NATCHEZ — Natchez is open for business, Mayor Butch Brown says, regardless of who’s buying.

Brown plans to present a resolution for approval at Tuesday’s aldermen meeting stating Natchez’s commitment to diversity and hospitality. The resolution names Mississippi’s recently passed Religious Liberty Accommodations Act as a potentially discriminatory law.

“I don’t want to sit around and wait a week or a month and then jump on board,” Brown said. “I want the world to know we do embrace diversity.”

The resolution says the law, which the governor signed Tuesday, could “potentially sanction overt acts of discrimination against Mississippi citizens and visitors of certain sexual or gender preference based on undefined — and therefore any and all — claims of religious or moral conviction.”

Therefore, the resolution pledges the mayor and board of aldermen to “continue providing, under law, a municipal government and hospitable community that appreciates, celebrates and protects diversity and the individual rights of all its citizens, visitors and businesses.”

Brown will ask the Natchez Board of Aldermen to adopt the resolution at their regular meeting, which begins at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

Ward 1 Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis said she hadn’t seen the language of the resolution yet, but is in favor of adopting such a measure.

“I would vote yes for it, automatically,” Arceneaux-Mathis said. “We (are) an open city, we’re going to help people and be hospitable to everybody.”

Ward 4 Alderman Tony Fields said he would also vote in favor of the resolution.

“What the bill has obviously done is turn a lot of the nation against Mississippi,” Fields said. “Now we’re having people talk about not coming to Mississippi because of that bill, and that’s not right; that’s not good for Mississippi at all, and definitely not good for Natchez because tourism is one of our biggest industries. But aside from the economic standpoint, discriminating against anybody is wrong. And we’re just not about that here in Natchez.”

Ward 5 Alderman Mark Fortenbery said he plans to vote against adopting the resolution, though he does not harbor personal judgment against homosexual people.

“I have my Christian beliefs; they have their beliefs, and it’s not my place to judge,” Fortenbery said. “I’m not answering something I’m not informed about. But as far as what little bit I do understand (of the resolution), I do not plan to vote for it.”

Ward 6 Alderman Dan Dillard said he plans to vote in favor of adopting the resolution, though he has not studied the new law in its entirety.

“Without taking a 16-page bill and going through every line of it, I agree with the mayor’s statement and resolution on that,” Dillard said. “I’m against discrimination in all its forms and manifestations.”

Ward 2 Alderwoman Mary Toles and Ward 3 Alderwoman Sarah Carter Smith could not be reached for comment.

If the aldermen do not adopt the resolution, Brown said he would adopt it as his personal resolution.

“Every board member has an opinion,” Brown said. “I can have a resolution, an opinion like everyone else.”