Petition Problems

The recent, unsuccessful petitioning effort to submit the Human Dignity Ordinance to a vote of the people (“Gay Rights Ordinance Is Now Law,” May 17) produced some rather startling ironies.

While volunteers were legally and peacefully collecting signatures in front of grocery stores and other businesses, they were regularly confronted by opponents, who screamed obscenities and chastised anyone signing the petition by calling them “bigots” and “homophobics.”

When this confrontational strategy actually increased the number of petition signers, opponents instead showed up with clipboards in hand, pretending to be petitioning for other causes. Passers-by were confused and intimidated by so many different “petitions” to sign, which kept them from signing any.

Yes, these strategies worked. Yet it is ironic that those who used the democratic process to achieve victory for their ordinance within the San Diego City Council were the same individuals who blocked use of the democratic process to those simply wanting all citizens to have a chance to vote on the new law.

Throughout the 30-day petitioning period, those of us organizing the effort received numerous obscene phone calls, a small price to pay when you are standing up for your beliefs. All the same, we were the ones consistently labeled as “mean-spirited” and worse.

The biggest irony of all? When it came right down to it, the very proponents of the Human Dignity Ordinance, while claiming to be in support of “human dignity,” were completely incapable of acting with any semblance of dignity themselves.

BARRY M. JANTZ

Chairman, San Diego

Citizens for Equal Rights