Like Kat, author of yesterday's testimony, Mike is a young adult who spoke in favor of the ordinance. Bent Alaska is happy to report that many Anchorage youth support LGBT equal rights. -Editor
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As a fantastic orator, Mark Hamilton, once said, "Responsibility means that if you have the ability to respond, then you have the responsibility to speak." I will take a moment to remind all present of the words in our great Constitution, "That all persons have the natural right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and are equal and entitled to equal rights, opportunities, and "protection under the law."
The essence of this matter is not what one religion or what one advocacy group feels, but whether We, as Alaskans, can allow inequality to persevere. Denial of the rights of an entire minority is beyond morally reprehensible. It is something I cannot, in good conscience, sit idly by and watch happen in my city.
I want to make it clear: I do not seek to force or push my opinion on others, merely to be free from their persecution against myself, against my brothers and sisters, against our children, and yours.
The protection of a minority from the tyranny of a majority is one issue each and every Alaskan ought to be proud of. I won't ask you for Liberty; I will scream for it, from the mountaintops, from city hall, from the steps of your courtrooms.
I will fight for Liberty because I know better than most that Freedom is not Free, and because it is the American thing to do. I urge you to vote "yes."
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I would like to end with a quote from one of my first letters to the Editor of the ADN, as it is still pertinent today:
The religious right would like to resort to ad-hominem attacks on us and other illogical counters to our arguments. Well, frankly all this religious hoopla has no place in a secular argument; it doesn't matter what your Bible says in a debate over how the laws of our country (or city) ought to be. What matters is right and wrong, and that their oppressive policies and limitations on our God-given freedoms are wrong.
4 comments:
You said, "What matters is right and wrong..." I think it is WRONG to murder a person, be that person black, white, gay, or straight. I think it is EQUALLY wrong; no murder is less wrong than any other. We all deserve equal protection under the Constitution. I totally disagree with the idea that it is worse to murder a black, Hispanic, Asian, or gay person than to murder a white or a straight person. I understand your wish to be free of persecution, but it just annoys me that some crimes are considered worse because of who the victim is. There---got that off my chest. Thanks! : )
Anonymous, I am the one who spoke and let me first say; thank you for speaking your mind. Now as to the equality of Anchorage's laws?
We aren't asking for a hate-crimes bill
We aren't even asking for equivalent civil liberties (marriage)
We are asking for protection from open and existent discrimination in the form of being fired from our jobs, kicked out of our homes, or treated unfairly in financial agreements based soley on who we are.
The same law _already_ applies to Religion, race, age, sex, marital status. This is not a 'special right' it is inherent human rights. This law would not protect people breaking common workplace rules or laws, only people being targeted specifically for their identity.
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