Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms today became the first mayor in Hampton Roads and one of over 175 nationally to sign the Mayors Against LGBT Discrimination pledge. Sessoms signed the pledge at his office with staff from the LGBT Center of Hampton Roads at his side.
Said Christopher Reybrouck, Chief Development Officer for Access AIDS Care/The LGBT Center of Hampton Roads, “Our work continues even after this fantastic first signature as we try to schedule meetings to talk about work, our agency, and why this pledge is so important to the other 6 mayors of Hampton Roads.”
The coalition group Mayors Against Discrimination was formed on January 18, 2017, in the wake of recent discriminatory laws enacted against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. Their initial act was to bar official travel to states with discriminatory laws such as those enacted in North Carolina and, most recently, Mississippi.
The group’s goal is work together to examine prohibitions on contracting and purchasing from companies in their states, develop model resolutions that can be adopted by city councils and other legislative bodies, and other measures that Mayors and cities can take individually and collectively.
They also pledge to work with private sector leaders and companies to apply direct political and economic pressure to repeal or stop the alarming spread of discriminatory laws in the United States.
Sessoms joins Mayor Ron Rordam of Blacksburg and Mayor Allison Silberberg of Alexandria as the third Virginia Mayor to join the coalition.
