LGBT Community Reacts After Controversial City Council Vote
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CHARLOTTE, NC – The fight is not over. That’s the message from the LGBT community in Charlotte following Monday night’s controversial city council vote.Β
The council voted 6-5 rejecting amendments that would have put gender identity and sexual orientation under protected classes in the city’s non-discrimination ordinance.
24 hours later, supporters are regrouping.Β Members of the Charlotte Anti-Discrimination Ordinance Coalition met Tuesday night to discuss a plan to put more pressure on city council members who voted against LGBT protections in the city’s Anti-Discrimination Ordinance.
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“What I’ve been telling our folks today is this is not a setback at all. It’s just a pause. A momentary pause and we’re ready and able to move forward,β said Scott Bishop, chair of the Mecklenburg Political Action Committee.
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Bishop is part of Charlotte’s Non-Discrimination Ordinance Coalition.
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Advocates say there are talks about addressing this in the upcoming election.
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“We’ll be evaluating candidates as they file this summer and we’ll be making probably hopefully stronger recommendations about who we want our community to vote for,” said Bishop.
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More than 200 local governments have passed protections similar to the one Charlotte rejected, including Raleigh, Winston-Salem, Myrtle Beach and Charleston.
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Bishops says North Carolina lawmakers should take up this issue.
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That hasn’t helped in states like Arkansas, which passed a law last week that keeps cities or counties from overstepping state discrimination laws. Some say the existing laws don’t protect the LGBT community.
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Similar bills in Texas and West Virginia are not getting enough support to move through.
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Out of the nation’s top 20 largest cities, Charlotte is one of only four that does not have a similar ordinance similar to the one city council rejected Monday night.Β
