In Miami, a major test of gay rights

A campaign to repeal a local ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation is emerging as a major test in an ongoing national debate over the rights of homosexuals.

Both sides of the debate view the outcome of the Sept. 10 referendum in Miami-Dade County as a potential watershed in competing efforts to either advance or suppress gay rights.

The stakes are also high here because Miami is under active consideration as a site for both the Democratic and Republican national conventions in 2004. And local business leaders are worried that the controversy could hurt South Florida's economy.

The campaign has been anything but mundane, with no shortage of mud to sling. In recent weeks, the president of the Miami-Dade Christian Coalition and three other repeal workers have been arrested on charges that they fraudulently collected signatures in the repeal petition drive. Gay-rights activists say the arrests suggest that their opponents are resorting to unethical and illegal tactics.

"We believe there is a concerted effort to misinform the public by the Christian right as they launch these anti gay ballot initiatives," says Jubi Headley of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington.

Repeal proponents say the timing of the charges so close to election day suggest they are politically motivated to discredit their campaign on the eve of the vote.

"Can you ever imagine this happening to a gay group that got something on a ballot through a petition drive they supported?" asks Peter LeBarbera of the Culture and Family Institute of the Concerned Women of America.

At the center of it all is a 1998 county ordinance that bars discrimination against homosexuals in employment, housing, credit and finance, and public accommodations.

Roughly 150 jurisdictions across the country have passed similar measures, and many of them are being challenged by groups opposed to gay rights.

But what makes the Miami referendum highly symbolic, gay rights activists say, is that it is a virtual replay of the 1977 repeal vote spearheaded by former Miss America and Florida orange juice spokeswoman Anita Bryant.

In that campaign, an ordinance identical to the 1998 measure was erased from the books in a 70 to 30 percent landslide. The action provided a blueprint for other attacks on gay-rights measures.

"It was a crushing defeat, but now things are different," says Georg Ketelhohn, who is leading the effort to uphold the ordinance.

It took 20 years before the 1977 Miami-Dade ordinance was narrowly reinstated by the county commission.

A coalition of religious and conservative groups maintain that the county commissioners who passed the measure are out of step with their constituents. They say the issue should be decided through a direct vote by the people.

The coalition, called Take Back Miami-Dade, conducted a petition drive, gathering some 51,000 signatures to qualify to place the question on the ballot.

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