Domestic Partnership Ordinance Stalls : Conservative Foes File Petition Urging Vote to Block San Francisco Measure

A controversial ordinance recognizing domestic partnerships between homosexuals and other unmarried couples was stopped from going into effect Thursday by the demand of a conservative opposition group for a public vote on the issue.

A minister and a rabbi representing the group submitted a petition at midday bearing what they said were more than the required 18,800 signatures needed to place the fate of the ordinance on the November ballot. In so doing, city officials said, the conservative group rendered the newly passed ordinance void until the matter is settled at the polls or the petition is successfully challenged.

The move disappointed and outraged gays and human rights activists who had thought that the political fight had been won to legalize their relationships under the ordinance.

“I think it’s horrible,” said Brett Averill, who had just picked up the application with partner Bill Weintraub when the suspension was announced about noon at the marriage license office in City Hall. The pair, who exchanged rings 6 1/2 years ago, said they wanted to make a public declaration of their love.

“I feel genuinely outraged by this,” Weintraub added. “There is nothing to be gained from society by discouraging this sort of commitment.” The pair said they will try to obtain a certificate, even though invalid, frame it and hang it on their wall until the fate of the ordinance is determined.

Weintraub and Averill were one of about 15 couples who picked up applications for a domestic partners certificate since the application forms became available Wednesday, according to Assistant County Clerk LaVergne Keppard. But now, Keppard said, completed applications cannot be accepted.

Under the ordinance, passed by a unanimous vote of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on June 5, unmarried homosexual and heterosexual couples who live in “intimate and committed relationships” would be granted official city status that prohibits discrimination. The law would also give domestic partners some rights granted to married couples, such as hospital and jail visitation rights.

The ordinance had been hailed as insert,refer a victory by gay activists, who have been trying to enact the legislation since 1981. They have continually faced opposition from religious groups and conservatives who charge that the ordinance undermines family values.

“To put any kind of relationship on the same level as traditional, time-honored marriage is an affront to the family,” said Del McLaughlin, a member of the local chapter of the conservative group Eagle Forum and who helped gather signatures for the petition. “We just want to give the people of San Francisco a chance to voice their opposition about it.”

McLaughlin said a loose coalition of religious and conservative groups organized the referendum drive. The two clergymen who dropped off the petition at City Hall on Wednesday afternoon, the Rev. Charles McIlhenny of the First Orthodox Presbyterian Church and Rabbi Leonard Feldman, refused to speak to reporters.

Jean Harris, aide to Supervisor Harry Britt, who authored the legislation, said she was not surprised that the ordinance was stalled but is confident that the measure will pass in November. Polls conducted by the supervisor’s office and area newspapers after the measure passed found that 60% of San Franciscans supported the ordinance, she said.

“Maybe what we need to do is to have it go on record that it’s not just the mayor and the Board of Supervisors but the citizens at large who support this ordinance,” Harris said.

Harris said Britt might also challenge the petition’s legality, based mostly on the validity of the petition’s signatures. City officials will determine whether the petition has enough valid signatures sometime next week.

Harris and city Human Rights Commission member Larry Brinkin said they will begin planning a strategy to ensure that the legislation is enacted in November. Brinkin said an August meeting of gays and lesbians previously planned as a celebration of the domestic partners ordinance instead will be turned into a campaign strategy meeting.

“I feel angry . . . but I look forward to the opportunity to get the message out about what gay families are all about,” Brinkin said.

FAMILY STATUS--New York court expands definition of family to include homosexual relationships. Page 24