LGBTQA: Can an Ordinance Make Things Ordinary? Gay Rights are Human Rights
I can’t write this article acting like I’m some huge advocate for LGBTQA because I don’t really involve myself in politics to begin with. Whatever issue someone chooses to become a law or tries to support or hold awareness of, there will always be a portion of people who are unhappy about it; and if we get what we want, we always want more. Politics equals controversy; it may make the world go ‘round, but it certainly causes a lot of commotion.
16WNEP news outlet reported on Monday night, with a close vote of four to three, Bloomsburg town officials voted against an ordinance that would make it illegal for businesses to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation.
A supporter of the ordinance said, “Many members of the Bloomsburg community embrace diversity and desire to carry out the important step of creating an ordinance that would help protect the class of our town that has gone unprotected.”
Another speaker who opposed the ordinance said it, “Lacks constitutional weight both federally and at a state level, being carried along more by emotion than reason.”
Bloomsburg mayor, Sandy Davis, input her opinion, and said “It seems to me that this is a community controversy that cannot be fixed with an ordinance.” There are a quite a few people who wrote about being upset with what Davis had to say.
Some people may not fully agree with her, but in my opinion nothing can ever be fixed through a law or contract, it’s just a piece of paper with words on it that most people follow. Keep in mind how I said “most.”
With that being said, I believe the ordinance would definitely help the community of Bloomsburg feel a bit more comfortable about where they go, but I also think it would not be fully respected if half the people who frown upon the ordinance are made to follow it. It really doesn’t matter what is written on paper. What matters is how people react to it.
For example, let’s say the ordinance that states businesses should not discriminate against another based on sexual orientation passes. LGBTQA may have their right, but who is to say that they will feel 100 percent comfortable upon entering a place they knew used to discriminate.
Let’s go back to the summer of 2014. Over the summer, a same-sex couple was denied business by employees at WW Bridal Boutique because the business owner had different beliefs, spurring this ordinance’s proposal.
With such an ordinance to pass, members of LBTQA would most likely still refuse to shop there knowing of their past refusal to accommodate a same-sex couple.
Laws will always be laws, but we have to start somewhere and this ordinance could be our stepping-stone to a better change. Although some peop
le may not agree with laws, we can only hope that their behavior towards the controversy may change over time. We need change and we need acceptance.
Being a part of the LGBTQA community, I see that there is a very large portion of people in Bloomsburg and across the nation who do a spectacular job helping and supporting this community. LGBTQA has come a long way positively since its creation.
LGBTQA is not just a separate community of people but rather a community of people who are just like every other community. Being of a different sexual orientation should not make us our own kind of person. We are people and we want our rights. Not gay rights or LGBTQA rights, but human rights.
