Hearing tonight on gay rights measure

BANGOR – The City Council’s strategic issues committee at tonight’s meeting will consider a citywide gay rights ordinance similar to the one rejected by Maine voters last year.

The proposal, based on similar ordinances in Portland and Orono, would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in the areas of housing, employment, education, credit applications and public accommodations.

City Councilor Joe Baldacci, who initiated the measure with fellow Councilor Judy Vardamis, said that while the ordinance dealt only with sexual orientation, today’s discussion would be broadened in light of reports of harassment of local Arabs and Muslims in the wake of Tuesday’s terrorist attacks.

“We need to ensure that everyone is treated equally in terms of tolerance and respect for all Americans,” Baldacci said Sunday.

As part of today’s meeting, the committee, comprising all nine councilors, will hold a public hearing on the gay rights ordinance, which already has sparked some debate in the community, or at least on newspaper editorial pages.

Tonight’s meeting will begin at 5 in City Council chambers.

While supporters see it as a natural and needed extension of the Maine Human Rights Act, opponents – many of whom object on religious grounds – call the new protections unnecessary and ripe for abuse.

If the full council approves, Bangor would be the 11th community in the state to adopt a gay rights ordinance, the first of which was enacted in Portland in 1992. Six years later, Orono became the first town in Penobscot County to adopt an anti-discrimination law.

The Bangor ordinance would provide an exemption for religious organizations.

Maine voters have once upheld, once repealed and once rejected statewide gay rights initiatives, most recently in November of last year when voters narrowly rejected Question 6.

The majority of Bangor voters supported that referendum question, as well as the two others that would have protected homosexuals under state law.

The Maine Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.