Gay community to make views heard

SALT LAKE CITY — State lawmakers may have agreed to a yearlong moratorium on gay rights legislation, but members of the state's gay and lesbian community do not plan to sit quietly until 2011.

Come out, stand united and work to pass protections at the local level were among the messages shared as more than 150 people from the state's LGBT community gathered at the University of Utah Thursday night.

"We're finally on the offense," said Rep. Christine Johnson, D-Salt Lake.

Johnson, one of two openly gay lawmakers, helped organize a bipartisan compromise that set aside all gay rights legislation for 2010 while state leaders studied employment and housing nondiscrimination issues.

Last week, however, with the truce in jeopardy, Senate Republicans scrapped the interim study. Senate President Michael Waddoups issued a warning to the LGBT community that "offensive activities in a public setting" would impact the direction of future legislation.

The remark prompted anger among some in the gay and lesbian community who felt Waddoups was telling them to "sit down and shut up."

"That does not work for me," said activist Eric Ethington. "I am not going to sit down and be quiet."

A sit-in protest has been planned for 4 p.m. Friday in the Capitol rotunda.

Waddoups, meanwhile, clarified his statements on a Senate blog this week.

"The moratorium was born from a hope that the emerging civil, respectful, and educated dialogue on LGBT issues in Utah might continue," he wrote. "That seems healthy to me. The further hope is that through a year of thought and discussion we might find consensus on the direction we take as a state."

Johnson said she trusted Republican leaders would not further dismantle the truce. "They would not have come to an agreement with us if they didn't have something to lose," she said.

Will Carlson, former manager of public policy for Equality Utah, disagreed.

Carlson said he remained "unconvinced" a truce was needed in the first place. He doesn't believe Republican lawmakers would have overridden the nondiscrimination ordinances recently passed in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County — especially after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came out in support of the ordinances.

"As a gay man, I feel betrayed by this agreement," he said. "There's a lot of talk that's happened about the importance of dialogue and the Legislature is one of those places we can do that most effectively and by agreeing to drop these bills … one of our main means for getting our message out has been silenced for a year."

Johnson called the threat of a pre-emption "very real" and said, "We take baby steps here. Nothing happens in big steps."

e-mail: afalk@desnews.com