COLUMBIA — Local residents appeared at West Columbia’s City Council meeting on April 2 to denounce remarks made on social media by Councilman Mike Green and call for a public apology.
Green, who represents District 1, posted on Facebook on March 26 a graphic reading “My pronouns are IBuyHouses, CashCloseFast, AsIsNORepairsNeeded.”
Green, a real estate investor, wrote in the post, “Please refer to me by my new pronouns. Anything less is micro-aggression.”
The post has received hundreds of comments, many negative. Critics used the public comments portion of the regularly scheduled council meeting to publicly call for an apology from Green.
West Columbia resident Dylan Rish, a transgender man and the grandson of late West Columbia Mayor Wyman “Mac” Rish, said Green’s remarks made “a mockery of an entire demographic of an already marginalized group of people.”
Rish, who referred to Green as “Council Member IBuyHouses” in reference to the councilman’s post, connected the post to “anti-trans rhetoric and legislation currently circulating through our Statehouse that is intended to strip my rights away.”
“I am here because for the first time in my life, I do not feel safe in my own city,” Rish said. “I am here to hold you, Council member IBuyHouses, accountable for the political uproar you have initiated that has inadvertently caused a greater division between West Columbia citizens.”
Rish said Green “doubled down on his bigotry and proudly displayed his hatred of not only the transgender community, but also the rest of the LGBTQIA+ community” when interviewed by several news outlets.
He criticized Green’s references to the LGBT+ community as “the ABCDEFGLGBTQ+ community” in statements to The Post and Courier and The State.…Read more by Caleb Bozard cbozard@postandcourier.com
