,sll't

Tense council fiLee

!

S.J. enacts gay rights law

By Mark Saylor

The intense emotional tenor

Staff Writ€r

About half of a 'standingroom'only crowd broke into
wild cheers Tuesday night as
.

the San Jose City Council voted

6:1 in favor of a "gay rights'?

ordinance.

'The other haU of the audi-

ence of about 400 sat in silenee
uhtil one man jumped up and
sho-uted: "You're ignoring the

prtl- of the

people."

-.

of the meeting and the results
of tbe decision echoed recent
hearings before both the San
Jose council and the Santa
Clara County Board of Supervi-

sors.

Tbe council action reaffirmed an earlier vote aPProving the ordinanee in eoncePt.
Only Councilman Larry Pegram voted against the city

law that would ban discrimination against homosexuals in
jobs, housing and business.

"I've talked to business and

I

S

community leaders," Pegram
said to loud applause from the ri
Christian conservatives in the dt
audience, "and there . will be tn
significant and unfortunate S:
pr6btems from this ordinance." su
Brrt the other council mem- dr
fer
Bock of Section,Col.l
tie

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S.f. cou,ncil erlacts gay ,ights ordinu,nce by 6-l aote

-bntinued from Page

1

bers also held to their earlier

positions.

Councilman Jerry Estruth
said, "My pappy told me that
in tront of company you should
never talk about sex, politics
or religiOn. This issue has all
three, and that's why it's such
a difficult issue. . .
"f befieve the ordinance is
right," said Estruth.
Th9 $1rrta Clara County
_
Board of Supervisors approved
a similar, brit probably weaker,
ordinance a w€ek ago.

The vote by San,Jose council
members approving the ordiI

nance on its first reading sets
up another and final vote on
the second reading in two

weeks.

The ordinance would become

effective 30 days after the final reading and adoption.
Estruth suggested a commit_
tee of proponents and opnonents of the ordinance bd'established to work out a compromise before the final vote.
Howe/er, council members
took no action on the
tioni
"ugg"o
p ,light of the council,s earlit' vote conceptually aDDrov_
if the ordinan-ce, *r-e. trbiring
/

Tuesday might have been a

lit-

tle milder than past hearinss

where the conservative opp6_
nents dominated the crowd.'
This time the audience aDpeared evenly divided. Coir_
servatives invoked biblical pas_
sages and shouted occasional
"amens" in the non-smokins
section on one side of the counl
cil ehambers. Supporters of ttre
law, mary of them gays, eon_
gregated into the sm6kin! sec_
tion on the other side. Th"e two
groups intermingled in the cen_
ter section and along the back

walls.

An applause meter probably

would have rated the prooo.

nents of the law slighily lbuaer.
"I think they (the eonserva-

tives) have given up at the citv
level," said Salvatore Accardi,
president of the Watergarden
Corp., a San Jose bathho[se catering to homosexuals and bis-

exuals.

Harrington, president
of^&i"k
Concerned Citizens- Opposed
to the Homosexual Ordin'ance,
spoke only brigfly. He told the
council that there is a better
way to-deal with the ordinance
- at the ballot box.
"The eouncil already made
up their minds,r, said Harring-

ton, whose organization has organized a petition drive for a
referendum on the county ordi-

nance.

Becky Kiessig, a member of

the Republican State Central
Committee, said, ,,The government - that governs least gov-

erns best."
.Jerel McCrary,, an attorney
with
the San Francisco,Gay
Rights Advocates, told thir
council that ggys have no protection from discrimindtion under the law without such an

ordinance.

The hearing lasted less than
two hours after the council vot-

ed to limit debate.
The ordinance requires that
every employer and labor organization required by federal
or state law to post an equa!
employment notice must also
polt a notice saying discrimination on the basis of sexud
orientation is prohibited. ;.
The penalty for noncompl#l
ance with the notice provision
is a 950 fine for each i'iolation.
There are no criminal penall"
ties prescribed for diserirnination of homosexuals. Civil remedies allowed provide for damr
ages ranging between 9200 andj

$400

for

violations.

Copyrighted material reprinted with permission. For educational use only.

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