With Support of LDS Church, SLC Council Unanimously Approves Nondiscrimination Ordinances

11.10.2009 by Jeff Robinson

(KCPW News) The Salt Lake City Council unanimously approved a pair of nondiscrimination ordinances yesterday with the support of an unlikely ally – the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  The ordinances will make discrimination against gay and transgender residents illegal in housing and in employment.  Michael Otterson, director of public affairs for the church, addressed the council Tuesday evening.

“The Church supports these ordinances because they are fair and reasonable and do not do violence to the institution of marriage,” he said.

Otterson emphasized that the LDS Church is still committed to the principle that marriage is between a man and a woman.  But he said the church believes in “treating others with respect, even when we disagree, in fact especially when we disagree.”

Otterson also praised the fact that the ordinances include an exemption for religious organizations.

“In drafting these ordinances, the city has granted common-sense rights that should be available to everyone, while safeguarding the crucial rights of religious organizations; for example, in the hiring of people whose lives are in harmony with their tenets, or when providing housing to their university students and others that preserve religious requirements,” said Otterson.

Public comments on the ordinances lasted for more than an hour.  Council members then spoke passionately in favor of them, before unanimously approving the nondiscrimination ordinances to a roar of applause.