City approves partnership registry.

Byline: JOE MOSLEY The Register-Guard

Creation of a domestic partnership registry for gay couples was approved by the Eugene City Council on Tuesday night but transgendered people were left out of the mix as councilors compromised to ensure adoption of other changes to the city's human rights code.

Mayor Jim Torrey had threatened to veto the entire package of human rights code revisions if it included a guarantee of "reasonable accommodations" for transgendered people in buildings open to the public.

He cited privacy and cost issues that might arise if transsexuals were entitled to their own facilities, or allowed access to their choice of gender-specific restrooms, dressing rooms and showers.

"I feel very bad for the people in the transgendered group who have been waiting for this," Councilor Betty Taylor said. "But I'm not willing to throw away everything. I'm sure the rest of the provisions will come back to us eventually."

A potential showdown on the issue was averted when Councilor David Kelly made a motion to drop all references to transgendered people from the code amendments and direct the city's Human Rights Commission to review those provisions and return them "in a timely fashion" to the council.

As originally written, the amendments would have guaranteed both equal access to public facilities and protection from discrimination for transgendered people.

"I'm going to be on the Human Rights Commission (as a council representative) next year, and I will not allow this to drop," Kelly said.

The council voted 6-2 to approve Kelly's motion - with Kelly and Councilor Bonny Bettman opposed - and then unanimously approved the remaining changes to the city's human rights code.

Eugene's domestic partnership registry will be Oregon's third, following an Ashland registry and a joint registry in Portland and Multnomah County.

The registry is an official but largely symbolic recognition of committed relationships that will be open to any couple, regardless of where they live, as long as each partner is 18 or older and the couples aren't blood relatives - the same requirements for those wishing to marry in Oregon.

It won't require businesses or agencies to extend benefits or privileges on the basis of a person's listing in the registry, but will add "domestic registry status" to a list of characteristics protected by the city against housing and public accommodation discrimination.

Other parts of the code amendment package will add ethnicity to the list of qualities protected from discrimination, allow people protected by the ordinance to bring private lawsuits if they are discriminated against, and create a team of volunteers to help resolve incidents of discrimination and harassment.

The revisions are the product of a year of meetings, hearings and debate since city councilors directed the Human Rights Commission to review and suggest changes to human rights elements of the city code.

Most of the public debate has centered on the concept of a domestic partnership registry and the practical considerations of allowing transgendered people to use women's restrooms. "The amendments the mayor and others have proposed, I think, practically criminalize transgendered people," Bettman said as the council considered dropping the provisions. "It's just not acceptable."

Torrey has said he supports protecting transgendered people from discrimination, as well as creating the domestic partnership registry and all other portions of the code amendments. But he saw the equal access guarantee for transsexuals as awkward and impractical.

"What we had before us was not specific enough to provide us the predictability we need in an ordinance," he said.

The mayor is authorized to veto any council action within 10 days after a council vote, although Torrey hasn't exercised his veto power since taking office in 1997 and said he was supportive of the code amendments in the form passed Tuesday night.

If the transgendered provisions had remained in the ordinance and Torrey followed through on his veto threat, it would have taken the votes of six out of eight councilors to overturn the veto. At least three - Pat Farr, Gary Rayor and Gary Pape - also were concerned about the equal access issue.

Most public opposition to the code revisions has been on moral grounds by people invoking the will of God or literal translations of Biblical passages, while proponents of the measures have spoken in terms of protecting and providing opportunities for all segments of the community.

"The domestic registry and gender identity are attempts to reorder society," Eugene pastor Jack Davidson said during Tuesday night's public comment session. "I firmly believe this is a sweeping social plan and you are opening the door to it and allowing it in."

Steve Light, who attended the meeting with his three young children, urged councilors to make a stand for morality by voting down the amendments. "I need this city to stand up and say what's right and wrong, and I need you to say 'no' to these ordinances," he said.

And Ken Biersteker of Veneta left no room for equivocation in his views. "This is one nation under God, and God hates homosexuality," Biersteker said. "I don't want anyone to go to hell and God don't want anyone to go to hell. But when you approve of this nonsense, you're sending a lot of people to hell."

While the discussion for and against the amendments has been split fairly evenly in past meetings, opponents appeared to have organized to turn out a dominant presence Tuesday night.

CAPTION(S):

Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey listens Tuesday night during the debate on amendments to the city's human rights code. A registry for domestic partners won approval, but protections for trans- gendered people did not.