Taking a page from San Francisco—where a landmark 1997 law requires companies that do business with the city to follow the city's lead and offer domestic partner benefits—the King County Labor Council AFL-CIO (KCLC) unanimously passed a resolution last week calling for the Lake Washington School District to set standards for its own business relationships. The council's resolution calls on the district to revise its facilities rental policy to require groups renting school facilities to abide by the district's own liberal anti-discrimination policy. The policy prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, in addition to things such as race, age, and disability.
It's a pointed resolution. The Lake Washington School District currently rents space to the controversial Antioch Bible Church, a conservative congregation headed up by the outspoken anti-gay pastor Ken Hutcherson ["Separation Anxiety," by Amy Jenniges, June 16.] The rental, permissible under state law, has been ongoing for the past six years and nets the district around $140,000 annually.
Jeffrey Wasson, a labor activist and member of LGBT union group Pride at Work, drafted the resolution. "I had been following this story because I have some good friends who work in the Lake Washington School District," says Wasson. The resolution, he explains, backs up Lake Washington School District teacher's union president Kevin Teeley, who has recently been questioning the district's relationship with Antioch.
The resolution—which also criticizes Hutcherson, saying the pastor "spews hateful and bigoted propaganda opposed to gay people and marriage equality, creating a climate of hate and intolerance"—passed the KCLC executive council unanimously on June 15. "It's very simple," says Steve Williamson, executive secretary-treasurer of the council, an umbrella group for 165 local unions. "Taxpayers should not be subsidizing hateful actions or hateful spaces."
While the resolution doesn't force the Lake Washington School District to change its rental policy, it does keep up public pressure on the district to revisit the relationship with Antioch. "We touch a lot of people with these resolutions," Wasson says.
Barbara Posthumus, business services coordinator at Lake Washington School District, did not return our calls.
