The Salt Lake Tribune
Chamber: Statewide anti-discrimination law good for business
By Robert Gehrke
The Salt Lake Tribune
First published Jan 19 2012 01:16PM
Updated Jan 20, 2012 11:48AM
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/53334031-90/anti-business-community-discrimination.html.csp (http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/53334031-90/anti-business-community-discrimination.html.csp)
Salt Lake business leaders are calling for a statewide law banning hiring and housing discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgender individuals — a move supporters see as a major boost for a bill that has languished in the conservative Legislature.
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cityweekly.net%2Futah%2Fcss%2Fdesign%2Fnew%2Fcitylogo.png&hash=233b4200b35db69107a2b9c19a9669a89a504056)
LGBT Non-Discrimination Bill Squashed
by Eric PetersonPosted // 2012-02-03
http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/blog-7059-lgbt-non-discrimination-bill-squashed.html (http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/blog-7059-lgbt-non-discrimination-bill-squashed.html)
Sen. Ben McAdams, D-Salt Lake City, faced a tough committee as he pitched his bill to extend workplace and housing non-discrimination protections to all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Utahns statewide. The Senate Government Operations Committee included five Republicans and one Democrat. Even Gayle Ruzicka, president of the conservative Eagle Forum, sat in a committee chair. Since she arrived late to the hearing and couldn't find a seat in the audience, members of the committee allowed her to sit in a chair at the dais.
ksl.com
Committee halts bill combating discrimination of LGBT communities
By Mike Anderson | February 3rd, 2012 @ 5:31pm
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=19111246&s_cid=rss-148 (http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=19111246&s_cid=rss-148)
SALT LAKE CITY -- A Senate Committee shot down a bill that would have created a state-wide anti-discrimination law.
Senator Ben McAdams, who sponsored the bill, says the gay and transgendered community needs protection against discrimination where they work and live. But Senate committee's concerns over employer rights put the brakes on the plan.
Fourteen cities across Utah have adopted similar anti- discrimination ordinances and according to McAdams, they're working. People crowded the Senate committee chambers demanding equality for the Gay and Transgendered community.
Quote"As a matter of business, I don't see the connection between homosexuality and a vibrant economy," Mero said. "And if there is a connection for some unfathomable reason, money isn't the measure of everything.
This is an important issue and hopefully it will become a widespread talking point.
The connection between business and any restrictions on any lifestyle are that it presents limits upon business. More importantly, by a considerable margin, when some people are treated as second class becuase of an otherwise irrelevant distinction, that limits innovation.
The reason we choose business over any religion as the basis for policy is that it it the benchmark by which the majority can agree. That is, what earns them a living and provides them with goods and services. Such restrictions as may be necessary, selling guns or drugs for example, can be applied on a case by case basis, where social need is greater.
Capitalism is such a simple idea. But it can only work when we all accept the each individual must have an equal opportunity. Race, private life, personal beliefs, these all have no part in capitalism.
Sadly, it seems the real intentions of these religious extremists is becoming more and more apparent. They are and always have been, anti-American, anti-democracy, anti-liberal.