S. M. Fazlul Kabir, a tribal of Bangladesh who completed his degree in electrical architecture in the UK before relocating to College Park, Maryland, in 2003, was elected mayor of the city again on November 5.
Since 2011, he has been a member of the College Park City Council. His primary election as governor took place in May of this year’s special election, which was held soon after the queer mayor Patrick Wojahn resigned. When Wojahn was detained in March of this year on several counts of possessing and disseminating child pornography, he immediately resigned from his position.
Wojahn has been detained without a connection ever since his imprisonment. At an August 2 Prince George’s County Circuit Court hear, he entered a plea deal with the prosecution and admitted guilt to the majority of the charges leveled against him. He is expected to receive his sentence on November 20.
In a four-way competition for the May special election, Kabir won with 54 % of the vote. Kate Kennedy, a Council member who took over as acting governor after Wojahn resigned until the day of the particular vote, in which she ran and finished second, was succeeded by him.
Social observers noted that Kabir’s longtime reputation as a consensus builder and ardent supporter of establishing College Park as an inclusive residential community and the home of the University of Maryland was confirmed when he ran unopposed for the whole term in office on November 5 in the regularly scheduled gubernatorial election.
According to a statement posted on the College Park site,” Dr. Kabir is thought to be the first Muslim-faithful and South Asian-born mayor of the city.” According to the speech,” Dr. Kabir has resided in College Park with his wife and two children for more than 20 years.”
According to the statement, before starting his present position as a national authorities information architect, he taught cybersecurity for eight years at the University of Maryland.
According to Council information, Kabir voted against two pro-EQL bills—one in 2014 and the other in 2020—while expressing assistance for the LGBTQ community.
The town contract was amended in 2014 to forbid discrimination in employment, accommodation, and public accommodations based on a variety of criteria, including civilization, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, with Kabir ballot no. The measure was approved by the eight-member Council on 6–2 votes.
A Catholic social service organization that had a deal with Philadelphia to spot children with foster parents was suing the city of Philadelphia, and the 2020 measure called for College Park to sign on to an amnesty short to be filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of that area. After Catholic Social Services ( CSS) refused to place children with same-sex foster parents due to its religious beliefs, which was against Philadelphia’s non-discrimination law, Philadelphia terminated the contract.
Kabir and two other Council members abstained from the roman small, which was approved by the College Park Council 5-3. Council supporters claimed that this would reaffirm the organization’s support for Philadelphia in its efforts to preserve its equality policies that affect Gay foster parents.
According to City Council records, Kabir abstained from voting on a second measure in May 2016 that called for the LGBTQ Pride flag to be flown over College Park City Hall during the month of June.
When the Washington Blade questioned Kabir about his Gay election history, he cited his remarks made during the Council sessions at the time the three votes were cast, in which his support for LGBTQ rights was expressed in general.
On the Council’s website, video tapes of each of the three distinct Council sessions are available for viewing. The Blade watched and listened to his comments on each measure in question as well as the comments made by various Council people.
Kabir told the Blade in a speech,” In none of these seats I used my faith as the reason for the way I voted.” I value the integrity of every citizen of our College Park neighborhood, including those who identify as LGBTQ+, because I am a member of some minority groups, he said.
He stated in his speech,” I greatly appreciate the efforts of the LGBTQ+ group to making College Park a better position for all our people.”
Kabir argued that the proposed act was unnecessary because the Maryland state non-discrimination rules covered the exact same rules of the suggested College Park contract act at the Council’s May 2014 appointment, when they voted to approve it.
According to the Council’s video recording of the meeting on November 25, 2014, prejudice is nothing new. And discrimination occurs frequently, so we should n’t put up with it, he said. He continued, noting that the College Park mandate had never used the kind of language that is now part of state law,” but we never had a provision, in the 70-year history of the city charter.”
During that Council period, Kabir expressed his additional worries about the proposed non-discrimination contract amendment’s clause on public accommodations to his fellow council members. That is “kind of pretty controversial because it includes the toilet and the restroom,” he said. We want our transgender population to feel at ease using the restroom or the bathroom, but many of our heterosexual residents do n’t feel comfortable using this term, Kabir continued.
However, he also notes that a second equality measure, which also included protections for sexual orientation and gender identity, was approved by the Council during the same Council session and applied to the domestic employment policies of the College Park city government. He cast a vote in favor of the proposal, which was overwhelmingly approved by the Council.
Ali stated he did not think the Catholic Social Services Group was discriminating during the Council’s voting on August 11, 2020, to join the Supreme Court amicus short in the Philadelphia situation. While the group did not accept same-sex couples as clients, he pointed out that it easily referred any such-and-such couples it came into contact with to different organizations under city contracts that would assist them in becoming foster parents.
During the conversation over the roman short question, he told his brother Council members that” College Park is a diverse and multicultural community.” And he added,” And both the LGBTQ and the religious groups are very, very important and very strong parts of our community.” ” Every group around should coexist in harmony, with admiration, and with integrity. He explained why he would voting against College Park joining the roman quick, saying that choosing one side over the other may simply divide us rather than bring us together.
By a ballot of 5 to 3, the measure was approved by the Council, with Kabir and two other people voting no. Then queer Mayor Patrick Wojahn and later gay Council member P. J. Brennan were among those who cast certainly ballots.
While voting against the Philadelphia roman small, Kabir told the Blade in a written statement that he had voted in favor of College Park filing on to another LGBTQ-related Supreme Court case, Bostock v. Clayton County, one year earlier. The queer plaintiff in that case, for whom the Supreme Court issued its historic decision that LGBT people are protected from bias under the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, was supported by the roman short.
Kabir did not provide an explanation for his decision to withdraw on the Council’s vote on May 24, 2016, to suspend the Pride symbol as a banner for one week in front of the City Hall building. Instead, he proposed a stand-in movements that would have mandated that the president been given the power to approve banners that were to be hung on an exterior walls of the City Hall building.
Kabir said to fellow Council people,” The symbol may involve a flag.” According to him,” the president may consider the apps, review those that are correct, and help city goals, values and objectives.”
The Council therefore approved the initial action to show the Pride symbol on the City Hall tower from June 6–13, 2016 by a vote of 5–3 against Kabir’s motion and 5—0 with three abstentions, including his own.
About a month later, on June 14, 2016, at the Council meeting, Kabir joined his brother Council members in voting in favor of extending the Pride flag display at City Hall for an additional week in remembrance of the Pulse nightclub filming in Orlando, Florida, which claimed the lives of 49 generally Gay customers.
The movement to lengthen the flag display for an additional week was then introduced by Wojahn, the mayor of College Park.
In the meantime, Kabir informed the Blade that he made a mayoral proclamation designating June 2023 as Pride Month in College Park during his second quarter as president this time.
A town manager oversees the day-to-day procedures of the city government under the College Park provincial government, according to PJ Brennan, a gay man who served on the committee alongside Kabir for seven decades before resigning. The president has the authority to make regulations and preside over Council meetings, but he only has one vote per Council, which is to call a tie.
He said,” I believe he may struggle with legislation that is openly pro-LGBT, but I believe that applies to anyone who comes from a spiritual community where LGBTQ rights are not always supported.”
Brennan told the Blade,” But I’ll show you this.” ” His personality is really nothing but love.” He has always treated me with great kindness. Brennan, who is married and has two children, said,” He’s constantly been very kind to my home. I do n’t see him pursuing legislation that is anti-LGBT if he does have any negative feelings.
