Erie County Council Tables Hearing of Proposed HRC Ordinance 3/6/01
Recent News! The Human Relations Commission ordinance is still being considered by Erie County Council! We need as many people as possible to call and write to express their support! Please call County Council at (814) 451-6302 to let them know how important this is for ALL people in Erie County. Look here for Erie County Council contact info, or browse to http://www.eriecountygov.org
If you have any questions, please contact Michael Mahler at [email protected] or (814) 456-9833.
by Deb Spilko and Michael Mahler
ERIE, March 6-About 100 people attended the March 6 meeting of the Erie County Council. Most of those in attendance had come because Council had placed on the agenda revisions to the Human Relations Commission (HRC) ordinance. Of particular interest was the addition of "sexual orientation" as a protected category. On January 29, the HRC had voted unanimously to accept "sexual orientation" as a protected category. (See story.)
The decision regarding whether or not it will become law rests with County Council. Because of the importance of the Council's decision, attendance at the March meeting drew a very large crowd, and the meeting had to be moved from to Courtroom H to accommodate all attendees. About 20 speakers addressed the issue of inclusion of sexual orientation in the ordinance. Because of the large number of speakers, each speaker was limited to three minutes. Among those who spoke in favor of the inclusion of sexual orientation, the tone varied widely, from quiet requests to anger. Some speakers expressed frustration regarding an article that appeared in the March 3 edition of the Erie Times-News. In the article, several Council members were asked to comment on the sexual orientation revision, and seemed to give the impression they had already decided to vote against it.
County Council member Mark Divecchio was the sponsor of the measure and the sole vote at the meeting to not delay. He also spoke in favor of including it in the Erie Times News article. County Council member Joe Giles was not at the meeting and also was the only County Council member not to comment on the issue in the article. Among those speaking in favor of including sexual orientation protection: The national president of Pax Christi USA; Maureen Koseff, president of Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) of Erie and Crawford County, Jayne May, vice president of the same group; Sr. Marlene Bertke; Sr. Mary Louise St. John OSB; Rabbi John Bush of Temple Anshe Hesed; Bill McCarthy (current head of the Human Relations Commission); a straight mother who had attended the 1998 and 1999 Pride Rally event; 2 representatives of the United Electrical Workers local at GE and Bob Cogan, president of the Erie Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU.)
There were a number of GLBT persons speaking as individuals. Among them were Gary Yuhas, who directly addressed Council member Joy Greco, because Mrs. Greco had spoken at the 1998 Erie Pride Rally, but had expressed a lack of support for the sexual orientation inclusion in the ordinance. Greco stated that she came there with a "message of love" and stated that "I don't agree with that lifestyle." Micheal Miller addressed the argument that the protection wasn't needed, by asking the predominately gay crowd to raise their hands. Brian Skelly asked why Erie always seems to be lagging behind in trends.
A minority of speakers were opposed to the measure. The first person to speak against it was Patrick Kennedy, pastor of the First Baptist Church of North East. He claimed that churches and religious groups would not exempt from the proposed ordinance.
"Churches would be forced to hire people of a homosexual persuasion, as would other religious groups," he said.
The ordinance does not mandate quotas for any protected category, either sexual orientation, gender, religion, etc.
All of the speakers opposed to the ordinance were male and included some kind of reference to gays as potential pedophiles, or sexual predators.
Although feelings ran high at the meeting, those attending the meeting were generally respectful of other speakers, and there were no outbursts or other incidents. Two sheriff's deputies were at the meeting, reportedly due to a threat or threats of violence. No details on that threat or threats were available at this time. County Council voted to table the measure because, they stated, the wording of the revised version of the ordinance was problematic. Although County Council seems to regard sexual orientation as the most controversial aspect, there are some other issues, some of which are technical, that they also wanted to address.
For more information on any of this, contact Michael Mahler at (814) 456-9833 or [email protected]
