Nashville Metro Council Passes LGBT Employee Protection Measure

9/16/09-by Paula Brooks
In a 24 to 15 vote, last night the Nashville Metro Council passed a measure guaranteeing that city and county employees in the Music City will not be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

It has been a long haul for the law. First introduced in 2003, it was defeated then after evangelicals and conservatives went ballistic in their opposition and Nashville’s then Vice Mayor cast a tie-breaking vote against the measure in a heated Metro Council meeting.

The road for the equality bill was not an easy one this time either, the local chapters of the Family Action Council and Eagle Forum launched an email campaign warning the ordinance would force people to use courthouse rest rooms in the company of cross dressers, and would require the city to pay for sex-change operations.

Last month in a raucous open session Council member Jim Hodge also said the bill was not needed because gays and lesbians could overcome any discrimination they might encounter simply by not being gay or lesbian anymore.

And even though the Nashville law didn’t address the issue of marriage, last night some of the audience members opposed to the bill wore white stickers with blue figures of a man and a woman holding hands, a symbol supporting marriage only between a man and a woman and said any approval of “deviant behavior” inevitably leads to destruction of family values and the world as we know it.

However despite the room full of seriously divided constitutes, the Metro council voted to pass the measure with practically no discussion.

Councilwoman Megan Barry, the bill’s main sponsor, said the fight was worth the effort.

“I believe that all employees deserve protection, and it’s my responsibility as a council member to make sure that happens,” she said.

The bill will now go to Nashville Mayor Karl Dean for his signature. Dean had previously promised he would sign the bill if it passed.