National group out on anti-bias law

FAYETTEVILLE -- If proponents are successful Sept. 8 in ratifying the city's Uniform Civil Rights Protection ordinance, it will be without the support of the nation's largest LGBT advocacy organization.

Representatives for the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, which was heavily involved with an effort last year to pass a similar anti-discrimination law, say they value the work being done by the local For Fayetteville campaign, but aren't involved with the latest proposal.

Kendra Johnson, the group's Arkansas director, would not agree to an interview.

"We can't lend our support to the current version of Fayetteville's proposed nondiscrimination ordinance, because it stops short of full and equal protections for LGBT people," she said in a prepared statement.

The absence of the Human Rights Campaign has made it easy for supporters to deflect the argument an outside force is trying to influence local policy. But, it also has made For Fayetteville more reliant on local fundraising than the previous Keep Fayetteville Fair campaign, which advocated for passage of the earlier anti-discrimination law.

The Human Rights Campaign was heavily involved with the Civil Rights Administration ordinance -- a proposal voters repealed Dec. 9.

Alderman Matthew Petty used model language from the organization as a starting point for the previous ordinance he sponsored. In the run-up to last year's special election, the Human Rights Campaign made more than $270,000 worth of in-kind contributions to Keep Fayetteville Fair, according to financial reports filed with the Arkansas Ethics Commission.

The money was used to pay staff salaries, cover legal fees, set up phone banks and mail fliers.

"If somebody could box up and FedEx you an entire campaign, that's basically what they did," Kyle Smith, president of For Fayetteville, said in an interview last week.

The Human Rights Campaign has not been involved financially this time, despite continued attempts by the local organized opposition, Protect Fayetteville, to link the outside organization to the latest campaign.

In reports filed July 15 and Aug. 17, For Fayetteville listed $39,444 worth of monetary donations, but it didn't report any contributions -- in-kind or otherwise -- from the Human Rights Campaign.

Smith and Human Rights Campaign officials both say the national organization hasn't had a hand in the latest effort.

"It's really hard to talk about HRC's involvement, because there hasn't been any," Smith said.

Religious exemptions

Human Rights Campaign officials in email messages said they believe the Uniform Civil Rights Protection ordinance is too broad in its religious exemptions.

Last year's Civil Rights Administration ordinance -- like this year's proposal -- sought to protect gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual residents from discrimination in employment, housing and places of public accommodation in the absence of a state or federal law explicitly prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The previous ordinance prohibited religious institutions from "selecting or rejecting applicants and employees for nonsecular positions." In other words, churches wouldn't have been forced to hire gay preachers, but they could have been compelled to employ lesbian office workers or fill other nonsecular positions with transgender applicants.

Houses of worship, under the previous proposal, would have been allowed to close tax-exempt portions of their property to the public "except for any activity or service that is supported in whole or part by public funds." The city attorney's office last August interpreted that section of the proposal to mean that if a church opened its sanctuary to a Girl Scout troop's meetings, for example, it couldn't bar an LGBT member, parent or leader from attending.

The current ordinance's religious exemptions are more simply worded and are more broad.

"Churches, religious schools and day care facilities and religious organizations of any kind shall be exempt," the ordinance states.

Smith, For Fayetteville's president, said local supporters and Human Rights Campaign lawyers spent "many, many hours" in the weeks following the Civil Rights Administration ordinance's defeat going back and forth on how to word religious exemptions in a new ordinance.

"They started really demanding changes to get their support," Smith said. "But, in the end, we decided that, if the choice was between HRC's support and Fayetteville's support, then we knew which one was important to us, and we went with the ordinance that was right for Fayetteville.

"We wanted to respect the longstanding traditions of faith in the community, and we understand that a church can manage its own affairs according to their beliefs," he added.

Asked whether he was worried about Christian day cares turning away gay parents or religious-affiliated food pantries refusing service to transgender residents in need, Smith said, "We would hope that they don't discriminate, but, without this ordinance, they can anyway."

Crafting the ordinance

Smith said he worked on ordinance language in private meetings with Petty; Alderwoman Adella Gray; City Attorney Kit Williams; Danielle Weatherby, an assistant law professor at the University of Arkansas; Mark Martin, a Fayetteville lawyer specializing in union labor law and workers' compensation issues; and representatives for the NWA Center for Equality, a local advocate for LGBT rights.

The group ran the proposal by other interested parties, including Eva Madison, a lawyer with the Littler Mendelson law firm, and Steve Clark, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, before taking it to the full City Council.

The chamber opposed the previous ordinance. Clark, at a June 6 news conference where the Uniform Civil Rights Protection ordinance was unveiled, said he and other chamber members are now fully on board.

"The Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce has endorsed and supports the passage of Ordinance 5781," Clark reiterated in a Aug. 22 news release. "The Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce urges voters to go to the polls and vote yes on Election Day."

There's some disagreement about whether Repeal 119 leaders were given a chance to weigh in on the latest version of the anti-discrimination law. Repeal 119 is the ballot question committee that collected signatures and forced a public referendum on the Civil Rights Administration ordinance after it was approved by the City Council. The group is now called Protect Fayetteville.

Petty, at the June 16 City Council meeting when the latest ordinance was referred, 6-2, to a public vote, said he bumped into Duncan Campbell, president of Repeal 119 and Protect Fayetteville, at a local coffee shop shortly after the Civil Rights Administration ordinance was repealed.

"I asked him if he would be part of our discussions for a redo, and he said that he wasn't interested unless it was just a resolution" as opposed to a legally binding ordinance, Petty said. "And so, for me, that was a nonstarter. That's why they weren't re-invited to be at the table in my discussions."

Campbell disputed Petty's claim.

"I was not contacted," he said. "It was a surprise to me that this came up."

"People know who I am," Campbell added. "They know the rest of the leaders of Repeal 119. Not a single one was contacted."

Campbell said if he had been contacted he would have lobbied for even broader religious exemptions. Protect Fayetteville leaders have repeatedly emphasized while the ordinance may exempt churches and other religious institutions, it does not exempt individuals.

They've argued the ordinance can be used to compel private business owners -- a baker or florist, for example -- to provide service to someone whose lifestyle they find morally objectionable.

"The issue is forcing people of faith to participate in same-sex (marriage) ceremonies," Protect Fayetteville's website stated last week. "To decorate and cater a wedding is an intimate job where the baker works closely with the couple. People of faith who believe in one man-one woman do not participate in the development or promotion of a same-sex ceremony, because it goes against their conscience."

For Fayetteville representatives, for their part, have argued the issue isn't about forced participation. It's about giving gay, lesbian and transgender residents the same protections women and racial and religious minorities enjoy under state and federal laws.

"No one should be fired from their job, denied housing, or kicked out of a restaurant simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity," the For Fayetteville website stated last week.

For Fayetteville advocates have also pointed to pledge cards that more than 400 local business representatives have signed saying they embrace diversity and inclusion, don't discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and support passage of the latest civil rights ordinance.

Future HRC involvement

Campbell, with Protect Fayetteville, called the claim the Human Rights Campaign is not in any way involved with the For Fayetteville effort "absurd."

Even though the first financial filing does not list campaign contributions from the national group, that does not mean it won't give later and doesn't prove they dislike the ordinance, Campbell said in a written statement.

"Individuals are pretending that these two laws are different, and that HRC has distanced themselves from their campaign," he added. "This is a campaign ploy to deceive voters."

Smith said For Fayetteville representatives would be willing to accept financial contributions or other forms of support from the national organization if it's offered in the week leading up to the Sept. 8 special election.

"We're not ashamed to accept any support we can get, but we want to make sure that that support is right for us and right for Fayetteville," he said.

Although Johnson said the Human Rights Campaign isn't supporting the Uniform Civil Rights Protection ordinance, she said the organization will continue to stay active in LGBT issues in the state as part of Project One America, an $8.5 million effort over three years to expand protections for gay, lesbian and transgender residents in Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi.

"We fully plan to continue working with our friends and neighbors here on other efforts to bring about full equality for all LGBT Arkansans," she said.

NW News on 08/30/2015