Ordinance draws talk from both sides
About nine protesters watched a movie Tuesday night across the street from a church where a seminar was being held on the dangers of enacting a non-discrimination ordinance.
City council has wrestled for more than a year over whether to enact an LGBTQA non-discrimination ordinance. LGBTQA stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and allied.
The Freedom in the Balance seminar, conducted Tuesday at the Intersection Community Church at Walker and Brugh avenues, was coordinated by the Pennsylvania Family Council and the Alliance Defending Freedom in Harrisburg.
The online flyer described the free event as “an informative, practical seminar detailing the latest threats to religious freedom and rights of conscience, how you can best protect your family, church, ministry or business, and help defend the freedom of those in the Butler community.”
But the protesting group, Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays of Butler County, saw the seminar as an intolerant and bigoted affair.
Michael Bagdes-Canning, held a brief rally and informational picket across Brugh Avenue from the church before screening the movie “Out in the Silence.”
The movie was projected onto the wall between the sidewalk and parking lot, also on Brugh Avenue.
Jeremy Samek, senior council for the Pennsylvania Family Council, said about 35 individuals had signed up for the seminar. He said the educational seminar would explain how the anti-discrimination ordinance being considered in Butler affects churches, non-profits, businesses and privacy issues.
He said he and two other presenters would talk about the specific ordinance and how similar ordinances have been utilized in other municipalities to punish Christian schools and prevent them from making certain hiring decisions.
“We think the result would be to have a community that is educated and understands the impact ordinances like this have on the community,” Samek said.
But Sabrina Schnur, who transgendered in 2006 while an employee at AK Steel, called the message being purveyed inside the church “outright lies” and “fear-mongering.”
She said since major department stores, fitness centers and other corporations have created policies that transgenders may use the bathroom they identify with, the claims that women and children would be molested by men pretending to identify as women have not materialized.
Regarding the ability of a baker to refuse to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, Schnur wondered whether a single mother who has never been married would also be repugnant to a baker's morals.
“It's bigotry and hiding behind the Bible,” Schnur said.
One seminar attendee spoke to the protesters before making his way into the church, but no raised voices or angry gestures occurred.
A policeman asked Bagdes-Canning to move two wheels of his truck onto the curb so as not to block traffic near the intersection, which he did immediately.
The protesters then settled into lawn chairs to watch the movie, which was produced by a Venango County man.
Mayor Tom Donaldson, who was unable to attend the seminar as planned because of his work schedule, said the ordinance was tabled several months ago.
He said because it was tabled for more than 30 days, the issue must be reintroduced to council.
Donaldson said he is adamantly against an anti-discrimination ordinance in Butler.
“I know people in (the LGBTQA) community, and not one said, 'Could you push this?'” Donaldson said. “Do you know why? Because they don't have problems here.”
The Rev. Fred Kison, senior pastor at The Intersection Community Church, said the protesters have the right to assemble peacefully to assert their beliefs.
“Here at Intersection Church, we believe in the Bible and what it says about human sexuality,” Kison said. “While we don't agree with their message, we believe every person is created in the image of God and is worthy of value, honor and respect.”
