Hollin wins the final memorializing showdown and Gotto does not know when to leave well enough alone

A few weeks after conservatives CMs Phil Claiborn and Jim Gotto (a Republican) took down CM Jamie Hollin's attempt to honor some high school students who organized protest against the General Assembly's "Don't Say Gay" bill, Hollin struck back at his last meeting as CM tonight and won approval for the memorializing resolution.

Even this evening, Gotto got up to speak against the resolution based on the pitch that memorializing resolutions should not identify controversies with particular groups. He equated it with bringing MRs supporting the Tea Party. That is a rather convenient argument for the Republican to make given that in previous years he has sponsored MRs that express preference for parochial groups in controversial settings.

In 2009, CM Gotto joined other theologically conservative CMs and co-sponsored an MR endorsing the National Day of Prayer, which is an event promoted by a national evangelical Christian organization. Gotto's resolution promoted a sectarian group's agenda for wedding governance and religious observance. Anyone who maintains that religion is not controversial has never engaged in discussions about religion.

In happier times saving Christmas
for Christians
with memorializing resolutions

In 2005, CM Gotto co-sponsored the "Saving Christmas" memorializing resolution which "affirmed and supported the use of the words Christmas or Merry Christmas, instead of non-descript, generic terms such as Happy Holidays ... when referring to Metro Government events or activities traditionally associated with Christmas, such as the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony". Not only is the annual "war on Christmas" debate controversial, but it is often sensationalistic and designed to get press coverage. The same week that Gotto's MR was approved by the council, Gotto gathered with conservative talk-radio host Steve Gill to celebrate passage of the resolution in front of Metro's tree and voracious news media.

So, for Jim Gotto to oppose CM Hollin's resolution honoring some students because they stood up for GLBT is sanctimonious and cynical, especially given the context that council conservatives set for opposition to Metro's nondiscrimination regulations on contractors: nondiscrimination would burden "Christian business."

To deepen the hypocrisy, CM Gotto announced earlier tonight that he could not "in good faith" vote for Hollin's MR. However, he once proclaimed that memorializing resolutions in general were a waste of time and  not worth the paper they were written on. If these bills are worthless, then debating them is meaningless and there is not faith, good or bad, that would ever prompt us to consider them.