Group in Irvine Launches Bid to Keep Gay Rights

A group of Irvine residents on Saturday launched a campaign to defeat a ballot initiative that would remove homosexuals from the protection of the city’s human rights ordinance.

At a morning press conference, the leaders of the drive said they would canvass the city in a bid to drum up enough support to defeat the initiative in the Nov. 7 balloting.

“This is clearly a blatant attempt to legalize discrimination in this city,” said Dr. James Boone, one of the founders of the new group, called Irvine Citizens United. “This is an attempt to discriminate against gays and lesbians. As decent citizens, as Americans, we can’t permit this to happen.”

The initiative, which, if passed by the voters, would remove the words “sexual orientation” from the human rights ordinance, which was passed last year to ban discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion, physical handicap, marital status or sexual orientation.

The sexual-orientation provision has been attacked by the Irvine Values Coalition, a group primarily made up of religious fundamentalists. The coalition submitted more than 5,000 signatures in March to qualify the initiative for the city ballot.

‘Grass-Roots’ Coalition

Boone, a chemist, said his group represented “a grass-roots, broad-based coalition of Irvine residents.”

“We will take out advertising and maybe do some direct mail” solicitation, he said. “We are not certain yet exactly how we’ll get our message out. This will develop as the campaign goes along.”

“People have to know about this initiative. The funding will come from the grass-roots level. It will cost a lot of money, but we don’t know how much.”

In addition to Boone, members of the advisory board for Irvine Citizens United include Victoria Miller, a city public safety commissioner; the Rev. Fred Plumer, pastor of the United Church of Christ in Irvine; Councilwoman Paula Werner; Ray Catalano, a former city councilman and UC Irvine professor; Debbie Rugani, former president of the Irvine Chapter of the American Assn. of University Women; John Dombrink, former chairman of Irvine Temporary Housing; Irwin Alber, chairman of the city Transportation Commission; Mitsuye Yamada, a poet and college professor, and Jamie Wilkinson, a Realtor.