Camarillo Rejects Gay Rights Bid

Bowing to residents’ protests, the Camarillo City Council on Wednesday rejected changing the city’s hiring policy to specify that Camarillo does not discriminate against gays or lesbians.

The council voted 4 to 1 against a gay rights group’s proposal to add the words sexual orientation to the list of characteristics--including race, creed and age--that would not disqualify applicants for city jobs.

Instead, council members agreed to a counterproposal to eliminate all specific references to various groups in the hiring policy.

The new wording, which will appear in employee manuals, will state simply that the city shall not unlawfully discriminate against workers or job applicants.

Councilman Michael Morgan dissented, saying he wanted time to investigate how other California cities are responding to a new state law forbidding discrimination by employers on the basis of sexual orientation.

Morgan added that he is concerned that the city may not be able to fire homosexual workers who harass other employees.

“If there’s any promotion of that type of thing on the job, that shall not prevent us from firing people,” he said.

The state law, which went into effect Jan. 1, doesn’t specifically require employers to change their written hiring policies.

But the Unity Pride Coalition of Ventura County, a gay rights group, has asked all 10 cities in the county to spell out their legal obligations under the statute.

By offering this information, the cities would provide a service to employees and job applicants, coalition Director Neil Demers-Grey said.

The county’s Board of Supervisors and every city except Moorpark, Camarillo and Oxnard have agreed to the change, Demers-Grey said. Moorpark and Oxnard are considering the change.

Camarillo City Council members said they chose the generic statement on hiring policy so that they won’t have to change the wording again if the state law changes.

However, Demers-Grey said it is important for employers to specify how state and federal laws protect workers against discrimination.

Before the council’s vote, Clara Jean Davis, a delegate on the county’s Republican Central Committee, warned that she and other residents would sue the city if council members agreed to the Unity Pride Coalition’s request.

“The homosexual rights movement threatens to undermine American family values,” Davis told the council. “Men living with men is not a family.

“If you add ‘sexual orientation’ (to the anti-discrimination policy), you are destroying the family in this community,” she said.

Although Davis was one of only three people at the meeting to oppose the Unity Pride Coalition’s request, council members said they had received many calls from residents supporting Davis’ position.

One protester who called Mayor Charlotte Craven was Jeannie Crouch, 39, who said she learned about the issue from a fellow member of her church.

Homosexuality is “a behavioral pattern,” Crouch said earlier Wednesday. “It’s not something you are born into, such as a race, creed or religion.”

In addition, she said, the term sexual orientation is vague and could include other sexual inclinations besides homosexuality.

“Does sexual orientation mean legalizing pedophiles?” Davis asked the council. “Does it mean allowing them to practice bestiality with our animals?”