Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight signed the city's anti-discrimination ordinance into law Tuesday morning.
The Kokomo City Council voted 5-4 Monday night in favor of an ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Residents packed the council chambers and stood in the lobby to watch the public testimony and the vote.
Some business owners wanted assurances that the new ordinance would not be used to force them to do something against their conscience or to make them a target for saying no to a gay couple.
The majority of people who spoke opposed the measure and urged the council to wait and not rush to make a decision on LGBT rights.
"There was a showing on both sides. It was about 90 percent against it and 10 percent for it," said Kokomo pastor Brian Hughes. "However the council was determined to go ahead and pass this bill. This ordinance and so they decided to do what they were going to do and there was really no stopping them."
Council members Steve Whikehart, Donnie Haworth, Janie Young, and Mike Kennedy joined Council President Bob Hayes in voting in support of the ordinance. Council members Mike Wyant, Bob Cameron, Cynthia Sanders, and Thomas Miklik voted against it.That's the same vote as last week when the ordinance was heard on first reading.
Hayes says after last week's vote he received phone calls and emails, some of which crossed the line.
"When I get emails invoking my dead mother and saying that my mother is weeping in her grave because I'm taking a stance, you don't know my mother. She's say, 'Atta boy, go get 'em.' And I hope we have not gotten to a point where we cannot agree to disagree in a civil manner without intimidation and sometimes outright bigotry."
The ordinance will amend the city's current human rights ordinance to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity as well as discrimination based on veteran status or marital status.
