To our council and lawmakers: It's time to move past the past

William Faulkner summed up the South well in Requiem for a Nun.

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

We haven't been able to let go of slavery and the Civil War for 150 years, so what makes anyone think our so-called leaders will go quietly on any other change - including same-sex marriage?

They're showing their disdain for rainbows again this week.

The Chattanooga City Council's conservative members put the brakes on an ordinance to protect gay and lesbian employees.

Meanwhile, Tennessee lawmakers who whined some months ago about the governor calling a special session for a vote on his negotiated waiver with the federal government to help our working poor afford health insurance under a Tennessee version of the Affordable Care Act, on Tuesday met frantically in Nashville to contemplate calling a special session to fire up a states-led movement to amend the U.S. Constitution. They want to gut the Supreme Court's gay marriage ruling or at least consider proposed laws on "pastor protection."

In the end, state lawmakers reached no consensus on a special session, and instead got some lessons on what Tennessee law already does: Namely it already protects pastors and apparently others from interference with "rights of conscience," according to former state Sen. David Fowler, R-Signal Mountain, who now is president of the religious conservative Family Action Council of Tennessee and an attorney in Nashville.

It important to note, however, that Tennessee law does not - repeat, not - protect sexual orientation and gender identification, according to lawmakers. In fact, a law passed several years ago bars local governments from enacting such ordinances, the lawmakers were reminded. Sounds like another legal challenge in the making, doesn't it?

Meanwhile, Chattanooga is trying for the second time to do just that - pass an anti-discrimination ordinance to protect gay and lesbian Chattanooga employees. The proposal would prohibit city workers from harassing their colleagues based on sexual orientation or gender identity. And it would keep the city from denying someone a job based on those factors, much as city ordinances already protect against discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity and political affiliation. Hamilton County, Nashville, Knoxville and Memphis already have sexual orientation anti-discrimination language in their policies.

Never mind recent polls that show a majority of Americans back same-sex marriage in principle and also back the Supreme Court's ruling, local tea party leaders and conservative council members said the delay was needed to make sure the ordinance "was worded correctly."

Those same tea party leaders months ago worked to see a previous anti-discrimination and same-sex partner benefits ordinance repealed. In the circus atmosphere of Tuesday's council meeting, local preacher Charlie Wysong, who also led efforts to overturn the previous same-sex benefits ordinance, urged delay in departing "from God's law."

The foot-dragging in both government bodies is blatantly bigoted.

Same-sex marriage is now the law of the land, as are anti-discrimination laws and ordinances pertaining to gender and race.

Further, we've all heard too many preachers and pontificators use the Bible and its verses as excuses for inequality and for discrimination, not just against gays but in decades past also against blacks and women.

It's time for the nation - and especially time for the South - to finally turn the page to make a better future instead of constantly rereading, reinterpreting and misinterpreting the chapters of our past.