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Grand Island city council rejects LGBT discrimination law
2 votes for; 8 against. Grand Island City Council members rejected the proposed city ordinance at their meeting Tuesday night.
The proposed law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation was very similar to the one passed in Omaha; as well as the one passed, then repealed, in Lincoln. More than a dozen people spoke at Tuesday night's meeting on both sides of the resolution. One person who spoke in favor of the law said he was fired in another state because of his sexual orientation. Others said it's not the city council's job to vote on moral issues. "It's about my right. It's about my equality to have equal treatment, access to all facilities. Your job is to create laws; it's not to affect my ethics, my morals. This is an issue that is not about morality, but equality. It's about what I can and can not do under a constitution given to me." "I also come before you as a Pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church here in Grand Island and with a cooperative parish of United Methodist Churches here in Grand Island. I come to you saying that perhaps from my own perspective, considering my own tradition, my own reading of scripture, my own gift of reason as I experience God's work in this world that for me, this is a moral issue." Council members first attempted to let voters decide the issue. But, after a 5 to 5 tie, Mayor Jay Vavricek refused to cast the deciding vote citing a conflict of interest based on the mayoral recall effort. The next motion was to postpone the vote for 30 days to redraft the law. That motion failed 6 to 4. Finally, the law was voted on directly and rejected on that 8 to 2 vote. |
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