10 GAY PEOPLE's ChronicLE
OCTOBER 1, 1995
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Continued from page 8
probably never know why this was done or by whom. After all, accountability has never been one of Stonewall's strong suits. To the board of directors; please take me off your mailing list, don't send me a warm and fuzzy letter of appeasment signed by Phil Martin, and use my fifteen dollar membership fee as a donation to the AIDS Service Connection where I'm sure it will do the most good for people living with AIDS.
Thomas Fletcher ex-Stonewall Union member
Columbus
Gays aren't protected
The following was sent to Columbus Board of Education member Loretta Heard: Dear Ms. Heard:
I was very saddened to read your comments in Tuesday's [August 29] Columbus Dispatch regarding the addition of sexual orientation to the school board's nondiscrimination policy. As a citizen of Columbus, an Eastmoor High School graduate (1977), a practitioner in employment law, and a gay man, I am writing to ask you to reconsider your position.
In the newspaper article, you are quoted as saying that gays are already protected from discrimination under federal and state laws. Your information on this subject is not correct.
Titles VII and IX of the federal civil rights act, which generally apply to the city schools, do not prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation; indeed, there arecourt cases interpreting those laws which specifically state that they do not prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians. This is why there has been a national effort for many years to amend Title VII to specifically prohibit sexual orientation discrimination. The same holds true for state law: Ohio Revised Code Chapter 4112, our state fair employment practices law, does not prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Our Columbus City Code, Chapter 2325, does prohibit sexual orientation discrimination; the addition of this prohibition was enacted fairly recently by City Council and signed by Mayor Lashutka. However, our city code provides almost no enforcement mechanism for the law, which is why, as you say, no lawsuits on this basis have involved the school board. The truth is that almost no employers have been involved in such litigation, because no law has existed which would give an em-. ployee the right to sue.
On the other hand, I personally know of many school teachers, staff members, and administrators who live in daily fear that they will be fired because they are gay or lesbian. Many of them are my clients and/or friends. They have little or no recourse if they do become victims of discrimination. These persons are among the best and brightest that the city school system has to offer, and it is unconscionable that they should have to live and work in such fear.
A board policy prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination (like the other existing discrimination prohibitions) sends a clear
message to the city schools workforce that such discrimination is not acceptable, and it provides comfort and support for excellent employees, who just happen to be gay or lesbian.
I do agree with your statement that discrimination against blacks is different from discrimination against gays. Board member Kilroy misstated the case when she made this comparison. Race discrimination has a different history and etiology than sexual orientation discrimination.
Actually, sexual orientation discrimination is more akin to religious discrimination. Even though it is usually impossible to identify Jews or Muslims by their physical characteristics, our history is replete with examples of discrimination against those groups. Likewise, gays and lesbians are generally not identifiable by physical characteristics; however, we are an identifiable group with a long history of discrimination.
In the end, however, all groups with histories of discrimination share some commonalities: they generally suffer from discrimination in employment, housing, and/or public accommodations. Moreover, although the discrimination and group of individuals may be different, the fact remains that discrimination against one group hurts all of us.
When I was in my last year of law school, I was offered a position with a well-established law firm. Through a series of coinciding events, the principals of the firm found out that I was gay. They specifically told me that they would not hire someone who was gay, even though they thought I was qualified enough to be hired before they discovered my sexual orientation. I had no recourse against that firm.
Although I am now quite happy with my career, the sting and stigma of that discrimination haunts me to this day. I spend a great deal of my professional and community service life ensuring that what happened to me does not happen to other people. A nondiscrimination policy on behalf of the school board would erase the stigma and provide some comfort to the excellent school board employees who are gay and lesbian.
I ask you to reconsider your position and, when the matter is presented to the board, vote to amend the school system's nondiscrimination policy to prohibit sexual orientation discrimination.
I would be happy to speak with you or meet with you to further discuss this matter, if you like. Please contact me at the above telephone number if you wish to do so.
Fishman & Fey Co., L.P.A. Elliot T. Fishman Columbus
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