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Were they rowdies or bias victims?
By MIKE HENDRICKSThe Kansas City Star
So Pride Revolution Events of Overland Park figured it would do it all over again this month with Gay Camping Extravaganza Round II.
Bad move. It didn’t turn out so swell when you consider that Jackson County park rangers and sheriff’s deputies forced 60 gays and lesbians to pack up their tents and leave the campground at Longview Lake last Saturday morning.
In the rain, no less.
Was it blatant discrimination, as campout organizers claim? Parks officials allegedly tried to discourage the group from coming in the first place.
“You know that this is a family campground?” a parks employee supposedly told one of the organizers after checking Pride Revolution’s rainbow-colored Web site.
Or then again, maybe there was no discrimination. All large groups are called ahead of time to warn them about the family (meaning quiet) nature of the campground, a county spokesman said. And maybe the campers were troublemakers who deserved to be kicked out for, among other things, responding to the call of nature in the bushes, as one woman did just before the whole group was ordered to leave.
Top parks officials were looking into it early this week. And while the investigation began and the story spread across the Internet, County Executive Mike Sanders’ administration issued a careful statement that read in part:
“We celebrate diversity and strive for an inclusive and welcoming environment. Equally important is our commitment to ensuring that our parks and facilities are safe and entertaining for all of our guests.”
And it concluded with this bit of back-patting: “It should be noted that Jackson County is a leader for social justice in our community and was one of the first local government bodies to establish a domestic partner registry and domestic partner benefits for employees.”
True enough. But one thing they forgot to mention:
Jackson County policies could be better when it comes to protecting the rights of people based on their sexual orientation. Only Kansas City and two other jurisdictions in Missouri prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, and Jackson County isn’t one of them.
“There is no state law, nor does Jackson County have a statute prohibiting discrimination in employment, housing or public accommodation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals,” Kansas City gay-rights activist Sarah Gillooly told me.
She works for Promo, a group that wants sexual orientation added to the categories covered by Missouri’s Human Rights Statute.
The bill has never gotten out of committee for a vote by the full General Assembly. Which is why the campground incident could be important. If the campers were the victims of discrimination, rather than simply a group of louts, the case would be a perfect example of why legal protections for gays are needed, Gillooly said.
“In this case, they would have no recourse.”
After all, according to the four campers I spoke with, this wasn’t a loud, drunken orgy. The group, made up mostly of women, rented 11 campsites for a weekend gathering that was to last from Friday until Sunday afternoon.
One camper was scolded for not having her dog on a leash.
There was some disagreement with a campground employee over some trash cans and an extension cord. But none of the rule violations sounded all that serious.
“I could have seen them throwing out the girl who was peeing outside,” camper Jody Michael told me.
But why did the rest have to cut their camping trip short, she asked?
Can’t wait to hear the county’s explanation, beyond Monday’s official statement and the written reports of the eviction from park rangers and the sheriff’s department. What’s missing is a firsthand account of what led up to all that.
That explanation had better be a good one. Otherwise, all that stuff about social justice is pretty words on paper that don’t mean squat.