Posted on 04/28/2002 1:50:54 PM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
Protections for gays, lesbians proposed
Dallas ordinance would prohibit bias in jobs, housing, services
Dallas Mayor Laura Miller is proposing an anti-discrimination ordinance that would offer gays and lesbians protection in hiring, housing and public accommodations such as hotels and restaurants.
Ms. Miller said Saturday that the ordinance would go beyond the city's current protections against discrimination in its hiring and employment practices.
Under the proposed ordinance, employers with more than 15 workers would not be allowed to hire, fire or in any other way discriminate against employees on the basis of sexual orientation. Proprietors of hotels, theaters and other public places would not be able to refuse service or segregate their patrons.
Violations would be treated as Class C misdemeanors, punishable with a $200 to $500 fine.
Religious organizations and state and federal offices, among other groups, would be exempt.
Fort Worth officials approved a similar measure nearly two years ago.
"It's a major step forward for the city of Dallas," said Dallas City Council member Ed Oakley, who helped draft the plan with the mayor and three other council members – Dr. Elba Garcia, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem John Loza and Veletta Forsythe Lill.
"Austin and Fort Worth and Houston have already passed these ordinances. ... I think it just brings us into the 21st century," Mr. Oakley said.
Council members will discuss the measure at Wednesday night's meeting. A tentative vote is scheduled for May 8. The mayor and some council members said they think the ordinance will pass.
The city's Fair Housing Office would enforce the ordinance. Two city human resources employees would be moved to the office to help investigate complaints.
Substantiated complaints would be sent to mediation, and those that couldn't be resolved would go to the city attorney's office. But city officials said they didn't expect cases to get that far.
"We wouldn't propose something that we didn't think we could police," Ms. Miller said. "That's why we're putting the limited resources we have into responding to the complaints we have."
In April, when she was a council member, she asked the city attorney's office to draft a possible ordinance, but it ended up tangled in language, she said.
Maria Rubio, president of the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance, said Dallas' time for such an ordinance has come.
"We just have more people on the City Council who are behind us than we ever had before. Public perception of us is better now than it ever has been," she said. "I'm ready. I'm just ready for it to go."
Drafters of the ordinance had wanted to create a human rights commission that would investigate complaints, as other cities – including Fort Worth – have done.
That would have cost an additional $750,000 to $1 million, council members said. Budget shortfalls eliminated that possibility for now, but such a panel could be created in the future, they said.
Council member Alan Walne called a possible human rights panel "too much" and said he wouldn't vote for the ordinance.
"If this is just the first step in trying to get to that end, I think that you need to go ahead and resolve that, if that's what you're really doing ... instead of trying to go in the back door," he said. "I think it's totally uncalled for."
Fort Worth City Council member Chuck Silcox, who led the charge for the measure in Fort Worth, applauded Dallas' efforts.
He said Fort Worth hasn't received many complaints since its ordinance passed.
Ms. Lill said Dallas' proposal didn't spring from reports of widespread discrimination.
"We want to make sure that our policy's in place to discourage discrimination," Ms. Lill said. "We also want those who have been discriminated against to know they have a forum to hear their complaints."
E-mail ltellez@dallasnews.com
What this really means is that you won't be able to fire anybody who is single for poor performance. If they're fired, all they have to do is go to their local EEO office and "admit" they're gay. From there, the EEO office will tell the company to either give the person their job back or face being shaken down in a lawsuit. Very nice.
In the eyes of today's government, it's not enough to be merely tolerant of homosexuals. They have to be assigned a special set of civil rights that puts them above everybody else.
If it's such a great thing, why is anybody exempt?
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)
Yes. Dumb question maybe, but would this ordinance violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?
JR aka Larry Hagman is a notorious anti-smoking nazi. I am sure he's of the mindset to support this proposal.
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