[Vision2020] Stop at Tolerance

[Tom Hansen]

"'I don’t feel that it’s necessary to include special-interest groups, 
because I don’t know where it would stop,' he [Councilman Wayne Krauss] 
said."

That's right, Visionaires.  One of our very own elected council members, 
Wayne Krauss, considers trans-gendered people to be a "special-interest 
group".

Note to Councilor Krauss:  Trans-gendered people are NOT a special-
interest group.  Now, "arrogant, ignorant, self-serving elected officials" 
couild be the very description of a local special interest group.  Dontcha 
think?  Or dontcha think?

Courtesy of today's (March 6, 2009) UI Argonaut.

------------------------------------------------

Stop at tolerance      
Written by Christina Lords - Argonaut     
 
Members of the Moscow City Council missed an opportunity for equality 
Monday night. The council rejected a resolution that would have added 
gender expression, or people who are transgendered, to the city’s equal 
opportunity statement. Many people continue to ask about issues like 
this, “If we allow this group of people in, where does it end?” 

Indeed, Council Member Wayne Krauss did just that.

“I don’t feel that it’s necessary to include special-interest groups, 
because I don’t know where it would stop,” he said.

PETA is a special-interest group. The National Rifle Association is a 
special-interest group. Greenpeace is a special-interest group. 

Transgendered people are exactly that — people. And as such, they are 
entitled to protection from their government from discrimination. 
Comparing a human being’s right to equality to the interests of groups 
like PETA and the NRA is insulting to anyone who values an open community 
and tolerance.

The resolution also met resistance from the Idaho Values Alliance. 
Executive Director Bryan Fischer said resolutions like the one before the 
council “intimidate, repress and punish advocates of normal sexuality.”

But the term “transgendered” means something far different than a person’s 
sexual orientation. Transgendered people diverge from gender roles 
associated with a person’s biological sex — an idea fundamentally 
different than that of sexual orientation. They choose to associate with a 
different gender identity.

This misinformation only perpetuates a cycle of undue discrimination and 
misunderstanding.

Mayor Nancy Chaney and Council Member Tom Lamar should be praised for 
their support of the resolution.

By not including gender expression in the statement, the rest of council 
effectively discriminated against a group of people who should have a 
right to protection. Without safeguards such as the inclusion of 
transgendered people in equal opportunity statements, intolerance and 
prejudice will forever be a part of this and other communities.

What Krauss, Fischer and similar thinkers seem to forget is where 
resolutions like this “should stop” is when our society learns to accept 
people for their merit, character and contributions to this community, not 
discriminatory judgments based on our supposedly “unacceptable” 
differences.  

------------------------------------------------

Seeya at the Intolerista Wingding, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"For a lapsed Lutheran born-again Buddhist pan-Humanist Universalist 
Unitarian Wiccan Agnostic like myself there's really no reason ever to go 
to work."

- Roy Zimmerman


---------------------------------------------
This message was sent by First Step Internet.
           http://www.fsr.com/