To Be More Inclusive, City Renames 'Good Friday'

Bloomington, Indiana, city employees will indeed get paid time off for Good Friday and Columbus Day in 2017, but the holidays won't go by those names anymore. Mayor John Hamilton on Friday announced via memo that as a way to "demonstrate our commitment to inclusivity," the days would be redubbed "Spring Holiday" and "Fall Holiday," respectively. The former precedes Christians' celebration of Easter and commemorates the day Jesus Christ was crucified; the latter marks Christopher Columbus' 1492 arrival in America.

The Herald-Times, which first reported the change, has more from Hamilton's memo: "We are terrifically proud of our diverse workforce at the city. That diversity makes us stronger and more representative of the public we proudly serve." Fox 59 quotes Hamilton as saying the names will "better reflect cultural sensitivity in the workplace." The BBC describes Bloomington as a "traditionally liberal city" that sits in Monroe County, where nearly three-fifths of votes went to Hillary Clinton; the New York Daily News adds that Indiana University's biggest campus is in Bloomington. While a number of cities have already renamed Columbus Day, the Good Friday change has some fired up on social media. How former GOP congressman Joe Walsh puts it on Twitter: "Political correctness makes us sissies." (Columbus is falling out of favor overseas as well.)