The long-awaited LGBTQ+ Affairs Director role in Chicago remains unfilled after a restructuring in the mayor’s office shifted the hiring timeline.
City officials previously planned to fill the position by June, but were met with backlash from community leaders concerned about the hiring process when applications opened in May.
Members of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Council said they were not informed of the job’s posting until after it went live. They expressed concerns about the two-week application window and lack of clarity whether they would be involved in the hiring process.
Once hired, the LGBTQ+ director will serve as a liaison between the community and city government and create Chicago’s first LGBTQ+ policy plan.
After extending the application window by a week and incorporating members of the advisory council in the job interviews, city officials gave an update on the role during the LGBTQ+ Advisory Council’s Sept. 10 meeting.
“We are working hard to get someone in here,” said Sara Mathers, chief of community engagement in the mayor’s office. “We had a very ambitious goal of getting somebody in here at the beginning of June … [but] we had a reconfiguration in the mayor’s office.”
The department overseeing the position recently split into two separate bodies, Mathers explained.
The LGBTQ+ director will now fall under the new Department of Health and Human Services. Because the deputy mayor started two weeks ago, she is now conducting an internal review of candidates before the city moves forward.
Mathers said this review will include the input given by members of the LGBTQ+ Advisory Council, who were present in all of the interviews and provided feedback. More than 100 people applied for the role, Mathers said.
“I want to thank the LGBTQ+ Advisory Council, who came in to help with the hiring committee,” Mathers said. “That was not all for naught. She is reviewing all of those things and will give us an update on where they should stand.”
Mathers said the city did not have a timeline for finishing the hiring process.
Jin-Soo Huh, who chairs the LGBTQ+ Advisory Council, encouraged the mayor’s office not to delay the process further.
“We encourage the mayor’s office to do this quickly,” Huh said. “But we are excited to have this person in place.”