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- Newsgroups: co.politics
- Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!darwin.sura.net!spool.mu.edu!agate!boulder!csn!ncar!karnak.cgd.ucar.edu!kauff
- From: kauff@karnak.cgd.ucar.edu (Brian Kauffman)
- Subject: Re: Anti-Gay Ordinance
- Message-ID: <1992Nov18.202855.24255@ncar.ucar.edu>
- Sender: news@ncar.ucar.edu (USENET Maintenance)
- Organization: Boulder CO
- References: <1992Nov18.190948.21039@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU>
- Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 20:28:55 GMT
- Lines: 49
-
- ... a post found in rec.music.gdead:
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
- sheila_momaney@radmac1.cgl.ucsf.edu writes:
-
- Listen up Colorado!!
-
- From the S.F. Chronicle 11/17/92
-
- JUDGE REVERSES CONCORD ANTI-GAY ORDINANCE
- Measure M is Declared Unconsitutional and Discriminatory
-
- Concord's controversial antihomosexual ordinance was
- overturned yesterday by a judge who ruled that it was unconstitutional
- and discriminatory. Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Ellen
- James* ruled that Measure M, an initiative narrowly approved by voters
- a year ago, violated both state and federal law by attempting to remove
- protections for homosexuals from Concord's human rights ordinance.
- "Measure M, in its entirety, is invalid," James announced, while two
- men who attended the hearing waved their hands in the air and smiled
- widely. James said the measure was "virtually identical" to a Riverside
- initiative that was ruled unconstitutional by the state Court of Appeal
- last year. Attempts by attorneys for Measure M to show that such
- laws have a valid public health rationale, such as stopping the spread of
- AIDS, were not successful. Attorneys representing Concord residents
- and such organizations as the Bay Area Network of Gay and Lesbian
- Educators, who had asked to have Measure M overturned, said they are
- thrilled with the decision. "I'm elated", said Ron Mullin, who
- represented Concord resident Jim Jester. "I'm glad it's over."
- Jester, a former Concord employee who filed a lawsuit along with his
- wife because he was concerned about the measure's effect on the city,
- said he is not surprised by James' ruling but is sorry that it took more
- than a year for the case to get to court. "I'm hoping that we can move
- on from here and Concord will quit becoming a battlefield for conservative
- elements...who have been using it as a staging ground to espouse their
- cause of bigotry, " said Jester, who is not gay. Mark Zapalik,
- executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, the group
- that backed the initiative, said he is"teribbly disappointed" with
- the court ruling. "We're going to encourage the City Council to
- review this with the attorneys who handled it for the possibility of
- an appeal," Zapalik said. Zapalik acknowledged that most of the
- Concord City Council was opposed to Measure M, which passed with a
- margin of only 42 votes. he said he hopes they will review the case on
- its merits to see whether an appeal is warranted. "I think this will
- present them an opportunity to reach deep inside and do the right thing
- in spite of their tendency to not want to on this particular issue,"
- Zapalik said. Measure M was never enacted because of the lawsuit filed
- to block it. It was designed to change a 1991 human rights ordinance
- passed by the City Council to prohibit discrimination on the basis of
- sexual orientation.
-