There are only 5 days left to send comments to the Kalamazoo City Commission about the anti-discrimination proposal that would expand protection against discrimination to gay and transgender people. They've gotten an ear full from homophobic religious extremists from all over Michigan telling them they'll all burn in hell if they give "special rights" to "these people."
Imagine this rhetoric with race substituted for sexuality. It takes you back to a time we don't want to return to — ever. You can read more about the proposal (and hear for yourself the hate speech from religious extremists) on the City of Kalamazoo's website.
You have until midnight March 26th to contact the City Commission's Hotline at (269) 552-6089 or email your comments to questions@kalamazoocity.org. You might also want to email each commissioner. I understand the religious groups are. You can find commissioners emails on their profile pages. Commissioners are listed in the column on the right. Click a name to get to the profile and a link to their email address.
P.S. I just found this great video on You Tube. A friend had it posted on his Facebook page. It pretty much says it all.
America Day
10 years ago
It's really a shame that a supposidly progressive city like Kalamazoo is discriminatory against its gay citizens. I sure hope this passes.
ReplyDeleteHonest to G-d -
ReplyDeleteEveryone now looks at segregation and says "Oh, I wouldn't have been like that".
And YET there are so many people who are proud, proud, proud to be discriminating against gay people.
I honestly think it's an intelligence thing, I really do.
Drives me CRAZY.
Yay to you for getting the word out.
There was someone outside the Wal when I took my break a few months ago, with a petition against the initiative. They told me that if the initiative passes, it will allow men to use women's locker rooms, which is a safety issue.
ReplyDeleteUmmmmm.... noooo....
I got a great deal of satisfaction telling the individual who approached me "thanks for the offer, but I support the proposal" and getting a disgusted look in return. I'm also really going to enjoy firing off some emails to some commissioners. Thanks for the link!
Actually Hilarywho, the City offered benefits to same sex partners up until the B.S. gay marriage ban was approved by voters in 2004 (mainly because voters were confused). At that point, our (expletive deleted) Commissioner Balkema raised a stink about it after the Supreme Court ruled "An amendment to the state constitution approved by voters in 2004 to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman also prohibits public employers from providing health care and other benefits to the same sex partners of employees, a divided Michigan Supreme Court ruled today."
ReplyDeleteBUT — the citizens protested, so the city decided to cover all domestic partners. Not sure how they got around it, but they did.
Recently the city extended current anti-discrimination laws to include gay and transgender people. And, once again, now County Treasurer Balkema rears her ugly head — and brought in a state extremist group to pound the commission into withdrawing it.
She and her followers are freaks. If they put it to a vote, the citizens of Kalamazoo WOULD approve it!