HOLLAND, MI (WHTC News) - Supporters of adding sexual preference and gender identity to those protected classes in Holland’s anti-discrimination and equal employment municipal policies won’t go to the people to get their way.
Instead of circulating a referendum petition that would either force City Council to pass an ordinance amendment or put the matter up for a public vote, the tack that Interfaith Congregation Chaplain Bill Freeman took on Monday is similar to that of the pro-gay rights group Holland is Ready is taking – place continual pressure on City Council until the panel changes its vote. Last month, five of the nine members voted against an amendment, even though the issue was unanimously recommended by the city’s Human Relations Commission.
While Freeman continued to refer to a saying first coined by James Madison, “Majority Rules, but Minority Rights” in saying that “you don’t ask the majority to vote for the rights of the minority,” some observers say that the unwillingness to undertake a referendum petition effort could be as much a financial and timing issue as it is a strategy issue. At least 1310 valid signatures would have had to be obtained by mid-August and verified in order for the matter to be on the November ballot, and the Midland-based American Family Association’s political arm, the Michigan Campaign for Families, is already on record as opposing the proposal. Gary Glenn has already stated his group would work to defeat Councilmen Jay Peters, Dave Hoekstra and Bob Vande Vusse, three of the four yes votes up for reelection, in the November elections; MCF was successful in defeating William Baillargeon in the 2008 Allegan County Circuit Court race, but was unsuccessful in Baillargeon’s 2010 District Court effort.
