By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Ten years after Cincinnati voters overwhelmingly voted to prohibit gays and lesbians from receiving protection from discrimination under the city's laws, several groups in the Queen City are ready to ask voters for a recount.

One group, called Citizens to Restore Fairness, was created specifically to work for the repeal of Article XII, the 1993 amendment to the city's charter.

Human-rights activists believe there has been a sea change in attitude toward gays and lesbians over the decade since Article XII passed with 62 percent of the vote.

To place the issue again on a ballot, those activists will have to collect about 9,000 signatures or persuade a majority of Cincinnati City Council to put the issue up for a vote.

The push has been years in the making, but comes after Cincinnati City Council's Feb. 5 vote to beef up its hate-crimes ordinance to include sexual orientation.

Activists say that vote was just a battle won in a larger war to repeal Article XII. Rev. Dr. Harold Porter, co-chairman of Citizens To Restore Fairness, wouldn't say if petitions are already being circulated or when exactly the issue will reappear on ballots. He would say only that the time is near.

"Article XII is an embarrassment to our city and we believe a large majority want it repealed," Porter said. "Our campaign plan is being finalized now."

Citizens To Restore Fairness has a 14-member board of directors that includes former P&G executive Lynwood Battle and former U.S. Attorney Sharon Zealey. Cincinnati Councilman David Crowley advises the committee.

While there have been signals in conservative Cincinnati's business, religious and public realm that tolerance of gay and lesbian people has improved, a more definitive analysis will be unveiled in about two weeks.

That study, undertaken in early 2002 by the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), measures the impact of Article XII on the city's economic, social and civic life. It also examined the city's business, religious and social institutions to see if attitudes have changed since Article XII was passed.

The Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitor's Bureau, Cincinnatus Association, Archdiocese of Cincinnati and Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio helped pay for the study, along with other organizations.

Chip Harrod, executive director of the NCCJ, declined to say how the study was conducted or other specifics about it. But he said the study shows that the time is ripe for a challenge to Article XII.

"We are of the opinion that the community is at a different place 10 years later," Mr. Harrod said. "The community is more welcoming, more knowledgeable and more accepting."

Seeds of change

Some signs of that change:

Two Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Cincinnati - Procter & Gamble and Federated Department Stores - now extend benefits to same-sex partners and include sexual orientation in their equal employment opportunity policies.

The 19-county Archdiocese of Cincinnati launched a ministry to lesbians and gays in 1999. In September, it hosted a conference in Blue Ash for the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries. The conference was held outside of Cincinnati's city limits because of Article XII.

The Greater Cincinnati Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender News lists 20 "supportive" churches on its Web site.

More than 4,000 people attended the 2002 GLBT Pride Parade and Music Festival last year, making it the largest in the city's history. Another 3,500 attended Pride Night 2002 at Paramount's Kings Island, the largest crowd in the event's six-year history.

Last March, more than 1,200 singers from about 30 choirs nationwide came to Cincinnati to perform at the Aronoff Center during the GALA Choruses festival and many events were sold out. GALA is an international gay choral organization.

Across the Ohio River, Covington has proposed an ordinance that would extend the city's non-discrimination clause to include sexual orientation.

Councilman Crowley, who led the effort to expand Cincinnati's hate crimes ordinance, said the groups should not count on council to place Article XII back on ballots.

"The wise thinking would be to use a petition drive to build a base of support and to educate the public," Crowley said.

"The anti groups have the ability to raise a lot of money and get out a big group of supporters."

Cincinnati attorney Scott Knox, a board member of Citizens to Restore Fairness, said the large attendance at gay festivals is a clear indicator of change.

"More and more people are coming out," Knox said. "It's not us-them anymore. Those gays are peoples' brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles that they love. You also see more companies extending benefits to partners. They realize that a good worker is a good worker, regardless of who they love."

That rings true at P&G, said Ed Offshack, who founded a group called GABLE - Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian Employees at P&G - to lobby management for more inclusion of gay issues.

He said corporate culture at P&G has changed in the last decade. In addition to offering benefits to domestic partners, the company includes gays and lesbians in their programs teaching workplace sensitivity.

"If you have a company trying to create and sell products to all people, then you need all kinds of people in the workplace," Mr. Offshack said. "P&G recognizes that. Those were big changes that clearly show the environment here is one of inclusion."

Not everyone fighting for gay rights is convinced the city has had a change of attitude in the last 10 years.

Victor P. Fabro, a board member of the gay rights group Stonewall Cincinnati, said the only change he sees a decade after Article XII's passage is that we're all "10 years older."

The city's new law makes it a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail, to harass, menace or deface someone's property because of his or her sexual orientation, age or disability. The law, first passed in 1995, already applied to crimes motivated by hatred based on race, color, national origin or religion.

Although clearly outnumbered at a recent public hearing on the new law, a handful of opponents lined up against council's action, threatening to sue if council passed the addition to Cincinnati's hate crimes law.

Phil Burress of Citizens for Community Values said those council members voting in favor of the expanded law would pay for their votes on Election Day. Chris Finney, a lawyer for the conservative anti-tax group Citizens Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes, told council that expanding the hate crimes law would make a mockery of the 1993 vote.

"It's amazing to me, after all the turmoil this city has been through, that this City Council would drag this city through an issue that's already been decided," he said.

The city has managed to take at least one step backward for every two steps forward, said David Herriman, interim president of One Human Family, a human rights group that splitfrom Stonewall Cincinnati after that group supported a boycott against the city over racial discrimination.

Herriman also sits on the board of directors for major arts organizations such as Playhouse in the Park, the Cincinnati Ballet and the Community Arts Center. He said the city isn't better off than it was 10 years ago, and it's still unclear if attitudes about gays and lesbians are more progressive.

"We have lost a lot of retail, we have overspent ourselves on sports, we have had greater racial division in our community," Herriman said. "A lot of people have left Cincinnati, being the only city in the U.S. officially committed to bigotry.

"The country has changed in its attitude toward gays, (but) I think that has very little to do with the attitude in Cincinnati," Herriman said.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com