Getting Rid Of The Weeds

As most gardeners who live in temperate climates know, every year about this time, after flowers and vegetables have begun to take root, small weeds often begin to appear. Sure, we can always till the soil, turn over the garden, add fertilizer, and even weed killer - but somehow, every year, no matter what, when everything else grows, so too do the weeds.

It's not entirely surprising then, that when our society also tries to grow and become more of what we already claim to be, that the weeds of our society also pop up.

That was definitely the case in Lincoln, Nebraska on Monday, as the City Council there openly debated enacting an expansion of their current ordinance that would broaden the protections to LGBT individuals - that is, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered people.

As Leslie Reed of the Omaha World Herald - who reported the hearing live on her Twitter feed - noted last night, 94 people signed up to testify at the public hearing, and the overwhelming majority of them were in favor of the ordinance. Omaha has had experience with this same expansion of protections, recently adding similar anti-discrimiation language for LGBT individuals, in housing, employment, and public accommodation laws.

As Ms. Reed's reporting made clear, and as similar responses to a comment made by Vice President Biden over the weekend made clear elsewhere in America, while some Americans still want to keep bias and bigotry in the law, most Americans don't really seem to. In our experience, most Americans seem to think people are people, no matter who they're attracted to. As long as people work hard, pay their taxes, don't break the law, and generally act respectful to others, most Americans don't seem to care about a person's sexual preference. Most businesses certainly don't. As one former business owner we know used to say, "As long as their money is green, who cares?"

Those who seem to be against the fairness ordinance Lincoln is trying to pass seem to be those individuals who want to continue to have the right to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation. Sadly, many of those people are members of the clergy, who continually attempt to justify their bigotry by hiding behind theology.

As we noted nearly a year ago, when civil marriage passed in New York state, there is a vast difference between "civil marriage" and "religious marriage." There is also a vast difference between private bigotry and public interaction. When a city or a state makes a law denying bigots, racists, and other intolerant people the right to express their hatred through hiring practices, housing discrimination, or other business dealings, that doesn't mean the hatred itself goes away.

Like spraying for weeds in the spring, the underlying hatred, bigotry, and intolerance still remains in those people who are opposed to similar laws.

As we noted last week, this is America - those people have a right to hate whomever they want. If they want to hate, within the walls of their own organizations, on their private property, among their own members, they have the right to do so.

What they don't have a right to do is discriminate when they interact with the people of our cities, states, and nation. They use our public power and water resources, our streets, our telecommunications. They benefit from our system of taxation and property valuation, and our police, fire, and EMT personnel. Even their churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious facilities - all very much private sanctuaries - gain significant benefit from the society we provide for everyone's use.

If we are to claim that "All Men Are Created Equal", or like Nebraska, claim our motto as "Equality Before The Law", then we either have to grow and fully live up to that claim - or admit that we're hypocrites, with no real moral core, whatever religious label we claim to hold.

To us, voting in favor of a fairness amendment, as Omaha City Councilman Ben Gray testified Monday night, is a "no brainer."