AT THE EYE OF A STORM IN IRVINE : A More-or-Less Typical Irvine Couple Fight to Preserve Gay Protection in City's Unique Human Rights Ordinance

"We're like any couple here. We keep up the lawn; we pay our bills; we want to be good neighbors. We're really like anyone else who's settled down here. But not exactly. Boone and Joseph Bucuzzo, 48, an associate professor of mathematics at Cal State Fullerton, are a gay couple who began their committed life partnership 15 years ago, not long before they bought their home in their tree-lined, green-belted neighborhood."

"The Irvine City Council last July 12, by a 4-0 vote, adopted the first such comprehensive rights ordinance in the county. The ordinance forbids job, housing and other kinds of discrimination based on a person's race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, physical handicap, or sexual orientation. The Irvine ordinance is much broader than one adopted in 1986 in Laguna Beach, which deals only with protection of the rights of gays."

"Because of its inclusion of protection for gays, the Irvine ordinance has become the center of a heated debate over gay rights. On March 29, the city announced that the Irvine Values Coalition, an organization of residents opposed to the sexual-orientation provision of the ordinance, had collected 5,433 valid signatures on a petition--enough to force the City Council either to reconsider or face a recall election."

James Boone and Joseph Bucuzzo are a gay couple living in suburban Irvine, California, who maintain conventional lifestyles as successful professionals while actively advocating for gay rights. Boone served on the citizens panel that helped draft Irvine's human rights ordinance, adopted by the City Council in July with a 4-0 vote. The ordinance comprehensively prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, physical handicap, and sexual orientation. This protection for gays distinguishes it from a narrower 1986 Laguna Beach ordinance. The sexual-orientation provision has become controversial, with the Irvine Values Coalition collecting over 5,400 signatures on a petition opposing this aspect of the ordinance.

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