Some Good News from the Culture War

I’m a little late with my post on the passing of the “Equal Housing and Employment Act” by the Ohio House. But hey, blogging doesn’t pay the bills (yet?).

So there’s already been coverage of supposedly moderate Ohio Republicans voting against it despite their previous support for non-descrimination legislation (talking about you, Josh Mandel).

And everyone was shocked by Democrat Jennifer Garrison’s support given her horrible past record on LGBT rights.

But I think one of the more remarkable facts behind this story is that five Republicans did the right thing and voted for it. Reps. Blair, Dolan, Hite, Lehner and McGregor (according to Law Dork).

I was reading about Republican Rep. Cliff Hite from Findlay in today’s Findley Courier and I thought he deserved a shout out for doing the right thing.

Rep. Hite represents a very conservative district and it takes balls to stand up and say: “To me it was pretty simple, If you can fire someone from a job simply because they are gay, it is wrong. It all boils down to protecting everyone’s civil rights, not just those of certain people.”

Unfortunately, I don’t think many – if any – of the Republicans in the State Senate are going to follow Hite’s lead by voting the right way on this legislation.