03-26-12 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING MARCH 26, 2012 Larry Gates, 20885 Decatur Street, Cassopolis, Michigan, stated that he was born and raised here in South Bend, graduated from Riley High School, 30 years in the automotive business here in South Bend and the near area. He stated that he is the owner of Gates Services, and pre-owned sales on the Corner of Lafayette and Western Avenue in downtown South Bend, also Gates Body Shop and Gates Toyota on Ireland Road south of town. Mr. Gates stated that he firmly believes that Bill 9-12 would have an adverse affect on his family business here in South Bend and more importantly on the overall economic community here. The ordinance if passed would put pressure on his company for fear of reprisal by activists and others to hire people who #1 might not feel are qualified for the job; #2 are not people that they would chose to represent us to the public because they do not meet the moral criteria we adhere to for hiring. A criteria based on personal beliefs and what they know to be the general profile of their customer base. An example might be a man who dresses as a woman wanting to apply for an auto sales position. Bill No. 9-12 would put his company in a position of having to consider hiring people not qualified for the position and hiring those in their judgment do not represent them to public in an appropriate manner. As for the overall economic effect how can South Bend attract and keep new business in this type of an environment. At best Bill No. 9-12 would be a deterrent. He urged the Council to think long and hard about the negative effects of this bill on local business. Jan Torma, 901 Euclid, South Bend, Indiana, a registered nurse, presented evidence of the medical and psychological harms of homo-sexuality. Tom Uebbing, 1737 Brookmede, South Bend, Indiana, Chairperson of the Citizens for Community Values of Indiana No Special Rights Task Force, stated that “everything the other side has said about all this sounds great except for one thing – the hidden and unspoken premise that homosexual activity is good and harmless. False premises lead to false conclusions.” Mr. Uebbing quoted Pope Benedict XVI, who as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1992 said “the recognition of homosexuality as a factor on which basis it is illegal to discriminate can easily lead, if not automatically, to legislative protection and promotion of homosexuality. He stated that this is all the more deleterious since there is no right to homosexuality, which should therefore not form the basis of judicial claims. He cited cases of indoctrination of children in California, Massachusetts, Canada and in Spain. Joe Sergio, 1919 S. Michigan, South Bend, Indiana, stated that he came here tonight with several pages of notes and after listening to everybody and observing and had a very interesting conversation with one of the ladies who presented on behalf of this ordinance earlier this evening asked him “after hearing this what are you concerned about.” Mr. Sergio said that a number of things strike him, one is going back to hearing members of the GLBT community already saying that they have five (5) of your votes ahead of time before you were elected into office and then celebrating after you were elected makes him very concerned that those Councilmember’s are not very objective about hearing the facts. He stated that he was concerned about the way that they are set up here disappointed at the format of this public hearing, that there are not multiple hearings. So that as they hear information we can try to get facts instead of getting a series of emotional presentations so they can get information. He stated that he is concerned about hearing things from Dr. Pittman, he is a psychologist himself, he has a Master’s Degree in clinical, a PhD from Notre Dame in Organizational Behavior Management, he stated that he is not licensed, he is an entrepreneur, trying to create jobs in the community, but has enough knowledge and has published in national journals to see most of what is being submitted is social sciences heavy on social with no science. The methodology is very flawed. He stated that he spent his entire presentation multiple years ago responding to the twenty-five cases that she brought in and said that they were collected over an eight year period if he recalled. He stated that he is not prepared to go through those in detail but if there would be another hearing he would be prepared to do that. There were people in those cases that weren’t even in our community, not even in our state, many of them did not have any evidence nor did they claim to have any evidence of discrimination. But now they are submitted here again without any time to peruse to say that these are facts 22