This week it took a newly constituted Scottsdale City Council to do what should have been done years previous: pass a non-discrimination ordinance providing greater protections for the community’s LGBTQ community.
Kudos to Mayor Ortega and a unanimous City Council for a job very well done. We won’t say it was a politically easy vote. Look what is going on in Mesa where a similar ordinance there is being challenged by a referendum drive and possibly going to a city-wide vote. But the policy adoption was easier, as public opinion in recent years has moved rapidly in the direction of progress. That’s why we shouldn’t forget those who stood in the well and made their case when such ideas weren’t quite so popular. People like former Scottsdale City Councilwoman and always leading and compelling community voice Virginia Korte.
No one in Scottsdale has been more consistent or compelling for this important change than she.
Korte introduced the idea to and for Scottsdale. And she was indefatigable in its pursuit, even during setbacks.
Here’s something else the public doesn’t know. Just hours after Scottsdale should have been feeling pride for what its City Council did there were rumblings that what was going in Mesa (i.e. opposition) would migrate to Scottsdale. People concerned with not allowing the City Council’s work to be undone, notably those that spearheaded the inclusive, successful city bond campaign in 2019, talked and started to rally throughout the day. If the fight was going to come to the city progressive patriots would be ready. Korte was asked to lead such an effort. As always, her decision was to help her beloved city.
While it currently appears that the Mesa fight may stay there, Korte’s willingness to captain the cause underscores what she has meant, and means, to this historic achievement.
Thank you, Virginia Korte. Godmother to this goodness. And thank you Scottsdale City Council for making it happen.