Kalamazoo Mi rescinds their anti discrimination ordinance

[Mari333]

KALAMAZOO -- The Kalamazoo City Commission voted unanimously Monday night to repeal its new anti-discrimination ordinance, stopping a citywide referendum on creating a protected class for gay, lesbian and transgender individuals.

Commissioners talked individually over the past week, saying Monday they hoped a cooling-off period would allow for talks to negotiate a middle ground.

Monday's vote means there will be no citywide referendum scheduled on whether to keep the ordinance that banned gender-orientation discrimination in city housing, public accommodations and employment.

But Mayor Bobby Hopewell said he expects another ordinance will be offered.








http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2009/01/city_repeals_gayrights_ordinan.html
reading some of the comments below the article..leads me to hear the same old *&^% homophobia about lifestyles and etc ...usually Kalamazoo is pretty progressive, but it looks like the city council is caving a bit to the religious reicht on this one.

[marmar]

1. I haven't been keeping up with news from that part of the state....Who are the jerks.....

who are making trouble for this ordinance?

[Mari333]

4. the same old people

some of the pastors and their congregations. it said the meeting was split half and half. trying to repeal it based on its wording, saying that being gblt is creating a special class ..and using the same old rhetoric that its a chosen lifestyle, rather then recognizing that people are born that way. all the rhetoric is just disguised homophobia. the city council recognized that the need for an ordinance that protected glbt folks was fine tuning the anti discrimination laws that the state already had in place, but the religious homophobes decided that was too much and want it all removed and reworded or removed altogether..i am really surprised the city caved..they usually dont..i hope this gets a lot of press play and the city gets their shit together.

[Wednesdays]

2. K'zoo itself may be liberal

especially near the colleges, but western Michigan in general is heavily influenced by Old Dutch conservatism.

[Mari333]

5. yes, its a lot of dutch reformed

around here. altho we have some pockets of sanity in some places. Like Saugutuck, for instance. pretty progressive.

[BR_Parkway]

3. Glad their economy is doing so much better than the rest of the state's

so that they've got all this time to focus on these life & death issues. The KKKristian Hate Industry sure seems worried about being washed into oblivion and poverty as more people stop agreeing with their positions - some of them may have to go get actual jobs.