2008 Woodie Awards
City Council to address intolerance
Margaret Watters
Issue date: 2/26/08 Section: Front Page
After reported incidents of discrimination in uptown establishments during the last year, Oxford City Council is looking at making the city's anti-discrimination policies more specific.
During the current revision process, the city may add sexual orientation, pregnancy, veteran status, disability and other yet-to-be-determined stipulations to the ordinance.
Marisa Sims, activism outreach chair of Spectrum, believes Oxford needs to update their civil rights code. Sims spoke at Tuesday's city council meeting about discrimination issues at Miami University. Princeton Review cited Miami as the No. 5 university in terms of homogenous student population in its 2008 rankings.
Sims mentioned an incident last October where a man, dressed in drag, was thrown out of an uptown bar and heckled with homophobic comments from the bouncer and a police officer.
"That was the last straw," Sims said. "There are certain places our members boycott for two reasons: they don't want to give them money because they feel discriminated against and two, because they simply don't feel safe."
City council member Greig Rutherford suggested adding marital status to the ordinance, in order to ensure that non-traditional marriages are respected in Oxford.
"I believe that bigotry is bigotry, and that is one thing that I will not tolerate," Rutherford said.
Council was in agreement that the ordinance was overdue. City Manager Doug Elliott is confident that the legislation will transition seamlessly into a revised law.
"I think the legislation will pass easily and hope it will be gladly accepted within the community," Elliott said. "I don't really expect this to be a problem."
Elliott explained that local laws are typically kept more up to date than state laws and was surprised that Oxford, being a college town, didn't already include sexual orientation in the civil rights law.
"I find Oxford to be a caring and accepting community and think that we should bring our civil rights code up to date," Elliott said.
During the current revision process, the city may add sexual orientation, pregnancy, veteran status, disability and other yet-to-be-determined stipulations to the ordinance.
Marisa Sims, activism outreach chair of Spectrum, believes Oxford needs to update their civil rights code. Sims spoke at Tuesday's city council meeting about discrimination issues at Miami University. Princeton Review cited Miami as the No. 5 university in terms of homogenous student population in its 2008 rankings.
Sims mentioned an incident last October where a man, dressed in drag, was thrown out of an uptown bar and heckled with homophobic comments from the bouncer and a police officer.
"That was the last straw," Sims said. "There are certain places our members boycott for two reasons: they don't want to give them money because they feel discriminated against and two, because they simply don't feel safe."
City council member Greig Rutherford suggested adding marital status to the ordinance, in order to ensure that non-traditional marriages are respected in Oxford.
"I believe that bigotry is bigotry, and that is one thing that I will not tolerate," Rutherford said.
Council was in agreement that the ordinance was overdue. City Manager Doug Elliott is confident that the legislation will transition seamlessly into a revised law.
"I think the legislation will pass easily and hope it will be gladly accepted within the community," Elliott said. "I don't really expect this to be a problem."
Elliott explained that local laws are typically kept more up to date than state laws and was surprised that Oxford, being a college town, didn't already include sexual orientation in the civil rights law.
"I find Oxford to be a caring and accepting community and think that we should bring our civil rights code up to date," Elliott said.
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