UPDATE:Â There was a fantastic story tonight online of the Argus about the openness of city councilor Greg Neitzert;
Greg Neitzert has been the City Council’s most vocal critic of a pair of failed proposals to expand city anti-discrimination laws for LGBT people.
His willingness to listen to a different point of view, though, won him praise Tuesday night before the controversial votes.
Sioux Falls city councilors have been reluctant to talk publicly about whether or not they think transgender people should be included in local anti-discrimination rules.
Neitzert has expressed concerns about the impact on private businesses, landlords and religious organizations, but a Sioux Falls transgender women lauded him for his compassion and thoughtfulness.
“Greg is the most open-minded person I’ve ever seen on Council. All y’all other ones never reached out to me,†Sierra Broussard said Tuesday at Carnegie Town Hall.
She said in the weeks leading up to this week’s controversial decision to indefinitely delay measures to bolster the city’s anti-discrimination rules, she sought dialogue with all eight city councilors. Neitzert was the lone councilor to spend time speaking with her.
As I told people while campaigning for Greg, he has a high level of integrity combined with intelligence. Two thumbs up!
The Sioux Falls city council pulled the (poorly drafted) ordinance tonight. When you have an actual transgender show up to the meeting and say it is poorly written, what more can you say?
Do I support anti-discrimation language being added to our city ordinances? Sure. But with everything transformational it must be vetted and an education process must be had. I felt sorry for the city council tonight, they were put in a crappy corner.
I told a person after the meeting that if you put each councilor in a room individually, and asked them to define transgender, they would all give a different answer.
Doing the right thing takes time folks, that’s why gay marriage and eventually marijuana legalization nationwide took as long as it did. We need to have people understand something before we can get them to go along with it. Forcing the city council to approve something they don’t understand isn’t fair to them or the community, or quite frankly fair to transgenders.
These things take time, to work through our courts and the halls of government. Let it be vetted fully, then we can truly celebrate diversity and equality. I love activism and free speech, but sometimes you have to know when to keep your mouth shut, it may just work in your favor.
l3wis 