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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 1994)
ju s t o u t ▼ a u g u st 19 . 1904 ▼ 7 national news rama, tension and people filled to overflowing the hearing room of the Senate Committee on Labor and Hu man Resources on July 29, for hear ings on S. 2238, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 1994. The act, called ENDA, is the first piece of federal civil rights protection for lesbians and gay men that has some Landmark END A hearings begin in the U.S. Senate chance of passage. ▼ The tone was set even before the session began. "This whole brigade of very big...men by Bob Roehr walked past all of us who had been waiting in line [to get into the hearing room],” said Tanya Domi, lobbyist for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “Clearly it was done to intimidate people, Summerville struggled to maintain her com I was raised, that is not what I was taught to because they were all men, and they were gener posure, often unsuccessfully, and Kennedy filled believe in. Something has to be done, and soon.” ally pretty big people.” the pauses with soothing words of appreciation The men were led by the Rev. Jerry Kelly, for her efforts. clarion challenge to religious-based oppo Virginia state coordinator of the Traditional Val She spoke of her smal 1-town roots, of her fears sition to ENDA came from Justin Dart, a ues Coalition. The anti-queer hate group was of losing her job, of having mortgaged her home. moving force behind enactment of the last founded in California, by the Rev. Lou Sheldon. She said, “My son was in high school and had great piece of civil rights legislation, the Americans “They tried to insert themselves at the begin dreams all his own. with Disabilities Act. ning of the line and were told they couldn’t do He was depending on “N othing is that,” Domi said. So the men stood at the other me. wrong with denounc side of the door, arms crossed on chests. “ Since people ing that which you An aide of conservative Sen. Dan Coats (R- heard my sto ry ,” believe to be im Ind.), a member of the committee, soon led the Summerville contin m o ral,” Dart e x men around the comer and through an anteroom ued, “I have received horted from his in an attempt to get them into the hearing room. harassing and ob wheelchair. “Every Once inside the anteroom “they started shov scene phone calls. I thing is wrong with ing people against the wall,” according to Domi. had to take my son acquiescing in vi “They actually shoved Ernest Dillon,” she said. out of his high school cious discrimination Dillon is a gay African American man who was because the school against Am erican set to testify on his experience of job discrimina couldn’t assure his citizens just because tion. safety. you disagree with “It got very violent.. trying to push and shove “All of this be their personal views us,” said Cheryl Summerville, a lesbian witness cause I wanted a little and activities—ac who was in the anteroom. “The hate spilled over piece of the ‘Ameri tivities which in no more in that room than anywhere I have ever seen can dream’—a loving way infringe on the before.” fami 1 y, a decent home rights of others. and a good job—just “Police! Police here quick,” came the cry from “Mr. Chairman, a committee staffer. Several police jogged across when Thom as like everyone else.” Jefferson wrote that the hearing room as sounds of the disturbance Most in the hear spilled into the larger chamber. Witnesses were all people are en ing room were moved ushered out another exit. The Traditional Values dowed by their cre by S um m erville’s ator with certain in testimony, and many group was escorted back to the main corridor and a lesbian and gay eye alienable rights, he eventually let into the hearing room. welled with tears at Lou Sheldon did not say, except gay and lesbian its telling. hisbill is not about granting special rights— people. Bigotry is bigotry. Bigotry against gays Ernest Dillon, the second witness, told his it is about righting senseless wrongs,” said and lesbians is un-American. It is personally story of long-term harassment and assault on the Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), commit obnoxious to me, and, frankly, I think it is obnox job as a postal worker in Detroit, and of how there tee chair and chief sponsor of the bill. ‘Today’s ious to God.” was little redress for his problems. hearing brings us closer to the ideals of liberty and Steve Coulter, vice president of Pacific Bell, Dillon described an incident where he was equal opportunity.” beaten while working: “He threw me to the ground, spoke of that company’s experience with a gay "This isn’t easy for me. But it is important to kicked me, and beat me until I was unconscious. and lesbian non-discrimination policy in place me, and that’s why I’m here,” said Summerville, He left me in a pool of blood, with two black eyes, since 1981. He said the policy “is just plain her voice cracking with emotion. common sense. It is not an added burden. It is not and a severely bruised sternum, and gashes in my She choked back tears as she described her forehead. a significant added expense. It reflects our values four exemplary years as a cook for the Cracker as a business.” “I turned to my union, my supervisors, my Barrel restaurant and her being fired by that “It is time to stop this blatant workplace discrimi doctor and the court—only to find that in America company when it adopted a policy to fire employ nation,” said Richard Womack, director of civil I am not entitled to be able to work without fear for ees “whose sexual preferences fail to demonstrate rights for the AFL-CIO. He labeled the current non my life. Well, that’s just wrong. That is not how normal heterosexual values.” Hope, fear and loathing D A T Why Peso Much? ‘‘AFFORDABLE VACATIONS” GAY AND LESBIAN PACKAGES (503) 684-1236 * FAX (503) 620-5184 Heavily Discounted Air & Cruise Packages BUDGET PRICES FO R ... Olivia Cruises ▼ RSVP Cruises ▼ Mexico Mexico ▼ Las Vegas T Hawaii T Reno South Pacific ▼ Safari ▼ Diving HJ5 coverage of gay men and lesbians “a serious failure within our federal and state systems of justice.” hat sentiment stuck in the craw of the next two witnesses. They contend that lesbians and gay men are an economic elite seeking “special rights,” and are out to destroy the family. “It [ENDA) will result in special privileges for an elite group that has unjustly played the victim card to advance,” said Joseph Broadus, professor at the George Mason University School of Law. “As a Jew, I have a real problem with what you say,” said Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), barely containing his rage. “That is precisely the kind of argument that has been made...in behalf of the worst kind of discrimination against Jewish people.” Broadus was impervious to the Senator’s ar guments. He went on to label ENDA “the Gay Bill, which might better have been titled the Sexual Liberation Act of 1994.” Robert Knight, testifying for the Family Re search Council, said ENDA “is less about tolerance for homosexuals than about government-enforced tyranny over those who believe in sexual morality.” The final witness was Chai Feldblum, a pro fessor at Georgetown University Law Center, and legal counsel in drafting ENDA. She testified on behalf of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a broad-based coalition which has been the legislative arm of the civil rights movement for the last 44 years. Feldblum exposed the flaws, distortions and lies of the two previous presenters. Through personal testimony and submitted documents she presented her “evidence of dis crimination.” It is on the basis of this sort of information that Congress has passed all other civil rights legislation. “Gays and lesbians haven’t suffered as much as African Americans and therefore don ’ t deserve civil rights protection,” was how Feldblum sum marized the “comparison argument.” ‘T o try to create a hierarchy of oppression misses the point entirely.... The relevant question is not who has suffered more among minorities, I would never want to answer that question. The relevant question for Congress is: Does discrimi nation exist? It does exist, and therefore it is appropriate for Congress to act.” Feldblum attacked the argument that lesbians and gay men can change, by labeling it "totally irrelevant for passage of this civil rights law.” “An individual’s access to protection under federal civil rights law has never been tied to whether that individual could lose that character istic.” She cited the example of religion, which is not genetically determined and yet is protected by law from discrimination. “No matter which way you turn this bill, it is not [about special rights].... There is a flat out prohibition in this bill against quotas... preferential treatment...and disparate impact claims. Laws generally don’t get clearer than that.” T L et M e E arn Y our B usiness I work to combine professionalism with personal attention in all phases o f real estate. 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