SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — The Springfield City Council is scheduled to take up a controversial proposal to add sexual orientation to the city’s 
nondiscrimination ordinance.
The council has scheduled a public hearing on the ordinance, and a substitute ordinance, at next Monday’s meeting. The original ordinance would make it illegal to fire someone or deny housing based on a person’s sexual orientation. The substitute would ban discrimination only in housing.
KYTV reports that when the city council considered the issue in 2012, it encountered severe backlash from opponents. The bill was put on hold while a task force met with the public and other officials and eventually proposed the substitute ordinance.