1:43 Early Wednesday Afternoon (19 May 2010)

A Small Victory

Our little city held a city council meeting last night that included a public hearing for an anti-discrimination ordinance. The ordinance was going to prohibit landlords and employers from refusing rental to, evicting, refusing hiring for a job to, or firing someone based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. They set aside 40 minutes for concerned citizens of our city to speak their mind for about a minute each, alternating "for" and "against." They ran out of "against"s halfway through, though, so the rest of the time was spent on local people who needed to share why they were for the ordinance.

after the 40 minute allotment for locals' speeches, there was a 20 minute time period for non-residents to speak their piece. There were 5 people from a city about 2 hours away that came up as part of a hate group called "America Forever" to speak their piece, about how the homosexual agenda is harming children and will turn children gay? and that this ordinance would oppress religious people? Anyway, no one took them seriously and at one point the moderator on the city council actually asked one of them to leave the chamber for refusing to speak about the ordinance itself. It was a little repulsive, actually, I guess I have never seen such blatant hatred and ignorance in person before. Aside from these 5 people, however, the rest of the non-residents speaking about the ordinance were for it.

At the end of the hour given to those speaking for or against the ordinance, the city council voted on the ordinance and passed it, with 4 "for" votes and 1 councilman refrained from voting (I guess he didn't want to look like an asshole for voting against it?).

Anyway it was a beautiful moment - the audience in the council chambers gave the councilmen and women a standing ovation. When our small, conservative town dominated by conservative religions can be progressive enough to recognize that homosexual and transgendered individuals are people worth protecting like anyone else, you know that the rest of the fight for civil rights has hope.

It was a long over-due, but welcome ordinance. Logan, I applaud you.