http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=1250318In Manhattan, Kansas, city commissioners have passed a controversial "anti-discrimination" ordinance creating a special protected class for the sexually confused. The move has many Christian leaders dismayed at the direction of their rural Kansas town.
After hours of debate, city commissioners -- in a 3-2 vote at 1:38 a.m. Wednesday morning -- approved the first reading amending the city's discrimination ordinance. Commissioners Jayme Morris-Hardeman and Jim Sherow and Mayor Bruce Snead supported the ordinance, while Commissioners Loren Pepperd and Bob Strawn opposed it. (See earlier article)
Kansas Family Policy Council director Donna Lippoldt attended the meeting. She shares her reaction to the vote.
"I'm absolutely stunned to think that the city of Manhattan would pass this ordinance at the first reading...with so many loose ends," says Lippoldt. "It was obvious that they had no idea how they were going to implement this. They [also] had no definition of [the ordinance's phrase] 'gender identity' -- even the city attorney was just begging them for some help for wording."
Donna Lippoldt (KFPC)And, she adds, for clarification defining the differences between men and women, an issue that has been at the heart of the debate. Lesbian, "gay," bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) proponents want to keep the definition open, allowing individuals to define their gender themselves -- even it is opposite of their physical attributes.
Kansas State University is providing an office on its campus in Manhattan for the LGBT group. Lippoldt says many alumni and parents will be disturbed to learn the university's support of such a measure.
"I don't think that the rest of the people in the state have any idea that they're sending their children to a university that has [endorsed] the gay agenda -- and [that] they just want more and more people to come who have this lifestyle," laments the family advocate. "It was very, very disappointing."
A vote by city commissioners on the second reading has been postponed until sometime in January.