Gay City Employees Fight to Protect Identities From Anti-Gay Activist

Today’s Sound Off Guest Opinion Posting:

Many of you have seen the articles in the Seattle PI, Seattle Times and possibly this story from The Advocate about Phil Irvin’s quest to obtain the names of the LGBTQ&F group at Seattle Public Utilities. I am only posting my initials because to post my name would hurt the injunction against his request as I am the person that initiated the proceeding. I wanted to post here to get some of the facts out in the open that aren’t being reported or are being completely ignored and explain the reason for my actions.

1. Phil Irvin is a self confessed ex-gay who has consistently harassed the LGBT community for almost 20 years. He has a track record of doing anything in his power to close down any affinity group that is formed for the gay community. In the early 1990’s he successfully shut down SeaGLE (Seattle Gay Lesbian Employees) by attending their meeting and, without being given the floor to speak, proceeded to produce a Bible and read to the people that were in attendance the passages condemning them. He was asked not to go to the meetings anymore as they were for supportive people of the gay community and told he was not welcome. His response to the request was to continue to show up and vilify the members of the group until he was removed and told he was no longer allowed to attend the meeting. He then sued the city for religious discrimination and won. As part of the settlement he was given $1000 and his legal fees were paid by the city. He has also sued other affinity groups for discrimination when he has made inappropriate requests such as his request to put information on white Anglo Saxon protestant historical figures into a presentation being done by CLBEA (City Light Black Employee Association) for black history month. He won his racial discrimination claim and is now a dues paying member of their group though he is not terribly well liked in their group either.

2. People keep saying that his actions are in retaliation for whosigned.org stating that they are going to post the names of people that signed the petition to put Referendum 71 on the web. He, and several others, like to call the attempts by the completely unrelated affinity group hypocritical. A simple look at the time lines involved will eliminate the credibility of this argument. Whosigned.org first revealed their plan to post the names on June 1st when it was broadcast on the local news. Philip Irvin placed his request for the names of the group on April 15th a full month and a half before anyone knew. Now he being an ex-gay may still have access to the hive mind that told all of us that this was going to happen but I don’t have that prescience and I am pretty active in the community so would think I would find out as an active gay faster than an ex gay. I contacted the lawyer in May prior to them announcing their intent. So this is not being hypocritical as the actions that we are taking are from prior to anyone having any knowledge of the plan to release the names of the petition.

3. The state Public Disclosure act does allow for some preservation of privacy when the information requested doesn’t aid in the transparency of government and is not information that you would necessarily reveal to a stranger on the street. My sexuality is not something I necessarily reveal to everyone. I am by no means in the closet and frankly I am quite active with organizations in the community such as the Knights Of Malta, where I served as Secretary, The Imperial Court of Seattle, The Sisters of the Mother House of Washington State and also have been known to throw together fundraisers for various gay and gay friendly charities. I even have one that I am putting together on July 11th for Home Alive at a straight bar in West Seattle. My identity is about as secret as Purple Mark. I do have a problem though with someone who has described himself in interviews and was quoted by the Seattle Times a few years ago when he was fighting against the expansion of the state’s non discrimination policy as A Soldier Of Christ drawing his Sword Of Faith against the Gay community having a handy checklist of about 90 people that identify as Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, Bi-sexual, Questioning or Friends. It seems to me that it opens up everyone in the group to a right wing-nut with a vendetta against the gay community to taking potentially dangerous actions.

4. Petitions of any sort are always public record. While I may not agree with the names being put in an easily searchable database petitions are by law completely public. I personally would prefer that it not be a searchable database so people might question their motivation in wanting the names and so that there is a record of who all has looked up the information in case people that do support R71 start suffering vandalism, attacks or harassment because they exercised their right to place something on the ballot even if it is our civil rights. That is just my opinion. There is a legal difference between a petition and an employee affinity group membership list. While some people may fail to see this difference the truth is that one does have some legal recourse to attempt to block it and the other doesn’t. We are simply exercising our right to block it as outlined in the law. We have to pay the court fees and had to find a lawyer, thank you Dave Coffman, willing to take a case that is fighting against the normal procedure of the city of always interpreting the Public Disclosure Act in favor of the requester to avoid being heavily fined for being in potential violation of the act.

Lastly, I would like to say that anyone that wishes to support our attempt to block him from having a checklist that he can post on the internet for people that are a little more prone to violence are welcome to come to the injunction hearing. It is being held on Thursday June 25, 2009 at the King County Superior Court, 516 3rd Ave Seattle, WA. The case is being heard by Judge Erlick in room 1050W at 3:30PM. Please show up to show solidarity.

Date – 6-25-2009
Time – 3:30 PM
Address – 516 3rd AVE, Room 1060W, Seattle, WA, 98106
Presiding Judge – Erlick

– A M