Supporters rally around Vietnamese American City Council member who was called ‘un-American’

A Georgia community is rallying around a Vietnamese American City Council member after a colleague said she was “un-American” and “failed as a citizen of this country” for backing a petition for multilingual voting ballots during city-level elections.

Dozens of residents of Morrow, which is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area, and neighboring cities filled the room during the council’s meeting Tuesday to support council member Van Tran and denounce the comments made by council member Dorothy Dean in a previous session.

Tran, who has been a council member in Morrow for four years, spent the last four months advocating during meetings for Spanish and Vietnamese voting ballots. Her colleagues vocally opposed the idea in April, adding that interpreters were already available at polling sites. As Tran continued to advocate for the ballots, earlier this month Dean approached the podium and accused Tran of dishonoring “the oaths” she took as an American citizen.