Mayor Lily Wu says proclamation ‘segregated’ transgender community in Wichita

Several days after she refused to sign a proclamation recognizing Transgender Day of Visibility, Wichita Mayor Lily Wu defended her decision by saying the proclamation “segregated” the transgender community.

The mayor gave additional comment on her inaction at her weekly media briefing Thursday morning.

“I did not vote for this proclamation, which was the first time ever Wichita has segregated the transgender community,” Wu said repeatedly, reading from a prepared statement.

She declined to say why she didn’t sign the proclamation. She said that city staff adds electronic signatures to proclamations.

“In this situation, I did not print the proclamation,” Wu said. “That is staff. And I also did not ask for my signature to be removed.”

Wu had initially attempted to remain neutral on the proposal, asking one of the four council members who voted for it to read the proclamation and pose for photos at the council meeting.

Amid public scrutiny and criticism from council member Maggie Ballard, who read the proclamation at the meeting, she issued a written statement on social media Wednesday morning.

She said in that statement that people’s gender or religious choice is “none of my business” and that she wouldn’t have voted for or read a proposal “wishing the exact opposite of this one.”

Wu’s fresh comments about the Transgender Day of Visibility proclamation were her first actively against the proclamation. She compared it to segregation, a systematic separation of people into racial or other groups — in this case gender — in daily life.

Her treatment of the transgender proclamation stood in stark contrast to two other proclamations she signed and announced Tuesday that sought to bring visibility to marginalized groups: Developmental Disability Awareness Month and Into the Light Day, in honor of a program that brings awareness to people living with blindness.

Abi Boatman, a transgender woman and military veteran who accepted the proclamation at City Hall on Tuesday, called Wu’s use of the term segregate “a dog whistle for a right-wing base that feels socially aggrieved because they cannot segregate (used appropriately) minority groups with the efficiency with which they are historically accustomed.”

“Regardless of the contextless dictionary definition, ‘segregation’ is widely understood to refer to the purposeful exclusion of and discrimination against a particular community to the detriment of the people in that community,” Boatman said in a written statement.

“It is beyond disappointing that the mayor, who collects a taxpayer-funded salary, continues to condescend and play manipulative word games with those same taxpayers,” Boatman said. “Any number of words would have been more appropriately descriptive of what actually happened – uplift, elevate, recognize, honor, acknowledge, applaud, commend, salute, et cetera.”

Wu’s predecessor, former mayor Brandon Whipple, has questioned whether Wu violated a city ordinance that outlines the duties of the mayor. Whipple lost to Wu in 2023.

The city’s ordinance explains that the mayor has several duties, including presiding over council meetings and signing all resolutions and proclamations.

“You can’t just … go and not do your duties just because you personally lost that debate,” Whipple said in an interview with The Eagle on Wednesday.

Proclamations are requested by residents and then issued during council meetings if approved by the council. Council members vote by email on whether to issue proclamations and need a simple majority to go forward. Wu told The Eagle she did not vote by email to issue the proclamation.

The Transgender Day of Visibility proclamation was requested by Proud of Wichita: The LGBT Chamber of Commerce.

“In times like these, we need to ensure every Wichitan feels safe and included so they can bring their best selves to work and live their own American Dream,” the statement reads.

The proclamation, backed by Democratic council members Ballard, Brandon Johnson, Mike Hoheisel and Republican Becky Tuttle, comes against a backdrop of national and state government actions by Republican lawmakers aimed at transgender people. The Kansas Legislature passed a bill prohibiting gender-affirming care to minors. President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender people from serving openly in the military.

Wu, who was a registered Republican for years before changing her registration to Libertarian before running for office in 2023, declined to answer questions about her stance on transgender rights during her campaign.

Mayor’s missing signature

A copy of the proclamation awarded Tuesday night shows that all mention of the mayor appears to have been removed from the Transgender Day of Visibility proclamation, including a signature line that typically appears near the bottom of the form.

The end of most proclamations reads “Now, therefore, be it resolved, that I, Lily Wu, mayor of the city of Wichita, along with the Wichita City Council do hereby proclaim…”

The transgender proclamation mentions only the City Council.

A signature line for the mayor appears to have been removed, the photo shows.

The two other proclamations issued that night included language mentioning the mayor and her signature line.

Megan Lovely, the city’s spokesperson, declined to answer why the mayor’s name was scrubbed from the proclamation and who was responsible.

Proclamations are typically handled by a staffer in the city council office, who sends a draft of the proclamation and the language to be included to all council members and the mayor and collects the votes.

The city staffer then prints a draft copy of the proclamations and provides it to Wu, who looks them over to spot typos or any errors prior to the council meeting, according to multiple sources familiar with the process, including Council member Ballard.

“It’s my understanding that the Mayor was provided a draft of each proclamation like she receives each week,” Ballard said. “When the drafts were returned to staff to prepare the final version, there were edits to the draft which were reflected in the final copy I read on Tuesday night.”

Ballard said it appears Wu is blaming city staff for the missing signature while openly not supporting the proclamation.

“Blaming staff is a sign of weak leadership,” Ballard said.

This story was originally published March 20, 2025 at 12:34 PM.