'Gender Queer' discussion not ready for prime time, gets nipped in bud by 12-1 vote

City Councilor Steven Beaudoin, right, makes a case for delaying the water hookup fee as councilors look on. (City of Rochester screenshot)

ROCHESTER - Following a 23-minute nonmeeting when the city attorney likely advised City Council members they could cancel a fellow councilor's wish to discuss Gender Queer: A Memoir, a graphic novel that's a little too graphic, they did just that, voting to remove the agenda item City Councilor Jim Gray had requested, 12-1.
City Councilor Dana Berlin led the discussion on why Gray's agenda item needed to be scrapped.
"This agenda item has the strong appearance of targeting a very specific class, and as such I make a motion to remove this item," Berlin said, though he never identified the class by name.
A nonmeeting, which in this case was likely for advice from legal counsel, requires no minutes and is held in secret outside the public's view.
Ironically, when Gray asked last month that a discussion of Gender Queer to be scheduled for Tuesday's meeting, it was because he said he had been told by a constituent that it was in the Children's Room at the Rochester Public Library, he noted at the Aug. 16 meeting.
On Monday RPL personnel told The Rochester Voice that Gender Queer is not in the children's room, but in the Young Adult Graphic Novel section, which is separate from the Children's Room and generally meant for readers ages 12-21.
Gray repeated during last night's meeting that it was not his intention to ban books.
He also wanted to review any city policies that might be applicable to Gender Queer, which has verbiage and images depicting sexual acts such as masturbation and oral sex.
"The first I saw about book banning was in Foster's article," he said.
Over the weekend Gray told The Rochester Voice he never said he wanted the books banned.
"The Foster's reported interpreted it that way, that's not what I said," he noted.
Once out of the nonmeeting, City Councilor John Larochelle questioned whether removal of the agenda item was in line with council rules.
"Doesn't any councilor have the right place an agenda item?" he asked.
City Attorney Terence O'Rourke replied that the agenda item could be removed with a two-thirds vote.
In other business, new sewer and water hookup fees were passed on a 9-4 vote, with councilors Amy Malone, Skip Gilman, Steven Beaudoin and Gray all voting against the fees.
Beaudoin spoke strongly against the hikes, saying in a time of potentially $8
a gallon heating oil this winter, this was not the time to levy this new fee.
He said this will add $4,300 on a three bedroom home and $3,000 on a two bedroom apartment.
"This is hypocritical," he said. "You want all this affordable housing, then you make housing less affordable."