PETITION TO CITY COUNCIL

July ____, 2016

We, the people - the undersigned residents, employers, employees, and other
interested persons - of the City of Chillicothe, Ohio, do hereby petition and call upon the
members of the Chillicothe City Council to reject and to vote against a proposed
ordinance described as:
AN ORDINANCE ENACTING CHAPTER 516 OF THE CODIFIED
ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF CHILLICOTHE, PROHIBITING AND MAKING
UNLAWFUL CERTAIN DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICES WITHIN THE CITY OF
CHILLICOTHE IN EMPLOYMENT, HOUSING, AND PUBLIC
ACCOMMODATIONS, AND PROVIDING FOR A REMEDIAL PROCEDURE.
The ordinance is flawed and objectionable. It should be defeated for many reasons,
but chief among them are the following:
1. The ordinance offers a solution, and a bad solution at that, to a problem that does
not exist in the City of Chillicothe.
2. The ordinance expands protected categories under existing civil rights laws in
such a way as to violate rights to freedom of speech, freedom of association, and
freedom of conscience and religion, and it interferes with a free market economy.
3. The ordinance seeks to add protection from discrimination for a number of
classifications beyond current civil rights laws. These classifications include sexual
orientation and gender identity, which are unlike most other characteristics protected
in civil rights laws. The federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, for example, bars
discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, and religion. The first four
of these are included largely because they are intrinsic to the individual, are received
involuntarily and are immutable. Skin complexion, ethnicity, and gender cannot be
changed. While sexual attractions may be involuntary, neither homosexual conduct
nor transgender behavior meets any of the other criteria. Religion, while voluntary, is
explicitly protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
4. The ordinance empowers an unaccountable three-member commission to bring
complaints, investigate them, prosecute them, judge them, and prescribe punishment
for them, all in violation of basic due process rights.
5. The ordinance is subjective. It has no standards for determining violations. It is
contradictory in places. It gives unfettered discretion to the commission to harass and
bully anyone it chooses.
6. The ordinance violates the separation of powers doctrine by giving quasi-judicial
authority to a legislative body.


7. The ordinance would have a detrimental effect on local businesses. It would
increase government interference in the free market. It would substitute the judgment
of government officials for that of private businesses and organizations regarding
what qualities or characteristics are most relevant to a particular job, and regarding
how to operate their businesses.
8. Because sexual conduct can be relevant to employment, the ordinance might
mandate the employment of homosexual and transgendered persons in inappropriate
occupations.
9. Employers in the area of education and childcare, for instance, might be required
to hire homosexual or transgendered teachers, even if they consider them
inappropriate role models for children and youth.
10. The ordinance may force some businesses and individuals to violate their moral
and religious convictions. These include those that provide products, services, or
catering for weddings, or groups and businesses providing dating services, or other
faith-based businesses. They could be forced under the employment provision of the
ordinance to hire homosexuals, and under the public accommodations provision, they
could be forced to participate in the celebration of same-sex weddings, even though
homosexual behavior and same-sex marriage are expressly contrary to their
religious convictions.
11. The ordinance will undermine the rights of businesses to set dress and grooming
standards. Dressing and grooming in a way that is culturally appropriate for the
individuals biological sex is particularly relevant for situations involving customer
service or contact with other clients, because the adoption of the gender identity of
the opposite sex is often highly unconvincing and therefore disturbing to others.
12. The ordinance violates the privacy of others. It will allow some biological males
(who claim to be female) to appear nude before females (and vice versa) in bathrooms,
locker rooms, and showers. This could be very disturbing to those exposed to, or
exposed before, such individuals. It also conceivably could be exploited by a
peeping tom, a rapist or a pedophile as a way to gain access to women and girls in a
vulnerable situation.
13. The ordinance may lead to costly lawsuits against businesses and the City. It
invites disgruntled employees to sue for discrimination over characteristics (such as
sexual orientation) that may not even be visible and of which the employer may not
be aware. Disgruntled customers have sued businesses in the wedding industry under
such laws for declining to participate in same-sex weddings (even when the
business made clear that they would serve individual homosexual customers in other
ways that would not involve celebration of their homosexual partnership). Similar
laws in other states have led to large settlements being paid at taxpayers' expense.
14. The ordinance is unnecessary. Governments, businesses, and corporations already
have internal policies prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or
gender identity. That fact undermines any suggestion that such discrimination is
endemic, or that government action is required to arrest the problem. A business that
places unfounded prejudice ahead of legitimate qualifications will be punished by
market forces. For example, an employer who rejects better-qualified applicants for
arbitrary and irrelevant reasons will end up with an inferior workforce that is less
competent, productive, or effective in meeting the needs of their customersall of


which will result in a decline in sales.
15. The ordinance imposes the morality of the sexual revolution on the City of
Chillicothe. This is a morality that many of us reject as untrue and harmful to society.
It would be an official government declaration that homosexual behavior is the
equivalent of heterosexual behavior in every way, and that those who believe
otherwise are simply bigoted.
16. The ordinance will prepare the way for reverse discrimination. The more open
homosexuals and transgendered people become, the more people who hold traditional
values will be forced to conceal their viewsor face punishment for expressing them.
This can happen even if the employee's views are expressed outside of work, and
when no reference is made to sexual orientation or gender identity.
For these reasons, we are opposed to the proposed ordinance, and we urge all
members of City Council to vote against it.

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