Subject: Cincinnati Anti-Gay Measure Appealed to U.S. Supreme Court
From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 1995 17:39:46 -0400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, August 10, 1995

Cincinnati Anti-Gay Ballot Measure 

Appealed to U.S. Supreme Court

Measure is Similar to Colorado Amendment 

to be Heard By High Court in October

Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and the ACLU will ask the United
States Supreme Court today to review an anti-gay charter amendment adopted by
Cincinnati voters that would deny lesbian, gay and bisexual citizens an equal
voice in government.   The petition seeks to overturn a federal appeals court
decision which departed from every previous ruling on anti-gay amendments
when it upheld the constitutionality of the measure.

"Anti-gay ballot measures like Cincinnati's Issue 3 are senseless and
damaging to everyone," said Patricia M. Logue, managing attorney for the
Midwest Regional Office of Lambda.  "These anti-democratic measures target
one group of citizens, and change the rules by which that group can advocate
for political change.  They clearly violate the guarantees of the
Constitution."

Passed by voter referendum in November 1993, the anti-gay measure (known as
"Issue 3") would amend the Cincinnati City Charter to bar lawmakers and other
city officials from ever passing legislation that protects lesbian and gay
citizens from discrimination in employment, housing and other areas.   It
would also repeal any existing laws that prohibit discrimination based on
sexual orientation.

In May, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the
Sixth Circuit ruled that the charter amendment is constitutional, reversing a
decision by U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel, who invalidated the
measure in August 1994 on numerous constitutional grounds.

Under Issue 3, which has been stayed pending the Supreme Court's action on
today's petition, gay citizens in Cincinnati would no longer be able to
secure anti-discrimination protections from lawmakers unless they first get a
majority of voters to pass another charter amendment repealing Issue 3.  In
effect, lesbians and gay people are required to jump through extra hurdles in
order to make the same political gains as all other citizens.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review a similar measure
in Colorado, which was struck down by that state's highest court because it
infringed on the "fundamental right of gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals to
participate equally in the political process."  Oral argument in that case,
Romer v. Evans (No. 94-1039), has been scheduled for Tuesday, October 10,
1995, the second week of the Court's 1995-1996 term.

"The Supreme Court has already recognized that the issues presented by the
Colorado case are important and worthy of review," said Lambda staff attorney
Suzanne B. Goldberg, who is co-counsel in both the Colorado and Cincinnati
cases.  "Indeed, these issues are terribly important as we face a nationwide
onslaught of anti-gay and anti-civil rights measures.  We have asked the
Court to grant our petition for review and, if not, to hold judgment on this
petition until the Colorado case is decided."

Lambda's petition--filed with the ACLU Foundation of Ohio, Cincinnati civil
rights attorney Alphonse A. Gerhardstein, and former Ohio State Solicitor
Richard A. Cordray--urges the Court to grant review of the case on two
questions: whether the measure violates the equal right to political
participation, and whether the measure has any rational basis.

The petition also urges the Court to grant review because the issue of
rational basis, a vital question in the Colorado case, is more fully examined
by the courts in the Cincinnati case, and will therefore assist significantly
in the Justices' decision.  (There is no deadline for when the Court must
decide on today's petition.)

Although anti-gay ballot measures are a relatively new phenomenon, the recent
surge beginning only in 1992, anti-civil rights initiatives first emerged in
the 1960's and 1970's to block laws that prohibited racial discrimination

Radical right groups have latched onto this old tactic to target lesbian and
gay Americans, whose anti-discrimination protections are less established

Over the past several years, efforts to write gay people out of state and
local constitutions have proliferated. In 1994, over ten states faced
initiative campaigns, but pre-election challenges and lack of public support
left only two statewide measures, in Idaho and Oregon, before voters.  Both
were defeated.  A last minute measure in Alachua County, Fla. passed, but a
court challenge spearheaded by Lambda is currently underway.

Despite these setbacks, several statewide anti-gay referendums have been
introduced for the 1995 and 1996 elections.  Voters in Maine will be facing a
referendum later this year, while anti-gay amendments in Idaho, Oregon and
Washington are already being proposed for the November 1996 ballots.

(The case is Equality Foundation of Greater Cincinnati, et al. v. The City of
Cincinnati et al., U.S. Supreme Court, No. 95-XXXX)

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Press Contact:  Denny Lee, (212) 995-8585