Group Says Herbert is Unaware of Discrimination, Spokeswoman Says He Is

08.31.2009 by Jeff Robinson

(KCPW News) The reaction in Salt Lake City to Governor Gary Herbert’s comments that people should not be legally protected from discrimination based on their sexual orientation has been negative.  Resident Peter Danzig with the Foundation for Reconciliation says Herbert’s comments demonstrate that he’s unaware of the discrimination LGBT Utahns face.

“A lot of people in the predominant culture of our state just don’t know a lot about the kind of discrimination that the LGBT community faces,” he said.  “It was a surprise to me to discover that you can be fired simply because your employer discovers that you are not heterosexually oriented.”

In a news conference last week, Herbert compared the idea of protecting sexual orientation to protecting blue-eyed blondes.  Danzig says that remark was flippant.

But Angie Welling, the governor’s spokeswoman, says he is aware that discrimination exists against gay people.  However:

“He just doesn’t believe that expanding protected classes is the best way to handle that discrimination,” she said.  “It opens the door to legal issues that he’s not been fully briefed on and he hasn’t analyzed, but the concern is from a legal perspective, not so much a humanitarian perspective.

Welling says the governor plans to meet with state attorneys to learn more about the ramifications of making sexual orientation a protected class.   She also says he wants to meet with gay rights advocacy groups like Equality Utah.