Good riddance | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

In allowing SB262 — which would have banned housing and employment discrimination based on sexual orientation — to die on the vine, the rights of individuals were spared the increasingly aggressive overreach of the government ("Anti-discrimination bill for gays appears dead for 2013," Tribune, March 12).

If I own a business or a rental property, does this not mean that I own this property? That I should be able to utilize this property in a way that I find suitable?

SB262 sought to strip me of the right to make decisions about property and give them to the state. Would people support a law that requires an employer or landlord to hire or rent to a devil worshipper or the Ku Klux Klan without regard to their own beliefs or apprehensions?

Or, as is usually the case, is this less against discrimination and more about protecting one segment of the population?

The proposed law provided exemptions to religious organizations, but it did not exempt individuals who are morally opposed to homosexuality. Does a church have a greater liberty than an individual?

People will never be seen as equals as long as it takes a law to make them equal.

Brian Erickson

Tooele