Reactions keep pouring in on the lopsided passage of Kalamazoo’s Ordinance 1856, the anti-discrimination ballot initiative, from yesterday’s vote.

The voters in this southwestern Michigan city backed the ordinance by a 62 to 38 vote, in still unofficial results.

In the words of Jon Hoadley, the Michigan native who successfully managed the One Kalamazoo campaign that organized support for the measure, fear has been replaced with legal protections.

With a resounding ‘yes,’ today Kalamazoo stood for fairness and equality. Now Kalamazoo residents will not have to live in fear of being fired from their jobs, denied housing, or discriminated against in public accommodations, simply for being who they are.

According to the Arcus Foundation, the Kalamazoo-based foundation that focuses its efforts on LGBT rights and (oddly enough) great ape conservation, inclusiveness and fairness prevailed. Arcus Foundation Executive Director Urvashi Vaid issued the following statement:

In a grassroots effort, people from all walks of life – from faith based groups to social service groups, from business leaders to civic leaders, from nonprofit advocates to the ordinary man and woman – joined together to support equality and affirm the inclusiveness of this community… Arcus looks forward to working with a broad range of organizations, leaders and advocates to insure that our communities are fair, open and safe for all those who live in this great state.

From a national perspective, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey chimed in with the following statement:

This marks an important victory for Kalamazoo, where voters have affirmed that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are part of the fundamental social fabric of the city, which now joins nearly 20 other cities in Michigan that have enacted nondiscrimination ordinances. In affirming fairness, voters also rejected a reprehensible right-wing campaign grounded in lies and fear-mongering.

And last but certainly not least, Equality Across America, another LGBT advocacy organization, issued a statement that included this very different reaction to the Kalamazoo vote:

“It’s shameful that America lets majorities vote on the rights of minorities,” said Flik Huang, 24, a straight woman and San Francisco resident who helped organize the National Equality March.  ”Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have been spending precious time and money fighting for something the U.S. Constitution says they should already have, which is equal protection under the law.  It’s time for the federal government to end the second-class status of LGBT Americans.”