The Backpedaling Begins

Rhea County Council Meeting On Gay Ban Issue

"The Rhea County Commission called a special meeting for tonight at 7 p.m. to reconsider a Tuesday vote seeking to ban gays from the county. The commission had voted 8-0, with one member absent, on the resolution.

...

Since there has been a nationwide focus on the vote, several commissioners said they wanted further clarification on the issue."

That's what you get for snoozing during meetings, guys.

Seriously, if you don't want sudden, fierce national media attention and public ridicule - don't pass spur-of-the-moment discriminatory resolutions, no matter how righteous you feel they are.

UPDATE: Our long, national nightmare is over

Except it isn't, of course. Apparently, according to news reports on another station, the motion they "rescinded" was not entirely verbatim as the motion they unanimously passed two nights before. Guess that was enough for them, because they were out of there as quick as they came, in a hail of reporter questions and crowd commentary.

And tomorrow folks in Rhea County will wake up - the bigots will still be bigots and the gays will still be gays. But maybe - just maybe - somebody somewhere learned something. I hope so.