Posted on 08/04/2010 8:45:56 PM PDT by TeachableMoment
SOUTH BEND, Indiana, August 3, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- After hours of heated debate before a standing-room only crowd of about 200 people, the South Bend Common Council voted 5-4 late on July 26 to table a proposed ordinance that could have forced employers to hire homosexuals.
Advocates of the bill said that it simply extended existing laws against discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
Former Governor Joe Kernan, a former mayor of South Bend, said that the failure to adopt "gay rights" would hurt the city's image and send the message that South Bend is intolerant.
But Citizens for Community Values (CCV) Advisory Board Member Fred Everett read a statement by Bishop Dennis Rhodes that the "ordinance is more about validating behavior than it is about protecting rights."
"With this ordinance, homosexual activity is being given special rights and protections--special rights simply on the basis of sexual orientation," Rhodes stated.
"There is a false proposition here that 'what we do is who we are,'" said Patrick Mangan, executive director of CVV of Indiana, addressing the argument that voting against the bill meant that one hated gay people. "And that if we reject a person's bad behavior, we are rejecting them as a person."
"It is absolutely right that we reject bad behavior but love the person and help them overcome and get free from the bad behavior," he continued. "That is precisely how we love our children!"
Swing vote Karen White said that the language was too vague. She says she has not decided if she will support the proposal if it comes for a vote again.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...
What a bunch of garbage. Gays and lesbians are amongst the higher socio-economic levels in the nation.
And the idiocy continues to spread throughout this country.....this nation is utterly fraked. =.=
I know someone who is pro-homosexual right from this area. He told me even his local church pastor is pro-homosexual.
Not surprising to me. Lived here in South Bend a few years now and find that the people and the town are pretty liberal. Especially the politics.
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