Small Town (Like Really Small) in Kentucky Takes Huge Step Towards Fairness, Equality and Anti-Discrimination

Blasting the Stereotype of Opposition to Those Who Lead Different Lives

No one except those in the immediate vicinity of the place have heard of Vicco, Kentucky.  In fact the town is so small, under 500 people, that probably some of the folks who live there have not heard of the town.  But it is an actual village deep in the heart of coal and Justified country.  And now it has done something to make the New York Times.

Vicco, Kentucky - Real America in More Ways Than One

The City Council, called a “Commission” in that area did this.

The Commission approved the minutes from its December meeting, hired a local construction company to repair the run-down sewer plant and tinkered with the wording for the local curfew. Oh, and it voted to ban discrimination against anyone based on sexual orientation or gender identity — making Vicco the smallest municipality in Kentucky, and possibly the country, to enact such an ordinance.

Why?  Because the town thought it was the right thing to do.

Claude Branson Jr., 56, a retired coal miner who sits on the Commission — and the only commissioner, he proudly notes, with a mullet haircut — said recently that Mr. Cummings’s presence had not played as much of a factor in the vote as had “the whole broad perspective of the world.”

“We want everyone to be treated fair and just,” he explained.

In Vicco, at least, officials just assumed that such a belief is self-evident and therefore not that big of a deal.

And yes there was opposition, but not the kind of “I hate you, you are a bunch a evil, Godless . . .” type of opposition.  No the opposition (one Commissioner) was civil, reasoned and acceptable of the concept that there will be honest disagreements which do not require hatred and vitriol.

The commissioners hashed through their questions and doubts, which Mr. Ashley did his best to answer and allay. But one commissioner, Tim Engle, who has known Johnny Cummings since forever, said he needed to change his vote.

“Tim stated that due to his religion, that he had to vote no to the above-mentioned ordinance,” a clerk’s notes of the meeting said.

“There are things we’re not going to agree on, and that’s perfectly fine with me,” Mr. Engle said, according to the local newspaper, The Hazard Herald. “That’s what the debates are for ... that’s what this group’s here for. I want them to do what they think’s right and what they think they need to do.”

Wow, only in America (and every other country where equality is a right granted by creation and guaranteed by government).

And there should be a special note to Conservatives who violently oppose the gay and lesbian community and want to use government to enforce their own bigotry and hatred.

 Look folks, when you have lost Vicco, Kentucky you have lost entirely.  Recognize it and get over it.