By Kurt Masline

When College Park City Councilmember Llatetra Brown Esters first met Mayor Patrick Wojahn, he was walking around her neighborhood with the two District Two Councilmembers, talking to citizens and listening to their feedback.

“I thought it was really neat to have the mayor and council members just walking down the street and asking questions about my experience,” Brown Esters said.

Those kinds of efforts to create a community built on communication and inclusiveness have been ever-present during Wojahn’s time on the city council and eventually as mayor. Some would describe his appearance as unassuming, but that grounded nature influenced Wojahn as he’s gone from the midwest to College Park, continually becoming even more true to himself in the process.

Wojahn was born in Milwaukee, but spent most of his childhood in Appleton and Green Bay, smaller cities in the northeastern part of Wisconsin. He described the area as scenic and said it was a great place to grow up during a time when free-range parenting was still common. He developed an interest in cycling while living in Appleton, spending time with friends on trails and enjoying the freedoms and independence his bike gave him.

Wojahn’s interest in law and politics came clear from a young age. His father is a lawyer and encouraged him to go into the field. But it wasn’t until he had an extra credit in one of his middle school classes that he started to understand the electoral process.

“I really enjoyed politics and policy and learning about that in middle school and high school,” Wojahn said. “I remember following that — I’m dating myself — but the 1988 election was when I was in middle school, and I followed that really closely.”

Wojahn received his undergraduate degree in international relations from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Staying in Wisconsin for college in his home state gave him a balance between becoming more independent while also being close enough to family. The campus was easy to get around and was part of an inclusive and student-friendly community.

The environment in Madison also allowed Wojahn to fully come out as a gay man, the welcoming LGBTQ+ community on campus helped him become true to himself. He first came out to his best friend from high school a few months before starting at Madison.

“That got me used to talking about it myself in a way that I could tell other people about it,” Wojahn said about the experience.

He came out to his parents on Christmas a few years later after the festivities had died down. There were plenty of nerves that went into the decision, but Wojahn said his parents have been very supportive and welcoming to his husband, even insisting on them having a wedding despite it not having any legal significance at the time.

Wojahn’s parents also provided another spark for him: an interest in world affairs. His family hosted an exchange student every few years during his childhood, a program that he eventually got involved in.

“My dad was really involved with Rotary [International], and they have the youth exchange program,” Wojahn said. “So, when I was a junior in high school, I decided to take advantage of the program myself.”

He spent the year in Germany, gaining an interest in the German language and international affairs, but Wojahn’s travels as a student didn’t stop there. He spent his junior year of college in Russia, getting involved with an HIV education and advocacy group while he was there. Seeing the LGBTQ+ community fighting for civil rights in Russia made him want to do similar work back home, which he ultimately did.

“I was convinced that when I got back to the United States that I wanted to get more involved myself locally doing what I could,” Wojahn said.

Soon though, he shifted his focus from international relations to working for change in local communities. Multiple factors contributed to his decision to run for a council seat, including a friend’s suggestion around the time and an equal marriage rights lawsuit in which Wojahn and his husband were one of the plaintiff couples was launched. Although the lawsuit was unsuccessful in the Maryland Court of Appeals, Wojahn saw the time as a new opportunity to get involved with community advocacy, which he did through the College Park City Council. The positives of Madison had an influence on his eventual decision to move to College Park and his vision for the city.

“When Dave and I were talking about where we wanted to live in the area, one reason why College Park in particular was attractive to us was because we saw it had potential to have some of those things,” Wojahn said.

While on the council, Wojahn was an advocate for projects in downtown College Park, such as the new city hall building, which District Three Councilmember John Rigg said made Wojahn a kindred spirit.

“It really made me appreciate how then-councilmember Wojahn was willing to take a wider view of city affairs and not simply listen to the loudest voices in his own district,” Rigg said.

In 2015, Wojahn won the mayoral election against fellow council member Denise Mitchell. Following the election, his work shifted from being an advocate for a specific district to forming a consensus among council members and listening to the entire community, even if there are challenges along the way.

The inclusive community Wojahn has promoted was on full display during his 2017 and 2019 mayoral campaigns, in which he ran against Lalzarliani Malsawma, a candidate who made openly homophobic remarks which residents responded to by walking out as she spoke during a debate. Wojahn said that seeing that reaction showed that the community wouldn’t tolerate those kinds of remarks.

“The amount of support that I saw coming from people in the community was really, really just heartwarming to me,” Wojahn said. “I didn’t really expect the level, the outpouring of support that I got.”

But regardless of what Wojahn is doing, the guiding principles of advocacy and assisting the community follow him.

“Whether I’m in elected office or doing whatever comes next for me, I always want to feel like I’m doing something to help people out,” Wojahn said.

Featured photo courtesy of Patrick Wojahn