Supervisors Urged to Pass AIDS Statute

Members of the Orange County Visibility League accused county supervisors of political cowardice Tuesday and asked the board to pass an ordinance prohibiting discrimination against people with AIDS.

“We have an awful lot of prejudice and discrimination and hate in Orange County for people who have AIDS,” said Visibility League member Rod Jackson. He was one of several league members who attended Tuesday’s session, one day after activists and relatives of people with AIDS marked the death of more than 1,000 Orange County residents from the disease.

“We need to say that it’s not OK to discriminate against a person with a life-threatening disease,” he added.

Jackson, who has AIDS, struggled to the podium to make his remarks Tuesday and delivered them to a silent, pensive audience.

“I felt I had to be here,” he said after the meeting. “We marked last night the 1,000 people in this county who have died of AIDS, and I’m probably not going to be here to mark the 2,000th.”

Supervisors rejected an anti-discrimination ordinance last year, making Orange County the only urban area in California without an ordinance protecting people with AIDS from discrimination. As a result, activists said, county residents with AIDS face the risks of being fired, kicked out of their homes and otherwise victimized because of their disease.

Just as important, they added, the board’s rejection of the anti-discrimination measure last year sent a signal that county officials are unwilling to stand up for the rights of people with AIDS. The board turned down the measure on a vote of 3 to 2, with Supervisors Thomas F. Riley and Harriett M. Wieder supporting it.

“Two supervisors were courageous and did the right thing,” Jeff LeTourneau, co-chairman of the Visibility League, said during his testimony before the board. “Three, in my opinion, did not.”

LeTourneau and other league members who attended Tuesday’s session said they intended to press board members for another vote on the issue, but the supervisors made no response to the group’s request.

LeTourneau said later that league members will continue to press for the measure. The league is hoping that one of the supervisors will agree to reintroduce the ordinance sometime after the Nov. 6 election, he added.