Audience members cheered Monday when the Valparaiso City Council passed a controversial human rights ordinance on a split vote.
Mayor Jon Costas told the packed council chambers that the ordinance would protect people from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations based on race, gender, age, disability or sexual identity. It will also protect religious rights and has no criminal penalties, Costas said.
He addressed sexual orientation and gender identity, which had drawn most of the public input since the ordinance, stating that the LGBT community are family, friends and neighbors.
"Sometime communities must have conversations that are uncomfortable but necessary," he said.
The vote, however, was not unanimous. Council members voted 5-2 in passing the ordinance with Mark Murphy, R-3rd, and Trista Hudson, R-at large, voting against.
It was the first time the Council members spoke publicly about the ordinance, having turned all two hours and 30 minutes of a special Thursday meeting to public input. Hundreds of people attended public hearings and meetings this spring sponsored by the city's Human Relations Council as it gauged public perception of the proposal.
Munster joined about 20 other Indiana communities in passing its own human rights ordinance last month.
Murphy said he supported the original proposed ordinance and called for a vote to restore the exemption for businesses with less than 10 people to be exempt on religious beliefs, but only he and Hudson voted for that.
They both voted against the ordinance, Murphy citing the removal of the exemption.
Hudson said she didn't like that the Investigation and Reconciliation Committee could fine people and that arbitration through that committee would be public, possibly stifling complaints from those not publicly open about sexuality or gender.
Robert Cotton, D-2nd, recalled the discrimination he's felt since moving to Valparaiso in 1969 as an 11-year-old, part of the city's first African-American family.
"It's kind of interesting and a poetic justice that I sit here," he said. "We have this opportunity to write the next chapter in Valparaiso's history."
Prior to the vote, Lenore Hoffman, R-4th, said that she heard about fears from both sides, and perhaps the Council could revisit the ordinance in the future to correct any imperfections.
Resident Allison Schuette said outside the chambers that she was elated that all civil rights were recognized but had concerns about those opposed .
Having followed the process as the Human Relations Council developed the ordinance using public input, "I've seen how convicted people are (on both sides)," she said. "Some people in the community are going to be hurt, but as a community, we have to hold that (hurt)."