Equality Rally: 'We Are Not the Enemy'
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
But the clarifying language riled social conservative advocacy groups, according to an Indianapolis Star article. Groups like the Pastor’s Alliance now say they want to protect religious freedom, while equality groups say those groups just want to keep their right to discriminate.
But the Equality rally Tuesday was not anti-religion, co-organizer Pete Tuura said.
“If anything, if you criticize the way religious people act, they like to blame it on their religion,” he said. “They like to turn it around and say ‘you’re persecuting me,’ and that’s not the case. We just take issue with the politics in blocking city ordinances that don’t need to be blocked.”
In his speech at the rally, Tuura said, “If there is a war on Christianity, where is the evidence? Not in hate crimes statistics apparently.” Of the hate crimes attributed to bias against religion in 2011, he said, 60 percent were against Jewish people, 13 percent against Muslims and the majority of the rest were against Catholics, who were targeted twice as often as their Protestant counterparts. “For perspective, of the 7,200 hate crimes recorded in 2013, 0.05 of 1 percent were against Protestants who are supposed to be under attack. No wonder hard-right social conservatives don’t see the importance of hate crimes legislation in Indiana. They are unlikely to be negatively affected, and are actually more likely to be the perpetrator involved in a hate crime.”
Of all hate crimes recorded, in 2013, he said, 20.3 percent were based on bias against sexual orientation or gender identity, compared with 17.4 percent for religious bias-based crimes. Of the reported 1,402 hate crime offenses based on sexual orientation, 60.6 percent were classified as anti-gay male bias, he said.
The agenda for the Equality rally was for people to have the fellowship they miss “because they get kicked out of churches around here, and to just have a sense of community,” Tuura said.
Tuura said those behind the rally want the Warsaw City Council, mayor and county officials to pass expanded protections to “give our community a step forward from the surrounding area, and help the industries get the talent they need, and be able to retain people without their employees fearing that they’re going to be perceived as gay when they go out to the community and someone at the store isn’t going to sell them a jug of milk or something.”
Just by the fact the rally happened at all – with an estimated 70 people in attendance – makes it a success, Tuura said, because it wouldn’t have happened a few years ago.
New Beginnings Community Church Pastor Dennis L. Bollenbacher attended the Equality rally rather than the Pastor’s Alliance event.
“I just believe that these people have been treated unjustly and I have a son that’s gay. And I know the discrimination that he’s been faced with,” Bollenbacher said. “These people have been shunned from churches. They’re not welcome in churches.... I preach in my church that we live by the New Covenant, ‘Love one another as I have loved you and by all people love like I have and you’ll know that you are my disciples.’ Those are the words of Jesus. These people are picking and choosing things out of the Old Testament, whatever they want to believe. And I don’t believe in that. I believe in the New Covenant that is based on love. America is in trouble because we’re not loving all people,”
Buckley Watson, Warsaw, said he attended the Equality rally to support his daughter, Liz, and her wife, Amanda, who live in Indianapolis and got married in Marshall, Ill. Watson said he doesn’t feel his daughter and daughter-in-law should be discriminated against, and that Rallies such as Tuesday evening’s will help the state as a whole.
“It would be nice if Liz and Amanda feel as comfortable here as they do in Indianapolis,” Watson said. “They don’t feel as comfortable here and that’s sad.”
Speaker and co-organizer Jeff Bridges said he drove 1,100 miles from Denver, Colo., back to his hometown of Warsaw for the rally. Bridges said he didn’t feel included at church or Sunday School growing up and that his own sister hasn’t talked to him in two years because he’s gay.
“She wants to shun me. Is that fair? If she listens to the people across the street, I will never see my sister,” Bridges said. “By coming out here, we are making a difference. I’ll love those people (at the Alliance rally) and hug them, but I will let them know they’re not right.”
Kim Saylor, Indianapolis, works with Open For Service, which celebrates businesses that oppose discrimination of any type.
Speaking to the crowd, she said the protesters at the courthouse have a right to believe what they want to, but they “don’t understand what we’re going through. Discrimination is real and there’s plenty of examples” of people denied housing or jobs across Indiana, she said, citing an example of a friend who lost her job for being a lesbian.
“We don’t want special rights, we want equal rights. Equal rights for all,” Saylor said. “We are not what they portray us to be. We are not the enemy. We are not any less human.”[[In-content Ad]]
But the clarifying language riled social conservative advocacy groups, according to an Indianapolis Star article. Groups like the Pastor’s Alliance now say they want to protect religious freedom, while equality groups say those groups just want to keep their right to discriminate.
But the Equality rally Tuesday was not anti-religion, co-organizer Pete Tuura said.
“If anything, if you criticize the way religious people act, they like to blame it on their religion,” he said. “They like to turn it around and say ‘you’re persecuting me,’ and that’s not the case. We just take issue with the politics in blocking city ordinances that don’t need to be blocked.”
In his speech at the rally, Tuura said, “If there is a war on Christianity, where is the evidence? Not in hate crimes statistics apparently.” Of the hate crimes attributed to bias against religion in 2011, he said, 60 percent were against Jewish people, 13 percent against Muslims and the majority of the rest were against Catholics, who were targeted twice as often as their Protestant counterparts. “For perspective, of the 7,200 hate crimes recorded in 2013, 0.05 of 1 percent were against Protestants who are supposed to be under attack. No wonder hard-right social conservatives don’t see the importance of hate crimes legislation in Indiana. They are unlikely to be negatively affected, and are actually more likely to be the perpetrator involved in a hate crime.”
Of all hate crimes recorded, in 2013, he said, 20.3 percent were based on bias against sexual orientation or gender identity, compared with 17.4 percent for religious bias-based crimes. Of the reported 1,402 hate crime offenses based on sexual orientation, 60.6 percent were classified as anti-gay male bias, he said.
The agenda for the Equality rally was for people to have the fellowship they miss “because they get kicked out of churches around here, and to just have a sense of community,” Tuura said.
Tuura said those behind the rally want the Warsaw City Council, mayor and county officials to pass expanded protections to “give our community a step forward from the surrounding area, and help the industries get the talent they need, and be able to retain people without their employees fearing that they’re going to be perceived as gay when they go out to the community and someone at the store isn’t going to sell them a jug of milk or something.”
Just by the fact the rally happened at all – with an estimated 70 people in attendance – makes it a success, Tuura said, because it wouldn’t have happened a few years ago.
New Beginnings Community Church Pastor Dennis L. Bollenbacher attended the Equality rally rather than the Pastor’s Alliance event.
“I just believe that these people have been treated unjustly and I have a son that’s gay. And I know the discrimination that he’s been faced with,” Bollenbacher said. “These people have been shunned from churches. They’re not welcome in churches.... I preach in my church that we live by the New Covenant, ‘Love one another as I have loved you and by all people love like I have and you’ll know that you are my disciples.’ Those are the words of Jesus. These people are picking and choosing things out of the Old Testament, whatever they want to believe. And I don’t believe in that. I believe in the New Covenant that is based on love. America is in trouble because we’re not loving all people,”
Buckley Watson, Warsaw, said he attended the Equality rally to support his daughter, Liz, and her wife, Amanda, who live in Indianapolis and got married in Marshall, Ill. Watson said he doesn’t feel his daughter and daughter-in-law should be discriminated against, and that Rallies such as Tuesday evening’s will help the state as a whole.
“It would be nice if Liz and Amanda feel as comfortable here as they do in Indianapolis,” Watson said. “They don’t feel as comfortable here and that’s sad.”
Speaker and co-organizer Jeff Bridges said he drove 1,100 miles from Denver, Colo., back to his hometown of Warsaw for the rally. Bridges said he didn’t feel included at church or Sunday School growing up and that his own sister hasn’t talked to him in two years because he’s gay.
“She wants to shun me. Is that fair? If she listens to the people across the street, I will never see my sister,” Bridges said. “By coming out here, we are making a difference. I’ll love those people (at the Alliance rally) and hug them, but I will let them know they’re not right.”
Kim Saylor, Indianapolis, works with Open For Service, which celebrates businesses that oppose discrimination of any type.
Speaking to the crowd, she said the protesters at the courthouse have a right to believe what they want to, but they “don’t understand what we’re going through. Discrimination is real and there’s plenty of examples” of people denied housing or jobs across Indiana, she said, citing an example of a friend who lost her job for being a lesbian.
“We don’t want special rights, we want equal rights. Equal rights for all,” Saylor said. “We are not what they portray us to be. We are not the enemy. We are not any less human.”[[In-content Ad]]
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