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Hopes remain high following Senate hearing on Anderson-Murray Anti-Discrimination Bill |
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| Hopes remain high following Senate hearing on Anderson-Murray Anti-Discrimination Bill | ||
| Senators speak up in defense of Gay community during hateful testimony by local bigots
A Senate hearing on the Anderson-Murray Anti-Discrimination Bill was held Tuesday before the Financial Institutions, Housing & Consumer Protection Committee in Olympia. The chambers was at standingroom only - members of the Christian Coalition and other anti-Gay fundamentalists who came to speak against the bill, and against Gay people across the board, were shoulder-to-shoulder with Gay activists, religious and business leaders who, in contrast, came to deliver eloquent testimony in favor of passing this long overdue legislation. In total, 64 people signed up to testify on the bill with 10 testifying against it. The bill, which passed out of the House in February, faces an uncertain future in the Senate. Gov. Chris Gregiore has promised to sign the bill into law provided it makes it to her desk. The bill has stalled in committee for the past 30 years, but observers and organizers say that this year things may be different. Sen. Darlene Fairley (D-Lake Forest Park) told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Tuesday that the bill is only one or two votes shy of a majority in the Senate. I am very optimistic, she said. Its the right thing to do. Sen. Fairley, however, would not speculate on when it might come to a vote on the Senate floor. After Tuesdays hearing, the SGN caught up with the bills primary sponsor, Rep. Ed Murray, as he left the committee chambers. I thought it went well, he said. The speakers for the bill whether they were parents, religious leaders or business leaders made the case about why this legislation was needed. I thought the Senators questions were thoughtful...they showed that they were very much engaged in thinking about how to move forward with this issue. The Anderson-Murray Anti-Discrimination Bill (HB 1515) would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, public accommodations, credit, insurance and commercial transactions. Fifteen states, Seattle, King County and seven other municipalities in Washington state already prohibit such discrimination. Volunteers with the new statewide LGBT advocacy organization Equal Rights Washington have been working diligently on getting the bill passed this year and are credited with organizing the impressive, and effective, roster of speakers for Tuesdays hearing. Credit is also due to the Human Rights Campaign which has sent organizers and financial support from Washington, D.C. to our state to lend a hand. HRC is sending more help, too, as the day draws near for Senators to cast their vote on whether Washington will become the 16th state to protect its Gay citizens. BROAD SPECTRUM OF SUPPORT Rep. Murray addressed the committee first at Tuesdays hearing. Some have asked, Is this a necessity? Let me assure you, from the schoolyard to the boardrooms, discrimination is real for Gays and Lesbians in Washington state, he said. I appeal to you as a Gay man, as a native son of this state, as your colleague, to pass this bill. After Rep. Murray, four panels of speakers testified, two in favor of HB 1515 and two opposed. A broad spectrum of individuals representing various organizations, businesses and religions spoke in favor of passing the bill. Religious leaders such as Rabbi Bruce Kadden of Temple Beth El in Tacoma and Bishop Chris Boerger of the Northwest Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church both testified. While Rabbi Kadden said that he has not experienced discrimination firsthand, ...not all Jews were so lucky, he said. I urge you to vote in favor of this important piece of legislation. Business leaders from Preston Gates Ellis, the states oldest and largest law firm, from HouseValues and Coors Brewing Company also testified. People who feel free to be themselves...are more productive, said Kari Glover, managing partner at Preston Gates Ellis. HouseValues Chief Operating Officer Clayton Lewis provided excellent testimony as a very successful entrepreneur and Gay man. His business doing exceedingly well, Lewis told the committee that providing protections for Gay workers just makes good business sense. Today, HouseValues employs approximately 350 individuals within the state We lease a three story, 65,000 square foot building in Kirkland I have over 11,000 customers across the United States and Canada Im now looking at how Im going to invest $75 million, he said. Business leaders make choices every day choices on where to locate our business and where to invest in the nation When the legislature passes and the governor signs HB 1515, you are going to send a clear message that Washington state has created a level playing field and treats all residents equally. Brad Nadal, Seattle Metro Manager for Coors Brewing Company, stated that he knows from personal experience how difficult it is for even a - a Caucasian male heterosexual like himself to land a job these days. I can only imagine how difficult it is for a homosexual to get a job, he said. He stated that the Coors company includes the class sexual orientation in its own non-discrimination policy because we need to create a successful business by protecting all Coors employees. Several businesses provided written testimony encouraging legislators to pass the bill, including Washington Mutual, Hewlett-Packard, Nike, Corbis and Berlex Laboratories. We are pleased to have an opportunity to support this measure as it works its way through the legislature, said Marcy Eastham, HPs local government affairs manager. Attracting and retaining a talented and diverse workforce in Washington is vital to HPs business success. No competitive company can afford to practice a policy of exclusion. Carol Waymack, mother of two, physician, PFLAG organizer and member of Woodland Park United Methodist Church, also testified in favor of the bill. We are very proud of both our children, she said of her son and Lesbian daughter. She needs to know that when she goes to a restaurant with her partner, she can get a table just like her brother. SENATORS ADMONISH FUNDAMENTALISTS Those who spoke against the bill, such as Washington Evangelicals for Responsible Government (WERG) and the Christian Coalition, focused solely on speaking against homosexuality itself and all Gay people, pulling out the worst fundamentalist scare tactics - recruiting children, dangerous lifestyle (i.e. AIDS), homosexuals can change to straight, etc. This did not seem to at all impress the Senators on the committee. In fact, several were visibly annoyed and some stood up for Gay folks and admonished speakers who were crossing the line into insults and outright lies about Gay people. Bob Higley, a lobbyist for WERG, said that if HB 1515 were to become law it would be the first instance a minority of a suspect class could declare protection one day and leave the suspect class the next, arguing that any heterosexual employee who was fired could say he was Gay and file suit for discrimination. Tens of thousands if not millions of Christians hold that homosexuality is a reprehensible lifestyle, said Randy Leskovar, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel in West Seattle. He said were HB 1515 to become law, homosexuality would be taught in schools as a normal practice, which is not what the bill will do. He also testified that according to the Centers for Disease Control, homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle and that millions have come out of this lifestyle through prayer. This bill would place sexual orientation outside the scope of morality, said Rick Forcier of the Christian Coalition. Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond and an African-American, was perhaps the most abrasive among the Christian fundamentalists to testify. Locally, Hutcherson has received considerable media attention for being an outspoken African-American minister against same-sex marriage. Homosexuals have never been considered one-fifth of a human being, he said, then stated that homosexuals want to molest young boys. He also protested comparisons between the Gay struggle and the black Civil Rights Movement. When the homosexual community tried to make this a civil rights issue, I have a real problem with that, he said. Homosexuals have not had to go through what I had to go through growing up in Alabama. Hutcherson said that Gays are an illegitimate minority because homosexuals can change if they want to but people of color cant change their skin. I have never heard of an ex-black. I have never heard of ex-Hispanic, he said to prove his point. Sen. Margarita Prentice (D-11), of Mexican-American heritage, said, A person has no more choice of being Gay than I have a choice of being five feet tall. Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, a teacher who has studied and given academic instruction on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, told Hutcherson that his testimony sounded identical to what whites said about African-Americans during the era when the Civil Rights Movement was at its ugliest. Sen. Brian Weinstein (D-41) said that during his years as a school teacher, I have seen Gay children abused, humiliated, spit on, called fag and sissy, beaten up I dont know anyone who would choose that. In another conflict with the Senators, City of Seattle employee Phil Irwin testified that Rosa Parks would never have given her seat on the bus to a Gay person and that the Anderson-Murray Anti-Discrimination Bill is a Jim Crow Law to deny heterosexuals their rights. Sen. Rosa Franklin (D-29) said it was offensive to her, an African-American woman, that Irwin would invoke the name of the beloved Rosa Parks. This is disparaging to her name, she told Irwin firmly. Do not refer to Rosa Parks or Jim Crow Laws or the KKK to make your case. Its offensive. The rabidly anti-Gay Phil Irwin is no stranger to Seattles GLBT community. In the 1990s he came forth when the City established a group for GLBT City employees and would aggressively try to enter the meeting room with a friend whom Irwin said left the Gay lifestyle. He has also been spotted in Volunteer Park in years past videotaping male park visitors at random in broad daylight, as if to intimidate Gay men away from the park entirely. I have experienced discrimination and I know firsthand the pain it causes, said Dr. Vernon Johnson, an African-American professor at Western Washington University. I think what we are talking about is the pain of discrimination. Johnson was also the co-founder of the Whatcom County Human Rights Task Force and an active member of the Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity. Johnson disagreed with Hutcherson. I would say African-Americans, like the rest of America, can have different opinions A BOOST FROM HRC The Anderson-Murray Anti-Discrimination Bill has gotten a boost this year from the efforts of a new statewide LGBT advocacy group, Equal Rights Washington (ERW), and from the Human Rights Campaign. HRC organizers have traveled to Washington to help ERW and more are on the way. Volunteer phone bankers have made over 1,700 calls to LGBT and allied voters in key districts throughout the state encouraging support for the bill. Since February, the HRC has committed at least one full-time organizer to helping ERW with the effort to pass HB 1515. The Seattle Gay News spoke with Dan Kully, an ERW spokesperson, on Wednesday about HRCs support. The Human Rights Campaign has been an invaluable partner with Equal Rights Washington in helping to pass the Anderson Murray Anti-Discrimination Bill, he said. We are cautiously optimistic that this will be the year that this important bill ensuring equal rights for Gays and for Lesbians in housing and employment will finally become law, in large measure to the special relationship between HRC and Equal Rights Washington. ERW also released the results of a poll, which indicated that the majority of Washington voters wanted to ensure equal treatment for Gays and Lesbians, on Tuesday, just hours before the hearing was to begin. These results are based on 400 interviews conducted between Feb. 24 and Feb. 26, 2005. The sampling had an error rate of + or 4.9 percent, which means that the poll would not differ greatly if all voters in Washington had been interviewed. When asked if they thought it was already illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, voters erroneously believed it was illegal to discriminate in employment. A wide margin of 82 percent to nine percent ware unaware that someone who was LGBT could lose their job due to their sexual orientation. The poll also found that 71 percent of voters across demographic groups support ensuring equal rights for LGBT people, while only 22 percent are opposed. Murray urged all supporters of HB 1515 to call the state Legislative Hotline at (800) 562-6000 and leave a message for their Senators. Hotline staff will help callers identify their elected officials, he said. People need to talk to their Senators. That is the most powerful thing they anyone can do right now, said Murray. We need individual people, not elected officials, to talk to their Senators right now. HEARING PHOTO CAPTIONS PHOTOS BY ROBERT RAKETTY # 22/23 - State Rep. Ed Murray # 25 - (Nearest to Farthest) Douglas White, Rose Gunderson, Philip Irvin, Randy Leskovar # 26 - (LtoR) Kari Glover, Rabbi Bruce Kadden, Carol Waymack # 27 - Carol Waymack # 29 - (L to R) Ken Hutcherson, Rick Forcier, Bob Higley # 30 - Brad Nadal, Dr. Vernon Johnson, Clayton Lewis, Bishop Chris Boerger # 32 - Brad Nadal |
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 GENERAL GAYETY Leslie Robinson |
 LESBIAN NOTIONS Paula Martinac |
