Naperville City Councilman Josh McBroom is demanding LGBTQ+-focused Naper Pride apologize for recent “political” social media posts or he will vote against future city funding for the nonprofit.
The controversy stems from the murder of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot at a Utah college event. Kirk, co-founder of Turning Point USA, was known for his provocative and sometimes inflammatory statements on race, gender and politics.
In the wake of his death, Naper Pride shared a Facebook post on Sept. 15 that featured a comment from the Rev. Howard John-Wesley, pastor of Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, in which he said:
“There is no where in the Bible where we are taught to honor evil and how you die does not redeem how you lived. You don’t become a hero in death when you are a weapon of the enemy in life.”
In response to that message, McBroom put up his own Facebook post in which he discussed funding provided to organizations through Naperville’s Special Events & Community Arts (SECA) Commission and stated that groups that engage in political advocacy “should not be subsidized with tax dollars.”
According to city documents, the group this year was allocated $5,219 for city services and $21,100 to help cover the cost of operations for Pride Fest, which was held Sept. 13 at Naper Settlement.
Naper Pride, in its response to McBroom’s post, posted a follow-up statement in which they said they “do not advocate for violence against anyone” and that everyone “has the right to free speech, but nobody has the right to force anyone else to listen.” The organization also shut down the comments section on its post after receiving a flurry of negative messages.
They also noted that Kirk, whose name was later removed from the post, had “advocated for violence against LGBTQ individuals,” including once saying he believed gay people be stoned to death, a point that was widely circulated but has since been clarified.
“You’d have to (be) completely tone deaf to not understand that there would be complex feelings around this, everyone is different,” the message said.
Naperville City Councilman Josh McBroom speaks at a 2024 council meeting. (Tess Kenny/Naperville Sun)
At Tuesday’s city council meeting, McBroom — former vice president of the anti-LGBTQ+ group Awake Illinois — doubled-down on his belief that Naper Pride took a political stance and should not receive future city funding without an apology or retraction. He posted a clip of his comments from the city council meeting on social media Wednesday:
“The posts they put out there suggested that Charlie Kirk was evil, that his followers were the enemy,” McBroom said. “They continued and made a false claim that Charlie Kirk and by extension his followers advocated the stoning or murdering of LGBTQ communities.”
McBroom also emphasized in his Wednesday post that while Naper Pride’s comments may fall under protected speech, he believes that protection does not “override responsibility” when it comes to receiving city funds. On Friday, in another social media post, he further stressed it was not a freedom of speech issue.
“While I believe this rhetoric is dangerously reckless, particularly to our community youth who were Charlie fans, I still defend their right to say it,” McBroom wrote. “But when they are being funded with OUR money, I believe the tax payers have a right to demand a retraction and apology or end this subsidy entirely.”
However, there is nothing in rules governing the awarding of SECA money that states that funding recipients must refrain from political advocacy or making political statements.
Despite McBroom’s statement that freedom of speech does not factor into his position, it could easily be seen as such, said Ed Yohnka, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union.
“What we’re seeing right now and what’s really precarious is we’re seeing people attempting to use the power of the government to punish people for their speech, and oft times that attempted punishment is not really reflective of the speech itself but is, in fact, simply reflective of a political view of some government official,” Yohnka said.
“To be sure, the council member can vote or not vote,” Yohnka said. “To condition it on them changing their speech is, in some ways, the thing that really is antithetical to our constitutional system.”
The freedom of speech issue came into the forefront this past week with the announcement that the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” late night TV show was being put on indefinite hiatus following a joke the comedian made in reference to Kirk and President Trump’s MAGA followers. The move by ABC had the backing of FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who said other such actions may follow.
When interviewed on Friday, McBroom said Naper Pride is free to say whatever its wants, but that doesn’t mean the city has to support them financially. He’d like to see the city reexamine its rules for SECA funding, he said.
“As far as like a chilling effect on individuals and how they act in the community, maybe that’s not a bad thing,” McBroom said. “If we’re going to continue giving out all these city grants, I think these organizations need to be very careful that they don’t get political and they don’t engage in divisive type of rhetoric and they stay out of the local political process.”
A representative from Naper Pride reiterated to the Naperville Sun that its posts were not made with an intent to be divisive or to advocate for violence but to address the situation from the perspective of the LGBTQ+ community.
“So many people objecting to the statement are taking it as we are calling them the enemy,” the representative said. “We’re not pointing a finger at anybody, not Mr. Kirk’ followers, not anybody. It’s just a statement of emotion made by that pastor in the moment and it sums up how many people feel when you have an individual that’s so polarizing, as Mr. Kirk was.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
cstein@chicagotribune.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/20/naperville-councilman-mcbroom-pride-funding-kirk-seca/
