K-State, Sedgwick County should cut ties to County Fair over nonbinary singer issue | Opinion

When you run a livestock show, it’s always a good idea to watch where you step.

This year, the Sedgwick County Fair has really stepped in it.

And now it’s time for the Sedgwick County Commission and Kansas State University to step in and sever their support for the County Fair.

The Sedgwick County Fair Association hired Wichita-area musician Hunter Gromala and band to perform an $800 gig as the opening act for the fair next month.

After it was announced on Facebook, some self-appointed heroes of the culture wars went hunting Hunter online.

Gromala, 26, identifies as nonbinary and prefers to be addressed with the pronouns “they” and “them.” It falls under the broad umbrella of LGBTQ.

Gasp.

The revelation of Gromala’s nonbinary identification predictably triggered the local chapter of the Bigots Club of America.

“Contact the Sedgwick County fair board and demand that they not bring this corruption and disgusting agenda to our children!” wrote one typical keyboard culture warrior. “Sedgwick County, you are turning woke and it absolutely makes my stomach turn.”

In the comments, way more people supported Gromala than criticized.

But in the latest chapter of the ongoing Kansas saga “Profiles in Cowardice,” the fair association slapped “canceled” on its Facebook event and scheduled a special meeting of its board to make a final determination whether Gromala is fit to perform at their cow and plow show.

The meeting was supposed to happen on Tuesday, but was postponed because there wasn’t time for the board to lawyer up.

Whenever it does happen, the association has said the meeting won’t be public because it’s a private not-for-profit corporation and, according to their spokesperson, the meeting room is too small for those who might wish to attend (bear in mind, this is a group that has an entire fairground at its disposal).

It really doesn’t matter what they decide at the meeting.

The question is not whether the fair association will discriminate against Gromala. They already have.

▪ The association subjected Gromala to personal questions that other fair performers, presumed straight, don’t have to answer.

▪ The association subjected Gromala to the personal insult of scheduling a special meeting to decide if Gromala’s moral enough to perform at the fair.

▪ The association required Gromala to provide the band’s setlist of pop cover tunes, the clear implication being that Gromala can’t be trusted not to perform inappropriate music at a 4-H fair, because, you know, nonbinary.

Speaking of 4-H, it’s the heart of the Sedgwick County Fair. The youth club’s contests and livestock auctions are what draws a crowd, and the crowd draws the vendors, food trucks and etc.

And 4-H in Sedgwick County is run by the K-State Research and Extension Service.

I’m generally a big supporter of county fairs and 4-H — it’s where I learned to handle a camera and develop film, which was the genesis of my journalism career.

K-State has a very strict policy against discrimination, including on the basis of gender identity. The policy applies to all university-related activities, on or off campus.

Meanwhile, Sedgwick County government provides about $30,000 in taxpayer support to the fair every year — $20,000 to the association and $10,000 to 4-H for the show, according to the association.

Four years ago, the county gave the fair association $100,000 to help build a new building at the fairgrounds.

The county’s non-discrimination policy was changed about a year ago to cover gender identity, according to County Manager Tom Stolz. But the updated policy apparently didn’t find its way into the county’s contract with the fair.

I try to think the best of Kansas, and that the recent anti-LGBTQ stuff is just an obnoxious mouthy minority with too much time on their hands.

But it’s getting harder to think that.

Isolated incidents become a pattern, and patterns unaddressed become policy.

We’ve definitely had enough incidents to indicate a pattern of prejudice.

▪ This week’s Salt City Pride event in Hutchinson was kicked out of its original venue when the company that owns the facility was intimidated by a Facebook video of a local barber ranting about demons and child molestation.

▪ Someone with access to the Sedgwick County Republican Party’s Twitter account posted a tweet claiming celebration of Pride Month is mass psychosis.

▪ Two-thirds of state legislators overrode vetoes by Gov. Laura Kelly and passed bills targeting transgender individuals in rest rooms, prisons, and schools.

▪ A mother was hassled in the rest room at the Wichita Advanced Learning Library for taking her developmentally disabled adult son into the women’s room to assist him, as she has for his whole life.

▪ An event by local artists at Towne West Square, which included a drag show, was forced out of the mall after Republican politicians falsely claimed the event was being sponsored by the Kelly administration.

If this keeps up, someone’s going to get seriously hurt, like the 16-year-old boy just over the border in Kansas City, Mo., who was shot eight times for being gay.

The persecution has gone on long enough. And now, it’s come to the County Fair, which of all places, should be a welcoming environment for all people to enjoy.

Going forward, there are some things that need to happen here:

1) The county should start incorporating the most recent anti-discrimination policy into all its contracts with vendors and grant recipients, making it clear that sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination is not allowed when using taxpayer funds.

2) The county should cease to provide any further financial support for the County Fair.

3) K-State should find another place to hold its fair and livestock auctions.

Some of that may seem harsh. But between the fair association’s disgraceful treatment of Hunter Gromala, and its penchant for prejudice and closed-door meetings, the association has demonstrated it can’t be trusted not to discriminate in the future.

This time, they got caught.

They’ll probably learn a lesson, but chances are it will only be that they have to do their own research and weed out the LGBTQ people before offering them a performance gig.

It’s time for K-State and the County Commission to live up to their policies and send a strong and unmistakable message that discrimination won’t be tolerated at events associated with the university and/or county government.

Otherwise, their policies are nothing more than empty promises.