A majority of City Commission candidates favor creating a new anti-discrimination law that would provide legal protection to transvestites and other transgender individuals.

Six of the eight candidates threw their support behind the newly proposed idea at a candidate forum Wednesday at City Hall.

“The common denominator of our community should be that we are all simply equal,” said James Bush.

Supporters, opponents

Bush was joined by Price Banks, Dennis Constance, Aron Cromwell, Tom Johnson and Gwen Klingenberg in supporting the proposal, which would make it illegal for landlords or employers to deny someone housing or a job based on their transgender identity.

Candidates Mike Amyx and Lance Johnson both said they had reservations, and likely would not approve such a law.

“I have the opportunity to serve all walks of life that come in my business, and I do not have a discriminatory bone in my body, but I would not support it,” Amyx said.

Lance Johnson said he had questions about what the legal ramifications of adopting the ordinance might be, and he would lean toward spending the City Commission’s time on other issues.

The issue was proposed earlier this month by the Lawrence-Douglas County Chapter of the Kansas Equality Coalition, which was the group that previously successfully lobbied the city to create a domestic partnership registry that provides some legal recognition for same-sex couples in the community.

Additional discussions

In other news from the forum, which was sponsored by the nonpartisan Voter Education Coalition:

• Two candidates — Constance and Klingenberg — said they likely would advocate to strip the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce of the city funding it receives to run an economic development marketing program for the community.

“I think they have a role to play, but I don’t think they should be the paid agent of the city,” Constance said.

Klingenberg said she thought the money could perhaps be better used to fund social service programs because she had not seen the marketing efforts produce enough positive results.

Lance Johnson, Amyx and Bush all said they thought the chamber had done a reasonably good job of promoting economic development opportunities.

“The chamber has come to us with deals, and at times, we have let them down,” Lance Johnson said.

Tom Johnson, Banks and Cromwell all said they likely would continue to provide funding for the chamber, but said the organization needed to significantly change the focus of its marketing program. All three said the chamber needed to do more to help small, existing businesses. Cromwell also emphasized that the organization needed to do more to attract retirees to live in the community.

• Banks said he was open to the idea of placing some type of sales tax issue on a future ballot to provide funding to make improvements in the city’s public library system.

“I kind of like referendums because they provide a mandate,” Banks said.

The other seven candidates all stopped short of saying they would put the issue of library improvements on the ballot anytime soon, although all said they believe the library is deserving of better facilities.

Klingenberg and Constance both said they would like to study the idea of creating a new impact fee, which would be charged to newly constructed residences, that could provide a new source of revenue to the library.

The forum was taped to be broadcast later on Sunflower Channel 6 and on Sunflower’s On Demand system and at LJWorld.com.

City Commission candidates will have another forum at 7 p.m. March 30 in the commons area of Lawrence High School, 19th and Louisiana streets.