quote:
1. Yes it does give special rights. Employment protection and housing protection are already included in the current law. This addition allows for criminal charges to be filed. So discriminate against an ethnic group and face civil charges...but discriminate against a gay and face criminal charges. Yep no special rights here.

Furthermore, why should a religious organization or private school, daycare, etc...be forced to hire people that don't align with their beliefs? If you have kids, would you be ok with their daycare being forced to allow gay people to work there. Cause I sure as hell wouldn't.

You are really uninformed. The ordinance protects all people from discrimination, not just LGBT people. Here's text from the actual ordinance:

The purpose of this chapter is to protect and safeguard the right and opportunity of all persons to be free from discrimination based on real or perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, familial status, marital status, socioeconomic background, religion, sexual orientation, disability and veteran status. This chapter's purpose is also to promote the public health and welfare of all persons who live or work in the City of Fayetteville and to ensure that all persons within the City have equal access to employment, housing, and public accommodations.

As you can see, the ordinance does not grant special rights or protections to any particular group of citizens. It protects all citizens equally, and the penalty for discriminating on the basis of either ethnicity or sexual orientation is the same. You are absolutely wrong on this point, and I hope you learn to inform yourself before judging the value of such legislation.

You ask, why is this law even needed if these people are already protected? Because they aren't! There is no law at the federal or state level (in Arkansas) that extends civil rights protections to people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. That's why the law is necessary.

As for your second point, the ordinance also explicitly states that it does not require religious institutions to employ people for non-secular positions if they do not conform to the institution's religious or denominational principles.

You should read the ordinance before you post anything else about it.

This post was edited on 12/12/14 at 12:01 pm