Repealing Fayetteville’s Sexual Orientation Gender Identify Law(Part 1 of 2)

By Duncan Campbell

It was a normal day in the lives of the citizens of the city of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Summer days on Beaver Lake, bustling businesses, students returning to the University of Arkansas…and then the ordinance from hell invaded the town like a spiritual Katrina. Disguised as a “civil rights” ordinance, this anti-Christian, anti-business, anti-decency, unconstitutional law was snuck into the Fayetteville City Council without going through the ordinance review committee and with NO prior public discussion.

An outside group, the so-called “Human Rights Campaign”, based in Washington, D.C., founded by Terry Bean (who was recently arrested for child rape) wrote the ordinance, just like they did in Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Springfield and over 150 other cities around the nation. The organization worked ahead of time with a Fayetteville alderman, the city attorney and a local group called Omni Center, applying the same strategy they use in all their targeted cities.

These “Terry Bean” laws or SOGI (Sexual Orientation Gender Identity) ordinances create a “special privileged class” that can complain about a business owner, a church, a school or a private citizen who supposedly “discriminates” against them because of their homosexuality or transgender identity. The burden of proof is on the accused and the fines would accumulate daily, totaling about $8500 per month.

Because churches, pastors and people of faith are not exempt, an individual could be criminally prosecuted for not hiring a gay for a youth worker, refusing to perform a same sex ceremony, photograph a same sex ceremony, etc. It would also open up public locker rooms, showers and restrooms to men who claim to be women because they are “transgenders”.

When we got an e-mail on August 5th with this ordinance and a legal opinion form Stephanie Nichols, a Christian religious rights attorney, my wife and I went the next day to the city council meeting where the ordinance would have a second reading. We thought we might be the only ones speaking up that night in opposition to Chapter 119, but were thrilled to see 120 people on our side and about 20 on their side. Eighteen of us spoke up, including Wendy and myself.  Pastors, business owners, state legislators and regular citizens stood up against this goliath.

The mayor and 6 of the 8 members of the council did not even listen to us. And one of the alderwomen even scolded us for voicing our perspectives. It was light invading the darkness and the center of the dark cloud was at the very gates of our city.

I called pastors from around town to participate in strategy sessions over the next two weeks and our grassroots movement began to get some legs. I consulted with kingdom-minded marketplace leaders from around the nation as well as northwest Arkansas concerning the dilemma we were facing and one of those leaders was Alice Patterson with the National Black Robe Regiment from San Antonio. When I told her I had discovered that we had a 10 day window to register candidates to run for city council in the November election, she said, “You have to go through that door!”

When I asked who would run for city council, several godly men stood up and said, “Here I am, Lord. Send me!” Our long-term strategy included getting new city council members. The days leading up to the third council meeting where they would vote on the ordinance were a whirlwind of planning and networking and making phone calls and sending emails and texts.  We wanted everyone in town to know what this law was all about and we wanted believers to show up at the city council meeting to speak up.

When the 19th of August came we were ready. But they had flown in gay activists from around the nation. The mayor and most of the council had strategized with HRC and the meeting was orchestrated to their advantage, even in how they arranged for public comments to be given. Those who spoke on our behalf did an excellent job articulating the arguments for a NO vote on passage of this unconstitutional nightmare. The expressions of the faces of the mayor and most of the city council members were obvious. When one of us spoke up, they looked up, down or all around. When one of them spoke the mayor and the council were attentive, engaged, and even smiling.

Almost 2,000 people came that night. The council had decided many weeks before how they were going to vote. The final tally at 3:30 AM (10 hour long record-breaking city council meeting) was 6 to 2. They also rejected an amendment to have any vote by the council ratified by popular vote in the General Election on November 4.

The first battle was lost it seemed, but now we had an army of spiritual, kingdom-minded warriors: Davids, Deborahs, Joshuas, Calebs, Ruths, and John the Baptists. We called for a series of strategy sessions with key leaders. The clock was ticking. We had 31 days to write a petition and gather 4095 signatures to hold a special election to repeal Chapter 119.

(Article 2 will continue the narrative)