In June, Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed’s office unveiled plans to create a law to protect LGBTQ residents from discrimination.
However, the move to ban discrimination against LGBTQ people in Montgomery has expanded into a wider non-discrimination ordinance, and it’s being delayed by pushback that city officials blame on misinformation, Montgomery Advertiser reported.
According to the mayor’s office, the ordinance would ban discrimination based on “real or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, marital status, familial status, or veteran status.” Specifically, it would make it illegal to discriminate against any of those groups in the areas of public accommodation, housing, employment, and in all city practices, including contracting.
In August, members of the public were allowed to address the council on non-agenda items for the first time since March 2020. Multiple speakers have lobbied against the ordinance. Matt Clark of the conservative Alabama Center for Law and Liberty warned the council that voting for the ordinance would force their Christian residents to become criminals because their faith would require them to break the non-discrimination law.
In a recent op-ed, Clark wrote, “Because it defines gender identity as “the actual or perceived gender-related identity, expression, appearance, or mannerisms, or other gender-related characteristics of an individual,” an establishment cannot question whether an individual is actually transgender if that person merely expresses, appears, or acts that way. Consequently, to gain access to women’s restrooms, locker rooms, or showers, a sexual predator will merely have to act like he is transgender. For all its claims about wanting to protect the weak, liberalism is alarmingly willing to subject women and children to severe trauma.”
Reed said the ordinance remains a priority and that he hopes it will pass.
“It’s important to make sure we’re in line with our principles and values that we say we profess as the birthplace of the civil rights movement,” Reed stated. “We also want to make sure that we’re doing things in the fashion of the new Montgomery that we want to be. That means making sure that we consider and pass ordinances like this that are not only integral to the quality of place that we have right now, but the quality of the city that we want to become.”
