Thanks to a petition drive, citizens of Hutchinson, Kansas will apparently have the last word on an ordinance that grants special rights to homosexuals.
Last June, city commissioners passed the ordinance baning discrimination against homosexuals in employment and housing. Then, activists approached commissioners to broaden the language to include protection on the basis of gender identity (see earlier story). Lanny Scholes, music and education minister at First Southern Baptist Church of Hutchinson, says that prompted a citizen-led petition drive for a vote.
"It appears that because of a law like this, if a church was willing to let their church be used for weddings … they would have to allow 'gay weddings' also, even though their church may not believe in that at all," Scholes explains.
Scholes believes the residents of Hutchinson are fair-minded.
"I don't believe that the public wants to harm others that have different beliefs than they do, but for a sector of people to use laws to impose their beliefs on that same public -- I don't think that's right either," he offers.
The Kansas Family Policy Council obtained four times the needed signatures to place the repeal on the November ballot.