"It passed!" shouted Equality Illinois political director Rick Garcia in a phone call from the Bloomington, Ill., City Council Monday night.
After years of lobbying, the downstate city has passed protections for gay men, lesbians and bisexuals in the workplace, housing, public accommodation and financing. Religious and faith-based groups are exempted.
Ald. Jim Finnegan had submitted a measure to not pass the law, and that vote was 4-4. That meant Mayor Judy Markowitz had to cast the tie vote--and she voted against that anti-gay move.
"Oh God, what do I have to do to pass this," she said. "I'm a Jew. When I was a young girl my family bought a home in an area that didn't want Jews. I don't think you know until you are discriminated against, what it feels like to be not wanted and not accepted."
The crowd, which was standing-room only with a majority there in favor of gay rights, went "crazy" after the mayor's comments, Garcia said.
Then Ald. Mike Matejka submitted the vote for passing the bill, and that passed 6-2, according to the Pantagraph newspaper. Former opponents of the bill, Skip Crawford and Tom Whalen, changed their votes during the second vote.
"It is something that I really, really believe in," said Ald. Karen Schmidt.
Earlier this month the Decatur, Ill., City Council overwhelmingly passed a similar ordinance, joining 10 other Illinois cities--including Evanston, Oak Park, Normal and Chicago--that include sexual orientation in local laws. While the Decatur measure included transgendered people, the Bloomington measure did not. Garcia said it was being worked on for five years and some activists did not want to tamper with it for fear of losing the vote.
The Human Relations Commission approved the bill 3-1 in May, and it took this long to make sure the vote would get a hearing before the full City Council, which Mayor Markowitz wanted.
The Pantagraph reported that Ald. Mike Sprague was undecided until he voted in favor of the law Monday. "I know there is going to be a lot of arrows directed at ( the council members ) from both directions," Sprague said. "This is without question the most difficult issue a council will ever face. I think I am the only independent business person here and this has affected me both personally and professionally."
In a letter to the mayor and members of Bloomington, Ill., City Council, a national organization of Roman Catholic nuns had urged the passage of the law.
"As Roman Catholic nuns that passed a resolution in 1974 that 'it is immoral and should be illegal to discriminate against a person because of his or her sexual orientation' we wholeheartedly support the pending Bloomington gay rights ordinance," wrote Dominican Sister Donna Quinn to members of the Bloomington City Council on behalf of the National Coalition of American Nuns ( NCAN ) . "This ordinance is necessary and long overdue."
In a very surprising move, the Pantagraph paper Monday endorsed the gay ordinance. "This is the first time that the Pantagraph has endorsed the legislation, and in fact has traditionally editorialized against it," said Garcia. The paper said the measure is about "tolerating differences."
