San Antonio Councilman Manny Pelaez is under fire from a colleague for inviting a pastor with a reported history of anti-LGBTQ+ remarks to give the invocation at Thursday's council meeting.
That was the same meeting at which council discussed forming a permanent LGBTQ+ city advisory board and also issued a proclamation recognizing Trans Day of Visibility. The ordinance creating the board ultimately passed with District 10 conservative Marc Whyte as the sole holdout.
However, before discussion of the board got underway, District 8's Pelaez — a potential mayoral candidate — invited Pastor Patrick Jones, who leads the East Side's Greater Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, to lead the session's invocation.
"I'm really excited about our invocator today," said Pelaez, who added that he was a "big fan."
Jones made no reference to LGBTQ+ issues during his prayer, instead condemning violence and blessing those on the dais. However, council's only LGTBQ+-identifying member, District 2's Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, argued on social media that Jones has a history of making homophobic comments, including making alleged verbal attacks on McKee-Rodriguez for his sexuality.
During the 2021 election cycle, McKee-Rodriguez accused Jones of telling his congregation that voting for the incumbent East Side councilman "is a sin" because of his sexuality, the Express-News reported at the time.
Although Jones publicly denied those allegations, the daily reported that the pastor had called homosexuality a sin in a since-deleted Facebook post.
"We as believers don't get upset when we read or are preached to about various sins, lying, stealing, fornication, adultery, etc.," Jones wrote in the 2021 post cited by the Express-News. "The Bible does declare homosexuality a sin. Regardless of what the law says. I think if we can accept our faults they should too."
In a Thursday morning tweet, McKee-Rodriguez trumpeted council's plan to pass the advisory board and recognize Trans Day of Visibility but called it "tragic" that a colleague invited Jones to give the invocation.
"Tragic day for one of my collegues to invite homophobic Patrick Jones to give the invocation," McKee-Rodriguez tweeted Thursday. "Yikes."
Today, we’re officially establishing an LGBTQ+ Advisory Board through a new ordinance and ALSO recognizing Trans Day of Visibility with a proclamation!
— Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez 🇵🇸 (@theloserteacher) March 21, 2024
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
Tragic day for one of my colleagues to invite homophobic pastor Patrick Jones to give the invocation. Yikes! pic.twitter.com/kLyNB0Br7d
In an emailed statement, Pelaez said he was unaware of Jones' social media comments.
"Nonetheless, the prayer he delivered yesterday was about elected officials using our authority to do the right thing," the councilman added. "I heeded his prayer by proudly voting to support our LGBTQIA+ Advisory Board. I'm grateful that Pastor Jones took time away from his work to pray for us."
The invitation could yield bad optics for Pelaez among San Antonio's LGBTQ+ residents. However, as of Friday at noon, it appeared that McKee-Rodriguez's criticism was the only negative remark so far aired on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
During recent months, Pelaez also has come under fire for his U-turn on holding a council vote whether to issue a proposed Israel-Hamas ceasefire resolution. Pro-Palestinian protesters shut down a January council meeting over the scrapped plans for such a vote.
On social media, McKee-Rodriguez has been among the most vocal critics of Pelaez's about-face on the ceasefire vote.
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