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Gay rights bill building momentum in Ohio

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By STEPHEN MAJORS, The Associated Press Updated 4:06 PM Thursday, September 10, 2009

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A proposal in the Ohio Legislature to prohibit employment and housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity ismaking progress for the first time, after years of languishing in committee.

The Democratic-controlled House is poised to bring the legislation up for a vote when lawmakers return next week from a break. It was approved in committee earlier this year, the first time that's happened since it was first introduced in the early part of the decade.

However, the bill faces an obstacle in the GOP-controlled Senate, whose president fears it might place additional burdens on business.

State Rep. Dan Stewart, a Columbus Democrat, has introduced the bill in each General Assembly session starting in 2002.

"It's taken that long to make people understand it doesn't have anything to do with gay marriage or anything like that," Stewart said. "We always have a few fringe folks who don't get it and think we're condoning something bad."

Stewart said lawmakers have begun to understand the issue when a simple question is posed to them: "Do you think it's fair to fire someone solely on the basis that they are gay or lesbian?"

The bill would add sexual orientation and gender identity to established categories — such as race and gender — to be protected from discrimination in employment, housing and credit. Ohio would be the 13th state to prohibit discrimination based on both sexual orientation and gender identity, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization. Twenty-one states protect against sexual orientation discrimination only.

Supporters of the anti-discrimination legislation have been also been trying to get it passed for years at the federal level. The latest version, introduced by U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, could get a boost if a state as large and politically significant as Ohio were to approve the measure.

About 85 percent of Fortune 500 companies have policies that prohibit sexual orientation discrimination, while more than one-third have policies that include gender identity, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

The Ohio House bill has two Republican co-sponsors. But Democrats' ascendancy into control of the chamber in 2008, for the first time in 14 years, has been a driving force behind the bill's latest momentum.

The Senate is concerned it may be an imposition on business.

Maggie Ostrowski, spokeswoman for Senate President Bill Harris, said he "is not convinced that it is necessary to impose what amounts to new mandates on businesses."

Opponents of the bill, including Citizens for Community Values, argued that homosexuals should not be extended the same protections as those of different races because their differences are based on behavior, they haven't experienced a history of discrimination resulting in economic deprivation, and they are not politically powerless.

Opponent also argue that by extending the protection to homosexuals, the state would infringe on the rights of those who believe homosexuality is immoral. The bill provides an exemption for religious organizations.

"It makes no sense to protect the right to worship when an individual can then be prosecuted for acting on those beliefs," David Miller, vice president of public policy for Citizens for Community Values, said in committee testimony June 10. "If you pass this bill, you will be putting us on a slippery slope of having commissions scrutinize what is an acceptable expression of one's sincerely held religious beliefs."

Michael Payton, executive director of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, said the change wouldn't infringe on anyone's rights. He provided the House State Government Committee with seven cases of potential sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination that had been brought to the commission's attention.

"The granting of this right will not result in a detriment to others just as the granting of other civil rights protections down through time did not result in a detriment to others then," Payton testified June 3.

___

September 10, 2009 08:00 PM EDT

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Let me be clear - I believe people were created heterosexually, male and female. I also believe that couples who marry (heterosexually) should stay married and not get a divorce. Furthermore, I believe God is a Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - and that those who disagree are mistaken.

When we offer employment or housing to someone divorced or of a different religion, are we endorsing their beliefs/lifestyle, or the the skills and potential in them and their need for shelter?

canadian
2:05 PM, 9/25/2009

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It always sounds bizarre to hear people who are in a protected class based on an actual chosen behavior - their chosen belief system - complaining that people born with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual shouldn't be afforded civil rights protections. the same folks insisting they should be able to fire or evict someone because they hate an entire class of people also insist christians should not be fired even if they refuse to do their job if it conflicts with their chosen mythology.

sue jeffers
4:11 PM, 9/15/2009

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"SC Guy": Do you believe that "businesses (small ones in particular)" have the "right" to fire an employee because, in his private time, he is dating someone of another race? I assume you are not a raging Klansman and do not think that they have such a right. Why, then, should they have the "right" to do so because, in his private time, he is dating someone of the same sex?

Ohioan
3:38 PM, 9/11/2009

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This would be a monumental mistake to pass such a bill that infringes on the rights of businesses (small ones in particular). Here's my message to the Ohio Legislature (and particularly the Ohio Senate because the spineless Dem-controlled Ohio House is much more likely to pander to the homosexual community than the senate): PLEASE DON'T PASS THIS BILL!

SC Guy
3:04 AM, 9/11/2009

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If the folks in ohio or anywhere else for that matter truly believes that some bussinesses would suffer from this bill being passed then why dont they contact any or all of the 85 % of the fortune 500 companies that already have this policy in place and ask them about any problems that theyve had if any ?

Another question I have is : "How does the right to worship equal the right to discriminate" ?

Reverend_Boony
6:52 PM, 9/10/2009

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