The Haters Came Out In Droves

The “call to action” was spread throughout the right-wing social networks in Ohio.

The dreaded “bathroom” bill was being heard… only it wasn’t.

Parade of Ignorant Idiots Show Up to Cuyahoga County Council to Oppose LGBTQ+ Protection Ordinance
Cleveland Scene
By BJ Colangelo
September 13, 2018

Cuyahoga County Council is currently considering a charter amendment and an ordinance to protect LGBTQ+ residents and county employees from discrimination.

Current protections for Cuyahoga County include race, color, religion, military status, national origin, disability, age, ancestry and gender. The ordinance would add sexual orientation and gender identification to that list.

Six cities in Cuyahoga County already have these protections, covering 43 percent of county residents; the ordinance would move that number to 100.

Equality Ohio learned ahead of last night's meeting that anti-LGBTQ+ extremists were planning on attending the meeting to bombard council members with opposition to the ordinance, despite the fact a vote on this ordinance was not even scheduled.

Well they didn’t let the little fact that it wasn’t on the agenda stop them from spewing their hate after all they travelled from all over the county to spread their hate.

At one point, a community member said that offering these protections to LGBTQ+ members would be the same as "protecting murderers." (Cleveland, incidentally, is responsible for 1/7th of the transgender murders nationwide in 2018 alone and the trans community is targeted for violence at an epidemic rate.)

Another claimed that elevating people's identity to a place of "rights" is a "violation of others' rights." Many misunderstood the ordinance as some sort of bathroom bill.

As expected, there were plenty that saw this legislation as an attack on religious freedoms, and many saw passing legislation that will have legitimately zero personal impact on them as an attack on their rights.

And of course we were mentioned…

The final speaker referred to the ordinance as an "alternative lifestyle ordinance," again perpetuating an unfounded narrative that LGBTQ+ people are actively choosing to live this way, compared transgender women to pedophiles and then complained that there weren't as many people at a previous meeting about "killing babies," confusing just about everyone there.

We will not change their minds and we shouldn’t try but rather concentrate on those people that we can change their minds.

We also must come out and testify at hearings we cannot their bigotry go unchecked. We also have to not let any “Letter-to-the-Editor” go unchallenged.

In Massachusetts the haters got on the ballot a question to repeal public accommodations, Freedom Massachusetts is fighting to keep our protections. If you want to help visit their website, "Yes on 3".