Bill boosts discrimination ban

OLYMPIA – Saying that under Washington law a person can be fired for being gay, some Democratic lawmakers say it’s time to add sexual orientation to the state’s ban on discrimination.

Nearly three dozen state representatives have signed on as co-sponsors to the bill, which is expected to easily pass in the House of Representatives.

The bill – which has died in Olympia repeatedly over the last 28 years – will be a harder sell in the Senate. Last year, Senate Republicans abandoned their desks rather than allow a vote on the bill. This year, however, Republicans don’t have a majority in the Senate.

“If I had to predict at this point, I think it will pass,” said Rep. Alex Wood, D-Spokane, one of the bill’s co-sponsors.

Proponents are counting on a two-pronged appeal: that it’s the right thing to do and that it’s good for business. Many major corporations, including Microsoft and some of Washington’s largest law firms, have had similar anti-discrimination policies for years.

The bill, HB 1515, would not allow same-sex marriage. In general, it would make it illegal to discriminate against a gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgendered person in employment, insurance, business, public accommodations and real estate transactions.

“This is about justice, and this is about fairness,” said Marsha Botzer, a Seattle gender-transition counselor.

Washington already bans such discrimination on the basis of race, color, creed, national origin, sex, disability or the use of a guide dog. At least five other states have laws similar to what Washington is considering, and Seattle passed such laws in the 1970s.

The bill would help ensure that people would be fairly judged for mortgages, insurance and job performance, said Dave Kaplan, president of Log Cabin Republicans of Washington, a gay GOP group.

“I could be fired today simply because of the fact that I’m gay,” he said. “That’s simply wrong.”

At a standing-room-only hearing Tuesday morning in Olympia, gays and lesbians sat side by side with social conservatives who view homosexuality as an unnatural choice.

“Historically, this bill is very, very scary,” said Susan Shoemaker, a mother.

“Rome and Greece never, ever normalized the deviant behavior. … When you normalize it, you open the door to Pandora’s box.”

She turned to the crowd and told everyone she was praying for them.

Several of the bill’s foes said that it defines sexual orientation too loosely. Rick Forcier, with the Christian Coalition, said the bill could protect behavior like pedophilia.

He also said that gays and lesbians haven’t shown evidence of the discrimination the bill would ban.

Other religious leaders split over the proposal.

Rabbi James Mirel said that the Nazi holocaust started with discrimination in education and employment.

“In my opinion, discrimination is never benign,” he said.

“This community has been discriminated and persecuted against for too long,” said the Rev. Paul Benz, with the Washington Association of Churches.

But Ken Hutcherson, with Redmond’s Antioch Bible Church, said he was aghast that gays and lesbians would compare their status to the black struggle for civil rights. He’s opposed to the bill.

“You’re putting sexual orientation on the same level as the discrimination that many African Americans have been through in our history,” he said.

“I am really upset and really appalled that you can take what somebody does in a bedroom and make it into a law.”

Rep. Lynn Schindler, R-Spokane Valley, sits on the committee that heard the bill Tuesday.

“I will be voting no,” she said afterward.

“I don’t think they actually proved a huge problem with discrimination.”