All of those who don't think it ought to be legal to fire someone for being gay knew to sit on the left side of the Olathe City Council chamber for Tuesday night's meeting.
And all of those who went right up to the microphone and said things like, "It's all an agenda to push rights they already have" and, "It won't stop until everyone is indoctrinated into their beliefs," knew to sit on the right side.
That's because the meeting has become a weekly ritual of division in Olathe. But this week, the ceremonial crossing of swords over the very real, raw and painful issue of whether discrimination should continue to be legal in this Johnson County city went meta.
The discussion over firing an employee for their orientation or gender identity has gotten so hot that Olathe Councilwoman Karin Brownlee has been accused of trying to get a gay rights activist fired from his job _ for sticking up for his 14-year-old gay son by trying to get the city to adopt a nondiscrimination ordinance.
In response, maybe 100 LGBT rights activists turned out for Tuesday's council meeting, and many of them said it was Brownlee who should lose her job. Another 100-some people came to the meeting to show their support for Brownlee. That's not conjecture, but stand-up-and-be-counted math made easy when Mike Bickley, pastor of Journey Bible Church, asked everyone to stand who had come to back Brownlee. The entire right side of the room stood, and no one on the left did.
When members of the public were given two minutes each to speak, Brett Hoedl, chairman of Equality Kansas Metro Kansas City chapter, said he'd been pulled out of a meeting during his work day at Black & Veatch and told that Brownlee had complained to the company that he'd been invoking his employer in his efforts as an advocate. Not so, he said. And not OK to try to get him put out on the street.
"I don't care where you fall under the political spectrum, this should frighten anyone," Hoedl said. "Karin has been in elected office over two decades. She knows how unethical this is."
As Brownlee was challenged from the podium, she mostly looked down, taking notes and energetically chewing gum. But then Hoedl's wife, Wendy Budetti, said that her family's one-income livelihood had been threatened because they were supporting their son. "My mama bear claws came out" when that happened, she said, and Brownlee briefly glanced up and shook her head.
"When stories are told," Brownlee told the crowd in a quiet monotone near the end of the meeting, "there's more than one version often. Details can differ, and I'm not going to dwell on that. I will just say that I wish the best to the Hoedl family and to Brett and his work. I know we as a city are very pleased to work with his employer, and we certainly want that to go forward in the best possible manner."
It isn't enough to make nice with employers, though, and another activist, Robynn Andracsek, suggested that Brownlee had disparaged her to her company, too.
"I'm still employed, but nice try ... See ya next time."
Brownlee, a former state senator and Kansas secretary of labor under Gov. Sam Brownback, said after the meeting that she had run into Hoedl's colleague socially and had just casually mentioned that he'd "named his employer" in a statement to the City Council on June 4.
So, she wasn't trying to get him fired? "Absolutely not," she said. "I could say more," she added. "I truly pray through this" and no, "will not be resigning."
Her comments do not sound innocuous or casual. Though it's clear she won't lose her post as a result, the least that Olathe can do is make sure no one else loses theirs over who they are.
"Let's put Olathe, Kansas, on the map for being courageous as well as beautiful," said Teresa Rose, who opposes the nondiscrimination ordinance.
But Olathe, think again, because you don't want to be on the map for being wrong.
