Library's Cup and Chaucer cafe today starting at 4:30 p.m. "There, we can talk about our ideas of what to do next," Kilgore wrote.

“We're giving people a chance to air their grievances," Curtis added.

Daniels said she was impressed to see how politically active the students are at Troy High School, and added that she is excited about the upcoming event in January and hopes that something good can come out of the controversy.

"It should be interesting," she said.

Daniels is expected to be present for tonight's Troy City Council meeting, which begins at 7:30 p.m. at Troy City Hall.

Related Topics: GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCE, Gay Rights, Janice Daniels, and Troy Mayor
How do you think Mayor Janice Daniels is handling the controversy? Tell us in the comments.

Rick Shreiner

11:23 am on Tuesday, January 10, 2012

While some might argue that one person does not speak for an entire community, the attitude of your mayor does represent those [I'm assuming a majority] that voted for her and got her elected.
Having grown up in SE Michigan [including Winans Lake/Brighton] I am certainly glad that I moved from that area and am no longer surrounded by people who think like Janice Daniels.
Rick Shreiner
Stockholm, Sweden

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Ala Claxton

1:56 pm on Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Time for the small minded, prejudiced bigots of the world to resign and go away until they can educate themselves and evolve.
The world is NOT flat. We don't blood-let any more to cure diseases etc etc.
RESIGN because you cannot lead!

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harry

6:54 am on Friday, March 2, 2012

she said that lifestyle was dangerous.....can anyone disagree with that statement.? give me a break...

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