Berkeley City Council, Dec. 2017

Steve Sloan, San Jose, CA
recent  |  interesting  |  random  |  favorites  |  contacts  |  sets  |  tags:  
Berkeley City Council, Dec. 2017
Berkeley City Council, Dec. 2017

LOOKING BACK:

In December 2017 Berkeley became the first US city to introduce a groundbreaking non-discrimination bill protecting family and relationship structure diversity!
On Tuesday, December 19, 2017, at the Berkeley City Council Chambers, the Berkeley City Council unanimously passed Consent Item 27, Prohibiting Discrimination on the Basis of Relationship Structure in the City of Berkeley.
This was the result of three years of work by PolyActive, including meetings, talking to lawmakers, gathering signatures and reaching out to allies.
Kathy Labriola took this photo of Dave Doleshal, Steve "Sam" Sloan, Diede Janel and many other folks who were there on this day. We thought we'd changed the world on that day. That was going on 7 years ago.
It did not happen. The measure went back to the City Attorney who sat on it and, though the council passed it, it was never implemented. We to this day have not gotten a good explanation of why.
This would have been the first law passed prohibiting discrimination based on relationship structure in the country, had it been fully enacted.
I am very proud of what we at PolyActive did years ago. Getting that far and having it not reach the point of implementation was so frustrating. Having it be passed unanimously and then not be enacted was so hard to understand. But, in all that time we never gave up.

LOOKING AHEAD:

Many of the lawmakers who were there in 2017 are still Berkeley lawmakers. Thanks to OPEN and PLAC's efforts it'll hopefully get done this time.

Relationship rights are human rights. People have a right to love how they love and shape their loving consensual relationships, their families, authentically. Allowing discrimination because of relationship structure is an insult to all people, not just those who have consensual relationships that are structured differently.

© All Rights Reserved
Taken on: December 19, 2017
Sets appears in:   • December 2017    • PolyActive    more » • Diede    « less
Stats: 165 views