Port: Why did North Dakota’s first lesbian elected official appoint an anti-gay activist?
Minot, N.D. — I’m going to ask your indulgence, dear reader, while I write, in my statewide column, about some local politics in my hometown that I think are illustrative of the times we’re living in.
Please, bear with me.
Carrie Evans, a member of Minot’s city council, is one of North Dakota’s very few openly gay elected officials. She has referred to herself as North Dakota’s first lesbian elected official, and I have no reason to doubt that.
Back in 2020, she made regional and even national headlines during a debate over the raising of a pride flag outside of Minot’s city hall. After listening to hours and hours of anti-gay invective and religious diatribes, she went off.
“I am proudly the first openly elected lesbian in North Dakota, so that is why I am not paying any heed to your crap,” Evans told the assembled whiners and snowflakes who were triggered by a flag. “We, the people. I’m the people. I live in Minot. I am a taxpayer. I am a person. I get to see myself represented on that flagpole.”
