Haters Likely To Force Vote On Mesa’s LGBT Rights Law

The Arizona Republic reports:

A petition to undo Mesa’s newly minted nondiscrimination ordinance has enough voter signatures to head to the ballot. However, the referendum could still face challenges to knock it off the ballot. City and Maricopa County officials each reviewed the submitted signatures for the referendum effort and found there to be more than the roughly 9,100 needed to go to the voters.

This begins a five-day period for individuals or groups to file challenges in court to invalidate more signatures and block the referendum from the ballot. Such challenges are expected. The Mesa City Council approved the ordinance on March 1 that extended protections to the LGBTQ community and others when it comes to public accommodation, employment, and housing.

Read the full article. The repeal attempt is being run by lobbyist George Khalaf, whose Twitter feed includes retweets of anti-LGBT Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.

Effort to repeal Mesa’s LGBTQ protections has enough signatures to go to voters. https://t.co/7EWJIxML1L

— azcentral (@azcentral) May 5, 2021