EDITORIAL: City Commission should support anti-discrimination ordinance
City Commission has the opportunity to join in the fight against discrimination, and it should jump at the chance.
More than 150 people attended Monday's City Commission meeting to hear a formal presentation on a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance.
Spectrum — a Central Michigan University registered student organization representing the LGBTQ community — and the Student Government Association were among the CMU groups to back the measure.
The ordinance, intended to protect the basic rights individuals are guaranteed to live freely in their pursuit of happiness in all Mount Pleasant facilities and businesses, is long overdue.
Mount Pleasant is behind much of Michigan as the only college town without any protection like this. Rejecting the plan would inevitably be seen as an attempt to remain in a less-enlightened period of our history.
Commissioners can, in one stroke, do something not only great for the city, but also for students from both CMU and Mid Michigan Community College.
Although business owners have the right to control the atmosphere of their establishments, discrimination against individuals who differ from their preferred worldview is unacceptable. One should have the right to be with their significant other publicly in businesses, no matter their gender or race, without fear of being either harassed or asked to leave.
Residents should not have to feel anxious about embracing or holding hands with their partners just because their relationship is in a minority, just like they shouldn't have to worry about where they go because of the color of their skin.
Individual rights only end where another individual's begin, and people deserve to not be discriminated against for irrelevant reasons, and the approval of this proposal by the City Commission would help ensure those rights.
This is not 1955. Senseless discrimination is not acceptable anywhere, no matter the opinions of its proprietors.
As a community, Mount Pleasant could use this directive to focus on acceptance.
