Topeka ? The Topeka City Council on Tuesday night approved a version of an ordinance making it illegal for the city to discriminate in hiring on the basis of sexual orientation.

Council members voted 5-4 to approve the ban. City attorney Brenden Long said the measure affected the city of Topeka’s hiring practices and not the public at large. He said Shawnee County commissioners passed a similar measure last year.

The council initially considered a proposal that would have inserted the terms “sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression” into sections of city code that ban discrimination based on other reasons, such as race, gender or disability.

Council members then voted 5-4 to amend the ordinance to remove the phrase “gender identity or expression.”

About 70 people addressed the council before the final vote. The first 20 speakers all urged the council to reject the ordinance. Most of those were members of the Rev. Fred W. Phelps Sr.’s congregation at Westboro Baptist Church, which has conducted anti-homosexual picketing in Topeka and other cities since 1991.

Mayor James McClinton interrupted many early speakers to warn they were violating council rules by veering too far from the topic or engaging in repetitious speech, which he defined as saying things that had already been said by themselves or others.

“We will not become a circus in here tonight,” the mayor said.

Those coming to the lectern included many from conservative Christian churches, who suggested passage of the ordinance would define homosexuals as a protected class. They questioned whether the measure would stand up to legal challenges.

Proponents of the ordinance said gay people didn’t choose to be homosexual. They also said the city had a moral obligation to protect human rights.

“It does not matter what form discrimination takes, we should at every step attempt to prevent it,” said Topeka lawyer Pedro Irigonegaray. “The issue here is equal protection under the law.”