Sexual Orientation Left Out : Human Relations Panel Gets Vague Orders

A commission to investigate racial, ethnic and cultural conflict in San Diego County was approved in concept Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors, but without a reference to sexual orientation that had made the proposal controversial.

That reference, which would have included discrimination against homosexuals among the issues the commission should address, was removed from the commission’s charter, as were several other specific issues.

As a result, the county’s Human Relations Commission, as the board will be known, will not be told to study discrimination based on race, religion, ethnic origin, sex, age or any other reason. Instead, the commission will work under a more vague directive calling on it to help eliminate “injustices and inequities resulting from prejudice, intolerance and discrimination against individuals and groups.”

The altered proposal was put forth Tuesday by Supervisor Leon Williams and was applauded by civil rights and human relations groups within and outside the county. It was still opposed by conservative Christians, who said they fear the commission could become a vehicle for legitimizing homosexuality.

If approved in its present form by the supervisors March 12, the proposal will create a commission of 15 members. Each of the five county supervisors would appoint two members, and the rest would be appointed by the San Diego division of the League of California Cities.

The commission’s budget-- expected to start at $100,000 a year --will come from the county. The panel’s goals and objectives will be subject to approval by the Board of Supervisors.

Although the commission’s duties will be broad, it will not have the power to mediate individual complaints filed against private citizens, businesses and government agencies.

Instead, Williams said, the commission will be an educational tool “which would have as its mission creating an ambiance in which it is not acceptable social behavior to be anti-anyone because of their ethnic origins or religious beliefs.”

“It will not be a runaway commission, and it will not provide any embarrassment to the county,” Williams said.

The proposal, which Williams made his top priority when he became chairman of the board last month, won the support of the Chicano Federation, the YWCA, and other groups and individuals.

The idea was also endorsed by a representative of the state Fair Employment and Housing Commission, which held hearings in San Diego in 1983 and 1984 to probe allegations of racism and discrimination, and to gather information about the existence in the county of the Ku Klux Klan and other white-power groups. After those hearings, the state commission proposed that the county establish just the sort of panel that Williams envisions.

“Where human relations commissions are established, the problems don’t go away, but at least there is a forum for addressing the problems,” Ann Noel, counsel to the state commission, told the board Tuesday.

The Rev. Steve Asmuth, president of the San Diego Evangelical Assn., said his group, which has opposed the commission’s formation, is happier now that the reference to sexual orientation has been deleted. But because the proposal has attracted widespread support in publications for homosexuals, Asmuth said he still fears that the commission will cater to that community’s needs.

“We believe there might be a hidden agenda in this proposal and fear the county Human Relations Commission might become a forum on sexual preferences,” Asmuth said. “We find it totally unsatisfactory, in fact repulsive, that the homosexual community might seek to make such a commission a tool in their hands.”