SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) — Thirteen Utah
gay rights activists were arrested on Monday at the state Capitol after
a sit-in to demand lawmakers hear a bill barring housing and job
discrimination based on sexual orientation, authorities said.
About 20 activists, buoyed by a court ruling that briefly
legalized same-sex marriage in the conservative state, had blocked
access to part of the Capitol. They said they would not leave unless
the Utah Senate president ensured the bill would get a hearing.
"For five years, the Utah legislature has refused to hear a
non-discrimination bill. We're tired of their excuses, we're tired
of the delays," organizer Troy Williams said as the protest started
outside the governor's office.
Thirteen of the activists were arrested after they moved their
protest to the doorway of a Senate committee hearing and blocked
entry to the room. They were being held on suspicion of disorderly
conduct, according to Utah Department of Public Safety spokesman
Dwayne Baird.
The protesters were released about six hours after the arrests. They
were greeted outside the jail by some two dozen supporters who
cheered and snapped cell phone camera photos of the group.
"This is the proudest day of my life," said protester Donna
Weinholtz said, after praising freedom and democracy.
The protest came after heavily Mormon Utah temporarily became the
18th U.S. state to legalize gay marriage when a federal judge
overturned a state ban on same-sex nuptials as unconstitutional in
December.
That ruling was put on hold by the U.S. Supreme Court, but not
before about 1,400 gay couples tied the knot.
The bill activists were seeking to have heard at the state
legislature, which includes a religious exemption for churches,
would make it illegal to use sexual orientation as a justification
for discrimination in job and housing issues.
Similar legislation has been passed by local governments in more
than a dozen Utah cities over the past five years. Salt Lake City's
ordinance, the first to pass, had the backing of the conservative
Mormon church.
A trio of statewide polls, including one from the conservative
Brigham Young University, have found that as many as 72 percent of
Utahns support a non-discrimination law. Republican Governor Gary
Herbert has said he supported the concept of a non-discrimination
bill.
State lawmakers have refused to hear or advance the
anti-discrimination bill in each of the past five legislative
sessions. A week ago, Republican lawmakers decided against
considering the bill for a sixth time after Utah's attorney general
said it could affect the outcome of the gay marriage case at the
10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
Also on Monday, Christian, Catholic and Mormon groups asked the
Denver-based court to uphold same-sex marriage bans in Utah and
Oklahoma, arguing in part that male-female unions provide a better
environment for child-raising, a brief says.
A federal judge in Oklahoma overturned that state's ban on same-sex
marriages in January.
During Monday's protest, bill sponsor Senator Steve Urquhart, a
Republican, shuttled messages between activists and state Senate
President Wayne Niederhauser, also a Republican, in hopes of finding
an amicable end to the stalemate.
Before they were arrested, activists turned down a request to leave
the Capitol in exchange for a closed-door meeting with the Senate
president later in the day and an offer for a town hall-style
meeting next week with legislators.
Senator Jim Dabakis, a Salt Lake City Democrat who married his
partner of more than 27 years in December, applauded the activists
for pushing to restart a debate of the bill.
"The dialogue is back on the table now and that's where it should
be," he said.
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Mohammad Zargham, Eric Walsh, Eric M.
Johnson)
