08.24.2009 by Jeff Robinson

(KCPW News) The Salt Lake City council hasn’t even discussed a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance that would protect LGBT residents in the workplace yet.  But as KCPW learned today, it’s likely that a state lawmaker will try to shoot it down.  KCPW’s Jeff Robinson reports.

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Learn more about the proposed ordinance here.

Transcript:

Republican State Senator Chris Buttars, who has said publicly that he believes gay people have no morals, isn’t one to shy away from giving his opinion on gay-rights issues.  He doesn’t believe discrimination actually occurs against LGBT Utahns, and doesn’t believe sexual orientation should be a protected class.  So if Salt Lake City passes an anti-discrimination ordinance that would apply to sexual orientation, he plans to respond from the state Capitol.

“I don’t think the discrimination they scream about is really real,” he told KCPW.  “I’m watching that to see what they try to do, and if they keep pushing it, then I will bring a bill about it.”

In 2008, Senator Buttars sponsored a bill that would have dismantled the city’s proposed domestic partnership registry.  Lawmakers then struck a compromise with the city, and allowed it to go forward as the mutual commitment registry.  Senator Buttars says he was in the hospital while that agreement was hashed out, and he did not approve of it.

Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives David Clark says if Salt Lake City passes an antidiscrimination ordinance, it might violate last year’s compromise.

“If Salt Lake City wants to re-write that agreement, then I think that the Legislature will, once again – as we’ve already had an agreement, it’s not the state that’s changing it – there would probably be an interest to see what we could do to work something out appropriately,” he said.

But Salt Lake City Councilman Carlton Christensen, who supports the proposed ordinance, says this is a separate issue from the commitment registry.  He adds that if the state doesn’t act on a certain issue like nondiscrimination policy, the city has the authority to act on it.

“I do believe that’s the case,” said Christensen.  “Obviously, we want to use that judiciously, but I do believe that the city has a right within the parameters that the legislature allows to make our own policy decisions, and clearly this is one of those.”

As a past victim of housing discrimination, Equality Utah’s Will Carlson doesn’t agree with Senator Buttars’ assessment that discrimination against gay people isn’t a real problem.  And he says the legislature imposing its own will on Salt Lake City, as it has in the past on other issues, is counterintuitive.

“There’s been a lot of concern about the federal government becoming a nanny over the state, and so now for the state to step in and interfere with the city representing its constituents is hypocritical,” said Carlson.

Should the legislature try to pass a bill targeting Salt Lake City’s antidiscrimination ordinance, it would have to be signed by Governor Gary Herbert.  Spokeswoman Angie Welling says she can’t address any specific legislation Buttars might sponsor at this point, but in general, Governor Herbert does not want the state to involve itself in the city’s affairs.

“Anyone who knows the Governor’s policies knows that he is a strong supporter of local government,” Welling said.  “He thinks that different jurisdictions and municipalities, for the most part, have the right and the responsibility to pass any kind of legislation or make any rules or policies as they see fit for their own jurisdiction.”

As for the possibility of a statewide antidiscrimination law protecting gay Utahns, Welling says Herbert will wait and see what specific proposals come forward before taking a position.