CC Minutes - 10/14/02 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Acknowledging Councilor Kelly's comments regarding restrooms, Ms. Rich said that no additional construction on restrooms would be necessary. She noted that more than 46 city, county, and state governments had passed legislation to extend protection to transgendered individuals. She thanked the City Council for considering the draft ordinance. Azra Khalidi, PO Box 50844, Eugene, raised concern that gay and lesbian people in the community were afraid of expressing themselves in a community setting. She stressed that the City needed to protect the rights of gay and lesbian people in the community. She urged the council to approve the revised code changes. Bill Northrop, 939 Laurelhurst Drive, mentioned that hospital visitor access should not be an issue for domestic partner registration. He noted there were ways to arrange for visitor access. He related a story of Jesus where he had said "Let those without sin throw the first stone". He stressed that Jesus had compassion for people but that did not change his morality. He said Jesus did not say go and live an alternative lifestyle. He said God did not need people to give up their morals to have compassion or validate homosexuality in order to fully support human rights. He suggested privatizing the domestic partner registry part of the code revision since that would not amount to a public validation that homosexuality was moral. Margot Schaffer, 1625 Wilson, stressed the importance of intelligent factual debate. She raised concern over fomenting bigotry. She said the concern raised by members of the community that gays and transgendered people were sexual predators was based on ignorance and bigotry. She said the vast majority of children who were molested were molested by adult heterosexual men who were known to them. Chris Edwards, 1048 Baxter Street, raised concern over the Register-Guard writing a favorable article about the human rights code revisions. He said that many thousands of people in the City were against the homosexual behaviors "behind the domestic partner registry" and they were not all fundamental Christians. He said homosexual behavior undermined the very core foundations of morality in the nation and changed the basic nature of the family. He said if the founding fathers were alive they would all be against the registry and would never tolerate it. He said the moral principals and precepts contained in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all civil constitutions and laws. He said all the miseries and evils that men suffered from came from them despising or neglecting the precepts of the Bible. He said God himself was opposed to this "wicked behavior." He said God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah mainly because of homosexual behavior. He said that any gay or lesbian who said that said they were born that way or that God approved of their behavior was a liar and a deceiver. He said the code revisions were not diversity, rights, or equality, but about asking the City of Eugene to publicly promote and approve perverted and destructive behavior. He went on to say that if the council passed the proposed code revisions it would bring the City of Eugene one step closer to God's judgement. Timothy Smith, 2664 Kincaid Street, spoke in support of the revised human rights code. He said a broad human rights ordinance could be seen as an indicator of quality of life in the community. He said a broad ordinance could attract businesses to the community who wished their employees to be able to live well in a tolerant community. Mr. Smith said the domestic partner registry would allow same sex couples to be visible in the community and raised concern that invisibility in the community implied hostility. He said a domestic partner registry in Eugene was long overdue. MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 14, 2002 Page 4 Regular Meeting