Fayetteville Residents Oppose Anti-Discrimination Proposal

FAYETTEVILLE -- A proposal prohibiting businesses, landlords and places of "public accommodation" from discriminating against people because of their sexual orientation and gender identity drew some praise but mostly rebuke Tuesday from a standing-room-only crowd that filled the City Council chambers.

The ordinance, if approved, would create a municipal civil rights administrator position, through which aggrieved parties could file complaints of alleged discrimination. Offenders could be prosecuted for unjustly firing a gay employee or evicting a transgender tenant, for example.

The ordinance would also apply to other classes protected under federal law from race, religion, age or gender discrimination. In Arkansas and more than 25 other states, no such protections are in place for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

After hearing nearly three hours of comment Tuesday, aldermen left the proposal on its second reading. The ordinance is scheduled for another -- and possibly final -- round of consideration Aug. 19.

The Rev. Jeremy Flanagan, pastor at Pathway Baptist Church on Mount Comfort Road, was the first to address the council Tuesday.

Flanagan said the ordinance would restrict churchgoers' ability to freely express their religious beliefs about homosexuality.

"It just opens the door to where now we have to be careful about what we say, because now we can be held criminally liable," Flanagan said. "I believe that goes against our First Amendment rights."

After Alderman Matthew Petty, the ordinance's sponsor, offered an amendment expressly exempting religious groups from the proposal, Flanagan and others reasserted their opposition.

Flanagan challenged the definition of "gender identity," saying it would be up to an individual to determine which gender he or she identifies with. He argued that could lead to grown men using women's restrooms or changing areas just because they say they identify a certain way.

David Garcia, one of just a handful of residents who supported the proposal Tuesday, said Flanagan's fears were overblown.

Garcia noted most homes and many businesses have "gender neutral" restrooms. And, he added, "Last time I bought clothes and tried on clothes, you go in, you close the door, you try your clothes on. I didn't have other men gawking at me while I was changing."

Perhaps the most frequent knock on Petty's proposal Tuesday was his -- and other supporters' -- failure to cite any specific instances of discrimination.

"This appears to be a solution in search of a problem," said Peter Tonnessen, a northeast Fayetteville resident.

According to a recent survey of 979 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents in Arkansas by the Human Rights Campaign, a nationwide advocate for LGBT equality, 25 percent of respondents reported experiencing employment discrimination.

"There are instances (of discrimination)," Petty said. "And this idea that I'm going to A) either disclose someone who has lodged a complaint and expose them to public scrutiny or B) expose a business or another association that has had an alleged complaint to public scrutiny is a farce. I would not do that."

Opponents also questioned the cost of creating a civil rights administrator position Tuesday and said taxpayer money could better be put toward building streets and trails and outfitting public parks.

After first saying he thought an additional employee would have to be hired to fill the civil rights administrator role, Mayor Lioneld Jordan -- and Petty -- both said they believe the position could be filled without adding to the city's head count.

Neither Jordan nor Petty have said which staff member would assume the civil rights administrator role.