Only a few weeks ago, the city of Kalamazoo expanded their anti-discrimination ordinance to forbid discrimination against gays and lesbians. Now a group of residents have submitted petition signatures to repeal those protections.
 

City Clerk Scott Borling said former city commissioner and current Kalamazoo County Treasurer Mary Balkema officially turned over 189 pages of petitions that circulators said contained about 1,600 signatures.

Due to the New Year’s Day holiday Thursday, Borling said certification of those signatures will begin Friday.

Borling expects the process to extend into next week before it is officially determined that the petitions contain at least 1,273 signatures, the minimum Borling said are necessary to trigger reconsideration of the anti-discrimination ordinance.

Under the city charter, if there are sufficient signatures on the petitions, the city commission must either repeal the law or put it up for a vote as a referendum in the next election in order to be restored. The commission passed the expansion of the ordinance unanimously in early December.