Gay City Employees Fight To Block Release Of Their Identities

SEATTLE - Several City of Seattle workers have sued to prevent the release of names and membership lists of a gay and lesbian employee organization.
At issue, according to a complaint filed in King County Superior Court, is a request by Seattle City Light employee affiliated with a conservative Christian organization who claims the city has opposed his efforts to launch a group for formerly homosexual workers.
The City Light employee -- Philip Irvin, 58 -- wants the city to release the names of organizers of city employee groups, specifically those of a Seattle Public Utilities "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning and Friends" group. According to court documents, Irvin has also requested the names and city departments of those who are members of the group, or who have attended the group's meetings, as well as copies of the group's sign-in sheets, minutes and agendas.
Speaking to seattlepi.com Thursday, Irvin said the city has previously opposed his efforts to start a group for employees who had identified as homosexuals but have since become heterosexual.
"They are the most vilified sexual minority, and I'm sorry to say that they're not really welcomed in the religious community either," Irvin said. "This is something where they are vilified on the right or the left."
After receiving Irvin's request in early May, city public-disclosure officers notified employees whose identities would be released. In response, an unspecified number of employees have sued the city asserting that state public-records law demand their identities be withheld.
Plaintiffs' attorney Cecilia Cordova said the issue, plainly, is the privacy of these city employees.
"The information that we're talking about is personal information," said Cordova, who is representing the employees with noted gay-rights attorney David Coffman. "The risk is privacy, and that's something that is taken very seriously by the court system."
Coffman and Cordova were able to secure a temporary restraining order blocking the city from releasing the documents until a more complete hearing is held later this month. At that time, the employees' attorneys will ask that the city delay release of the documents until a final ruling is made.
Defending the city position that the documents are releasable, City Attorney Tom Carr said that, despite his personal view to the contrary, he believes state law mandates that the information be released.
Carr argued that no relevant exemptions exist in the state open-records law to protect the identities of public employees participating in such groups. Earlier case law held that the courts could weigh the public good of release with the privacy concerns, but the Legislature has since revised the law to seriously limit such discretion.
"This is a group of people who have historically been discriminated against and in some cases physically attacked, and I would prefer to protect their names," Carr said. "But my preferences aren't relevant here, and the law is clear. … If the law's wrong, the people who can change it are in the Legislature."
Irvin said he has asked to become an intervenor in the complaint filed by the city employees, a position which would allow him to file pleadings in the case. He said he is preparing to file a brief demanding disclosure of the documents.
Rather than to harass group members, Irvin said he intends to use the documentation to show that the city has allowed the group to operate. He also said he intends to attend the group's meetings, and will use the identifying information in a civil rights complaint should he be barred from doing so.
Irvin said he believes the city is extending privileges to the employees' group that were denied him during an earlier effort to launch a group for formerly homosexual workers. The city did so, he contends, because organizations such as his are "politically inconvenient," and, in doing so, violated civil rights law.
"Some people would say that I'm a civil rights leader," Irvin said. "I'm asking for equal rights, and, to that end, I'm attacking the internal inconsistency of gay rights laws."
On the Web site of the Bellevue-based Faith and Freedom Network, group president Gary Randall republished a memo apparently sent to the organization by Irvin. In it, Irvin complains that LGBTQ&F group members have used the city e-mail system and meeting rooms for the organization's functions.
"Curious to find out who was using City resources, I, a City Light employee, filed a public disclosure request seeking the names and attendees of their meeting," Irvin wrote, according to the Faith and Freedom Network site. "Call me a homophobe if you want to," he added, "but I don't think the city should fund a secret gay employees group."
Irvin went on to accuse the employees of hypocrisy for fighting the release of their identifying information. Gay-rights groups have announced plans to publish the names of voters who sign Referendum 71, a Faith and Freedom Network-backed effort to repeal a state law expanding the rights of registered domestic partners.
That effort was announced earlier this month, weeks after Irvin filed his public-information request.
Irvin's request will face its first test Wednesday, when King County Superior Court Judge John Erlick will hear arguments on whether to block release of the documents.
from The Seattle Post-Intelligencer