The Eugene Human Rights Commission is working to pass an ordinance that would add discrimination based on gender identity or gender orientation to Eugene’s anti-discrimination code.
Eugene’s current anti-discrimination code was last updated in December 2002 and prohibits discrimination in housing, employment and work places based on race, age, gender, disability and other personal traits. Multnomah County, Bend and Beaverton have all recently added gender identity and orientation to their anti-discrimination codes.
Sidney Moore, a University human rights investigator and commission member, said the ordinance would make Eugene’s code very similar to the University’s own nondiscrimination policy.
A city attorney is working with the HRC to review the ordinance’s legal language to ensure it will do exactly what it is intended to do, Moore said.
“It needs to be written so that it provides the protection we’re trying to provide,” Moore said.
The HRC, which consists of 14 citizens and a city councilor, has been working to pass the ordinance for many years. The City Council discussed a similar ordinance in 2002, but it failed to pass after then-Mayor Jim Torrey threatened it with a mayoral veto.
Mayor Kitty Piercy has expressed her support for the measure and Ward 3 City Councilor David Kelly, the acting councilor on the HRC, said he hopes that through presentations to community groups and open dialogue about the issue, citizens will gain a better understanding of what the ordinance is intended to do and its potential effects on the city.
“There is tremendous misunderstanding in the community about who transgender people are, the problems they face and what changes in the code would or would not mean,” Kelly said.
The HRC will hold two community dialogues, one on March 14 and another on May 5, before it presents the ordinance’s final draft to the Council.
City attorney Jerry Lidz said his role in drafting the ordinance centers around its language, which is a sensitive area because the ordinance’s subject is “not your usual legal subject.”
Lidz said most of his attention has focused on including the use of public bathrooms in the anti-discrimination code. Some people of different gender orientations may not find a bathroom dedicated to just one gender suitable because they do not associate themselves with just one gender. Moore said the media have used the issue of providing bathrooms for people of different gender orientations as a focal conflict point when reporting on the ordinance.
“The outcry over it is very much overblown,” Moore said, adding that no law exists that prohibits people from entering a bathroom designated for members of the opposite sex.
Kelly said many people concerned with allowing transgender people or people of different gender orientations equal access to public bathrooms do not understand the people the ordinance is trying to protect; they are fearful it will allow men and women to enter any bathroom they choose at any time in a predatory fashion.
“The proposed code would not give a man the right to walk into the women’s restroom,” Kelly said. “What it would do is allow every Eugenean to use a restroom that is consistent with their gender identity.”
Moore said the issue of people of different gender orientations having equal access to public bathrooms has become a “red herring,” and it ignores the fact that what goes on in a restroom, be it a public or a private one, is done in relative privacy from everyone else.
“This issue has exactly as much effect on each individual as it did when we were talking about it in the context of race,” Moore said.
Kelly said the inclusion of public bathrooms in the anti-discrimination code is just a basic step in ensuring that all people are treated equally in public places.
“The goal is that every law-abiding Eugenean should be able to have equal rights in employment, equal rights in housing and equal rights in public accommodations, and surely one of those is the ability to use the bathroom when you’re at the movies,” Kelly said.
Opposition to the ordinance is expected, Kelly said, but the HRC is hopeful that through open community dialogues they can reach some sort of agreement.
“I’m hopeful that if we can have a discussion about treating all Eugeneans equally, we can pass this very straightforwardly,” Kelly said.

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