Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson to withdraw Land Bank appointment of ally who posted homophobic meme

City Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson plans to withdraw his proposal to appoint Point Breeze community activist Albert Littlepage to the board of the Philadelphia Land Bank after being questioned about a homophobic image Littlepage tweeted last year.

Johnson introduced a resolution to appoint Littlepage to the Land Bank board at Thursday morning’s Council session, the first of the new year.

Littlepage, president of the Point Breeze Community Development Coalition, in June posted an image of a father using a shield to block children from a rainbow while he reads a book to them. He posted the image amid Republican calls for banning LGBTQ-inclusive books in schools, part of a broader conservative effort to falsely paint LGBTQ people and culture as dangerous to children.

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Johnson at first defended the appointment before deciding to withdraw it. After Council adjourned, he said in an interview that he was unaware Littlepage posted the meme. He added that he has always supported the LGBTQ community, but picked Littlepage because of his role in the Point Breeze community, part of Johnson’s 2nd District.

After being informed about Littlepage’s anti-LGBTQ tweet, Johnson also said that he nonetheless planned to follow through with the appointment.

“I picked him because he’s a community activist in the neighborhood around the issue of affordable and workforce housing,” Johnson said. “I don’t support any views of individuals being anti-LGBTQ. My track record shows I support that community.”

Minutes later, a Johnson spokesperson said that the Council member spoke with Littlepage and now plans to withdraw the nomination at Council’s next session.

“We’re doing it out of an abundance of caution that people may have, in the gay and lesbian community, concerns about Albert’s nomination,” Johnson spokesperson Vincent Thompson said.

Littlepage on Thursday said that he did not intend for the image to be seen as anti-LGBTQ but instead wanted to comment on society’s sexualization of children in general.

“I actually have members of my family who are part of that community,” Littlepage said in an interview. “I just believe that our kids are being over-sexualized on all fronts.”

Asked why the image included a rainbow if he did not intend to comment on the LGBTQ community, Littlepage said he would have posted other memes if they depicted children being threatened by other groups.

“The rainbow to me was the sexualizing of children,” he said. “If it was something that said heterosexual, I would have said the same thing.”

Littlepage added that the LGBTQ community is overly sensitive about perceiving attacks on it.

“Sometimes, to be quite honest, maybe that community can be over-sensitized,” he said.

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The Land Bank facilitates the sale of many of the thousands of parcels of city-owned property. The sales process is heavily influenced by lawmakers thanks to the Philadelphia tradition known as councilmanic prerogative, which effectively gives Council members near-complete control over land-use decisions within their districts.

That tradition is why Johnson in 2021 was able to help derail a city plan to cool traffic on Washington Avenue in his district. Littlepage was a key proponent of ensuring a more car-centric redesign of the thoroughfare, which was among Philadelphia’s most dangerous streets for pedestrians and cyclists.

Johnson’s district includes Washington Avenue west of South Broad Street. Councilmember Mark Squilla represents the area east of Broad, where traffic lanes have been significantly narrowed and bike-lane infrastructure expanded.

Staff writer Jake Blumgart contributed to this article.