‘I never mentioned that person’s sexuality’: Mayor Chris Clark refutes homophobic tirade towards gay resident

Residents and LGBTQ+ activists rallied outside City Hall ahead of a council meeting on June 9, denouncing anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and political retaliation from Mayor Chris Clark and his allies.

The demonstration was sparked by child sex abuse allegations Mayor Clark had raised about Ryan Sinwelski, a former French teacher and openly gay man, during a City Council meeting in April. 

Clark called out Sinwelski and claimed that a student accused the former French teacher of being sexually inappropriate while employed at Thornton Township High School, suggesting Sinwelski was a pedophile.

“We’re here to address the false allegations Mayor Clark made against me, saying I abused children that were my students years ago. That’s not true,” Sinwelski told the HWH at a rally prior to the council meeting on June 9. Sinwelski, once a mayoral ally, alleged that Clark had been spreading pedophelia rumors about him for years, which he described as “totally betraying.”

The demonstration was also to address bullying occurring in Harvey and the Southland, “particularly politicians bullying residents,” Sinwelski said.

Kathy King-Watters, a member of PFLAG Tinley Park, shared her support for Sinwelski and condemned Clark’s actions during public comment.

“If those accusations were true…[Sinwelski] would have been charged and prosecuted,” she said. “It’s irresponsible to perpetuate that kind of stereotype that has existed for eons about gay men.”

King-Watters warned that if Harvey’s leadership continued to denigrate LGBTQ+ youth, the city would lose an entire generation. “They’re not going to want to stay here after graduation, buy houses, or open businesses. Without our young people…our cities in the Southland are going to fold.”

In response, Mayor Clark firmly denied calling Sinwelski a pedophile and reframed the controversy during his mayoral comment. “While I’m accused of calling someone a pedophile, I never mentioned that person’s sexuality [nor] did I call him a pedophile,” Clark said. “That is not something that I said, and it is not something that I believe in any shape, form, or fashion. Harvey is, and Harvey has been, a safe space for everyone who is a part of the [LGBTQ+] community.”

Mayor Clark also suggested his critics were motivated by politics. “Some people feel like they have political motives, and they’re using the community to move that agenda forward.”

Clark has recently become friends with social media provocateur Jedidiah Brown, who himself called Sinwelski an homophobic slur on social media weeks after the meeting. The courts later granted Sinwelski an order of protection against Brown.

‘Political arm of the mayor’s office’

The meeting also marked the first since the arrest of Ald. Colby Chapman (2nd) for alleged felony assault of a police officer.

Amir Shakur, president of Freedom First International, called out Chapman’s arrest. She was taken into custody on June 5 shortly after announcing her mayoral bid for 2027.

“You should be ashamed of yourself as a Black man who politically indicts a Black female,” he said to Clark. “That is not leadership. That is not being a man.”

Shakur then addressed Harvey police: “The day that you become a political arm of the mayor’s office is the day that you’ve gone wrong…,” Shakur said. “We ask that you change your course because you can also stand in hope and be held accountable for your actions.”

Corruption in Harvey

Ald. Shirley Drewenski (1st), the council’s longest-serving member, drew a contrast between the current administration and previous ones, stating, “I have to recap my first eight years.”

“I was contacted by the federal government, Cook County, and many of those media voices seeking a story, and I had a story to share,” Drewenski said of her early years as an elected official under a previous administration. 

Drewenski continued: “My last six years under this administration…never once did the federal government or Cook County ever contact [me] about any story. Trust me, if there was a story, I would be the first one to share it.”

But Drewenski’s comments fly in the face of a settlement she and others approved that very evening pertaining to a federal lawsuit in which former police chief Eddie Winters alleged Clark stifled a federal corruption investigation in Harvey — one that Winters attempted to comply with.