GAY PEOPLE'S

Chronicle

Ohio's Newspaper for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com Volume 24, Issue 13 December 19, 2008

Referendum looms over partner registry

by Eric Resnick

Cleveland-A domestic partner registry passed by city council last week appears to be headed for the ballot box.

Council passed the registry, Ohio's third, on December 8. Mayor Frank Jackson has promised to sign it, and the measure would take effect 120 days later.

Meanwhile, a group of conservative ministers say they will try to stop it with a citywide vote.

The registry allows unmarried couples over the age of 18, samesex or opposite sex, to register their partnership with the city. It is open to both residents and nonresidents of Cleveland.

The registry confers no rights or benefits. However, registration will allow couples to access benefits offered by insurance companies, employers and health care providers.

Voters approved a registry in Cleveland Heights in 2003. The Cleveland registry, like Toledo's created in 2007, are modeled after it.

The 13-7 vote in a packed city council chamber was brief, followed by sustained applause. But, with only two exceptions, support and opposition broke along racial and geographic lines. White councilors supported the registry. Black councilors generally did not.

In what often serves in Cleveland as a quiet proxy for race, members from west side wards supported the registry and most of those from east side wards did not.

Only two of Cleveland's nine black councilors voted for it: Mamie Mitchell of Ward 6 and Kevin Conwell of Ward 9.

After the vote, Conwell addressed council, saying his support was about "humaneness" and his belief that we are all "first and foremost human beings" and should be treated equally.

An 'unheard of' move to stop it Earlier that day, the measure's opponents used a Finance Committee hearing to stage what appeared to be a filibuster.

Such a move is "unheard of," said Ward 18's Jay Westbrook, a ·

28-year council veteran and former president.

The registry had been approved by the Legislative Committee the week before. Twenty-nine people had testified for it then, but only two came to speak against it.

Like many bills passed by their assigned committee, the registry was also vetted by the Finance Committee, primarily to consider any budgetary concerns.

But opponents in Finance attempted to stop or stall it, grandstanding for the cable TV audience, and questioning every line of the already-approved ordi-

nance.

Led by Majority Leader Sabra Pierce Scott, a former bank branch manager, opponents did this by offering amendments that were not germane to the ordinance, questioning language that had already been explained and approved in previous hearings, and arguing with attorneys over how words might be parsed, even when told that the meaning of the language was clear and used in other cities without a problem.

Pierce Scott, who represents the east side Ward 8, was also the sole vote against a pair of resolutions

passed on November 17 to support the state Equal Housing and Employment Act and the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Pierce Scott offered amendments and demanded answers to non-sequitur questions to make sure, she said, "that it was clean, clear legislation to reduce the city's risk of suit."

At one point, downtown Ward 13 councilor Joe Cimperman, the ordinance's sponsor, asked colleague Roosevelt Coats of east side Ward 10 why he was offering amendments to an ordinance that he was going to vote against anyway.

The Finance Committee went on that way for more than 21⁄2 hours, nearly as long as the Legislative Committee took to hear 31 people testify a week earlier.

As the hearing dragged on, about a dozen ministers, white and black, came into the room. Some were carrying copies of an article

Continued on page 3

Inside This Issue

Spice up the holidays

Page 8

A sunny start to winter

ANTHONY GLASSMAN

Cleveland LGBT Center sponsorship coordinator Mary Zaller and art maven Bill Tregoning smile fetchingly for the camera during the center's Winter Party on December 12. Held this year at Tregoning and Co. Gallery, the party brought 115 people out to enjoy food catered by Latitude 41° North and music by Stolen Moments, as well as basking in art by Andrew Reach and dozens of other artists.

It also presented an opportunity for new board president Scott Morgan and the other attendees to thank exiting board president Mary Schwarz, former vice president Char Wells, outgoing board member Erin Nash and secretary Brooke Willis.

"It was great to see the LGBT community come together to celebrate the season and our recent victories," said executive director Sue Doerfer.

-Anthony Glassman

Columbus TG equality law passes with few opponents

by Eric Resnick

Columbus Ohio's capital city became its fifth to protect transgender people from discrimination with passage of an ordinance on December 15.

City council passed the measure unanimously before a packed chamber, with many people wearing rainbow stickers. The move

Fire damages café and shops near Tool Shed bar

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Letters to the Editors................ 6 Charlie's Calendar ................ 11 Comics

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Classifieds.....

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came after last week's hearings and public comment that revealed little opposition.

The ordinance updates sections of the city code to bar discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations and "ethnic intimidation," which is Ohio's term for hate crime.

These sections already include race, religion and sexual orientation, and some include other factors. Along with gender identity or expression, the changes add sex, age, ancestry, military status, disability and familial status where needed to make all the sections uniform.

Four other Ohio cities-Cincinnati, Oxford, Toledo and Dayton-include gender identity and sexual orientation in their antibias codes. Ten more cover sexual orientation only.

The new measure was initiated by the city's Community Relations Commission and supported by Mayor Michael Coleman. The commission has two LGBT members, Chris Cozad and Brian Shinn. Cozad said it took four years to

get the measure passed because proponents were "committed to getting it right."

Adding gender identity and expression was never an issue for the commission nor council. Military status was.

The changes protect military servicemembers. The need to protect them has arisen because National Guard and reservists deployed long-term in Iraq and Afghanistan have faced discrimination at home, especially when returning to work or looking for housing, according to testimony.

The controversial part was whether or not to include veterans. This was left out because the category is too broad, and might make it too difficult to protect current servicemembers.

The LGBT proponents moved slowly and exercised caution, according to Cozad, because they remember what happened ten years ago when city council enacted domestic partner benefits for employees, only to repeal them weeks later after religious conservatives threatened to force a referendum. Continued on page 2