ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 28, 1996 TAG: 9603280061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: CITY COUNCIL CAMPAIGN NOTEBOOK
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
The City Council probably won't bar discrimination against gays in city hiring and promotional policies any time soon.
Eight of the nine council candidates who appeared at a candidates forum Monday said they're against broadening an anti-discrimination personnel policy to protect people based on their sexual orientation.
At least two of those who said they're against it - Mayor David Bowers and School Board Chairman Nelson Harris - previously have favored the ordinance, prompting one gay activist to accuse them of "flip-flops."
Sam Garrison, a spokesman for the Alliance of Gay and Lesbian Organizations in Western Virginia, said also that Democratic candidate Jim Trout publicly supported such a policy at a 1992 candidates' forum. But Trout denied it.
"I've been around a long time, but I've never heard that question put to anybody at any meeting," Trout said.
The issue arose during a debate at Mill Mountain Theatre sponsored by the Roanoke Regional Association for Human Services.
Psychologist Myer Reed asked the nine candidates if they would support extending the policy - which bars discrimination on the basis of race, gender and religion - to sexual orientation. Reed asked them to answer with a simple "yes" or "no."
Those answering "no" were: Bowers; his Republican opponent Pat Green; Democratic council candidates Harris, Trout and Carroll Swain ; Republican council candidates Alvin Nash and David Lisk; and Independent Joseph Nash.
Only Linda Wyatt, who supported the policy change during her 1994 election bid, said she would support it. Republican Jeff Artis, who couldn't attend the forum because his daughter was ill, said later that he also would support it.
The answers represent a large shift from the 1992 council campaign, when most if not all the candidates said they'd support a nondiscrimination clause, Garrison said. Harris supported it in his unsuccessful 1994 bid for council.
"Is this another Bowers flip-flop? He's said 'yes,' several times, in public, to groups, on the radio," said Garrison. "He's said since then in private, over and over and over again, that he favored a nondiscrimination ordinance.
"I hate to say it, but it does seem to me that this mirrors [Bowers' changing his mind on a ward system referendum] as a flagrant flip-flop," Garrison said. "It's almost unbelievable the degree to which he engenders a lack of trust."
Bowers and Harris said Wednesday that they're opposed to discrimination against anyone and they're unaware of any gay city employees who've alleged any discrimination.
"If there's any accusation of any kind of discrimination within Roanoke city government I ask that it be brought forward immediately and properly investigated and reported," Bowers said. "At the same time, I don't support or endorse the 'alternative life-style agenda' that some are endorsing."
Beyond anti-discrimination policies, "I'm not in favor of any special or preferential treatment for the gay community," Harris said. He said he believed when he answered the question Monday that the policy already had been broadened to include gays.
Garrison acknowledged there's no hard evidence of discrimination against gays in City Hall.
"But the function of having any kind of [anti-discriminatory] action by City Council ... has the effect of being a model for other employers and gives assurance to those gay people who are city employees that they wouldn't have to be afraid if they were more open" about their sexual orientation.
It's precisely those fears that keep so many gays and lesbians "in the closet," Garrison said.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS CITY COUNCILby CNB