County Bars Bias Over Sex Orientation
County Bars Bias Over Sex OrientationDecember 2, 1998
By DON FINEFROCK
Miami Herald Staff Writer
Two decades after Anita Bryant dealt a knock-out blow to gay rights in Miami-Dade County, a deeply divided County Commission voted Tuesday to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The 7-6 vote triggered whoops of joy among supporters and threats of retribution from opponents packed inside the commission chambers.
The spontaneous demonstration then spilled onto a plaza outside County Hall, where supporters wept openly.
``Today is a great day for all Dade County,'' attorney H.T. Smith, a key supporter, told the jubilant crowd.
``The struggle for equality and the struggle for justice is a never-ending struggle. We must keep the pressure on.''
Supporters chanted, ``Katy, Katy, Katy,'' in tribute to Katy Sorenson, the commissioner who led the push to ban discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation on the basis of someone's sexual orientation.
Opponents responded with chants of ``Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,'' and vowed to fight on. ``We are obviously disappointed at this point, and we will regroup,'' said Anthony Verdugo, chairman of the Dade County Christian Coalition.
Verdugo declined to say whether the group will seek to overturn the ordinance through a public referendum. That's what happened in 1977 after the County Commission passed one of the nation's first gay rights laws. Bryant, a former beauty queen, led the battle to roll back that ordinance through her Save Our Children campaign.
Dade voters repealed the 1977 ordinance by a 2-1 ratio.
This time, supporters of the ordinance say they are ready for a referendum.
``They are coming after us with a referendum and we are going to beat them again,'' Rosemary Wilder, one of the leaders of SAVE Dade, told supporters.
To win a spot on the ballot, opponents would need to collect signatures from about 33,000 people, or 4 percent of the county's registered voters.
Moss targeted for recall
Opponents may chart another course, though. Christian radio host Ralf Stores urged Verdugo on Tuesday to begin a recall drive targeting Commissioner Dennis Moss, one of the seven supporters.
``Let's pull the packet right now, for a recall on Moss,'' Stores told Verdugo outside the commission chambers immediately following the vote.
Moss, who represents a large portion of South Dade, had voted against the ordinance last month, saying the issue was not ripe for commission debate.
On Tuesday, however, Moss came out in support, providing the crucial seventh vote needed to assure passage.
``Discrimination is discrimination no matter where you find it,'' Moss said. ``This particular ordinance goes a long way toward addressing that issue.''
More than 100 other cities and counties have similar laws protecting gay men and lesbians against discrimination, including Miami Beach, Key West, West Palm Beach and Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Six other commissioners voted for the ordinance: Sorenson, Barbara Carey, Betty Ferguson, Gwen Margolis, Jimmy Morales and Bruno Barreiro.
Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, who could veto the ordinance, has also expressed his support. ``I regard this matter to be one of basic human rights,'' he told commissioners in a two-page memo delivered Tuesday.
Six commissioners voted against, including Miriam Alonso. She provided the seventh vote last month to advance the measure to a public hearing.
Leaders of SAVE Dade had hoped to win her vote Tuesday, but Alonso voted no without public explanation.
The other five no votes: Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, Natacha Millan, Pedro Reboredo, Dorrin Rolle and Javier Souto. Only Rolle was a surprise.
After losing a 7-5 vote before the commission last year, leaders of SAVE Dade revived the measure in September, believing they had Rolle's vote.
`Against special rights'
But Rolle voted against the ordinance last month and again Tuesday. ``In my mind's eye, this is special rights and I am against anyone having special rights,'' he said.
Dozens of speakers who addressed the commission during the four-hour public hearing on Tuesday made much the same point.
They attacked the ordinance as an affront to Christian values and they said gay men and lesbians had not proved they face discrimination.
``I am against discrimination, too, but I believe in calling a spade a spade and calling a sin a sin,'' said Nathaniel Wilcox, executive director of People United to Lead the Struggle for Equality, or PULSE.
``There is no substantial evidence to prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that these people are being discriminated against.''
Wilcox, a deacon at Miami Holiness Church, also spoke earlier outside County Hall as hundreds of Christians chanted and prayed before the vote.
``We've got to make a stand for Jesus,'' Wilcox told the crowd.
Supporters staged a counter demonstration, chanting ``Shame, shame, shame'' at their opponents across a narrow corridor dubbed the Gaza Strip.
The vote capped an 18-month struggle by SAVE Dade, the group that proposed the ordinance and pushed for its passage, despite initial setbacks. The commission killed a virtually identical measure in June 1997 on a 7-5 vote.
Jorge Mursuli, the chairman of SAVE Dade, said the group prevailed because the group was persistent -- and it did not give up on any single commissioner.
``I think the difference is we were persistent, and we were good listeners,'' Mursuli said.
Move had prominent support
The group also lined up key supporters, including several leaders of Dade ethnic groups and religious leaders. George Knox, a prominent black attorney, and Mikki Canton, a Hispanic attorney, spoke in support of the measure Tuesday. So did Adora Obi Nweze, the president of the local NAACP, Herald Chairman David Lawrence Jr., and the Rev. Laurie Kraus of Riviera Presbyterian Church and the Rev. Marilyn Usher of Greater Bethel AME Church in Overtown.
Usher chastised opponents for their harsh views: ``Some of us may need a Bible study,'' she said.
Credentials aside, one of the most moving speeches was delivered by Anita Sherman of Aventura, a soft-spoken woman who identified herself as the proud mother of a gay son.
``The words family values, sinner and choice are being used constantly by the Christian Coalition,'' Sherman said. ``Please be advised that I, too, have family values. Please be advised that my son is not a sinner. He is a decent human being.''
Sherman was embraced by her son, Richard, as she left the podium.
Return to the News
and Announcements page.
Return to the Affirmative Action
and Diversity Page
Carl
Gutiérrez-Jones
Department of English
University of California, Santa Barbara
e-mail: carlgj@humanitas.ucsb.edu