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Eugene

(61,592 posts)
Thu Feb 9, 2017, 02:13 PM Feb 2017

Arkansas court weighs future of city's LGBT protections

Source: Associated Press

Arkansas court weighs future of city's LGBT protections

By ANDREW DeMILLO
Feb. 9, 2017 12:47 PM EST

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Supreme Court justices questioned Thursday whether a city's ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity flies in the face of a 2015 state law that was intended to prevent local LGBT protections.

An attorney for the state asked the court during oral arguments to strike down the anti-discrimination ordinance Fayetteville voters approved, saying it clearly violates the law from a few months earlier that intended to ban such ordinances. Fayetteville is among a handful of cities that approved varying protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in response to the state law.

The 2015 law prevents cities and counties from approving anti-discrimination ordinances on a basis not contained in state law. Arkansas' civil rights law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity, but a judge who upheld Fayetteville's measure noted they're mentioned in other parts of state law.

"The city's interpretation of the act, however, would neuter it, leaving the act unable to require statewide uniformity and unable to prevent the patchwork of varying discrimination laws in the 500-plus localities in Arkansas," State Solicitor General Lee Rudofsky told justices.

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Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/af546cc0e62241fb8b3e1ede5b321533/arkansas-court-weighs-future-citys-lgbt-protections
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Arkansas court weighs future of city's LGBT protections (Original Post) Eugene Feb 2017 OP
I do not want Fayetteville to be in uniformity with the rest of sinkingfeeling Feb 2017 #1
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