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As I looked over possible things to write about today, a blog entry grabbed my attention concerning the recent same-sex kiss incident in El Paso Texas.

The city of El Paso may try to use this incident to leglaize homosexual marriage.(misspelling in the original quote)

At first I thought it was just pure insanity. Brian Lee, the blogger comes across as pretty conservative bordering on a wingnut,  from his blog and I thought this was just a crackpot assertion. and, I thought he was trying to exploit the recent situation to fan the conservative flames. So, I decided to do a bit of digging.

I called the mayor’s office, but unfortunately he wasn’t in. The mayor and the council were all in a budget meeting. so I emailed a request off to the mayor for comment. But then, I decided to call the El Paso Times. Lee, uses an article they published about the gay kiss within his blog post, and he cites Andrew Kreighbaum as the reporter. Kreighbaum was a pleasure to talk to, and I learned from our chat, as well as from articles in their paper, that there are a few cool things going on there in El Paso!

If you have been following this story, you know that El Paso  already had a nondiscrimination policy, but following the incident, their city council passed a resolution re-affirming their commitment to diversity and tolerance- vote of 8-0. All of this is part of a long heritage of supporting diversity:

Ortega’s resolution cites El Paso’s rich history of promoting tolerance. In 1962, Ortega said, then city Alderman Bert Williams pushed through an ordinance that made El Paso the first city in the former Confederacy to prohibit racial discrimination in hotels, motels, restaurants and theaters. Williams later became mayor. The city also passed a “forward-thinking” ordinance in 2003, Ortega said, that prohibits the refusal of service or accommodation on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or national origin.

Following that path of diversity, a plan was introduced recently to provide domestic partner benefits to same-sex partners and unmarried straight partners of city employees. This may be what Lee is referring to and he doesn’t know the difference between offering benefits and marriage. (That’s my bet) Or it could be, like many wingnuts, Lee sees any legislation that helps gay families and being a stepping stone to gay marriage, a position which is insulting and dismissive. The article on their proposed domestic partnership benefits is a really good read!

I asked the Times reporter, Kreighbaum what he thought, to which he told me he stays away from commentary, and sticks to reporting. Additionally, the El Paso Times  is really covering this story well! I have put a few links here to some of their stories, but there are more as well. I’m really grateful for the level and quality of their coverage. It will be interesting to see if I get a reply from the mayor’s office.

Resources:

Officers to get bias training after Chico’s Tacos

Resolution upholds city discrimination ban

911 tapes give new details on Chico’s Tacos confrontation

El Paso City moves toward offering domestic partner benefits

Here was Lee’s blog post that I started with: brianlee.