Sheldon Backs Initiative for Two-Thirds Vote on Gay Issues

SACRAMENTO â€”  A group headed by Orange County’s Rev. Louis P. Sheldon is sponsoring an initiative to change the state Constitution by requiring overwhelming voter approval for passage of any gay rights legislation, Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren announced Monday.

The proposed initiative by Sheldon, director of the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition, comes at a time when the Legislature is considering a controversial bill banning housing or job discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The measure, sponsored by Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles), has become a rallying point for hard-line conservatives, especially since Gov. Pete Wilson said he probably would sign the bill. The legislation already has gone through one emotionally charged hearing and is scheduled for a second one this week before the powerful Assembly Ways and Means Committee.

Lungren said Monday that the proposed one-paragraph initiative seeks to block or repeal any gay rights law, be it local ordinance or statewide, unless voters first ratify the measure by a two-thirds margin--a requirement often considered a formidable political obstacle for any cause.

Among the five people who submitted the one-paragraph proposal was Sheldon, who has already testified in Sacramento this year against Friedman’s bill, AB 101. It was unknown whether the other four were Orange County residents or members of Sheldon’s fundamentalist group.

The usually outspoken Sheldon declined comment on the proposed initiative.

“We will be talking to you later,� he said.

But Friedman aide Rand Martin said Monday that the proposed anti-gay rights initiative was “one more example of the unrelenting hatred that fundamentalists in California have repeatedly exhibited since AB 101 was introduced.�

“It (hatred) probably won’t stop until the people of California tell Lou Sheldon and his kind that they don’t like the way they’re treating gays and lesbians,� said Martin, who is gay.

State officials have 40 days to research potential fiscal implications and write a ballot title and summary. Once that is done, Sheldon and the other sponsors will have 150 days to collect the 615,957 signatures required to put the measure on the June, 1992, ballot, she said.

While the timing would not prevent passage of the Friedman bill this legislative session, it could lead to repealing of the controversial measure, which backers say is necessary to codify and expand court decisions protecting gays.

Several years ago, another Orange County figure, U.S. Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), sponsored an initiative that called for the quarantine of people infected with the AIDS virus. Voters overwhelmingly rejected it.