Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyDecember 22nd, 2010
Grand County, Utah, home to Moab and the Arches National Park, has now passed an ordinance that protects its 9,000 or so residents from sexual orientation and sexual identity discrimination in housing and employment. (SL Tribune)
That means one in four Utahns, living in 10 communities from Moab to Logan, are protected from discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Advocates for the statutes hope that groundswell of support will push the Utah Legislature to protect all Utahns.
With this decision, Equality Utah has reached its goal of ten new municipalities banning discrimination.
Salt Lake County followed Salt Lake City’s lead, and Equality Utah launched an effort, dubbed “Ten in 2010,” to increase the list to 10 by the end of this year. Grand County expedited the ordinances to ensure passage before the new year.
They are hoping to capitalize on the momentum and encourage the state legislature to ban discrimination state wide. As yet, this seems to be more of a grand hope than an achievable goal. However, much depends on the public stances of the Mormon Church, whose support secured the bill in Salt Lake City
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cowboy
December 23rd, 2010
Except you have the ultra-right wingers (closely tied to the tea-baggers) in control of the Utah legislature. They’re clearly not representative of the majority of centric-minded Mormons. The makeup of our legislature is a product of a manipulative and opportunists who know how our political system works (or does not work) and a flawed delegate-caucus methodology.
That’s how our senior and influential Senator Bennett was ousted in our primary election and these small groups of influential people voted for a radical ultra-conservative Mike Lee who, by the way, is even nuttier than our Senator Chaffetz.
So…when we get to where this next legislature session gets to really working on critical issues (economy, schools and budget) they will spend an inordinate amount of time with dealing with us…the gays. (sigh) I’m not looking forward to 2011.
It seems futile to even try to contact and talk with these virulent anti-gay (yes, they’re Mormon) members of my legislature.
And, they’re not a true representation of the majority of Utahns.
Maybe we need another pronouncement from the Mormon Church to be “tolerant and respectful”? Yeah…that outta do it…(/snark)
I wonder if Italy has the same problem with radical Catholics?
jeff
December 23rd, 2010
Hey Cowboy, I think we’ve got the same problem in the other 49 states as well. What aggravates the hell out of me is that we can’t seem to fix it.
Timothy Kincaid
December 24th, 2010
Our current two-party primary election system tends to result in extremists on both sides being over-represented in state legislatures. Those who win primaries seldom share the values of the less-partisan, less-extreme, less-purist citizens who make up the majority.
Soren456
December 24th, 2010
Just a question about the ordinance itself:
Doesn’t it include public accommodations (restaurants, motels)?
Most gay-rights ordinances are not stand-alone, but are amendments to existing civil rights ordinances. Did they exclude this aspect?
Timothy (TRiG)
December 28th, 2010
I don’t see extremists on both sides. I see right-wingers and extremist right-wingers. There are almost no left-wingers in American politics. A change away from FPTP to a form of Proportional Representation would probably help (we use the STV method in Ireland, but there are others). It might get more extremists into office, but the overall makeup should be a bit more centrist. Certainly it would help to get minority parties some recognition.
TRiG.
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