MEDINA, Ohio -- City Council voted to pass its LGBTQ Inclusive Nondiscrimination Legislation through its Finance Committee, but not without changes and input from several lawyers and concerns voiced by the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland.
The vote was 5-2, with Council Representatives Paul Rose and Bob Starcher voting against the ordinance.
Kevin Burke, general counsel for the diocese, said the church is not opposed to the ordinance, but says that without changes, it opens the door to discrimination against expressing religion.
Ben Chojnacki, a lawyer from Walter Haverfield who is assisting with the writing of the ordinance, assured council that the ordinance has been rewritten several times and that both the diocese and Equality Ohio had been in contact with the law firm to address concerns.
Chojnacki said he believed the ordinance would address as many concerns as it could, but that this type of legislation is fairly new and hasn’t been tested yet in the courts.
“Generally speaking, this is the cutting edge of the law,” Chojnacki said.
Burke said the changes made to the ordinance passed at the meeting Monday night (June 24) are a step in the right direction, but that the legislation still needs more changes to protect religious freedom. He said the diocese has not had a chance to vet the ordinance, since it only found out about it last week.
Burke said it was unfair that the city had been working with Equality Ohio for months on the ordinance, but that the diocese was not contacted and asked if it had concerns.
Council Representative Bill Lamb addressed Burke’s concern, saying the legislation had been discussed publicly for a year before the diocese contacted the city.
While the ordinance is not perfect, Council Representative Eric Heffinger said that waiting for a perfect ordinance would delay the measure indefinitely, and that he supports the current version.
“If you wait for everything to be perfect, it will never actually be done,” Heffinger said.
Starcher said the ordinance was the right thing to do, but also said that the issue would be handled better by state or federal lawmakers, instead of Medina.
“Is it the right thing to do right now?” Starcher asked.
Council Representative Dennie Simpson agreed that the issue would be better handled by the state or federal system, but that he doubts either will pass legislation on the issue soon.
He also said he had received letters throughout the week from local religious organizations supporting the ordinance, which furthered his decision to vote for the legislation.
“It was encouraging that a lot of religious organizations in the community were supportive,” Simpson said.
Council President John Coyne said that passing the ordinance through the Finance Committee now sends it to the full council in two weeks, giving the city time to revisit the ordinance if larger problems are found. Voting for it at Finance would keep the legislation moving.
“We have to move forward,” Coyne said. “Otherwise, we’ll never get this done.”
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