Do Shawnee City Council members want to know what’s ‘divisive’? Anti-LGBT bigotry

Hooray to the Shawnee Police Department for trying to expand its ranks in hopes of better serving its whole community. So why are City Council members Kurt Knappen and Jacklynn Walters fighting back?

Reporting from The Star’s Andrea Klick shows that Knappen and Walters objected behind the scenes (of course) to city law enforcement putting up booths and posing for pictures at LGBT events such as KC PrideFest. The council members quietly emailed former City Manager Nolan Sunderman to express their chagrin over seeing Shawnee police interacting with festival-goers as if they’re, you know, regular people.

Knappen called one Facebook post showing officers beaming for the camera alongside two kids “potentially divisive content.” Walters said the city should “stay out of the culture war” and not engage with LGBT people.

It’s crystal clear who’s declared war, and drawn a dividing line: If you’re not heterosexual, Shawnee law enforcement officials shouldn’t show up to have fun with you, or even try to recruit you to the force. You can’t police; you are policed.

That worldview is as sad as it is myopic — and distressingly out of touch with reality. Something around 7% of us fall somewhere on the LGBT continuum — about 23 million Americans, with more than half of those identifying as bisexual. These friends and neighbors are woven into the fabric of everyday life. Reading X-rays at the dentist’s office. Selling siding. And, yes, already patrolling the streets in police cruisers.

“The activity that is taking place across the country at other Pride events is extremely vulgar,” Walters wrote in her email, showing she doesn’t get out much. As LGBT people have come out in larger numbers — living their lives openly, getting married, having kids — Pride events have evolved radically, and quickly.

The pandemic has put an ongoing damper on festivals around the world, and KC PrideFest 2022 at Theis Park was a shadow of itself in previous years. But before COVID-19 hit, the annual summer fair didn’t look so different from Parkville Days or Johnson County Old Settlers, especially during daytime hours: fried food trucks, tents hawking replacement windows and rickety thrill rides.

Some of the entertainment in the evening is more adult oriented, and the LGBT community around the world continues to wrangle with how much bawdiness is acceptable at Pride events. These celebrations were founded by brave pioneers who publicly violated retrograde laws restricting personal liberties.

But KC PrideFest, with its special designation of Sunday as family friendly, is not the raunchy Bacchanalian of its critics’ fever dreams, as even a cursory glance at attendees’ social media posts proves.

Will Kurt Knappen and Jacklynn Walters move to keep Shawnee police away from Fiesta Hispana? Or the KCK Street Blues Festival? We’re pretty sure the answer is no. You don’t fight division by walling yourself off — you create connections by meeting new people and learning about their lives where they are.

So our wish to them, and anyone else who has never been to a Pride event, is to carve out a Saturday next June to peruse some handmade crafts or eat a funnel cake at KC PrideFest 2023. They just might find out LGBT people aren’t so scary after all.