Appeals Court Upholds Cincinnati’s Exclusion of Gays From Rights Law
A federal appeals court Friday reinstated a voter-approved City Charter amendment that denied gays special protection against discrimination.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that sexual orientation is not “an identifiable class” worthy of inclusion in the city’s human rights ordinance alongside sex, religion, race and age.
U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel misinterpreted legal precedent when he ruled in August that the 1993 amendment on gays was unconstitutional, the appeals court said in reversing his decision.
Spiegel had ruled that the amendment was vague and violated the free-speech and equal-protection rights of gays.
The appeals court said “the reality remains that no law can successfully be drafted that is calculated to burden or penalize, or to benefit or protect, an unidentifiable group or class of individuals whose identity is defined by subjective and unapparent characteristics such as innate desires, drives and thoughts.”
Washington lawyer Michael Carvin, who represented the city and a citizens’ group that pushed for the amendment, called the ruling “a victory across the board.”
Mayor Roxanne Qualls, who opposed the effort to restrict gay rights, denounced the appeals court ruling.
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