From: awerling@nmsu.edu (WERLING)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.homosexuality
Subject: Protecting Gays (fwd)
Date: 23 Jan 93 23:35:50 GMT
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Andrew Werling   awerling@nmsu.edu   yip@acca.nmsu.edu
"Books are burning/ I hope somehow, this will allow/ A phoenix up from the 
			flames"
					---XTC

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 10:13:05 EST
From: Shad Brown <brownsh@libra>
To: awerling@nmsu.edu
Subject: Planet Yip: Protecting Gays

>
>From the Albuquerque Journal, 1-22-93 (Friday):

EMPLOYERS SURVEYED ON PROTECTING GAYS
By Jim Martin
Journal Staff Writer

     The city is mailing 602 local employers a survey that could
be a step toward Albuquerque and New Mexico passing laws
prohibiting discrimination against homosexuals.
     The city's Human Rights Office asks in the survey if
employers already have personnel policies protecting workers or
job applicants from discrimination based on their sexual
preference.
     A letter attached to the survey says the results will
provide guidance to the city's Human Rights Board, which hears
discrimination cases and can impose penalties on employers.
     The board is trying to change the city's human rights law
and state law to protect homosexuals and others from
discrimination in employment or housing, new board chairman Bill
rothanbargar said Thursday.
     If the survey shows several employers already have such
policies, it could indicate changing the law would have community
support.  If there are only a few employers with the policies
now, that may mean changes are needed.
     "The board has taken a rather proactive stand on this
issue," Rothanbargar said.  "I think President Clinton's efforts
to lift the ban on gays in the military makes the timing good for
changes in our community."
     The nationwide controversy over Colorado's anti-gay rights
law has nothing to do with the board's position, Rothanbargar
said.  The board began considering the issue about a year ago
after hearing from gay and lesbian rights activists, he added.
     The board sent a letter to the New Mexico Human Rights Board
asking it to support any bills introduced at the Legislature to
ban discrimination based on sexual preference.
     The board is also planning to ask the City Council to amend
the city's law to include sexual orientation as an area protected
from discrimination, Rothanbargar said.
     The city law applies to almost all employers in Albuquerque,
both in the public and private sector.
     Council President Vincent Griego said he would discuss the
issue with other councilors if he gets a request from the board. 
"I don't know if the council will take it up, but I certainly
don't think we should discriminate against anyone for any
reason," he said.
     City Hall's personnel policies protect employees and job
applicants from discrimination based on a wide range of
categories.
***30***

Wow!  We don't live in such a backwater state after all! :)

brownsh@libra.unm.edu (temporarily until the VAX gurus fix JURIS)
That's Captain Shad to you, buoy!
"I can't define pornography, but I know it when I see it!"
  -- Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart
Xref: sparky alt.politics.homosexuality:10064 alt.rush-limbaugh:14864 alt.politics.clinton:20971