Utah County's Anti-Equality Newspaper

Anyone who follows Utah politics already understands that Utah County is the bastion of conservatism. So it shouldn't come as any surprise that The Daily Herald, headquartered in Provo, has a conservative edge in its writing, especially editorials. Normally I don't even pay attention to this small paper, but the recent ridiculous nature of one of the editorials has incited me to write a response. The argument in the editorial, "Crazy quilt gay agenda in SLC," is moronic. The article contends that the Salt Lake City should not adopt non-discrimination policies regarding the GLBT community because having different rules in that city would be confusing because there are different rules in the surrounding municipalities. The editorial also concludes that housing policies regarding the GLBT community should be the sole domain of the state government.

The logic of their first argument is beyond faulty, it's desperation. Housing policies are very much within the purview of municipal governments. Salt Lake, New York, Boston, Provo, all cities have their own zoning ordinances and policies regarding housing. If Salt Lake City wants to do the same, it has ever legal right to do so. It shouldn't matter if the law changes once you enter Salt Lake, housing rules change every time you enter a new city or township. The only ones who will need to notice are landlords. These land-owners already have to deal with a multitude of unique to Salt Lake rules, this won't be any more of a hassle than what already currently exists.

Salt Lake is willingly, almost daringly, moving forwards in its efforts to grant civil-rights to all its citizens. It should be commended and be allowed to serve as a model to other local governments in Utah, not harassed by a no-name paper that isn't even in the same county as Salt Lake. This looks like another method by backwards journalists to hinder and impede equality. But what would you expect, this is Provo!!!

For your convenience I have attached the hyper-link to the editorial: http://www.heraldextra.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_ea22bac1-72f4-500a-be0b-eb10dcd93970.html