National group steers clear of Fayetteville LGBT rights campaign
FAYETTEVILLE — If proponents are successful Sept. 8 in ratifying the city’s Uniform Civil Rights Protection ordinance, it will be without the support of the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy organization.
Representatives for the Washington- based Human Rights Campaign, which was heavily involved with an effort last year to pass a similar anti- discrimination law, say they value the work being done by the For Fayetteville campaign but aren’t involved with the latest proposal.
Kendra Johnson, the group’s Arkansas director, would not agree to an interview.
“We can’t lend our support to the current version of Fayetteville’s proposed nondiscrimination ordinance, because it stops short of full and equal protections for LGBT people,” she said in a prepared statement.
The absence of the Human Rights Campaign has made it easy for supporters to deflect the argument an outside force is trying to influence local policy. But it also has made For Fayetteville more reliant on local fundraising than the previous Keep Fayetteville Fair campaign, which advocated passage of the earlier anti- discrimination law.
The Human Rights Campaign was heavily involved with the Civil Rights Administration ordinance — a proposal voters repealed Dec. 9.
Alderman Matthew Petty used model language from the organization as a starting point for the previous ordinance he sponsored. In the run- up to last year’s special election, the Human Rights Campaign made more than $ 270,000 worth of in- kind contributions to Keep Fayetteville Fair, according to financial reports filed with the Arkansas Ethics Commission.
The money was used to
pay staff salaries, cover legal fees, set up phone banks and mail fliers.
“If somebody could box up and FedEx you an entire campaign, that’s basically what they did,” Kyle Smith, president of For Fayetteville, said in an interview last week.
The Human Rights Campaign has not been involved financially this time, contrary to continued attempts by the local organized opposition, Protect Fayetteville, to link the outside organization to the latest campaign.
In reports filed July 15 and Aug. 17, For Fayetteville listed $ 39,444 worth of monetary donations, but it didn’t report any contributions — in- kind or otherwise — from the Human Rights Campaign.
Smith and Human Rights Campaign officials both say the national organization hasn’t had a hand in the latest effort.
“It’s really hard to talk about HRC’s involvement, because there hasn’t been any,” Smith said.
Human Rights Campaign officials in email messages said they believe the Uniform Civil Rights Protection ordinance is too broad in its religious exemptions.
Last year’s Civil Rights Administration ordinance — like this year’s proposal — sought to protect gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual residents from discrimination in employment, housing and places of public accommodation
in the absence of a state or federal law explicitly prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
The previous ordinance prohibited religious institutions from “selecting or rejecting applicants and employees for nonsecular positions.” In other words, churches wouldn’t have been forced to hire gay preachers, but they could have been compelled to employ lesbian office workers or fill other nonsecular positions with transgender applicants.
Houses of worship, under the previous proposal, would have been allowed to close tax- exempt portions of their property to the public “except for any activity or service that is supported in whole or part by public funds.” The city attorney’s office last August interpreted that section of the proposal to mean that if a church opened its sanctuary to a Girl Scout troop’s meetings, for example, it couldn’t bar an LGBT member, parent or leader from attending.
The current ordinance’s religious exemptions are more simply worded and are more broad.
“Churches, religious schools and day care facilities and religious organizations of any kind shall be exempt,” the ordinance states.
Smith, For Fayetteville’s president, said local supporters and Human Rights Campaign lawyers spent “many, many hours” in the weeks following the Civil Rights Administration ordinance’s defeat going back and forth on how to word religious exemptions in a new ordinance.
“They started really demanding changes to get their support,” Smith said. “But, in the end, we decided that, if the choice was between HRC’s support and Fayetteville’s support, then we knew which one was important to us, and we went with the ordinance that was right for Fayetteville.
“We wanted to respect the longstanding traditions of faith in the community, and we understand that a church can manage its own affairs according to their beliefs,” he added.
Asked whether he was worried about Christian day cares turning away gay parents or religiousaffiliated food pantries refusing service to transgender residents in need, Smith said, “We would hope that they don’t discriminate, but, without this ordinance, they can anyway.”
Duncan Campbell, president of the opposition group Protect Fayetteville, called the claim the Human Rights Campaign is not in any way involved with the For Fayetteville effort “absurd.”
Even though the first financial filing does not list campaign contributions from the national group, that does not mean it won’t give later and doesn’t prove they dislike the ordinance, Campbell said in a written statement.
“Individuals are pretending that these two laws are different, and that HRC has distanced themselves from their campaign,” he said. “This is a campaign ploy to deceive voters.”
Smith said For Fayetteville representatives would be willing to accept financial contributions or other forms of support from the national organization if it’s offered in the week leading up to the Sept. 8 special election.
“We’re not ashamed to accept any support we can get, but we want to make sure that that support is right for us and right for Fayetteville,” he said.
Although Johnson said the Human Rights Campaign isn’t supporting the Uniform Civil Rights Protection ordinance, she said the organization will continue to stay active in LGBT issues in the state as part of Project One America, an $ 8.5 million effort over three years to expand protections for gay, lesbian and transgender residents in Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi.
“We fully plan to continue working with our friends and neighbors here on other efforts to bring about full equality for all LGBT Arkansans,” she said.