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Cities Take Lead on Antibias Laws Article I Comments (6) I

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By JIM CARLTON

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho-Idaho's legislature has repeatedly declined to bar

discrimination based on sexual orientation, so this city is moving toward

enacting such a ban within its boundaries.

City council member Steve Adams at Coeur d'Alene city hall.

A majority of Coeur d'Alene's city

council members said they likely

would vote in favor of an ordinance

that bans discrimination based on

sexual orientation and gender

identity. "If the state had done it, the

cities might not have felt the need to

do this," said Mayor Sandi Bloem,

who said she supports the ban.

The ordinance will be patterned after

some others in Idaho, which make the discrimination a misdemeanor

punishable by a fine and or jail time.

The resort city joins other local governments in the U.S. that have decided not

to wait for their states to pass such antidiscrimination laws. About 170 cities

and counties have passed local bans, said the Human Rights Campaign, an

advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, people.

Coeur d'Alene city councilman Mike Kennedy, left, and Tony Stewart.

Ogden, Utah, in 2011 banned

discrimination based on sexual

orientation and gender identity; bills

that would have done so statewide

have failed to get through the Utah

legislature since 2008. At least 15

Utah cities and counties have passed

similar bans since 2008, Human

Rights Campaign said.

The city council in Vicco, Ky., (pop.

334) passed such an antidiscrimination ordinance in January, said Mayor

Johnny Cummings after bills that would have extended such protections had

died in the state legislature.

Cities Taking Lead on Antibias Laws - WSJ.com

In Missouri, gay-rights supporters said they have been pressing the legislature

for over a decade to extend discrimination protections. But with no such bill so

far, a number of cities and counties have passed their own bans. 'We did what

we could as a council to protect the rights of our residents," said Councilman

Leif Hauser in Olivette, Mo. The St. Louis suburb added sexual orientation and

gender identity to its antidiscrimination ordinance in 2011.

Most of the municipal ordinances being passed call for civil penalties that can

carry fines. But many are so new that officials don't report many prosecutions.

The trend is being fueled, in part, by the 21 states that have passed

antidiscrimination bans on sexual orientation or gender identity since 1982,

driving a move toward local Change in states that haven't, said Douglas

Laycock, professor of law at the University of Virginia who follows the gay-

rights movement in his research on religious liberty.

Opposing such local efforts are groups like Alliance Defending Freedom, a

religious legal-rights group in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Kellie Fiedorek, a lawyer for the group, contends the ordinances are

discriminatory because they may force people who oppose homosexuality on

religious grounds to have business dealings with gays. ''They are making

people make a choice of violating their conscience, or go to jail or face a

lawsuit," said Ms. Fiedorek, who is based in Washington, D.C.

Coeur d'Alene would join the Idaho cities of Boise, Sandpoint, Ketchum and

Moscow in adopting the protections since 2011. The Idaho legislature has

rebuffed efforts every year since 2006 to enact a similar ban statewide. State

Sen. Jeff Siddoway of Terreton said one reason he has opposed banning such

discrimination is it might open the door for same-sex marriage, which he said

doesn't mesh with his Mormon faith.

"If I were going to propose something to this community, I would say figure out

a way you can get what you want without putting pressure on the institution of

marriage," said Mr. Siddoway, 64, a Republican rancher.

Supporters of the bans said the absence of statewide protections has led to

discrimination in work, housing and public establishments. Between April 2009

and April 2010, the Idaho Human Rights Commission received 21 calls

alleging such discrimination, said Pamela Parks, administrator of the state

agency. "A lot of people don't call because they feel they can't get addressed

here," she said.

In Coeur d'Alene (pop. 44,000), such discrimination isn't common but happens

often enough to warrant a new law, said Tony Stewart, co-founder of the

Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, a human-rights-advocacy

group. On Feb. 4, the task force sent a letter asking officials to follow the lead

of other cities in the state.

Council President Mike Kennedy, who supports the proposal, said he plans to

schedule it for a vote sometime in June. Three other council members said in

interviews they either plan to vote for the ban or lean to doing so, while a fifth

declined to comment and the mayor, Ms. Bloem-who votes only to break

ties-said she would pass it.

The other councilman, Steve Adams, a 47-year-old insurance agent, opposes

the measure. He said LGBT people already can seek redress through state

and federal agencies, under broad sex discrimination laws. He said the council

should wait until it is satisfied that "all available and arguably much more

effective existing federal, state and local remedies have been officially sought

and have failed or are conclusively unlikely to succeed."

Write to Jim Carlton at [email protected]

A uersion of this article appeared May 29, 2013, all page A6 ill the U.S. edition of The Wall Street JOlm1G~ with the headline: Cities Take Lead all Alltibias Laws.