Shelby County Non-Discrimination
Yesterday was an incredible day for the LGBT community of Shelby County. For the first time, the Shelby County Commission debated a fully inclusive, non-discrimination ordinance on behalf of LGBT county employees. During the public hearing, 60 members of the community spoke, including me on behalf of Shelby County’s transgender population. Of that number, 47 spoke in favor, and only 13 against. What is more impressive is the demographic breakdown of the majority. Of those 47 who spoke in favor, 10 were Faith community leaders, 3 from academia, 2 were transgender, with the rest from a wide array of Memphis society, covering all ages, races, educational levels, and sexualities. Even the head of the NAACP of Memphis spoke in support.
In the end, the Commission chose to adopt an alternate resolution proposed by Commissioner Sidney Chism, which bans discriminaiton on “non-merit factors.” Several supporters of the original ordinance spoke about the legislative intent to cover sexual orienation and gender identity or expression, so that employees and supervisors in County offices, attorneys, and judges, would be under no illusions what this means.
The alternate language passed 9 to 4.
We ask all Shelby County residents to write to Commissioner Steve Mulroy at steve.mulroy@shelbycountytn.gov and express your gratitude to him for standing up for equal rights. Then write to the other eight members who supported the alternate resolution:
- Deidre Malone, Chair, deidre.malone@shelbycountytn.gov
- Henri Brooks, henri.brooks@shelbycountytn.gov
- Sidney Chism, sidney.chism@shelbycountytn.gov
- Joe Ford, joe.ford@shelbycountytn.gov
- J.W. Gibson, jw.gibson@shelbycountytn.gov
- James Harvey, james.harvey@shelbycountytn.gov
- Matt Kuhn, matt.kuhn@shelbycountytn.gov
- Mike Ritz, mike.ritz@shelbycountytn.gov
