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Parting Glances (Remembering Jeff #3 of 3)

I've had two occasions — as an innocent bystander, I assure PG readers — to meet former Detroit mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, now living as a rather restricted, extended-care resident in Arizona until 2041. (Reservations fully confirmed recently by SCOTUS.)
For my initial encounter I was with Triangle Foundation CEO Jeff Montgomery in 2001 when Mr. Kilpatrick, then running for mayor, dropped into Tom's Oyster Bar in downtown Detroit (now Briggs gay sports bar) with a few of his cronies, all of whom seemed to me at the time to be of questionable political acumen, a few looking suspiciously like Kwame's body guards.
Jeff, who had met Kwame several times when he was a Michigan state representative, and knew his mother, Michigan state rep Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, shook hands, and made brief intros to myself and other friends gathered that unmemorable day for de-boned fish and chips.
My first impression: Kwame's a big guy with a karate hand shake. (He's 6'5".) At 31, he would be Detroit's 68th mayor. Its youngest to date.
Jeff's comment afterward: "I just hope the Kwamster's up to the task of serving Detroit at a crucial time, given our on-going challenging financial and acute population struggles.
"At least his predecessor Mayor Dennis Archer acknowledged the Detroit gay/lesbian community, if only by awarding Triangle and me a plaque or a Spirit of Detroit recognition now and then."
My second meeting with Mayor Kilpatrick was during reelection year 2008 at — for him, at another out-of-the-way location — Hotter Than July in Palmer Park. I made my BTL columnist intro, and asked the hand-shaking, friendly mayor whom he had recently appointed as his LGBT community liaison. I was told to call his office for details.
According to Jeff, choosing to reach out to the LGBT community was an about face for Kwame. And, shortly after his election in 2001, the newly elected mayor made well-publicized TV media remarks against gay marriage, adding another time, that he would not want his twin boys to have to associate with gay people.
"It's not the first time that we've heard this position from the mayor," said Jeff. "He takes refuge in his Church of God in Christ religious cover that doesn't allow him to support gay marriage.
"Indeed, Kilpatrick's relationship with the LGBT community has always been contentious. His voting record on LGBT issues while in the state legislature was fairly good. But from the time he announced his intention to run for mayor, his contact with our community has consisted of a seesaw of anti-gay statements and partial pledges of support."
Some weeks after his stated concern for his kids, Kilpatrick was invited by Montgomery to attend a forum at the George M. Fadiga Community Pride Building. There the mayor came just short of apologizing for his anti-gay remarks but said instead that he "had no idea, as most of American society doesn't as well, the amount of pain you inflict in other people with your words."
In 2002, a slightly repentant Kilpatrick attended an Affirmations Big Bash fundraiser, and began rather hurried welcoming remarks to its LGBT crowd with a pledge of sorts."I know I have some making up to do with this community."
"Yet he never offered an apology for his previous vitriol," Jeff said shortly after the Affirmation's event. "It's, long, long, long overdue". (Better late than never? 2041. Don't hold your breath. RIP.)

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