Mar 12, 2008 5:07 am US/Mountain
Lawmakers Consider More Gay Protections
By Colleen Slevin, AP Writer
DENVER (AP) ―
A year after protecting gays and lesbians from being fired from their jobs, state lawmakers are considering outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation in other areas.
A new bill sponsored by Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, would make it illegal to deny gays and lesbians everything from an apartment rental to a burial plot. It takes the state's existing anti-discrimination laws and adds sexual orientation to the list of factors, such as race and national origin, that can't be considered.
For example, the proposal would also bar public school teachers from being transferred based on their sexual orientation and wouldn't allow charities who own orphanages or nursing homes to get a tax break if they discriminate against occupants based on sexual orientation.
The bill would also bar discrimination based on someone's religion. Discrimination based on creed is already mentioned in a number of the state's anti-discrimination laws but the new bill also adds religion to the list.
Jim Pfaff, president of the Colorado Family Institute, a public policy group with links to Focus on the Family, opposes the bill because of both of those changes. He fears it could be used to punish a Christian photographer who doesn't want to shoot a same-sex commitment ceremony or force a faith-based camp or retreat to rent out a room to a gay couple. He also thinks adding a prohibition against religious discrimination might even bar a company from advertising itself as a Christian company.
"This bill is bigoted against people of religious faith," said Pfaff, who said it was "payback" for rich Democratic donors like Tim Gill.
Gill's spokesman was traveling and couldn't be immediately reached for comment.
Veiga said similar anti-discrimination bills have been in the works for over 20 years although they were more recently pared down to just focus on job discrimination in the hopes of getting something passed. Even though Democrats controlled both the Legislature and the governor's office last year, Veiga said she stuck with the job discrimination only bill last year because that's what people had become used to dealing with. Gov. Bill Ritter signed the bill, which had been vetoed twice by Republican Gov. Bill Owens.
She said adding the other protections shouldn't be that controversial since lawmakers have already outlawed job discrimination. For her, the most important part of the bill is preventing gays and lesbians from being discriminated against in housing and accommodations, such as being served in a restaurant, actions she said are hard to justify.
"Anytime you put the words gay and lesbian in legislation here, it seems to get controversial," she said.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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