Gay-rights effort draws grass-roots support
Tom Dempsey
Gay-rights effort draws grass-roots support
More than 2,000 people have signed on to Equality Utah's push to pass gay-rights legislation.
The advocacy group has posted a petition online, inviting Utahns to join the Common Ground Initiative -- six bills being crafted to provide rights to gay and transgender people that the LDS Church has said it does not oppose. The church has not responded to an invitation to support the initiative.
"Apart from marriage, there are things we can agree on," said Will Carlson, Equality Utah's public-policy manager. The bills include rights to fair housing and employment and a statewide domestic-partner registry that would be similar to Salt Lake City's mutual-commitment catalog.
Capital resident Erika Skougard, who is gay and comes from an LDS family, signed the petition. She hopes the church signs on, too, and helps heal some of the wounds left by its backing of California's Proposition 8, the ballot measure that eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry in that state.
"It caused pain for all of us," she said. "I have a family and I have children that need protections."
She worries, too, about her partner, Jenna Helf, who has chronic health problems that land her in the emergency room several times a year. A domestic-partner registry would guarantee that Skougard could stay with Helf in the hospital.
"It's not fair that we should have to be held hostage to the hope that every health-care worker we interact with will be reasonable,"
Skougard said. "We need more certainty than that."Equality Utah plans to use the petition's numbers to draw lawmakers' support. Signers will be urged to write to their representatives or speak at legislative hearings.
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