CALIFORNIA AND THE WEST Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, March 4, 1992 Part I, Page A3 BROWN INTRODUCES BROAD CIVIL RIGHTS BILL *LEGISLATION: The Speaker says it would be the toughest in the nation. It would, among other things, outlaw certain discrimination against homosexuals, the disabled and the foreign-speaking. ------------------------- By JERRY GILLAM Times Staff Writer SACRAMENTO--With a diverse gathering of minority and labor representatives at his side, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) on Tuesday introduced a comprehensive civil rights bill that he said would give California the toughest such laws in the country. The legislation would outlaw job discrimination against gays and lesbians, restore the authority of the Fair Employment and Housing Commission to award relief to discrimination victims, forbid discrimination against the disabled and prohibit employers from requiring employees to speak only English in the workplace. Brown predicted that the sweeping bill would be approved by the Legislature as he all but dared Republican Gov. Pete Wilson to veto the measure. "I would think Pete Wilson would find it real difficult to mess around with the [California] Civil Rights Act of 1992," said Brown. "There are too many things in it that would cast him in the mode of potentially being viewed as a David Duke or a [Pat] Buchanan or some of those persons. I don't think he would want to be any closer than he already is," said Brown, a remark likely to fuel a growing battle of words between the Speaker and the governor. Former Ku Klux Klan leader Duke and ultraconservative commentator Buchanan are both seeking the Republican nomination for President. Brown said a "steady erosion" of civil rights had been encouraged by Wilson's 1991 vetoes of bills to prohibit job discrimination against homosexuals and award sexual harassment victims up to $200,000 in damages from their employers. The omnibus legislation, which combines several bills already pending in the Legislature, would reverse four recent California Supreme Court decisions that Brown said have "consistently chipped away" at the state's civil rights laws during the last five years. Among court decisions that the bill would overturn is one that took away legal authority of the Fair Employment and Housing Commission to grand damages for pain and suffering and other forms of punitive damages in extreme sexual harassment cases. The bill also would overturn another decision that restricted the rights of families denied housing because they could not show proof of a minimum income. Asked for comment on the Speaker's remarks, Bill Livingstone, the governor's press secretary, said, "Obviously, we have not seen the legislation and we don't know what's in it. We have no position on the bill." And no other comment on Brown's remarks? "That is correct," Livingstone replied. Brown said he intended to move the bill swiftly after public hearings and hoped to have it on Wilson's desk "sometime between now and September." Asked what effect he thought the measure would have on fall legislative elections, Brown said he didn't believe it would have an effect--unless it failed to pass. "Then it will have an impact on those who voted against it," he said. "Those individuals will have to account to their constituents." Brown said the bill has the "widest range of support that I have seen for a piece of civil rights legislation [in the 28 years] I have been here." Describing the legislation as comparable to the federal Civil Rights Act and the toughest of any state in the nation, Brown added that it would "once again make California a leader in the protection of its citizens against discrimination." Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), a member of Brown's inner circle who also attended the press conference, said there has been a recent upsurge in so-called hate crimes committed solely because of a victim's color, race, religion, or sexual orientation. "This bill will give the Legislature and the governor a chance to stand up and be counted or side with the hate mongers," Katz said. Brown, who is black, told reporters that he was a victim of housing discrimination in San Francisco in 1983 when he tried to rent a "perfect" apartment and was informed that someone else already had placed a deposit on it. Until then, "I'd almost begun to believe that I'd moved up a notch beyond an ordinary black person," the Speaker said. When he investigated further and found that the apartment was available to a white person whom he had sent to inquire about it, Brown said he filed a discrimination lawsuit and won a "six-figure" settlement. A long parade of representatives of civil rights and labor groups, about 20 in all, appeared at the press conference to support the bill. They included the California Labor Federations AFL-CIO, California Civil Rights Conference, Western Center on Law and Poverty, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, Lobby for Individual Freedom and Equality, Latin Issues Forum, Urban League, Jewish Public Affairs conference, Japanese-American Citizens League, National Organization of Women, American Civil Liberties Union, and the San Francisco Bay Area Coalition on Civil Rights. Later in the day, the Rev. Louis Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, a leading opponent of the proposal to ban job discrimination against homosexuals, said, "We regret that Speaker Brown craftily integrated the anti-family homosexual agenda with legitimate civil rights concerns. "This is an election-year bill to satisfy the radical left and I am confident Gov. Wilson will veto it if it gets to his desk." ===== The foregoing article appeared in today's L.A. Times. I do not know why a quote from Lou Sheldon must always be included whenever the word "homosexual" is used in reference to California Legislation. I also don't know why the L.A. Times doesn't provide the AB numbers for new bills featured in their paper. The bill is AB3825 and it is in print. You may get your own copy of the bill... by phoning: Willie Brown's office (916) 445-8077 or by writing to: Legislative Bill Room State Capitol, Room B-32 Sacramento, CA 95814-4997