The Ghost of Anita Bryant in Kalamazoo?

by Michael Jones · 2008-12-12 09:33:00 UTC
Topics:

Anita BryantAnd all this time I thought rescinding citywide gay rights measures was so 1970s...

Earlier this month, the Kalamazoo (Michigan) city council voted 7-0 to adopt an anti-discrimination ordinance that would expand the city's efforts to fight discrimination based on sexual orientation by making it a civil infraction to discriminate against the LGBT community in housing, public accommodations and employment.  The measure was initiated by the Kalamazoo Alliance for Equality.

The measure means that landlords can't refuse to rent to LGBT citizens, or that contractors who do business with the city must agree not to fire people because they might be LGBT.  Not much wrong with that, right?

Well, of course, unless you're the American Family Association of Michigan (AFAM).  They think the Kalamazoo ordinance actually discriminates against people who think homosexuality is wrong. WTF?!  But I'm not making this up.  Here's the President of the AFAM, Gary Glenn:

Experience proves that in other jurisdictions, ordinances like this have been used to discriminate against and penalize people who believe homosexual behavior is wrong.

Blah.  Glenn doesn't give an example of how this is true, of course.  But that's not stopping the AFAM from trying to gather 1,300 signatures of Kalamazoo residents by December 31, to place a measure on the 2009 ballot that would repeal this ordinance.

Glenn cites similar efforts that were undertaken successfully in the Michigan city of Hamtramck, where Catholic and Muslim groups were mobilized to rescind a pro-gay rights ordinance.

So maybe Gary Glenn is the new Anita Bryant.  And as much as I'd love to see a pie thrown in his face, I'd much rather see the citizens of Kalamazoo reject this silly attempt to punish LGBT people.  There's reason to be hopeful that Kalamazoo voters are better than Gary Glenn hopes them to be.  Kalamazoo voters have supported two previous gay-rights election issues, including one measure addressing same-sex benefits, and another measure opposing Michigan's constitutional ban on gay marriage.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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