Another day in Cd'A

Coeur d'Alene looks the same today is it did Tuesday, the day it adopted an anti-discrimination ordinance.

It just feels a little different.

We applaud the process that led to the council's decision to ensure that, outside churches and private homes, sexual orientation will have no bearing on the rights of any citizen within city limits. The process included powerful, passionate debate, filling blogs, pages of this newspaper and echoing through public gathering places, from people on both sides of the issue. It dredged up the ghosts of some of our most base instincts and fears, but in doing so, it brought to light important facts and heartfelt opinions.

Fear was a driving force in this debate; fear of forfeiture of individual liberty; fear that the rights of one group would outweigh the rights of another; fear of the unknown; fear of moral erosion.

Fear is what likely motivated an armed man in the crowd Tuesday night to threaten a Press photographer for taking his picture. The good thing about fear is that when it proves to be exaggerated or unfounded, it tends to dissipate.

Reports of transgender individuals exposing themselves to children in public restrooms will be rare, if they occur at all. Cases of an employer going to jail for six months because he fired an openly gay employee will make headlines, because it will be so unusual, particularly because the ordinance requires mediation before any penalty can be assessed. In short, for most of us, life in Coeur d'Alene will be pretty much the same as it was before Tuesday night's vote.

Maybe just a little better.