Retired fire battalion chief and Capitola Planning Commissioner TJ Welch is running for Capitola City Council. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local file)

CAPITOLA >> TJ Welch, a candidate for Capitola City Council, has focused his campaign on preserving Capitola’s eroding coastline, supporting small businesses, and trying to limit outsized housing developments.

His long record of civic involvement includes another concern — the belief that children are vulnerable to indoctrination by pro-LGBTQ+ educators and governments.

In a 2022 letter to Capitola City Council, Welch cited a 1988 study that said most child molesters identified as gay or bisexual. The letter argued that the city’s policy to fly the Pride Flag, and its rejection of his request to fly the Blue Lives Matter Flag, demonstrated a double standard for issues that could be divisive in the community.

Welch said that he stands in support of the LGBTQ+ community, and has no problem with flying the Pride flag — he just believes parents, not schools or governments, should control what their children learn about issues of gender identity or sexuality.

“I think there’s just an overzealous response to push some of these issues that aren’t really issues,” Welch said in an interview with Santa Cruz Local. “I don’t know of any gay person that I know of that feels persecuted.”

One of Welch’s key endorsers said that he has always felt accepted and supported by Welch as a gay man.

But for some, the language of indoctrination evokes a rising cultural and legislative tide against the LGBTQ+ community.

Welch’s beliefs

In February 2022, Welch requested that the city fly the thin blue line flag during National Police Week in support of the Capitola Police Department. In a March 2022 report, city staff recommended that the request be denied because the flag could create an “us versus them” mentality, and had become associated with white supremacist ideology unrelated to the flag’s original purpose.

Staff recommended that the city instead fly an “In Memoriam Flag” during National Police Week to honor law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty — a suggestion that the council approved in a meeting March 24, 2022.

In response to the city staff’s recommendation, Welch wrote a letter arguing that the recommendation vote was hypocritical, and that the council had already approved the Pride flag in support of the LGBTQ+ community. Capitola started flying the flag during June to celebrate Pride month in 2021.

His letter intended to highlight the unfairness of the flag policy — not to argue against flying the Pride Flag, or to malign the LGBTQ+ community, he said. 

“The gay community, the progressive community, transgender community — I’m very involved with a lot of them,” he told Santa Cruz Local. “I consider them all brothers and sisters, and I love all of them.”

He said that city leaders equating the Blue Lives Matter flag with racism and divisiveness was unfair — especially given their support for a flag celebrating LGBTQ+ individuals. “How do they say that about one flag when [police] are out there protecting us every day, but yet they’re okay with a flag that is based off someone’s choice in life?”

Welch said he is also concerned that children are being indoctrinated in school about LGBTQ+ issues. Issues of sexuality or gender identity should not be discussed in school, he said, and children should not be permitted to dress or act “as another gender” without their parents’ knowledge or consent. 

Similar concerns have driven a wave of state legislation and federal executive orders aimed at restricting educators from discussing LGBTQ+ topics or affirming a student’s professed gender identity without parental consent.

In 2021, Welch and other Capitola residents urged the City Council to reject or modify a proposed resolution against book bans. Welch said at the meeting he did not want to ban any one book entirely — but he did want to restrict some books to adults only. Those books included the adult autobiographical graphic novel Gender Queer: A Memoir, a frequently-banned book that he characterized as pornography aimed at children.

“My issue is, the pedophile industry is huge,” he said in an interview. “But obviously, I don’t have an issue with gays.”

Welch said that LGBTQ+ issues have nothing to do with his campaign, and he wouldn’t try to alter the city’s flag policy. “It’s not something I think is an issue of the city council right now,” he said. “Our issue right now is one, getting a new city manager, two, getting a budget.” City Manager Jaime Goldstein has announced that he will retire in December.

A full description of Welch’s platform is forthcoming in Santa Cruz Local’s voter guide.

Rodney Wartzok, the owner of Capitola Candy Co. and wine bar Cocoa Vino, said that he has always felt accepted and supported as a gay man by Welch. During floods and other crises affecting Capitola Village businesses, Welch has been an unfailing “first responder” to fill sandbags, and has advocated for businesses to city leaders, he said. Wartzok said he and his partner have never felt judged by Welch for their sexuality.

“I know he doesn’t have all the same views we do,” Wartzok said, “but he’s never pushed that on us.”

Watzok is concerned, he said, about a statement from an opposing candidate for Capitola City Council, Peter Wilk. In a comment on the social media site Nextdoor in early August, Wilk wrote that he had disagreed with the city flying the Pride flag, “correctly predicting that it would create division in the community.” 

In an interview Friday, Wilk said he no longer stands by that statement. He said that while he has always firmly supported the LGBTQ+ community — his daughter is married to a woman — he used to think that the city should concern itself only with local issues. His views have changed, he said.

“Although we’re a small part of government, we nevertheless are part of the bigger picture, and we need to stand up for the things that we believe in,” he said, “not just locally but nationally and at the state level.” 

Welch and Wilk are running alongside incumbent City Councilmember Joe Clark, human resources manager Tory Del Favero and business owner Cami Corvin. The five candidates are vying for three seats.

‘That’s just fear’

For Scotts Valley City Councilmember Derek Timm, conversations about the potential divisiveness of the Pride flag are familiar. In 2022, Timm successfully advocated for the City Council to approve flying the flag during Pride month. Timm is gay, but pursued the policy, “more because I care about the community, not because I’m part of it,” he said.

Other council members raised concerns that the move would legally force the city to fly any kind of political flag, but Timm’s proposal ultimately gained unanimous support.

While some could see a policy allowing the Pride flag as exclusionary to other groups, “I think the difference in a case like this, is the Pride flag is about building inclusion in your community,” he said.

As to the alleged indoctrination of students with LGBTQ+ beliefs, “that’s just fear, and it’s fear without basis in fact,” Timm said. The rhetoric comes from “people who may not understand someone’s sexual orientation, choosing to think that this is a choice.” he said. 

“We’ve seen an uptick in online hate and bullying and fear around this subject,” he said. “I think that’s why it’s even ever more important for us as communities to stand up against fear and hate. That’s what we should do as local electeds.”

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