By Hunter Hines
Christian Action League
January 13, 2016
CHARLOTTE – Most people remember the little girl, the late Heather O’Rourke, in the movie “Poltergeist.” In the popular horror flick, evil spirits invaded a suburban home. The marketing campaign for the film’s sequel had O’Rourke saying, “They’re baaaaack!”
“It appears the same evil spirits that invaded Charlotte with an LGBT ordinance last year, but were defeated, well, they’re baaaaack,” said Dr. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League.
According to MeckPAC, a local LGBT Political Action Committee, the Charlotte City Council has tentatively scheduled a vote for what Matt Comer, an LGBT activist is calling “a package of LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination ordinances.” The vote is expected to be taken on Monday, February 8th. A public forum on the issue is planned a week before the vote, Monday, February 1st, by the Charlotte Community Relations Committee and Community Building Initiative at the Palmer Building on East 7th Street.
Comer says the ordinances will “add sexual orientation and gender identity, among other characteristics, to ordinances barring discrimination in public accommodations, passenger vehicles for hire and city contractors.”
The Charlotte City Council voted down a similar proposal last year by one vote.
In a letter dated February 27, 2015, a group of pastors, business leaders, and statewide organizations, asked the City Council to Vote “NO” on the proposed ordinance, saying it sought to address a problem that didn’t exist.
“Charlotte is already a tolerant city where people of different beliefs, religions, and sexual preferences work peacefully with one another. But this ordinance will create unnecessary tensions, lawsuits and violate the Constitutional protections of all Charlotteans, including heterosexuals, homosexuals and transgendered,” said the letter.
In a recent communique to its supporters the North Carolina Family Policy Council argued that if the current proposal is anything like the last one, “it would be the most far-reaching ordinance of its kind in North Carolina and could set a precedent that would encourage other cities and counties across the state to consider similar measures.”
The dangerous ordinance would negatively impact the City of Charlotte in the following ways:
- It will force businesses in Charlotte to provide goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages and accommodations to promote messages or ideas contrary to their conscience or sincerely held religious beliefs about human sexuality.
- It will prohibit the City from entering into contracts with any business that chooses not to employ persons whose sexual behavior is an affront to their morality.
- It will violate the safety of women and children by forcing people to share restrooms, locker rooms, and showers with people of the opposite gender.
- It will authorize individuals or parties to file a lawsuit seeking monetary damages and other penalties against any business for allegedly violating the ordinance.
The Charlotte Business Journal reported last month that Rep. Dan Bishop (R-Mecklenburg) said that he hopes to speak with the city’s new mayor, Jennifer Roberts, before its put before the council. Bishop said the ordinance was “an extraordinarily divisive thing” and “opposed by an overwhelming majority of Charlotteans.”
Bishop told the Journal, “I hope cooler heads will prevail, and they’ll decide not to go down this path.”
Dr. Creech said the churches of Charlotte needed to band together to make their voices heard against any such proposed ordinance.
“The ordinance is a direct attack on religious liberty. It essentially creates an advantaged class of people based on their sexual behaviors and a disadvantaged class of folks based on their religious beliefs,” said Dr. Creech.
Dr. Creech added that no one could know with absolute certainty, but he felt that if the City of Charlotte passed the ordinance, the North Carolina General Assembly would likely undo it with legislation in the short session.
“If that happens, then I don’t think we will be hearing, ‘They’re baaaack,’ again anytime soon,” he said.