Subject: LOUISVILLE BILL ADVANCES
From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 20:30:40 -0500

"END" REPORTED OUT OF COMMITTEE IN LOUISVILLE

(Louisville, March 22, 1995).  The Employment Non-Discrimination ("END")
Ordinance introduced on February 28 before the Louisville Board of Aldermen
has been reported out of the Community and Government Relations Committee for
consideration by the full board next Tuesday, March 28.

The committee heard testimony this afternoon from several witnesses who had
been discriminated against in the Louisville area, and reports from others
who were unwilling to appear before the committee for fear of being fired
from their jobs were also read by friends.  Supporters and opponents were
then given three minutes each to speak at an open mike for three minutes
each.  Eight opponents, including four African-American ministers,  and six
supporters, including two ministers and a lesbian attorney who used to work
for the board, were able to speak before the allotted one-hour session was
up.

The session was the second and final scheduled hearing.

Unlike a similar proposal, known as the Fairness Amendment, which was voted
down in August 1992, END would cover discrimination in employment only.  Most
supporters and activists reluctantly agreed with the bill's sponsors that it
is the best that can be hoped for in the current political climate.  The
Fairness Amendment, would have extended protections in the areas of housing
or public accommodations as well.

A second proposal introduced by Alderman Paul Bather, an African-American,
would extend employment protections for city government workers only, but the
Fairness Campaign, the political action group that has been pushing for gay
rights legislation since the summer of 1991, is supporting the first proposal
instead.

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