Last November, Chattanooga embraced fairness and equality by adding protections for sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression to the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance and offering domestic partnership benefits to city employees.
Unfortunately, immediately following the passage of this measure, a local group petitioned against it, collecting enough signatures for the ordinance to appear on Thursday’s ballot.
While the measure is labeled as the domestic partnership ordinance on the ballot, it is really about so much more.
It is about basic fairness for Chattanooga city employees. Studies show that about a third of lesbian, gay and bisexual Americans have experienced adverse treatment in the workplace because of their sexual orientation, and a shocking 90 percent of transgender Americans have endured work-related harassment or discrimination. People’s ability to earn a living and support their families should be based on their job skills and performance. A person who works hard and does his or her job effectively should not be fired just because he or she is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Chattanooga’s nondiscrimination ordinance will ensure that city employees are treated with basic human dignity and are evaluated fairly.
Government employees deserve assurance that they will be treated equally at work. The absence of such protection for Chattanooga’s LGBT employees challenges our sense of fairness and sends the wrong message to those dedicated public servants. Public servants like Capt. Corliss Cooper, who recently made history when she became the first African-American female captain in the history of the Chattanooga Police Department after serving in law enforcement for decades.