Chicago will soon have its first “director of LGBTQ+ affairs,” although the position “does not come with a budget or a staff” beyond the appointee’s salary.
Mayor Brandon Johnson recently appointed Anthony King, a longtime city employee, to the role.
The newly appointed director has a history of being involved in identity politics and also helped run a drag show.
“What this position will do is one, it will focus on creating the mayor’s LGBTQ policy plan,” appointee Anthony King said, according to ABC 7 News. “We will focus on many different things within the community. Because, we’re not monolithic.”
King said he wants to help “our trans siblings” as well as “LGBTQ+ youth,” according to the city’s news release.
He also wants to help “aging LGBTQ+ adults.”
The city noted his “two decades” of experience with the Continental Pageantry System, which is an annual drag show competition.
He comes to the role with experience merging sexual and racial identity politics, organizing the “first Mayoral Roundtable with LGBTQ People of Color.”
Still, this experience was not enough to fend off criticism from Alderman Ray Lopez (15th Ward), a gay Latino.
“Antonio is a great man. He was a great advocate in public health, but I just don’t understand this close to the end of his term,” Lopez said. “Why now? Is this simply to shore up some votes in the lakefront to say that he’s supportive of LGBTQ folks?”
While Mayor Johnson has made identity politics a focus, he has not devoted as much attention to ethical issues in the Windy City.
The Chicago Board of Ethics “has been without a permanent leader for more than six months” and “was forced to cancel two recent meetings,” because it is still waiting on Johnson to appoint a leader, according to WTTW.
The inability to meet has “stall[ed] several probes into campaign finance law violations [and] nepotism in city hiring and bribery.”
“The mayor’s record shows a continued lack of commitment to ethics and government oversight,” Alderman Matt Martin (47th Ward) told WTTW.
The vice president of the Better Government Association also underscored the problem for Chicago, a city notorious for political corruption.
“If you can’t replace the chair of the Ethics Board in seven months in a city with historic ethics problems, that is a huge issue,” Bryan Zarou said.
The mayor himself has come under fire from the city’s inspector general for not disclosing gifts he received, including “premium whiskey, luxury handbags, designer cuff links and shoes,” WTTW reported last year.
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