Gay Rights Legislation Clears Hurdle in Senate

BOSTON--A bill to outlaw discrimination against gays and lesbians in housing, employment, credit and public accommodations cleared a parliamentary hurdle yesterday in the Massachusetts Senate, making it eligible for floor action.

Senate President William M. Bulger (D-South Boston) announced the measure would be released tomorrow from the procedural panel--the Committee on Bills in the Third Reading--that has been holding it since July.

The House-passed measure won initial Senate approval in July.

The bill, which has been pending in the legislature for 17 years, was then automatically sent to the procedural panel, which had not acted on it.

Sen. Michael J. Barrett '70 (D-Cambridge) had asked the Senate to force the committee to discharge the bill, a move that would have required a simple majority vote to prevail.

"I think there has been an extraordinary change in atmosphere comparing 1987 to 1989," said David LaFontaine of the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

LaFontaine said the bill stayed bottled up in the committee two years ago and never made it to the Senate floor for a vote.

He added that he expected there still would be floor fights over proposed Senate amendments to the bill, including one that would discourage the Department of Social Services from placing foster children with or allowing adoptions by gays and lesbians.

That issue was controversial in 1985 and 1986 when Gov. Michael S. Dukakis changed state policy to all but ban gays and lesbians from being eligible for foster parenting.

LaFontaine said the bill must still clear several hurdles before becoming law, including votes in the Senate, a final vote in the House and possibly a House-Senate conference committee to clear up differences between the two chambers' versions of the bill.

Bulger, who personally opposes the bill, deserves credit for not attempting to block action on it, LaFontaine said. "It has been a test of whether the powerful people will let the majority rule."