The Rev. Paul Blair, pastor of Edmond’s Fairview Baptist Church and one of the founders of Reclaiming America for Christ, is urging that people call members of the City Council and the mayor’s office to voice opposition to the measure, which will come up for a vote by the council at Tuesday’s meeting.

The measure, which adds the words “sexual orientation” to the city’s nondiscrimination policy for employees, was first introduced by Ward 2 Councilman Ed Shadid at the Oct. 25 meeting, but was tabled after some council members dissented on the issue until the Nov. 15 meeting. The City Council meets at 8:30 a.m. that day.

The city’s policy already provides protection from discrimination in hiring and employment issues based on race, gender and political affiliation.

“On Tuesday, Nov. 15, the Oklahoma City Council will consider adding ‘gender orientation’ as a special protected class in city employment,” Blair wrote in an e-mail. “In America, all citizens enjoy equal justice under the law. We do not need to create a special class to provide extra constitutional protection for homosexuals. ‘Sexual orientation’ policies always negate the religious freedom of citizens who disagree with homosexuality.”

Blair also accused President Barack Obama’s appointee to the five-person Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chai Feldblum of making “the battle between religious freedom and homosexual ‘rights’ is a ‘zero-sum game,’ meaning the two cannot possibly coexist in harmony. It’s a ‘winner takes all’ approach. ‘Gays win, Christians lose.’”

Blair, who included the phone numbers and e-mail addresses of all council members and the mayor in his e-mail, urged people to call and “ask them not to grant an ‘extra-constitutional’ class of protection for sodomy in the City of Oklahoma City.”

Photo by Mark Hancock

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