Activists Hoping Gay Parade Will Rally Public Support for Rights Bill

Each year, during the Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade in West Hollywood, groups from throughout California march in celebration of past activism and try to energize themselves for their continuing fight on behalf of gay rights.

On Sunday, the 22nd annual parade will take on its sharpest political tone yet.

Gay activist organizations hope to rally public support behind a bill now being considered by the state Assembly that would help protect gays and lesbians against job discrimination.

Assembly Bill 101, authored by Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles), would add “sexual orientation” to the list of categories protected by the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. It would give gays and lesbians the right to take complaints of discrimination to the state Fair Employment and Housing Commission, which has the authority to reinstate employees and to order payment of back wages.

“We need to underscore the urgency for gay civil rights,” said David Smith, a spokesman for Christopher Street West/Los Angeles, a nonprofit group sponsoring the parade. “We must mobilize not only the gay and lesbian community, but also our friends and supporters in the public to push this bill through the Assembly, through the Senate and onto the governor’s desk.”

Sunday’s parade will be the latest in a series of events throughout the state during May and June to draw attention to the bill and to counter an aggressive campaign by anti-101 forces.

Last Saturday, organizers of a Sacramento rally collected about 3,000 signatures on postcards calling on Assembly members to vote for the bill. More than 200,000 postcards will be passed out at the West Hollywood parade and at a similar parade planned in San Francisco on June 30.

Picket signs urging the public to contact their state representatives will be passed into the crowd at the parades, and West Hollywood parade organizers will use the bill itself as a symbolic grand marshal.

“This is our natural rally point,” said Laurie McBride, executive director of the Lobby for Individual Freedom and Equality, or LIFE, the bill’s principal sponsor. “We want to send a clear and positive message to Sacramento that we are not a splinter group, that AB 101 is a just measure.”

McBride and others expect their message to reach a massive crowd Sunday. Last year, the parade drew an estimated 300,000 people and was beamed to cable viewers nationwide. This year, organizers expect to attract an even larger number of spectators, who will watch the parade along Santa Monica Boulevard from Crescent Heights Boulevard to Robertson Boulevard between noon and 3:30 p.m.

Still, supporters of the bill have their work cut out for them. The LIFE Lobby is trying to move the bill through the Legislature amid a tough anti-101 campaign run by the Traditional Values Coalition, a national grass-roots organization representing evangelical churches.

The coalition has distributed literature to state lawmakers and to church leaders stating that the bill will take away jobs from minorities and force churches to hire homosexuals.

Coalition members have picketed outside legislators’ offices, held rallies on the steps of the Capitol and directed letter-writing campaigns to constituents of Assembly members who support the bill.

The coalition’s chairman, the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of Anaheim, has called AB 101 the “homosexual special rights bill,” saying it will open churches to costly lawsuits brought by gay activists and the American Civil Liberties Union.

“The homosexuals aren’t satisfied,” Sheldon said. “They want to challenge the churches in the courts. It’s going to tie up church money, time and leadership. That is not the role of the ministry of any church.”

In a letter to legislators rebuking the anti-101 forces, however, Assemblyman Friedman said the Traditional Values Coalition has failed to raise legitimate public policy issues.

“AB 101 is simply about fairness,” wrote Friedman, whose district includes Westwood, Beverly Hills and portions of the San Fernando Valley. “We must not allow extremists to block AB 101 through . . . outlandish and groundless assertions.”

Friedman’s senior consultant, Rand Martin, noted that church organizations are exempt from the provisions of the Fair Employment and Housing Act.

Martin said the bill will probably be approved by the Legislature and go to Gov. Pete Wilson for signing by September. Although Wilson has not stated a position on the bill, he has indicated that he is receptive to it, Martin said.

Sheldon said the coalition has developed a plan to fight the bill if it passes the Legislature, but he would not disclose any details.

The coalition will not protest at Sunday’s parade, Sheldon said.

Sunday’s Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade starts at noon and will last about 3 1/2 hours. The parade route, roughly a mile long, is along Santa Monica Boulevard from Crescent Heights Boulevard to Robertson Boulevard.