Cheyenne Council Committee Advances Non-Discrimination Resolution
The Cheyenne City Council is expected to pass a non-discrimination resolution when it meets Monday night.
After roughly three-and-a-half hours of public comment Wednesday night, the City Council's Committee of the Whole voted 5 to 1 to move the resolution forward.
"I was set on it to start with," said Councilman Mike Luna, who cast the lone 'no' vote. "After all the stuff I heard, common sense took over I guess."
Luna says three basic things influenced his vote.
"I think it should be at a state or a federal level that they take care of this," said Luna. "There are already laws in place against discrimination and we're helping out one group of people, but then it turns out we're kind of discriminating against another group of people."
Luna said if a landlord kicked a lesbian couple out for not paying their rent, for example, the couple could argue they were kicked out because of their sexual orientation.
"That's taking away the rights of landlords, bosses at work and business owners," said Luna. "They can't get rid of people that are non-productive if they are gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual or whatever."
"I have no problem with these people, but you can't protect somebody and then not protect somebody else," Luna added. "That's just how I look at it, but maybe I'm looking at it wrong."
Council members Bryan Cook, Richard Johnson, Scott Roybal, Jeff White and Annette Williams are sponsoring the resolution. Councilmen Jim Brown and Dr. Mark Rinne were not present at Wednesday night's meeting.
"I'm not sure how Jim Brown and Mark Rinne will vote, but I'm pretty sure it'll pass," said Luna.