From the South Bend Tribune:
The South Bend Common Council voted Monday to defeat a proposal to ban workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
The vote was 6-3 with council members Tom LaFountain, David Varner, Derek Dieter, Timothy Rouse, Karen White and Henry Davis Jr. opposed.
[…]Explaining his opposition to the proposal, council President Derek Dieter, D-District 1, said afterward, “I just don’t think it’s needed in South Bend.”
Dieter said he had not seen any documentation proving workplace discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people exists, “and I think it (the proposal) would cause more harm than good to small businesses.”
For his part, Patrick Mangan, executive director of the conservative group Citizens for Community Values, praised Dieter and other opponents of the proposal, who he said “stood up to a lot of pressure behind the scenes.”
“I’m pleased the council did the right thing in lovingly opposing special rights for homosexuals,” he said, adding, “And I renew the offer to all those struggling with same-sex attraction to come to freedom and come to wholeness.”
And Indiana wonders why it suffers from such a brain drain. Let me give you a hint: educated, caring people get sick of dealing with the rampant backwards bigotry. Unfortunately that means when you’re electing people, too many of your choices are hateful idiots. Sigh, what a Catch 22.
The fact that this was defeated by an actual elected body exercising its political authority makes this even worse than the bigoted, disgraceful comments by Clint KKKlassy McCance. Indiana is clearly trying to outKKKlass Arkansas.
I’m from South Bend (but have lived in Seattle for 7 years, yay!) so my facebook feed has been full of this story. I’m sad to say that I’m not surprised. This is one of several reasons why I hope I never have to move back there.
Wow… Equal rights are NOT special rights.
I’m leaving Indiana/Ohio first opportunity I get
Patrick Mangan’s statement is soooo freudian…’cum to holeness’Or is that just me?
The thing that gets me is that I don’t see how saying, “you can’t discriminate against homosexuals” is particularly “harmful to business” if this isn’t, “needed in South Bend.” If workplaces *aren’t* discriminating against gays in the workplace, then how will taking away the ability to do so harm those businesses in any way? Does the market take comfort in having the never-exercised ability to fire a lesbian for no other reason than because it’s not nearly as hot as it is on late night premium channels? Is it like when I hunt for apartments and put “must have gym” as a priority in my head, even though I know there’s a distinct possibility that I’ll go regularly for a week and then either exercise at home or watch reruns of Macgyver on the couch, but it’s nice to know the gym is there for my use?
The real scary part is that South Bend is the most liberal part of the state. Our incumbent Democratic (well, maybe DINO) Representative is actually leading his Republican challenger.
Pfft, northwest Indiana, Indianapolis, and Bloomington are for more liberal than South Bend… I’ve never heard anything liberal about South Bend despite living in Indiana for 22 years.
Okay, going by Congressional districts, I’ll agree that the 1st (northwest) and the 7th(Indy) are more liberal than South Bend, but the 2nd does come in third. And I would agree that South Bend isn’t liberal; it’s just more liberal than most of Indiana.
“lovingly opposing special rights for homosexuals” – Lovingly? You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.’Dieter said he had not seen any documentation proving workplace discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people exists, “and I think it (the proposal) would cause more harm than good to small businesses.”‘ – But if it doesn’t exist, then how would it harm small businesses to not do it?
Dieter said he had not seen any documentation proving workplace discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people exists…There’s currently no way for LGBT people to file a complaint because there is no anti-discrimination law for them to appeal with. It’s like he put a bag over her head and said, “Nope, I don’t see any bad people around here.”
“…all those struggling with same-sex attraction to come to freedom and come to wholeness.”Wow. No really, wow.
It is partly a problem of use of language calling for LGBT rights makes it sound like special pleading. The issue in one of people being denied their human rights