Downey City Councilwoman Claudia Frometa speaks at the National Association of Elected Latino Officials conference in Las Vegas where she was named the group’s board president. Her selection has caused controversy because she supported a Downey ordinance that bans flying the Pride flag on city property. Photo: C-SPAN screenshot
An LGBTQ Latino political group wants to remove Downey City Councilwoman Claudia Frometa as the recently elected board president of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials.
On Tuesday, Honor PAC launched a petition and social media campaign, using the hashtags #removeClaudiaFrometa and #PrideFlagSavesLives, to get Frometa ousted.
The group’s outrage follows Frometa’s controversial council vote last month to ban flying Pride flags on Downey property. The ordinance was passed in a 3-2 vote.
“We are asking all justice-minded individuals and organizations to stand up in support of LGBTQ+ visibility, pride, safety, and hope,” the petition read. “NALEO should be a leader in advancing dignity and civic engagement for all in the United States — not in silencing or making anyone invisible.”
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NALEO, Claudia Frometa criticized
NALEO, which represents more than 6,800 Latino elected and appointed officials, is an influential political group whose 2020 president was California State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, who identifies as gay.
Frometa was elected president of the association last week during the group’s conference in Las Vegas.
Frometa’s actions are incompatible with the association’s mission of inclusive representation, Honor PAC contends.
The petition emphasizes the hypocrisy between NALEO’s Las Vegas conference, which spotlighted the importance and power of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the election of Frometa, who voted against flying the Pride flag in Downey.
That decision wasn’t a simple policy change, but an attempt to erase the LGBTQ+ presence in Downey, Honor PAC said.
“The Pride Flag is a symbol of pride, inclusion, safety and hope. Ms. Frometa’s vote on a motion disguised as a ‘neutral flag’ policy was nothing more than an attempt to silence and ignore the voices and lives of all LGBTQ+ Downey residents and those who love them,” the petition read. “We considered Ms. Frometa’s vote on this motion a shameless and violent act against our LGBTQ+ brethren whether they are out of the closet or still struggling to come out of what many know to be a dark and lonely place.”
Q Voice News reached out to the National Association of Latino Elected Officials, but hasn’t heard back.
Downey City Council vote
During the May 14 Downey council meeting, Mayor Mario Trujillo and Councilman Horacio Ortiz, both of whom identify as gay, voted against the “neutral flag policy,” while Frometa, Councilwoman Dorothy Pemberton, and Mayor Pro Tempore Hector Sosa supported it.
Other Southern California cities, including Huntington Beach, Redlands, and Temecula, also have banned Pride flags.
On June 22, 2021, the council voted 4-1 to fly the Pride flag during June, which is designated Pride Month. Then-mayor Frometa was the only dissenting vote.
During heated comments during the May 14 council meeting, Trujillo said the vote to ban the Pride flag was an attack on LGBTQ+ Downey residents.
Frometa said it was an issue of not showing favoritism or political endorsement of a group of people versus maintaining a neutral and appropriate acknowledgment of the nation, the state, and city’s unity based on all city residents.
Hate-group lobbied for flag policy
But those comments were complicated when Trujillo revealed that residents who were members of the California chapter of MassResitance, a Massachusetts-based anti-LGBTQ+ group, had lobbied for the policy.
The group is listed as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for lies and propaganda. One of the most active chapters has been in California, run by right-wing activist Arthur Schaper, a columnist for TownHall.com and freelance writer based in Torrance.
In July 2021, Los Angeles Wave Newspapers outlet reported that Sandi Padilla, the Downey chapter leader of MassResistance said her group planned protests on the Pride flag and possibly other LGBTQ+ related issues at future city council meetings.
“We will definitely continue,” Padilla told the publication. “We won’t stop now. We elected the council members. We are their constituents. They should listen to our voices.”
The Latino Equality Alliance, on it’s Instagram page, issued a statement that “condems” Frometa’s appointment.
“This appointment sends a troubling message to LGBTQ+ individuals across the country that their visibility and rights are not valued,” the group said.
It also asked NALEO to reconsider Frometa’s appointment.
