We, the signers of this petition, are joining together to support Leslie Pope who has been wronged by her own city of Adrian, Missouri. We believe the city administrators in a rash and unconscionable decision have chosen to fire her from her position as a law enforcement officer for no reason other than the fact that she is openly gay. Rather than open their minds and hearts to someone who may be different, they have chosen to remove a wonderful person from their ranks of public servants. Leslie is a loving daughter, sister, aunt, cousin and, most of all, life partner. In addition to serving the town of Adrian, she also served our country as an enlisted woman in the U.S. Navy and supported our troops in Iraq. She has lived in Missouri almost her entire life and finally felt she had found a home there after returning from her military service. Instead, she is being pushed out by the leadership of the town of Adrian. If these are the people we have leading our cities how can we ever hope to see our children grow up to surpass our own faults and lead us into the future. In a time when there is so much hatred and intolerance in the world, Americans are suppose to be a shining beacon to others as an example of a contemporary society. Unfortunately, there are some places in this country, like Adrian, that refuse to change and refuse to accept that discrimination in ANY form should be unacceptable in our country. We sign this to say that this outrageous act of blatant discrimination is wrong and that the Missouri state legislature MUST change its laws to count sexual orientation discrimination among its other forms of outlawed discrimination. No matter what you think about gay rights, you cannot pick and choose what kind of discrimination is acceptable because in the end we are all valuable people in this society and all deserve to be treated with equal respect and dignity. If you keep one door of discrimination open you allow all the others to remain open as well. If you believe discrimination is wrong, if you believe that all people should be respected and treated with human decency, if you believe that the town of Adrian and, indeed, the state of Missouri MUST take the necessary steps to bring themselves into the future of modern society, please sign this petition and send it along to others who will take up the call as well. Together we can make a change for tomorrow!