COLUMBUS, Ohio – From Indiana to Arkansas to Bexley, the debate over discrimination against gays and lesbians has taken center stage.
Activists are planning a rally outside Bexley City Hall Tuesday in support of a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance. The event will feature speakers from Stonewall Columbus and Wenited Wenited.org, an organization that tries to mobilize members of the so-called “millennial generation.”
It comes as Indiana and Arkansas legislatures pass controversial “religious freedom” legislation critics say could lead to discrimination against people based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
READ MORE: In the Columbus Dispatch
In Bexley, the issue began with a huge outcry this month when a videographer said she wouldn’t shoot a same-sex wedding. People were angry at the woman who said no. Others were upset with the couple for making a big deal about it.
The battle has shifted now. The video business has all but disappeared, at least online. The people who wanted to shut it down are heading to City Hall.
“We’re shifting our focus from boycotting to actually doing something,” said Wenited.org Omar Faruk. “We realize, really, to make an impact, we need to change the law.”
Some Bexley city leaders already are working on it. At tonight’s council meeting, members will discuss whether Bexley needs an anti-discrimination ordinance that addresses sexual-orientation and gender identity and expression. Columbus has one, but most of the suburbs have not confronted the issue.
“It’s something that hadn’t come up on our radar before,” said Bexley Mayor Ben Kessler. “To me, it’s a no-brainer.”
Councilwoman Deneese Owen is among those pressing for change. She got to work after she learned that a local business had declined services to a same-sex couple — news she found both disappointing and shocking, especially in Bexley.
“I see our community as fundamentally pretty inclusive and pretty tolerant,” she said.
So she spent the past couple of weeks researching anti-discrimination policies in other cities and digging deeper into the issue. She thinks adopting such an ordinance is the right thing to do, but she said the discussion requires care.
“We’re going to deal with this as thoughtfully and thoroughly as possible,” she said.
RELATED: Fight over religious objection proposals shifts to Arkansas
Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act doesn’t mention gays or lesbians, but critics say it could legalize discrimination and it has drawn fire from civil rights organizations, business leaders, even the Indiana-based NCAA, whose men’s basketball Final Four takes place in Indianapolis this weekend.
The measure, which takes effect July 1, prohibits state and local laws that “substantially burden” a person’s ability to follow his or her religious beliefs.
Republican legislative leaders in Indiana say the law may be tweaked to make it clear that it doesn’t allow discrimination against gays and lesbians.
Arkansas lawmakers passed similar legislation last week, the 20th state to do so, and Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said he supports it, though he has not signed it into law yet.