Chico's tacos management, the El Paso Police Dept. and City of El Paso need to respond to what happened in El Paso at that eatery to a group of gay men.

Why? Because in this age of the Internet, that story will go viral in 48 to 72 hours and will give all of El Paso a black eye.

It matters because in today's world, we need tolerance and we need to embrace everyone. It also matters because it impacts our economic development.

May I remind you that a while back there was a national company looking to relocate part of its corporate headquarters to the Southwest. It came down to El Paso and Albuquerque. El Paso's leadership wined and dined executives from the company, giving the best face for El Paso. In the end, the company decided on Albuquerque. The company was Gap.

When it was all said and done, it was discovered that our lack of openness for alternative lifestyles cost the city that relocation. Those executives picked up on El Paso's homophobia.

It appears nothing has changed.

El Paso, we have a problem.

We want a progressive city, we want to be like other cities around us, but we just want to continue with our backward thinking.

The creative class wants to go to a community where their ideas and lifestyles lifestyles are welcomed. We are not there yet.

The challenge is to create within our own community, families and friends, the tolerance to respect others for what they are or want to be and not what we think they should be. Yet, we keep missing the boat.

I am waiting for our political leadership to denounce what happened at Chico's.

Maybe the management at Chico's figures they are so popular that they really don't need to do anything.

Believe me, it matters.

What are we going to tell our out-of-town friends and relatives about the incident when they ask about it? Trust me, they will ask.

How is the Economic Development Department or REDCo. going to respond when they are asked about it?

We can grin about it and say, "....you know, it's El Paso" and in the moment afterward think to ourselves, "Maybe I should have said something else."

Assuming or expecting this lifestyle to go underground only furthers the "brain drain" that we hear about so often.