Seymour Says Veto Will Cost Him and Wilson Votes

Gov. Pete Wilson and U.S. Sen. John Seymour, both moderate Republicans who have worked to weave homosexuals into the party’s political fabric, will lose support because of their opposition to the bill that would have banned job discrimination against homosexuals, Seymour predicted Monday.

Wilson, siding with conservatives who heatedly object to any legislation benefiting homosexuals, vetoed AB 101 on Sunday and prompted a wave of protests in the gay community. A day earlier, Seymour had announced his opposition to the measure.

The prospect of losing votes is of more immediate import to Seymour--who faces an election campaign next year--than to Wilson, who will not appear on a ballot until 1994, assuming he seeks reelection.

The senator, Wilson’s hand-picked successor, said conversations with gay Republicans in recent days have been laced with predictions that he will lose financial and Election Day support from that block of voters.

Gay Republicans were stung by Wilson’s veto and Seymour’s position because the two had backed efforts by homosexuals to play a role in party politics through gay-oriented political clubs. They also have been sympathetic to legislation benefiting the gay community.

“It’s going to have a negative impact, I suspect,” Seymour said in a telephone interview.

But he added that there is little likelihood that either of the men will pick up support from party conservatives, who have fought them on the issue of taxes and abortion rights, among others.

“That group is going to provide one litmus test after another,” Seymour said. “Today, tomorrow or in the future, it’s going to be impossible for me to pass their series of litmus tests.”

Wilson and Seymour separately cited the same grounds for their common decision, arguing that the measure would have imposed the threat of lawsuits on small businesses and that gay employees are already protected by anti-discrimination law.

Gay rights advocates take issue with their thinking, contending that the threat of litigation is overemphasized and that existing law has loopholes. As evidence of the first, they point to statistics in Massachusetts, where a wide-ranging anti-discrimination law that went into effect in 1989 resulted in only 41 bias claims in its first year.

Seymour said he had not seen any studies that showed that a flood of lawsuits was likely, nor could he say which laws now on the books would protect gay rights in lieu of AB 101.

“We live in a litigious society, as you know, and adding yet another level which invokes lawsuits or litigation is inappropriate,” the senator said.

Seymour continued to maintain that he will look favorably on legislation protecting the rights of homosexuals, but said it is impossible to say whether a bill can be crafted narrowly enough for him to support it.