Fayetteville, AR Passes Trans Inclusive Rights Law!

Good news coming out of Fayetteville, AR last night.

In the reverse of what happened last December no thanks to the Duggars, the citizens of that city passed Ordinance 5781!

“Today the people of Fayetteville voted for acceptance over fear and showed that cities can ensure religious freedom while protecting the rights of each and every citizen,"  the Northwest Arkansas Center for Equality said in a statement. "People from all walks of life chose to lead Fayetteville and Arkansas toward a more inclusive future. History will remember this as a proud moment when businesses, religious leaders and everyday citizens worked together to unite our community, grow our economy and finally move Fayetteville forward.

Wooo Pig Sooie!   According to the final but unofficial results from the Washington County Election Commission, the vote was  7,666 in favor,  6,860 against  with 29% of  the electorate voting in this special election.

And unlike last time, the Duggars noses weren't in Fayetteville human rights business since they have their own problems they have to deal with besides hating on trans people .

Hope we in Houston can report similar good news in November

Fayetteville, AR Passes New Civil Rights Protection Law

Was wondering if in the wake of the exposure of the Duggar hypocrisy, that Fayetteville, AR would revisit the marrow repeal of the previous TBLG inclusive law and work on passing a new one.

They have and did.

After almost four hours of discussion last night that favorably commented on it by a 32-20 margin, ,Fayetteville City Council members voted 6-2 to pass the Uniform Civil Rights Protection Ordinance and send it to the voters for a September 8 special election.   The new ordinance won't go into effect until it passes at the ballot box.

Work on the new ordinance started immediately after the controversial repeal vote in December that featured Michelle Duggar's transphobic robocall.  The new ordinance incorporates several existing laws like the Arkansas Anti-Bullying Act and the Fair Housing Act. It also borrows language from the Arkansas Civil Rights Act of 1993, which defines “employer” as a person who employs nine or more employees in the state.

Besides the citizens that spoke favorably for it, it also has the support of one of the groups who initially worked to defeat the original law, the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce.

If passed, the new law will prohibit business owners and landlords from firing or evicting someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. It will also provide protections for use of public accommodations, including restrooms.  

City Attorney Kit Williams believes that he can defend it, despite the passage of Act 37, the deceptively named  Intrastate Commerce Improvement Act .  It bans cities and counties from enacting or enforcing “an ordinance, resolution, rule or policy that creates a protected classification or prohibits discrimination on a basis not contained in state law.”

And as usual (boo hiss)  Churches, religious schools, daycare facilities and religious organizations of any kind are exempt from it.

We'll have to stay tuned to see what the next chapter brings in terms of whether this stays on Fayetteville's law books. 

Because Fayetteville is the home of the University of Arkansas, not having a human rights law on the books is bad for business and recruiting, especially with the Razorbacks being  a member of the SEC, I'm betting it will.

Eureka Springs Votes To Keep Trans Inclusive Non Discrimination Ordinance

Last night was election night in Eureka Springs, AR  and it resulted in another loss for the Forces of Intolerance.

The Eureka Springs City Council unanimously and quickly passed Ordinance 2223 on February 9,  a non-discrimination ordinance that covers gender identity and sexual orientation in advance of the GOP controlled Arkansas Legislature passing the unjust Act 137 law that bans local jurisdictions from doing so that takes effect July 20..

Ordinance 2223 prohibits discrimination against anyone in Eureka Springs based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and provides anti-discrimination protection in employment, housing and public accommodations.

Eureka Springs wanted that ordinance in effect so they would have standing in a court challenge to Act 137.   However the local haters, including former Chamber of Commerce President Mike Bishop some clergy and AR State Rep. Bob Ballinger (R) who filed Act 137 in response to  Ordinance 2223, wanted it to die. 

So they dusted off the Conservative Noise Machine, their debunked trans predator lies and set out to repeat in Eureka Springs what they had done in Fayetteville and overturn a passed non-discrimination ordinance.   However, the fear and smear campaign in Eureka Springs ran into a huge PR problem when Rev. Acra Lee Turner,  the kneegrow spokesellout they were using to bear false witness for the repeal effort was revealed to have been convicted of sexual assault in Oklahoma.

The karmic wheel also turned on Mike Bishop, who was fired from the presidency of the local chamber of commerce for getting politically involved in encouraging the repeal of Ordinance 2223 without board approval

Yesterday the repeal referendum election happened, and by a nearly 3-1 margin, the people of Eureka Springs voted to keep their ordinance 579-231.

“This is historic, this is so exciting, historic not just for Eureka Springs but for all of Arkansas,” Mayor Butch Berry said to the Eureka Springs Independent  on receiving the tally. “We’re part of this! The feelings of joy here at campaign headquarters are contagious. It reminds me of when Bill Clinton was elected the first time.”

Lamont Richie-Roberson, the Carroll County JP who crafted the ordinance, was also happy about the positive outcome.

“We won! I’m blown away by the margin. It’s almost three-to-one.” Richie-Roberson said he thought the reason the margin was so significant was because the For 2223 camp ran a positive campaign and got people to the polls. “This validates the Eureka Springs welcome sign,” he said.

It also sends the message around the world that Eureka Springs doesn't discriminate.

Arkansas Anti-TBLG Rights Spokesperson Turns Out To Be Sexual Predator

One of the tactics in the opposition tool box is what is called projection.   You take an undesirable behavior of yours and project it onto your opponent whether they are guilty of it or not.

One of the things our right wing opponents have been beating like a drum in the opposition to LGBT inclusive human rights laws is the widely discredited trans bathroom predator meme, when the reality is the bathroom predators predominately are white males who aren't getting dressed in drag to enter bathrooms to prey upon women.    The conservafools doing the loudest squawking about it usually are the ones engaged in the predatory behavior they ascribe to others.

We have our latest example of right wing projection tactics blowing up in their face in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.     Eureka Springs on February 9 passed a non discrimination law covering BTLG people that a coalition of conservative businessmen and pastors are trying to overturn in a May 12 referendum , and they are employing heaping helpings of lies and faith based transphobia to do so.

Turns out that one of their spokeskneegrows, 60 year old pastor Acra Lee Turner, who has been loudly bearing false witness against the local LGBT community, is living in a glass house of his own.

Turner, who since April 15 has been pastor of Penn Memorial Baptist Church in Eureka Springs,  was revealed by the Arkansas Times to be a convicted sex offender. 

As a 22 year old, the was convicted in 1977 of sexual assault in Stephens County, Oklahoma and sentenced to three concurrent sentences of 30-60 for three counts of rape.   One of the people he sexually assaulted was an 80 year old woman who was beaten so badly she was almost unrecognizable.

He was paroled in August 2000 over the objections of the families who were victimized by Turner.  His crimes also predate the establishment of the Oklahoma State Sex Offender Registry.

Turner has also been pimping the lie the anti-HERO ministers tried to push here in Houston until I and other Black LGBT Houstonians gleefully had fun destroying it in several hearings, that  LGBT civil rights are not a human rights issue.

No LGBT person says Turner, "has been lynched, no one has to sit on the back of the bus. It's not a human rights issue, it's a human behavior issue."

Two words for you homes on the LGBT human rights issue:  Bayard Rustin.   Coretta Scott King also has stated numerous times along with countless others in our community including myself and the federal government that LGBT rights ARE an international human rights issue. 

And you're the last one that needs to be talking about human behavioral issues.

As for the tired lynching line, try telling that BS talking point to Matthew Shepard's family.  Or reciting it to Paul Broussard's family.  Or try uttering it to the families of the hundreds of transpeople who have been murdered because of the anti-trans hate you and your TERF allies have been spreading.  

While the haters haven't been hanging LGBT peeps from trees, far too many of us are getting murdered, and when it comes to trans people, they disproportionately look like us.. Bottom line is that you are hypocritically being played by white conservatives who don't give a rats anus about your Black convicted sexual predator behind to oppose a human rights law.

And you and your friends aren't Christians, you're the purveyors of the 'dry as dust' religion that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr warned us about.