SACRAMENTO (UPI) -- Gov. Pete Wilson signed a homosexual rights bill
Friday that bans job discrimination against gays and lesbians, breaking
with conservative Republicans who opposed the bill and signing it just
one year after he vetoed a similar measure.
	California becomes the sixth state in the nation to outlaw employment
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, said Assemblyman
Terry Friedman, the Los Angeles Democrat who authored the bill.
	``This sends a clear message that California does not tolerate
bigotry. I thank the governor for doing the right thing and putting this
issue behind us,'' Friedman said.
	Riots erupted in Los Angeles and San Francisco last year when Wilson
vetoed a similar measure, AB101, and enraged California's homosexual
community. The new bill, AB2601, provides the same anti-discrimination
protections that were contained in the vetoed measure but enforces them
through the state labor commissioner instead of the overburdened Fair
Employment and Housing Commission.
	Exempted from the law are employers with four or fewer workers, and
church organizations.
	Wilson said placing discrimination cases under the jurisdiction of
the labor commissioner will accelerate the settlement of complaints and
cost employers less money to defend themselves against allegations of
harassment.
	The measure, he said, ``provides reasonable and adequate protection
against employment discrimination while still meeting the tests of
fairness to employers and protection of California's jobs climate.''
	Conservative activists, led by the Rev. Lou Sheldon of the
Traditional Values Coalition, had urged the Republican governor to veto
the bill.
	``Gov. Wilson has just signed a law that will socially engineer a new
status for any person who seeks special legal protection based on that
individual's chosen form of sexual expression,'' Sheldon said in a
telephone interview.
	Sheldon said he is considering mounting a legal challenge or ballot
campaign to repeal the law. He predicted that Wilson's decision to sign
the bill may impact the upcoming elections by prompting some
conservative activists to stop working for moderate Republican
candidates.
	``It diverts energy,'' Sheldon said. ``It's going to drain
conservatives.''
	Homosexual groups estimate there are up to 6 million gays and
lesbians in California who are now guaranteed protection against job
discrimination.
	``If you are a person working in a job and you face arbitrary
discrimination because you are gay and lesbian, you now have a place to
go.'' said Laurie McBride, executive director of the Lobby for
Individual Freedom and Equality, which worked to pass the bill.
	When Wilson vetoed AB101 last year, he argued that homosexuals were
already protected from job discrimination under a broad interpretation
of the state's labor code. Wilson ordered his labor commissioner,
Victoria Bradshaw, to accept discrimination complaints against
homosexuals several weeks later after a state appeal court upheld that
interpretation of the law.
	Since then, 87 gays and lesbians have filed discrimination complaints
with Bradshaw's office. The parties have settled in 10 of the cases, and
38 are under investigation, spokesman John Duncan said.
	Four complaints by homosexuals were found valid, and 17 were
adjudicated in favor of the employer, Duncan said.
	The new law codifies existing Wilson administration policy and is far
more limited than a gay rights plank in a sweeping civil rights bill by
Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, D-San Francisco, that would also outlaw
housing discrimination against homosexuals.
	Wilson is expected to veto Brown's bill this weekend. Civil rights
activists said the governor is trying to deflect criticism of the veto
by signing Friedman's measure one day after he narrowly approved a
narrowly drawn package of civil rights measures.
	``So many of the protections that other minorities get are missing
out of the bill. It's just basically just a sop bill. We don't think it
is enough,'' said Dawn Levy, a lesbian member of ACT-UP in Los Angeles.
	States with similar anti-discrimination laws include Massachussets,
Connecticut, Hawaii, Vermont and Wisconsin.