Magic City Equality challenges the Minot City Council to provide support through amendments that will add gender identity and sexual orientation everywhere anti-discrimination and protected classes are touched on in the city's municipal code.
During the April 19 meeting, the Minot City Council voted to limit flags flown at Minot City Hall to the U.S. flag, the state flag, and the city's flag. (The vote was done without alderwoman Carrie Evans, who was out of town and had asked for the issue to be tabled; this motion was voted against. This shows a complete lack of respect for alderwoman Evans and the complete ignorance of the importance of equality.)
As noted by alderman Stephan Podrygula regarding his stance on limiting flags: "I think there are better ways of achieving what we want sometimes. ... If we're concerned about the rights of LGBTQ people, maybe what we need to do is pass an Equal Rights ordinance, regardless of what Bismarck or what Washington does. ... I recognize that symbols are important for people, but I think actions, besides drawing up symbols, are more important and that's what I rather we focus on. ... the flag isn't as important as what we do in our day to day lives and in our day to day business practices as a city."
Magic City Equality could not agree more — and the City of Minot has a lot of work to do. The Human Rights Campaign's Municipal Equality Index Scorecard for the year 2020 shows that the City of Minot has 47 points. This dwarfs its contemporaries: Bismarck has 63 points, Grand Forks has 78 points, and Fargo has 85 points. The scorecard looks at cities across the country and identifies issues relating to Non-Discrimination Laws, the Municipality as an Employer, Municipal Services, Law Enforcement, and Leadership on LGBTQ Equality.
The City of Minot needs to do better — and Magic City Equality can and will help the city reach a higher score. Keep in mind, this isn't about trying to score points over other cities. This is about making Minot a better place to live, not only for the LGBTQ2S+ community, but for ALL.