City Councils Passes First Reading of Anti-Discrimination Ordinance

Before the vote, Councilman Chris Anderson expressed his confidence it would pass.

"If this passes on first read tonight which I believe it will, it will be up for a vote again next week and then within 14 days it will be the law and discrimination based on sexual orientation, ethnic origin and gender identity will no longer be legal for city employees," said Anderson.

The ordinance is controversial because some of those who oppose it believe the bill isn’t protecting the privacy rights of individuals, for example if a man who identifies himself as a woman uses a woman’s restroom owned by the city… Is he protected from harassment?

"The very question was posed to the city attorney Wade Hinton. ‘Will this ordinance allow a man who feels like he’s a woman today to go into a woman’s restroom and use those facilities while women are in there and the answer was yes it will’," said Mark West who opposes the ordinance.

Another concern was the protection for those who express their religious beliefs state that homosexuality is a sin.

An amendment was added by Anderson to spell out protection of religious freedom of expression for those people if it doesn’t infringe on anyone’s rights.

"This week I’ve sent an amended version to council that takes in a lot of the council’s concerns that we’re expressed last week," said Anderson. "They wanted definitions, they wanted some changes to the wording. I’ve now made those changes and I feel comfortable the majority of the council finds this acceptable."

And Tuesday night in city council, the first reading of the vote was indeed passed.

"We’re very proud of what the council accomplished tonight in passing the ordinance unanimously," said Chris Sanders who is the executive director of Tennessee Equality Project.