For Immediate Release: October 10, 2022
Contact: Shona Ganguly, LALCV President
Email: LAleagueofconservationvoters@gmail.com
First and foremost, the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters stands in solidarity with our LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities, particularly Black, Indigenous, and Oaxacan communities who were mentioned in the recordings publicly released on October 9, 2022. We denounce the appalling comments made by Los Angeles City Councilmembers Nury Martinez, Gil Cedillo, and Kevin de León.
We are in full support of Councilmember Mike Bonin and his family and hope they are finding solace from the friends, neighbors, and community members who are rising up and demanding action. The City of Los Angeles must hold Martinez, Cedillo, and de León accountable. As residents of this city and members of the local communities, we are calling for their resignation as a step toward restitution. Apologies are not sufficient in the face of racist, homophobic, and colonial attitudes and language.
Public officials who seek power rather than serving our communities have no place in our government (even if we have seen many unfortunate examples in many places, they are always unacceptable). These perspectives and ways of speaking are postcolonial legacies that need to be removed from politics and the public sphere, in general. Racism and homophobia are still very much embedded in our society as these comments have starkly uncovered. However, we do not have to accept this blatantly racist and homophobic behavior in our elected leaders, especially when their decisions impact real people and reinforce historic inequities. We must decolonize our thinking and actions.
In the face of the climate crisis and numerous threats to community health, we expect leaders who will dismantle structures of oppression and create inclusive and equitable spaces. There is no time for divisiveness. Elected officials who hold these antiquated and hateful beliefs should make way for people who will build connections rather than political boundaries for their personal and/or political benefit.
In light of these recent developments, LALCV officially rescinds its previous endorsements of Nury Martinez and Kevin de León and calls for their resignation.
We stand in unity and embrace our communities’ diversity.
For more information on the coloniality of power and knowledge, please read the work of Anibal Quijano and other critical theorists.