Openly gay mayor of Oklahoma city resigns over ‘threats and attacks bordering on violence’

The openly gay mayor of The Village, Okla., announced his resignation on Monday after a series of “threats and attacks bordering on violence” made him no longer safe in his capacity to serve as an elected official.

Adam Graham who served on the city council for nearly five years before he was named mayor on May 2, was the city’s youngest and first openly gay elected official.

On Monday, in a letter addressed to City Manager Bruce Stone, Graham said that he has fought against “ageism, racism and homophobia” since 2018 and that he was proud that The Village — a city of about 9,000 in Oklahoma County, about 10 miles north of Oklahoma City — was “ready for a young voice and new ideas.”

However, despite his time in office, he said that he has recently been targeted by “malicious, bad-faith attacks [which] are escalating.”

According to his resignation letter, the harassment stemmed from an incident in which he “stood up against” police in the neighboring city of Nichols HIlls about two months ago.

“In the last month, I’ve been followed home from meetings, threatened while walking my dog, harassed at Starbucks and have had my tires slashed,” he wrote in the letter, which he shared on Twitter Monday afternoon.

According to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, an organization that works to elect openly LGBTQ people at all levels of government, there were only six out elected officials in Oklahoma.

Graham has been a “fierce LGBTQ leader in Oklahoma, fighting for LGBTQ rights, racial equity and reproductive justice,” Albert Fujii, a spokesperson for the organization told the Daily News.

“We are devastated — and angry — that he faced harassment and threats to the point he no longer feels safe serving in public office. No public official should ever fear for their physical safety,” Fujii said, noting that Graham is hardly the first politician to be targeted by threats of violence and hateful vitriol.

“The reality is that many LGBTQ elected officials and elected officials of color are facing the brunt of this increased animus,” he added.

“Our country is at a precipice. While some are fighting for us to go back, the LGBTQ community and our allies are committed to fighting even harder to ensure progress does not fall through our fingers. We can never take our freedoms for granted, they must be continuously fought for and won,” Fujii said. “In addition to supporting out LGBTQ elected officials, we must also go into this election with determination and fury to elect pro-equality, pro-choice leaders to office — our rights depend on it.”

In his resignation letter, Graham said that he will remain “active in The Village as a private citizen” and he will work to ensure that “the best possible people are elected to serve in city government.”