FAYETTEVILLE -- Local businesses have been more vocal in their support of the city's proposed Uniform Civil Rights Protection ordinance than they were late last year when another anti-discrimination law was being put to a public vote.
More than 300 business owners have signed pledge cards saying they embrace diversity and inclusion, don't discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and support passage of the civil-rights ordinance in a Sept. 8 special election.
Several of them showed up to a news conference on Thursday organized by For Fayetteville, a group supporting the proposed ordinance, which has been approved by the City Council but needs voter approval.
A special election on whether to approve Fayetteville's Uniform Civil Rights Protection ordinance is set for Sept. 8.
"I can't imagine living in a place where people aren't accepting of each other in all of our differences," said Maudie Schmitt, co-owner of Cafe Rue Orleans.
Last month, Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce President Steve Clark called the latest proposal "a well-written ordinance."
Opposition from the chamber and other business interests was key in the campaign against the previous Civil Rights Administration ordinance, which was rejected by nearly 52 percent of the 14,580 voters who cast ballots in a Dec. 9 referendum.
The chamber actively encouraged its 1,175 members -- and the general public -- to vote against the earlier ordinance, saying it used ambiguous terms, such as "perceived" characteristics and "socioeconomic background;" set standards that had no basis in the Arkansas Civil Rights Act of 1993 or federal Civil Rights Act of 1964; and could lead to frivolous lawsuits that would harm businesses.
Clark changed course in early June, when the Uniform Civil Rights Protection ordinance was introduced, saying his concerns with the previous law had been addressed.
"You just keep going down the list of things we objected to, and they were taken out," Clark said.
Unlike the Civil Rights Administration ordinance, which used language from the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign as a starting point, the Uniform Civil Rights Protection ordinance borrows language from and directly refers to state laws, including the Arkansas Civil Rights Act and Arkansas Fair Housing Act.
It guarantees gay residents "the right to obtain and hold employment without discrimination" and "the right to the full enjoyment of any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities or privileges of any place of public resort, accommodation, assemblage or amusement."
Like the state Civil Rights Act, it defines an employer who would be subject to the law as "a person who employs nine or more employees in the state of Arkansas." The Civil Rights Administration ordinance included businesses with just five or more employees.
Even though the Arkansas Civil Rights Act specifically states it doesn't apply to "employment by a religious corporation, association, society or other religious entity," the local law goes a step further, saying, "churches, religious schools and daycare facilities and religious organizations of any kind shall be exempt."
That provision hasn't been enough for some opponents of the law, however.
"My faith does not happen in a church building. It happens every day," Linda Burnett told the City Council on June 16 when the ordinance was being debated. "I should have the right to not violate my conscience."
Burnett and other opponents said business owners shouldn't be compelled against their will to provide services to someone whose lifestyle they find morally objectionable.
Protect Fayetteville, a group advocating against the latest civil-rights law, on its website cites news stories from several newspapers, including The Washington Post, The New York Times and USA Today, in which private business owners, such as a Washington florist, a New York event space and a New Mexico photographer, have been sued or received complaints for refusing to participate in gay weddings.
"A couple who does not believe in hosting a samesex ceremony at their bed and breakfast facilities can be prosecuted under this ordinance," Protect Fayetteville's website states. "A photographer or baker who does not believe in participating in a same-sex wedding can be prosecuted."
City Attorney Kit Williams in previous discussions about the Civil Rights Administration ordinance said ministers couldn't be forced to conduct same-sex marriages, but businesses that serve weddings might have to provide services for them.
"However, I cannot imagine that such a situation would actually ever occur, as I cannot believe that any couple would want a person who objects to their wedding to sing at or photograph their wedding," Williams said in a Sept. 4 memo.
Supporters of the Uniform Civil Rights Protection ordinance have noted the high percentage of Fortune 500 companies that have anti-discrimination policies.
According to research by the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, 49 of the country's top 50 Fortune 500 companies prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation as of June 2014. Forty-two of the companies had policies against gender identity discrimination.
"That shows that our most successful companies value diversity, inclusion and equality," Kyle Smith, president of For Fayetteville, said in a statement.
Metro on 07/25/2015