Homosexual Issue Could Stymie Human Rights Panel Proposal

A San Diego County supervisor’s proposal to establish a commission to investigate racial, ethnic and cultural conflict here has hit its first snag: conservative Christian groups are organizing to block creation of the commission because it might be allowed to hear complaints of discrimination against homosexuals.

Although the proposal appears to have widespread community backing and has been endorsed by a state agency that probed civil rights abuses in San Diego County, Supervisor Leon Williams has yet to gain a similar commitment of support from his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors.

Two of the five board members--Paul Eckert and Brian Bilbray--said in interviews that they would oppose the inclusion of sexual preference as an issue to be considered by the proposed human relations commission. Supervisor George Bailey said he would prefer that no specific issues be named in an ordinance establishing the commission. Susan Golding said she would not make a decision until she knew more about exactly what the commission’s mission would be.

While the fate of Williams’ proposal--his highest priority as he begins his year as chairman of the board--remains in doubt, the homosexual and lesbian issue seems certain to prompt a bitter debate that could draw attention away from the commission’s other, less controversial goals.

Already, the San Diego Evangelical Assn. and Dorman Owens, an activist minister from Santee, have begun to fight the commission’s creation, sending letters to supervisors and preparing to alert their parishioners should Williams refuse to exclude homosexuals from the proposed commission’s areas of consideration.

Stanwood Johnson, an attorney and a director of the evangelical association, said the group believes that the commission would be little more than a front for the “legitimization” of homosexuality.

“This is something we’ve talked about for years within the churches as something to watch out for,” Johnson said. “The usual tactic is first you create a commission with all sorts of noble goals and then sort of stick in the issue of sexual preference. Then the commission makes a recommendation for a gay rights ordinance, and has a rather lengthy report, and because of that, it builds certain momentum and makes it all the more difficult for supervisors to go against.

“No one’s been able to show there’s a great need for a human relations commission,” he said. “There’s no need for it except that one group wants to be legitimized.”

Owens, who has led marches against homosexuality in Hillcrest, said many of his parishioners will attend the county hearings and speak out against the proposal.

“I think the county would be stupid to put their money into a human relations commission that would take taxpayer money and use it for the protection of homosexuals,” Owens said.

Williams, who has been working behind the scenes to ensure that the homosexual issue does not become a lightning rod for opposition to the commission, said discrimination based on sexual preference was not what prompted his proposal.

“There’s no advocacy of anyone’s life style or, for that matter, ethnicity,” Williams said. “We’re just saying there shouldn’t be conflict.”

Williams added, however, that he sees no reason to exclude from discussion problems stemming from sexual preference, such as the tension between homosexuals and fundamentalist Christians.

“Any inter-group conflict that threatens the peace is a legitimate concern of society as a whole and of government,” he said.

According to Ann Noel, counsel for the state Fair Employment and Housing Commission, discrimination based on sexual preference has routinely been included as an area of inquiry for other human relations commissions in California. Even conservative Orange County has a commission that addresses the issue.

“I know it’s an area of controversy and an area where people feel strongly, but I think that only points to the need for a human relations commission to cover it,” Noel said. “The emotional reaction you get when talking about civil rights for gays and lesbians, the emotional outcry against that, speaks to me eloquently of the need for protection.”

The commission Noel represents held hearings in 1983 and 1984 in Oceanside and San Diego to investigate allegations of racism and discrimination in the county. The commission heard testimony from black Oceanside school district employees who contended they were discriminated against, from a man who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in North County and from a white Jamul woman whose black husband was beaten after the couple went to an East County cafe for breakfast.

After concluding its hearings, the Fair Employment and Housing Commission recommended that a human relations commission be established in San Diego County to investigate, and try to prevent, similar incidents.

At the same time the state commission was holding its hearings, Williams was forming a 50-member committee to study the creation of a county commission to fill a void he believes has arisen since a similar county body was eliminated in 1978. Williams’ mention of the proposal in his state of the county address Jan. 15 drew the only applause that interrupted his 20-minute speech.

Williams may find it harder, however, to persuade his board colleagues of the value of his proposal as long as it retains a reference to sexual orientation.

Golding, while leaning toward support for the commission, said she doesn’t want such a body to be “trying to enforce laws that don’t exist.” But Golding said she would be more likely to support the commission if it were directed to study more general issues.

“The purpose of a commission is a very broad one,” Golding said. “It is to look into areas of tension and conflict--I don’t care what areas they are. The purpose is to look into ways of alleviating conflict. For that reason, they could justifiably examine any areas.”

Supervisors Bilbray and Eckert said emphatically that they would not support a commission that addressed itself to problems related to sexual preference.

“I don’t think that merits being identified as a priority of a human relations commission,” Bilbray said. “I don’t think it’s an item to be placed on an equal par with racial discrimination, with religious freedom. When I saw sexual orientation being placed alongside race and color and creed, I said wait a minute.”

Eckert said he hasn’t decided whether to support the commission proposal, but he said he will definitely oppose any reference to the homosexual community.

“I’m not going to support that,” he said, adding that he may attempt to make an issue of the fact that Neil Good, a Williams aide who helped write the proposal, is homosexual. “I think we know where a lot of this is coming from,” Eckert said.

But Good said he believes his sexual preference will not become an issue in the debate over Williams’ proposal. “It’s not relevant,” he said. He said the evangelical association is the only community group he knows of that has criticized the proposal.

“Leon’s motivation for creating the commission has nothing to do with promoting life styles or to raise to any form of legitimacy any type of behavior,” Good said. “It is to establish a forum by which groups who are victims of violence and tension can have a chance for a resolution of those problems.

“The proposal was motivated by the incidents of violence that have occurred over the past 18 months--gang warfare, problems in the Indochinese community, cross burnings, leafletting by the white students’ union, housing discrimination, the fire bombing of the birth control clinic,” Good said. “There is a whole list of problems in the community and Leon thinks there needs to be some official effort on the part of the government to create an atmosphere where there is less tension between groups.”