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Learn Monday How to Make Aberdeen More LGBTQ Inclusive

What should Aberdeen do about Kennith and Ardys Gosch‘s religious and racial bigotry? Simple—don’t attend their anti-immigrant hate rally next Tuesday.

What should Aberdeen do about its apparent lack of inclusive policies toward South Dakotans of diverse sexual orientations and identities? Simple in the opposite direction—do attend Lawrence Novotny’s presentation on South Dakota’s Municipal Equality Index scores.

Novotny, the chair of Equality South Dakota, is making two presentations in the coming days, at the Brookings Public Library on Saturday, April 7, at 10 a.m. and at the Aberdeen Pizza Ranch on Monday, April 9, at noon. The Aberdeen presentation is part of Monday’s Brown County Democratic Forum.

Novotny will be comparing his town of Brookings and my town of Aberdeen because, as I reported in October, Brookings has the best MEI score in South Dakota—72 out of 100—while Aberdeen has one of the lowest at 18. Brookings has more than doubled its MEI since 2013 by, among other things, upgrading its human rights commission in 2015 and passing a resolution on inclusivity. The Human Rights Commission will likely recognize Brookings with a higher MEI this year in recognition of its passage last September of the first comprehensive municipal LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections in South Dakota.

Aberdeen lags far behind Brookings since, apparently, all HRC could find on the books for inclusivity in our fair city are anti-bullying policies and hate crimes reporting.

The Gosches and their ilk want to drag Aberdeen down the self-destructive path of exclusivity. City council members and other Aberdeen leaders should eschew that oldthink wall-building and instead join Novotny for lunch on Monday to talk about how to learn from Brookings’s example and make Aberdeen a more welcoming city.