Brother vs Brother over Anti-Gay Bill in Arkansas

I just heard about this.

So, in Arkansas, lawmakers passed a bill that would ban any LGBT rights ordinance. Then, their Governor said that he just let the bill go straight into law without signing it in. Seriously?

Sadly, this just other reflection of the mess really going down in the South. However, there's a bit shining light down there. Donald Collins, the gay brother of Arkansas state rep. Charlie Collins, wrote a great letter yesterday to help change the minds in Arkansas.

He wrote:

My brother, Arkansas House of Representative Charlie Collins (District 84), cast his vote Friday in support of the SB202 in part because of what he called an “overreach” by the Fayetteville City Council, the town where he lives and represents in his district. Last August the Fayetteville City Council passed Chapter 119, an anti-discriminatory ordinance that Charlie soon spoke out against and successfully campaigned to repeal in a special election last December.

Arkansas bill SB202 blocks all cities and counties from enacting anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT people. Buzzfeed News reports the bill’s sponsor, Republican Senator Bart Hester, sponsored the measure to create consistent policies across Arkansas that will attract business, and that he was infuriated that cities were attempting to expand civil rights laws for LGBT people. ­ Rather than working for fairness and support by following the lead of more than 300 major US businesses that have adopted inclusive, non-discriminatory protections because they know it’s good for business, my brother and the other Arkansas legislators who voted for SB202 chose to move their state backward with a bigoted, hurtful bill that by Hester’s own admission is a reactionary one in the face of growing acceptance and political power of the LGBT community. What’s incredible to me is that my brother supported this bill even though he has a gay brother and a lesbian sister.

There's more http://www.vetosb202.com/my-brother-has-a-vote-but-i-have-a-voice/here, but this mess is far from over. Let's see how the next couple of weeks play out.