Wanda Adams Tearfully Defends Herself To Gays At Council Meeting

Wanda Adams gets angry with critics

​There were tears at today's city council meeting when Wanda Adams defended herself against charges she had abandoned her Montrose constituents in a vote on a proposed home for HIV/AIDS.

Here's the video: fast-forward to the 16-minute mark. Kris Banks, a former Adams staffer, appeared in the public-speaker portion of the council meeting to criticize Adams' decision not to participate in the vote on the proposal last week.

"I chose not to participate in a vote,"  she says. "That does not make me someone who discriminated against a person with HIV/AIDS...There have been statements made against my character from the GLBT community that I really find really offensive and, coming from you, really offensive -- a person that I hired in my office to be a leader...For someone to tell me I hate people. My character is ruined in the GLBT community because of leadership."

Her voice breaking at times, she also took offense that some e-mailers and callers said she owed her election to gays and lesbians.

"I owe my election to one person and that is God because he told me anything I asked for in his name would be given to me and I did," she said.

Adams also urged critics to check her record on gay issues.

Banks replied that the vote was important and her supporters would have expected her not to leave her seat during it "if the roof was caving in. It was disappointing to us"

He said the e-mails and letters were not questioning Adams' character.

The is not the first time things have gotten tense regarding Marjo House, a transitional facility in East Houston for people with HIV/AIDS. Many in the neighborhood oppose the facility, and council members Sue Lovell and Jarvis Johnson loudly fought over the issue recently.