Go Cleveland, Akron, and Summit County

[netmouse]

Awesome: Last night, Cleveland City Council voted 21 - 0 to protect against discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on gender identity and expression. Akron voted 10 - 2 to do the same based on both sexual orientation and gender identity and Summit County voted 11 - 1 to pass a countywide ordinance protecting against discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Comments

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Good news! The more local jurisdictions that do this (without the sky falling the way the nutters like the "bathroom maniacs" claim it will), the more difficult it will be for the nutters to plausibly claim that chaos will ensue, hordes of men in dresses will start invading women's restrooms, teh scary gayz will demand that all churches be closed forthwith, etc., etc.

Lately, it seems like one of the most popular arguments against non-discrimination ordinances boils down to, "The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, and my religion requires me to discriminate against anyone I don't like for any reason whatsoever, so you're infringing my rights by passing ordinances mandating equality for all." I think a good reply (it will go over their heads, though) is to remind such people that Free Speech (also part of that same First Amendment) is also not actually absolute, such as the famous "crying fire in a crowd" example. You have the right to believe anything you want, but when your actions are harmful to others, it doesn't matter that it's your religion that drives you to be harmful, I think.