"If their mission is expanded at the same timetheir budget is cut, it will be very problematic,"says Kevin Cathcart, ex-director of the Gay andLesbian Advocates and Defenders. "The next testwill be to make sure that enforcement is not onlyin place on paper but actually exists in ameaningful way," he adds.
Outweighing the Pressure
Yet supporters said they feel that the good thebill will do outweighs the pressure employers,renters or lenders may feel about dealing withgays and lesbians.
They also say that many opponents confuseH.5427 for an affirmative action plan for gays andlesbians, which it is not.
"We feel it is a matter of simple justice. Thisis a civil rights issue and nothing else," saysScott P. O'Bryan, an aide for Rep. Mark Roosevelt(D-Boston), who co-sponsored the House version ofthe bill.
"All we're doing is adding `sexual orientation'to the list of categories of people who may not bediscriminated against in some of the most basicelements of our lives," adds O'Bryan.
"All kinds of characterizations have been madeabout the bill," Barrett says. "It simply says youcan't discriminate" on the basis of sexualorientation, he added.
Barrett says that H.5427 is also not intendedto condone homosexuality. "Gay people don't give adamn if the legislature endorses their lives. Theyjust want to be free from the reach of otherpeople's bigotry," he says.
The Senate could also move to send the bill toreferendum, giving voters the power to decide thelegislation's future. While some representativessaid they did not feel civil rights issues shouldbe decided by ballot, LaFontaine says he isconfident the bill would win in Massachusetts butadds, "It would be a very costly effort for us."
On a local level, the bill has drawn vocalsupport from gay and lesbian advocacy groups. TheCoalition for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights plansto sponsor a rally tomorrow of up to 1000 peopleon the steps of the State House.
Barrett and Roosevelt, along with several otherstate and city officials, are scheduled to speak.Harvard's Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian StudentAssociation (BGLSA) plans to send a contigent tojoin the rally.
"The organization is in support of anythingthat is working for equality," says Lilly S.Khadjavi '90. BGLSA vice chair. "[The bisexual,gay and lesbian community] is a group againstwhich there has been much discrimination," sheadds.
The campus group, Defeat Homophobia, is alsovery much interested in the results of the Senateproceedings.
"One of our goals this year is to integrate theHarvard gay community into the Greater Boston gaycommunity," says an undergraduate member of DefeatHomophobia.
"For the first time we're looking to motivatemembers of the Harvard gay community to enter thefight for gay rights at the state and nationallevels." adds the student, who did not give hisname.