O.C. Fair Board may tighten nondiscrimination policies following complaint

The Orange County Fair Board is looking into tightening its nondiscrimination requirements with organizations it contracts with.

Board member Andreas Meyer brought the matter before the panel Thursday following an activist’s complaint about the OC Fair & Event Center’s relationship with Vanguard University, a private Christian school across the street in Costa Mesa.

“I don’t want to see a redo of what happened with the Vanguard situation without the board being consulted about that,” said Meyer, who is being honored this weekend by the LGBTQ civil rights organization Equality California for his activist work.

In July, Reggie Mundekis, an activist who frequents Fair Board meetings, filed a complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, asking officials to examine a contract between Vanguard and the state-owned fairgrounds.

At the heart of her complaint was an allegation that the fairgrounds violated antidiscrimination laws by entering an agreement with a school that holds views against same-sex marriage.

The Department of Fair Employment and Housing declined Thursday to confirm or deny whether the matter is being investigated.

Last year, the Fair & Event Center agreed to pay Vanguard $75,000 to display signs at the campus theater, cross-promote programming and dispatch the university’s musical theater students to perform at the Orange County Fair as well as the Imaginology and Salute to Veterans events at the fairgrounds. The contract did not have an antidiscrimination clause.

Vanguard University’s student handbook from 2018-19 prohibits “engag[ing] in a romanticized same-sex relationship.” It also lists homosexual behavior as a sexual sin or sexual misconduct.

Vanguard is affiliated with the Christian denomination Assemblies of God, which maintains that the Bible says “homosexual behavior, along with illicit heterosexual behavior, is immoral.”

Meyer’s original proposal for the board’s consideration Thursday was to include a nondiscrimination clause in all contracts between the Fair & Event Center and any vendors, sponsors or other organizations. Meyer walked back that proposal after discussion with other board members over whether the language was overreaching.

“I understand what the genesis of it is, and I just want to make sure we’re all very clear about the ramifications of doing this,” said board member Ashleigh Aitken. “I would like to have us really think out what our liability is against freedom of religious expression. … I don’t think we should be putting ourselves in a position where we deem one religious organization acceptable to be on this property and one religious organization not acceptable.”

Aitken pointed out that the language could prevent a variety of religious organizations from being able to hold programming at the fairgrounds.

The board agreed to have its governance committee review the language and bring it back to the board for further discussion.

This year’s fair involved several LGBTQ-friendly initiatives, including the first Out at the Fair event. The board also decided to fly the rainbow flag year-round at the Fair & Event Center.

Support our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.