From: nyt%nyxfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (NY Transfer News)
Subject: California gay rights bill prohibits discrimination /ww
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: The NY Transfer News Service
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 19:41:23 GMT

 California gay rights bill prohibits job discrimination
 By Brenda Sandburg San Francisco

California Gov. Pete Wilson signed a narrow lesbian and gay
rights bill into law Sept. 25--but he used it as an excuse to
veto a broader civil rights bill the following day, in an attempt
to pit oppressed groups against each other.

Political pressure forced Wilson to grit his teeth and sign one
bill he does not support. The measure--Assembly Bill
2601--prohibits job discrimination against lesbians and gays, and
requires the state to investigate claims of discrimination as
potential violations of the labor code.

Last year Wilson vetoed a similar bill that would have provided
protection against both job and housing discrimination. That bill
would have amended the state's Fair Employment and Housing Act to
give lesbians and gays the same protection as national
minorities.

When he vetoed the measure last year, Wilson said small
businesses would suffer and work-related lawsuits would increase
if the bill became law. This lame cover for a blatant anti-gay
attack infuriated the community, which poured into the streets in
cities throughout California.

Gay men and lesbians marched in San Francisco. In Los Angeles,
thousands massed at the state building, smashing windows, setting
fires and battling cops. That may have helped convince him to
sign a bill, albeit a weakened one, this year.

In a two-page statement explaining his rationale for signing the
current legislation, Wilson said it "provides reasonable and
adequate protection against employment discrimination" and is
"far less onerous and costly to employers" than the previous
bill.

The law exempts businesses with four or fewer employees,
nonprofit corporations and religious groups. Bosses who
discriminate face only civil penalties, as mandated under the
labor code, not criminal penalties.

Also, under the current bill people have only 30 days after
discrimination to file a complaint; the bill Wilson vetoed last
year gave people up to a year to file a complaint.

Wilson had been expected to veto the gay rights bill again this
year. Speakers were prepared to denounce him at a San Francisco
City Hall news conference. Instead, more than a thousand people
celebrated passage of the bill in the streets of the Castro
district Sept. 25--cheering, dancing and throwing rolls of toilet
paper up in the air.

San Francisco Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg said passage of the
bill "is a modest victory, but the decision to include us in the
Labor Code and not under the Fair Employment and Housing Act like
other groups protected against discrimination is a deliberate
effort to keep us in somewhat of a second-class position."

The next day Wilson vetoed another civil rights bill, saying it
would cost business too much. The bill would have provided
protection against job and housing bias for lesbians and gays,
the disabled and people who do not speak English--and criminal
penalties for bosses who discriminate against these groups.

In his veto message Wilson objected to the unlimited monetary
damages for emotional distress that could be awarded in
employment discrimination cases, and the provision for filing
lawsuits as opposed to seeking administrative remedies. He also
said the law was unnecessary since he had signed the more modest
gay rights bill the day before.

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World,46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "workers@mcimail.com".)


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