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REGULAR MEETING JULY, 10, 2006
<br />getting the public policy right matters. He has spent 25 years of his life reaching out to
<br />people all around the world. He has spent a great deal of time with those who struggle
<br />with homosexuality. He stated that he has aided many people in coming to know
<br />freedom from that struggle, through Christ and through their faith. He has personally
<br />engaged with individuals who have suffered through AIDS, who wish to God, that they
<br />had never taken the first step. He stated that he can with full conscience and full honesty
<br />and complete passion, come here tonight and say Bill 29-06 is not a pro-homosexual
<br />ordinance. Because if the Council were to pass it, and to affirm the behaviors there will
<br />be people, many of the people, perhaps some of the people in the room tonight who will
<br />die, because of the dangerous practices associated with homosexuality in the GLBT
<br />lifestyle. He too has fought the Civil Rights battles, he came to high school in the middle
<br />of race riots. He noted that he has raised over $30 million dollars for charity in this
<br />community for people of all races. He was the first to recruit and hire minorities and
<br />women in the United Way and promote their participation, some of whom are in the room
<br />tonight. He stated that he serves on the board of the Urban League, and frankly, it is hard
<br />for him to talk in terms of color because he doesn’t see it that way. He noted that
<br />wherever his goes, he feels at home in whether in China, Haiti or the West Side, North
<br />Side, South Side, or the Northeast Side, whether in the suburbs or whether in the inner
<br />city. He has one of the same views as one of the sponsors of this bill. Mr. Mangan stated
<br />that he and Roland have had many conversations over the years and Roland has told him
<br />directly that he is opposed to discrimination in all of its forms, and will be until the day
<br />he dies. Mr. Mangan stated that so does he.This is not an issue that is based on race, it
<br />is not based on an immutable quality, that distinction, that needs to be understood. The
<br />attorneys need to address the legal ramifications, but the Courts have never recognized
<br />sexual practices as the basis of a special class and in particular what is being brought
<br />before the Council now, because it fails every test. It is not immutable, it’s changeable, it
<br />choose able, it’s repairable. There is no united common charateristic that unites this
<br />class. Mr. Mangan referred to the young doctor who spoke earlier, with eloquence about
<br />religion being a choice, she was a great speaker. But the Supreme Court considers
<br />religion a faith choice sacred because the founders made it immutable in the first
<br />amendment of the constitution and that is why the two are different. What is being talked
<br />about now, it that taking immutable legal rights and applying them to changeable sexual
<br />preferences, sexual orientations, sexual practices. The definitions that we would have to
<br />use to defined these sexual practices, these classes could not be read in a High School
<br />civics lesson. The newspaper could not print those definitions. Now, there are
<br />individuals in the Community who passionately believe that they are right, they
<br />desperately want the Council to put into law, that what they are doing in okay. They
<br />want to be affirmed by being agreed with. There are many who love each and every
<br />person in the room and don’t need to affirm their behavior to demonstrate that love.
<br />Their personhood can be affirmed by speaking the truth in love, by lovingly opposing
<br />their behavior, even though they have for the time being identified that behavior as being
<br />their true identity. When it is simply a part of their behavior pattern and could change
<br />and does change for thousands of individuals. 25% of adolescents think at one point or
<br />another that they might be homosexual, because of their awkwardness in dealing with
<br />persons of the opposite sex. By the time they reach 22 years of age, 75% of that group no
<br />longer have any thought that they are homosexual. There will be more discussion tonight
<br />about the medical problems, biological problems, the destruction of parts of the body,
<br />serious deadly sexually transmitted diseases, citing the centers for disease control in
<br />study after study, the information is in the binders that were passed out. A book could be
<br />produced from every tab in the binder passed out to the Council and it would not contain
<br />all of the information that is there documenting the harms of this lifestyle. Mr. Mangan
<br />stated that his heart goes out to every single person that has stood at the microphone and
<br />who has aimed their frustration, anger, an animosity at him or at the good people who
<br />have waited for hours and politely listened while waiting for their opportunity to speak.
<br />He stated that his heart goes out to them, because he feels that their pain is real, even
<br />though their conclusions are false. He stated that his heart goes out to them because the
<br />one thing that they want to hear is the one thing that cannot, must not say and that
<br />homosexual’s sexual are equal, are healthy or are good. That makes this circumstances
<br />entirely different than dealing with issues of race, religion and ethnic background. If you
<br />ask all of the citizens in the State of Indiana, do you want homosexuals and GLBT’s to be
<br />treated fairly, nine out of ten would say yes. This is evidence that we do not need this
<br />ordinance. But, if you ask that same group of people if they want the weight of law to
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