Small SC town rallies for fired gay police chief

[joeybee12]

LATTA, S.C. (AP) — When openly gay police chief Crystal Moore was fired by a mayor who condemned her lifestyle as "questionable," she feared her two decade career in law enforcement in this town was over.

Then, this conservative, small town rebelled.

The people of Latta, who voted overwhelmingly for a state amendment banning gay marriage eight years ago, turned against the mayor, stripped him of his powers and the town council rehired Moore. They said her dedication to the town mattered more than her sexual orientation.

Residents remembered Moore's civic spirit from as far back as 1989, when Hurricane Hugo tore through Latta. She was a high school student working part time as a police dispatcher, and helped cut downed tree limbs to clean up the debris. This February, when an ice storm crippled the town and left it without power for days, Moore piled her officers in her SUV and checked on as many people as she could.

http://news.yahoo.com/small-sc-town-rallies-fired-gay-police-chief-151452755.html

[narnian60]

1. Hurray for that town

that saw the light!

[awoke_in_2003]

2. Good to see...

slowly it is sinking in to some people.

[sheshe2]

3. Hugs, joeybee.

This whole story gives me hope. For all the hate we are seeing, this is the flip side and it's beautiful.

Are we changing? I hope we are.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, joeybee.

[Skittles]

5. I've often said

it's harder for people to demonize gay folk if you actually know and respect some gay folk

[Dustlawyer]

25. That's just it! It doesn't matter if we are talking about Gay, Black folks, poor people, it makes

all the difference if you really know some of them, rather than not knowing any of them so you believe the propaganda that preys on your fear and anger that they are somehow getting over on you, or getting something for free that you are working hard for.

I remember a photo op of Mitt Rmoney at a McDonalds. He commented on how ingenious the packaging was and it was clear by his surprise and his statements that he had never even eaten fast food before! No wonder he demonizes the poor and working folk, he doesn't know any except his servants, and even then I doubt he ever has a conversation with them. How could he preside over America and Americans without knowing us.

I think that the main reason LGBTV issues have advanced so fast is that by coming out, people realize that being Gay makes no difference in the person. They now understand that their sexuality has nothing to do with the kind of person they are.

[Skittles]

27. well said, Dustlawyer

I knew a guy at work who would treat a transgendered coworker with a kind of covert disdain / indifference but one day I noticed he had totally changed his tune.....I asked him what happened and he admitted to me the coworker had saved his ass, probably his job, when he made a huge mistake during IT maintenance - he had bailed him out and covered for him.........yup - it's much harder to believe garbage when you know in your heart it is simply not true

[madokie]

6. Stories like this give me hope

We have a lot of good people in this world as this is proof of. Both the police chief and the citizens of Latta S.C.

[LuvNewcastle]

7. That town reminds me of my own, except Biloxi sounds a bit bigger than Latta.

People around here generally don't care about whether a person is gay, bisexual, or straight, but if a vote came up for a marriage equality law or a civil union law, I think it would fail. There's a strange sort of disconnect there, which can mostly be blamed on the Catholic Church and Evangelical Protestant churches. If they weren't getting up every Sunday preaching intolerance, the South would be a hell of a lot more liberal than it is. There are a lot of good people in the South; I just wish their churches would stop them from being as good as they could be.

[heaven05]

8. integrity over stupidity

wins every time. People of Latta, I applaud you.

[AAO]

9. Slow, but inexorable progress...

[sulphurdunn]

10. It is nearly impossible to dislike

good people you know regardless of how they choose to live.

[shenmue]

11. Good step

[mythology]

12. To quote another

"the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

It's good to see that even in places where you might not expect it, they are beginning to see that, gasp, gays and lesbians are people too. Some good, some bad. But judge us all on our merits. The blithering idiot mayor certainly got judged on his.

[Unknown Beatle]

13. The mayor of Latta talking about Crystal Moore

Asshole

[catbyte]

20. So this asshat would rather have a drunk taking care of his kids than a gay person.

"Teh stoopid" it burns.

[iandhr]

14. Another sign of progress.

Little by little step by step we are getting there.

[xchrom]

15. du rec.

[Are_grits_groceries]

16. Think about what they did.

Crystal Moore was fired for specious reasons. It was underhanded and without the approval of the city council.
They could have let this stand. They took a much harder road to do the right thing.
They held rallies for her and raised money to help her pay her bills.
The City Council hurriedly set up a referendum to take away Mayor Bullard's powers that would be voted on in primary election that was in the next month.
They rallied the voters for her.
Then they voted by a large margin to pass the referendum.
As soon as the election results were certified, the City Council reinstated her that night.
In addition, the City Council contacted SLED to investigate city hall(the mayor) because of possible improprieties. SLED is the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

The mayor may have a key to his office, but that's about all.

This is a very small SC town. If this had been floated as a movie script it would have been turned down ASAP.

[raccoon]

18. Calling George Clooney! Please make a movie about this! nt

[SunSeeker]

21. Great idea!

[raccoon]

17. Hey, good going, Latta citizens! nt

[progressoid]

19. Rec!

[SunSeeker]

22. K & R

[johnnyreb]

23. Compassion, tolerance, in TheState newspaper comments

South Carolina's main newspaper; no guarantee they're all South Carolinians, but check the comments at the bottom:

http://www.thestate.com/2014/07/13/3562261/small-sc-town-rallies-for-fired.html

[johnnyreb]

24. I just remembered TheState is subscription

I think it puts up a big Subscribe window. Sorry about that. Anyway, there's 92 comments with about two people talking sin and damnation, and a whole slew shaming those two down.

[cynzke]

26. WE MUST NEVER EVER

Stand for or allow religious tests for public office.