Sunday, December 04, 2005

Supporting Murphy's Law Pays Off For Randolph

Rep. Mike Murphy has endorsed Indianapolis City-County Councilor Isaac Randolph in his bid to win appointment as a replacement for Sen. Murray Clark, who recently announced his resignation from the Senate to join the law firm of Baker & Daniels reports Indiana Daily Insight. As Marion County GOP chairman, Murphy’s support no doubt will carry a lot of weight.

Randolph is one of 12 Republican councilors who so far have obeyed Murphy’s Law and refused to support a Human Rights Ordinance (HRO) banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. In Randolph’s case, he broke a campaign promise he made to the GLBT community when he sought election to the council in 2003, a seat he won by just a handful of votes.

As earlier reported by Bilerico, Randolph responded to a survey furnished to him by the Greater Indianapolis Fairness Alliance (GIFA), indicating that he supported adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the HRO. Based upon Randolph’s response and verbal assurances from his campaign, GIFA furnished a voter guide to the Indianapolis GLBT community urging support for his candidacy.

When the HRO was first voted on last April, Randolph inexplicably voted against it. Randolph has refused to respond to numerous requests from the GLBT community to explain his broken promise. Randolph has ignored several e-mail messages from Advance Indiana editor Gary R. Welsh as well.

The only opponent Randolph faces to replace Clark is a former aide to Rep. Dan Burton, Mike Delph, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for Secretary of State in 2002. During that race, Delph’s campaign spread rumors that one of his GOP opponents was gay. His campaign’s gay-baiting failed to impress the GOP delegates, who nominated Todd Rokita instead. After winning election as Secretary of State, Todd Rokita enacted a policy of non-discrimination towards gays and lesbians just as his predecessor, Sue Ann Gilroy, had done.

Regardless of whether Delph or Randolph succeeds in replacing Clark, neither can be expected to be friends of the GLBT community. Then again, Clark wasn’t exactly a friend either.

The HRO will be heard in the Rules and Public Policy Committee Monday, December 5, 2005, at 5:30 p.m. in the SerVaas Public Assembly Room at the city-county building. HRO supporters are urged to attend this important meeting. The meeting should prove quite interesting, particularly with the potential re-emergence of the police consolidation ordinance as reported by the Indianapolis Star yesterday and the potential vote trading which may transpire to pave the road for the passage of both measures before year’s ends.

Supporters of the HRO received another boost with an editorial endorsement from the Indianapolis Business Journal. The IBJ writes: “It's time for Indianapolis to send a signal to the rest of the world that we're a tolerant community that welcomes all law-abiding people . . . Some councilors have suggested that sexual identity is a lifestyle choice and therefore shouldn't be protected. But that ignores the vast majority of the medical community, from the American Medical Association to the American Psychiatric Association, which long ago determined that genetics play a role in sexual identity.”

The Indianapolis Star endorsed passage of the HRO last month.

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