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City officials discuss veteran status

In October of 2017, Morgantown City Council voted unanimously to expand the city’s anti-discrimination language to include sexual orientation, gender identity and veteran status.

Sexual orientation and/or gender identity appear in most, if not all, of the city’s anti-discrimination resolutions as well as the city welcome statement, but veteran status does not.

The welcome statement, which is on the city’s website and various spots around town, explains the city welcomes, “ … all people regardless of race, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, color ancestry, age, abilities, blindness, economic or family status, or life situation.”

Asked why the statement would include so many classifications but not veteran status, Morgantown Communications Manager Andrew Stacy explained said the statement says the city welcomes all people, “which would include veterans.”

Stacy, who served in the U.S. Navy, said he’s not aware of any requests from veteran organizations suggesting the city identify veterans specifically in such language. Further, he pointed out that veterans are not a protected class according to the West Virginia Human Rights Commission.

“The city employs many veterans, including myself, and values their sacrifice, dedication and service to the country,” Stacy said.

Morgantown Mayor Bill Kawecki is also a veteran. He said there is an assumption that most people hold veterans in high regard. He went on to say that service in the military isn’t typically something that comes to mind when contemplating what puts someone in a protected class of citizens.

Even so, given the classification was added to the city’s anti-discrimination language and brought up repeatedly when council was considering sweeping changes to the city’s human rights commission, Kawecki said he believes it is an omission that should be addressed.

“I’m a veteran myself, and I have a great deal of respect for our armed services and the people who have made that contribution,” Kawecki said. “This wasn’t intentional. I’m sorry that it’s fallen between the cracks, but we need to make some sort of remedy to that circumstance.”

As today is Veterans Day, Kawecki said he recalls arriving at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina with the Marine Corps Reserves just as the first Marines were arriving in Vietnam.

“For the longest time, we all just really expected that any day our reserve unit would be called up and that’s where we would be headed. That never happened,” he said. “The luck of my draw was that I didn’t have to face combat. I had friends who were there. It was a circumstance that really makes you wish there was a better way to solve the world’s problems.”

It is out of respect for those friends, and all veterans, Kawecki explained, that the city should take a look at the welcome statement.

“If there’s something I can do to help change that, I will,” Kawecki said. “I will look at it more closely, I assure you that.”