Gays and Lesbians outraged by Gov. Wilson's veto of rights bill

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Protesters assemble in San Francisco's Castro District on Sept. 30.

"There is a time for outrage and for hitting the streets," Torie Osborn, executive director of the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Community Service Center, told the Los Angeles Times Oct. 1.

California's lesbian and gay community agrees the time is now since Gov. Pete Wilson announced his veto on Sept. 29 of AB 101, legislation that prohibited employment discrimination against lesbians and gays.

The veto came despite Wilson's indication that he would "probably" sign the bill and a statewide poll that showed Californians favored the signing of the bill by a margin of more than two-to-one.

Outraged gays and lesbians and their supporters responded with rallies at state government office buildings the day after the veto was announced, and subsequent rallies were held up and down California from Sacramento to San Diego.

On Sept. 30, 7000 marched from San Francisco's Castro District to Civic Center. San Francisco mayoral candidate and former police chief Frank Jordan appeared at the rally, only to be chased away by protesters mindful of Jordan's role in violent police handling of AIDS protesters in 1989. Jordan narrowly escaped, minus a shoe. A much publicized shoe-burning ceremony was held later in the week.

In West Hollywood, 2000 demonstrators rallied, chanting, "Civil rights or civil war!" going on to protest at a museum opening where the governor was speaking.

Gay rights activists have vowed to continue their fight. "This is Stonewall II," Osborn said in the Advocate, referring to the 1969 New York protests which sparked the gay rights movement. "The veto tapped Just when we thought we couldn't absorb another financial scandal, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) collapses with a crash that is shaking Washington and Wall Street. The power of greed and money to corrupt the most respected senior statesmen has been demonstrated. The rule by conspiracy imposed on the American people is exposed, as yet another government coverup unravels before Congressional hearings. into a well of anger and pain fed by 10 years of AIDS. It's energizing and mobilizing people like you wouldn't believe... The righteous anger that people feel will translate into something. When momentum happens at the grass-roots level in a broad-based way, it always changes the face of things."

Mickey Wheatley, a civil rights attomey and member of L.A. Queer Nation, called the Southern California rallies "an explosion of creative energy unlike anything we've ever seen." (Advocate, Nov. S, Dan Wasserman / Boston Globe 1991). The intensity of these protests is being compared to the anger displayed in 1979 when ex-cop Dan White was only convicted of manslaughter after his premeditated murder of liberal San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and gay Supervisor Harvey Milk.

For a week after the veto, protesters continued to hound Wilson at his public appearances. Three hundred activists, whom Wilson referred to as using "fascist tactics,' confronted him at Stanford University's centennial celebration and drowned him out YAWN...

I HATE THESE Lo LONG TELLER In his veto message, Wilson said that he rejected the legislation because it would impose unfair burdens on businesses and unleash a flood of litigation. He also offered the lame excuse that gays and lesbians are already protected from employment discrimination by a number of state laws and court decisions.

Those who took to the streets should be encouraged. Just weeks after the veto, on Oct 28, the California state court of appeals unaminously ruled that private employers may not discriminate on th basis oi sexual orientation.

Despite Wilson's apology for "any false comfort that may be derived from the veto by the tiny minority of mean-spirited, gaybashing bigots," the veto indeed offered back-handed support to current anti-gay and lesbian campaigns, including the move to overturn a ban on anti-gay discrimination in Concord, Calif., and the effort to repeal domestic partners legislation in San Francisco.

Another insidious campaign is being led by the Rev. Lou Sheldon, head of the Anaheim, Calif.-based Traditional Values Coalition, who is attempting to introduce a ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to require that any local gay rights ordinance be approved by a two-thirds popular vote.

As Roger Coggan, legal director for the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Community Service Center, told the Advocate, "When the governor of California refuses to protect the basic rights of gays and lesbians to work, what message does it send about the government's willingness to protect our other basic rights? It's a message that resonates in the actions of gay and lesbian bashers."