ELKHART — Elkhart City Council President Brian Thomas backs the notion of an executive order protecting the civil rights of gay and transgender city employees.
Mayor Dick Moore, meanwhile, didn’t respond to a query on the idea. Moreover, it remains unclear if the comprehensive overhaul of the city’s human relations ordinance — sought by Moore after pulling an earlier proposal to add LGBT protections to the law — will contain language protecting gay and transgender people.
“Maybe or maybe not,” Moore said in an email Tuesday, Aug. 18, on the question. “I have nothing more to say until I get it back. Will then look at it and make my decision.”
Moore in April proposed expanding civil protections in the city to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, defending them against discrimination on the job, in housing and in public places. However, the measure generated strong opposition from social conservatives, who bombarded Elkhart City Council members with phone calls and emails, and Moore pulled the proposal.
Instead, the mayor said he would pursue the overhaul of the human relations ordinance, where the LGBT provisions were to have been inserted. Initially, he said the overhaul would be completed as early as mid-August, but in the email Tuesday he offered no end date for the effort.
“It has been sent to the Human Relations Commission and I have no timeline,” Moore said. The Human Relations Commission is tasked with investigating discrimination complaints.