Will gays and lesbians save Cincinnati from international embarrassment?
The biggest hurdle for people who want to bring the Olympics to Cincinnati in 2012 might not be a matter of hotel capacity or transportation, but political maturity. Can the city get over its sexual hang-ups before it alienates the whole world?
As Citizens to Restore Fairness and other equal rights supporters gathered for a press conference July 24, representatives of Cincinnati 2012 Inc. were showing officials of the U.S. Olympic Committee around town, lobbying for the summer games.
The subject of the press conference was a part of the city charter that forbids granting equal rights to gays and lesbians. Generally known as Issue 3, as it appeared on the 1993 ballot, the ban marks Cincinnati as the only U.S. city to officially discriminate based on sexual orientation.
"What a sad distinction that is for this town," said Rev. Harold Porter, co-chair of Citizens to Restore Fairness.
Issue 3 could effectively kill the Olympic bid, as even Nick Vehr, president of Cincinnati 2012, has acknowledged.
"(Issue 3) has always been an issue that we knew could have an impact on our bid," Vehr said in May.
Is it irony or poetic justice that Vehr now has to contend with the implications of Issue 3? Vehr, you will recall, was one of the city council members who voted to remove protection for gays and lesbians from the Human Rights Ordinance.
Sexual discrimination is not a fitting backdrop for the Olympics, according to Seth Kilbourn, national field director of the Human Rights Campaign.
"The Olympic Games foster incredible goodwill with an international spirit of cooperation and competition that brings together the world community, despite our many differences," Kilbourn said. "These games should not be held in a locale so hostile to a segment of the city's own, its gay and lesbian residents."
If the motto of Cincinnati 2012 -- "Cincinnati, America at its Best" -- were true, wouldn't the city extend equal rights to all people?
Doreen Cudnik, executive director of Stonewall Cincinnati, said the goal of her group is not to hurt the effort to bring the Olympics to Cincinnati but to draw attention to issues that pose a threat to "our Olympic dreams."
David Crowley, a candidate for Cincinnati City Council, said Issue 3 -- codified as Chapter 12 of the charter -- is bad public policy.
"I'm here to promote the removal of obstacles, and Chapter 12 is an obstacle (to the Olympic bid)," Crowley said. "I'm here as a father and I can tell you, as a father, Chapter 12 is anti-family."
In a letter to Cincinnati 2012, Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune congratulated the group's efforts at getting to this point in the Olympic bid but said Cincinnati still falls short of the Olympic ideal in everyday life.
"That is an ideal of all people from all walks of life and backgrounds coming together in common spirit for a common goal," Portune wrote.
At the press conference, Portune connected the struggle of gays and lesbians to race relations and overall human rights.
"One issue or another, they all send a message about who we are as a people," Portune said.
Issue 3 also exacts a financial price. Perhaps economics can move Cincinnati to accept the Olympic goal of unity. The Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates Issue 3 has cost the city $64 million in lost convention business since 1993.
"Our reputation of unfairness has already kept away many groups who believe in tolerance and equal rights for all," Porter said. "In order for us to raise the Olympic flag over our city, we must first get our own house in order."
A study backed by the National Conference for Community and Justice is underway to determine the impact of Issue 3. Other groups, including Cincinnati 2012 Inc., support the study. Cincinnati City Council, however, is not one of them; last month it barred the use of city funds for the study.
