South Carolina makes progress in LGBT Civil Rights

Shocking, I know

Good news out of Columbia, South Carolina!

Columbia SC Passes Trans Rights Bill
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: March 5, 2008 - 5:00 pm ET
(Columbia, South Carolina) Columbia, South Carolina on Wednesday became the first municipality in the state to enact laws protecting gays and transgendereds.
City Council voted unanimously to pass the ordinances prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in housing and public accommodations.
“We have passed one of the most comprehensive bills in the country, in one of the most conservative states in the country," said C. Ray Drew, Executive Director of South Carolina Equality, which pressed for the laws. "South Carolina, and states like ours, represents the front lines of our battle for LGBT civil rights in this country.”
The legislation was introduced by council members Daniel Rickenmann and Tameika Isaac Devine. It passed with little debate.
"When we work together and respect each other, we can make Columbia an even better place to live,” Rickenmann and Isaac Devine said in a statement following the vote.
Columbia now joins two other cities in the Deep South that have passed comprehensive anti-discrimination ordinances: New Orleans and Atlanta.
Harriet Hancock, longtime activist and Board Member of the SC Gay and Lesbian Pride Movement, said, “These ordinances represent the single greatest advance in civil rights for the LGBT community in the history of our state.”
Hancock was the architect of a 1991 city ordinance prohibiting discrimination in city employment on the basis of sexual orientation.©365Gay.com 2008