Omaha Mayor-elect Jean Stothert has
denied she ever pledged to repeal a recently enacted gay rights law.
On Tuesday, Stothert, a 59-year-old
Republican with 2 adult children, became the first woman elected to
the city's top job. She will take over the reigns on June 10.
The Omaha City Council last spring
approved the law, which outlaws discrimination based on sexual
orientation and gender identity in the areas of employment and
service providers such as restaurants, hotels and bars.
While religious organizations are
exempt from the law, a failed effort to force a vote on the law was
led by a coalition of local clergy and churches.
Femi Awodele of the Omaha Liberty
Project, the group which sponsored the repeal drive, endorsed
Stothert's campaign, joining her in a television ad.
“I really like Jean's record of smart
conservative leadership,” Awodele says in the 30-second ad.
In
a voter guide put out by the group, Stothert is listed as having
pledged to repeal the LGBT ordinance.
“But this one in particular, the
GBLTQ one, it is an ordinance, and I don't have any plans to repeal
it and that rumor is out there. And that's not true at all,”
Stothert said during an interview on 1290
KOIL radio. (The audio is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)