CAMPUS PROGRESS — With national legislation stalled, LGBT rights advance at local level

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CAMPUS PROGRESS
“Young people working for progressive change”
Washington, D.C.
August 1, 2011

With national legislation stalled,
LGBT rights advance at local level

by Sam Menefee-Libey with Zach Duffy

…Not all campaigns for the ordinances have been successful. On June 15, the City Council of Holland, Mich., rejected a proposed inclusion of gender identity and sexual orientation in the city’s equal employment opportunity policy by a 5-4 vote. Intense lobbying by the American Family Association, a national anti-gay organization, preceded the vote.
In a letter to the Holland City Council, AFA Michigan President Gary Glenn compared homosexuality to a smoking addiction and claimed that passage of the ordinance would itself discriminate against the Boy Scouts, Catholic Charities, and the Salvation Army. Those organizations currently refuse services to LGBT Americans under religious objections. Glenn cited as an example Philadelphia’s decision to evict a local Boy Scout troop from offices in a city park. But in that case, Philadelphia taxpayers were effectively subsidizing the troop’s rejection of LGBT scouts to the tune of $200,000 a year, as they had previously occupied those offices rent-free.

The AFA has pledged financial support to any candidates who run against the four councilors who cast votes for the Holland ordinance. Two challengers have already filed petitions.

http://campusprogress.org/articles/with_national_legislation_stalled_lgbt_rights_advance_at_local_level/
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