What if you signed a petition you didn’t read to oppose a policy you don’t understand?

Read complete ordinance here.

On two occasions now, the people behind a petition drive to throw out Fairmont’s new Human Rights Commission ordinance have been forced to admit – in the newspaper – that they haven’t read (or don’t understand) the ordinance they are opposing or the one it intends to replace. I have to wonder how many signatories read either the ordinance they claim to oppose or the petition they gleefully signed.

Just this week, a representative for Keep Fairmont Safe (KFS) was informed to her apparent surprise that the city’s old ordinance gives the Human Rights Commission the authority to hold hearings and levy fines for violation of its rules. This is the ordinance that was supposed to be repealed and replaced by the new one that KFS opposes.

“We were told that (old) ordinance was never in effect,” the representative said. “I’ll have to look at that again.”

Back on October 12, in another newspaper interview, the same woman claimed that the new ordinance would allow men free access to women’s restrooms because it included the words “public accommodations” in its preamble. Informed that the new ordinance does not include the phrase “public accommodations,” she replied that she “wasn’t aware” of that fact.

“I didn’t read the ordinance that way,” she said. “I’ll have to look at it again.”

Here’s an idea: Instead of making false statements to the public and the press, getting caught and having to backtrack and “look again,” why don’t you sit down in a quiet place and actually read the ordinance you claim to oppose. It's only three pages long. Then read the one it intends to replace, which, by the way, will remain in effect unless it is repealed.  

That way you can stop your out-of-control petition drive long enough to actually find out what the City Council is proposing instead of listening to anti-gay, pro-discrimination religious zealots who descended on Fairmont and filled the air with misrepresentations, twisted logic, distorted facts and outright lies. These are the same kinds of people who want to ban books they haven’t read, boycott movies they haven’t seen and support political candidates whose agendas they don’t understand.

This group is going all out to oppose a policy statement that basically asks citizens of Fairmont to treat every other citizen with dignity and respect. Note that I called it a policy statement and not a law. No one would get arrested for violating the ordinance and it carries no punishment or fines.

Here’s what it actually says:

“It is the public policy of the city to safeguard the right and opportunity of all persons to be free from all forms of discrimination, whether as a result of race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, blindness or handicap, and to provide for an inclusive community for all residents, businesses and visitors. The denial of these rights is contrary to the principles of freedom and equality of opportunity and is destructive to a free and democratic society.”

How can anybody oppose an ordinance that only asks us to treat our neighbors fairly? I can think of only one reason. Do I really have to say the word?