Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

November 14 2012

About a year ago, two Boise residents told City Council President Maryanne Jordan that they were assaulted because they were gay. According to Jordan, this incident prompted her to devise a proposed city ordinance banning discrimination based on ?sexual orientation [,] gender identity [or] expression.?

The ordinance would apply to housing, employment, and public accommodations ? with the exception of religious and educational corporations and state and federal agencies. Those convicted of discrimination would face up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000 ? unless they agreed to government-imposed ?mediation,? in which case they would be subject to a $100 penalty.

Significantly, under Boise?s municipal code, so-called sexual orientation discrimination would be punished as severely as an actual act of physical assault. What this means is that a landlord who refuses to rent to a same-sex couple out of religious convictions could spend as much time behind bars as an assailant who actually committed an act of physical violence against them.

The purpose of this measure is not to protect persons or property, but rather to use the threat of state-sanctioned aggression to re-educate people ? specifically, those who subscribe to conventional Christian morality.

Discrimination isn?t a crime. However, seeking to punish it is.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.