Mayor's vote clashes with community standards

Last Tuesday, the Asheville City Council voted 4-2 in favor of further examining the issues surrounding the extension of benefits to city employees in same-sex partnerships.

Although the right decision, there is very little chance city employees involved in same-sex relationships will ever receive the same benefits of married heterosexual city workers due to Mayor Terry Bellamy’s opposition to the idea.

At the council meeting, Bellamy said, “I’m not going to support the motion. I’m not going to support it now and I’m not going to support it when the information comes back.”

That is not the right attitude, and Bellamy’s refusal to even consider the idea is unacceptable, particularly for Asheville.

The only so-called benefit homosexual city employees have now is the city cannot fire employees for their sexual orientation.

City employees involved in same-sex relationships enjoy no other benefits they can share with their partners or their children.

Bellamy easily won re-election last year, most likely with the votes of several homosexual individuals. With her “no” vote, she betrayed them, regardless of whether they are city employees or not.

To suggest the families of those in homosexual relationships do not deserve the same benefits as other city employees is both an affront to the way that person lives and an affront to them as human beings.

Bellamy’s mayoral actions have otherwise been progressive and socially conscious, particularly with her focus on housing reform.

But apparently her conscience does not include all of society. Otherwise she would support the measure.

Councilman Jan Davis also voted against the motion. He said extending benefits to same-sex couples would be too costly in the current economy, and the city lacks the funding to provide the benefits.

It is hard to say whether that is true, but at least Davis makes a reasonable argument. However, it might also be an excuse for a personal agenda. Bellamy gave no reason other than to say health insurance should not be politicized.

And Bellamy is right. Health insurance should not be a political issue. However, neither should benefits for employees and their families.

A person’s sexual orientation should never be a political issue. But it is. It always has been and will continue to be because that is just the kind of nation we live in.

If the mayor does not believe health insurance is a political issue, perhaps she should turn on the television to witness just how much health insurance involves politics.

That does not make it right, but it is also reality.

It would be wonderful if the city council did not have to vote to extend benefits to homosexual city employees, and instead, benefits were given to every city employee and their families.

Unfortunately, it is a political issue and it requires people to actually stand up for what is right and act upon it.

Many consider Asheville to be a progressive oasis in a desert of a not-so-progressive area of the state. In fact, the magazine The Advocate recently named Asheville the No. 12 most gay-friendly city in America. The city also has more homosexuals per capita than most large cities in the United States.

Whether or not the mayor or anybody else in Asheville likes it, gay people play a big role in making Asheville the city it is.

It is because of the welcoming attitude Asheville has previously portrayed that so many homosexual people live and visit here.

There are currently six jurisdictions in North Carolina that provide benefits for same-sex domestic partnerships, including the cities of Durham and Greensboro and the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Asheville needs to be added to that group if the city wants to continue to tout itself as gay-friendly and progressive.

http://www.thebluebanner.net/mayor-s-vote-clashes-with-community-standards-1.1162671