Spurred to act by the shooting deaths of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., some religious leaders in Butler are advocating an anti-discrimination ordinance for the city.

Cantor Michele Gray-Schaffer of the Congregation B'nai Abraham and Jim Swanson of the Covenant Presbyterian Church will speak on behalf of the “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Questioning, and Allied” (LGBTQA) community at Thursday's city council meeting.

“I just feel called after this tragedy, and after attending the candlelight vigil in Pittsburgh on Monday night that I have to do something. I think the city council has not heard from pastors who support this as a moral measure,” Gray-Schaffer said.

Swanson said, “A nondiscrimination ordinance in this community would cover a wide range of areas where discrimination could occur such as housing, employment, being served at a restaurant, or being able to join a health club, things like that.”

Such an ordinance was voted down several years ago by council.

City solicitor Jim Coulter explained that ordinance would have meant the city would have had to set up a tribunal system to preside over hearings between, for example, tenants and landlords, which the majority of council members decided was not a city function, but a state function.