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Amid Threats, Kokomo Council Passes LGBT Rights Ordinance

Stan Jastrzebski
/
WBAA News

The Kokomo City Council has passed an ordinance expanding civil rights protections to the LGBT community.

Monday’s vote was 5-4 – the same as a preliminary tally earlier this month -- and it did not come without some controversy.

Some business owners wanted assurances that the new ordinance would not be used to force them to do something against their conscience or to make them a target for saying no to a gay couple.

And Council member Robert Hayes says at least one of his colleagues received a threat prior to the vote.

"One of our members was basically told 'you'd better vote no or...' and I won't go into the reasons 'or'. He has filed a police report on that," Hayes says. Hayes also says an ordinance opponent approached him and tried to invoke the councilman's own mother in an effort to change Hayes' vote.

"Someone bringing up my dead mother to evoke her spirit -- as if she would be against what I'm doing -- that's hitting below the belt," Hayes says.

Supporters say the new ordinance is necessary, like civil rights protections for African-Americans in the 1960s.

The ordinance has to be signed by Mayor Greg Goodnight before it becomes law, which Goodnight has indicated he plans to do.

Goodnight pushed for the ordinance in this year's State of the City address. If it's signed into law, Kokomo would be the 18th city or town in Indiana (along with some counties) to enact a rule offering the LGBT community protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

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