Former Irvine Mayor's Homophobic Past Called Into Question

 

Irvine Watchdog Opinion: Christina Shea’s Homophobic Past Called Into Question

Read the original article at Irvine Watchdog here

This November, the Irvine mayoral seat is up for election, with incumbent Mayor Christina Shea running for the position. While Shea is the incumbent, she was not elected, and assumed the seat when the previous mayor resigned.

Shea is now running for “reelection.” Before you mark your ballot this November, I think it is worthwhile to take a look into Christina Shea’s past.

Last year, I began researching the LGBT rights movement in Orange County during the 1980s. While in the process of conducting this research, I found out that Christina Shea, Mayor of Irvine, was heavily involved in a homophobic organization during 1989, and that her involvement in this organization got her name on the political map in Irvine – leading to her become elected as a city councilor for the first time in 1992.

In 1988, the Irvine City Council unanimously approved its Human Rights Ordinance, which was meant to prevent discrimination “based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, physical handicap or sexual orientation.”1 In 1989, relying on help from Louis Sheldon, founder of the homophobic Traditional Values Coalition, Christina Shea, Michael Shea, and Scott Peotter founded the Irvine Values Coalition.2 The Irvine Values Coalition then gathered enough signatures to place a measure on the 1989 ballot, Measure N, which removed “sexual orientation” as a protected category under the Human Rights Ordinance, leaving the rest of the language of the Ordinance intact. 

While involved in this campaign:

• The Sheas gave over $5,000 ($10,480.56 today)3 to the Irvine Values Coalition.4
• Shea wrote several op-eds in the Los Angeles Times voicing her opinion on Measure N. In one, Shea claimed that the Human Rights Ordinance granted “special protection” to homosexuals – but not to any of the other protected groups included within it.5
• During the week of the 1989 election, Shea was paraphrased in the Orange County Register: “By acknowledging homosexuals as a minority in law, [Shea] said, the government is condoning a behavior that runs contrary to accepted moral beliefs that have run this country since its inception.”6
• The Sheas stated that they had a gay person in the family and “love[d] him very much.” But, Michael told the Los Angeles Times: “We don’t happen to agree with that lifestyle.”7
• Michael Shea told the Times after Measure N’s victory that “in my opinion and Christina’s opinion, [homosexuals] are neither unchangeable nor morally neutral…If you give minority status to behavior-based life styles, you open up a Pandora’s box – to smokers, drinkers, neo-Nazis if you will.”8

Measure N succeeded 52.5% to 47.5%,9 and the city of Irvine was forced to remove its sexual orientation protections.  Today, these protections are codified under California law. But at the time, they were extremely progressive; Irvine was one of the first cities in the country to adopt a law protecting sexual orientation. The damage that the Sheas, Peotter, and the Irvine Values Coalition did to the Irvine Human Rights Ordinance was only undone this July, when the Irvine City Council voted to repeal Measure N.

City Council Repeals Anti-LGBTQ Ordinance Previously Championed by Mayor

Irvine City Council Repeals Anti-LGBTQ Ordinance Previously Championed by Mayor Shea

On Tuesday (July 14th), the Irvine City Council finally repealed an anti-LGBTQ provision put into law by way of a nasty ballot initiative, in 1989, championed by then-Irvine resident and now Irvine’s unelected Mayor Christina Shea.

In 1988, then-Mayor Larry Agran crafted a bold Human Rights Ordinance, which protected the LGBTQ community from discrimination in housing, employment, and businesses open to the public.  The Ordinance was adopted by the City Council, making Irvine one of the first cities in the state to adopt such a progressive law.

Shea — who was already a well known right-wing activist — vowed to overturn Agran’s Human Rights Ordinance through an anti-LGBTQ ballot measure (Measure N).  Shea’s ballot measure was so extreme that it even banned the City from recognizing sexual orientation as a fundamental human right.  Measure N was passed by Irvine voters in 1989, 53% to 47%.

The July 14th motion to repeal Measure N was introduced by Councilmembers Melissa Fox and Farrah Khan.  In an accompanying memo, Councilmembers Fox and Khan stated, “(Sec. 3-5-501 through 503] is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution and in violation of California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which explicitly prohibits discrimination against people based on ‘sexual orientation’.”

The Fox-Khan memo continued, “The provision in our city’s municipal code is not only unconstitutional and in violation of superseding state laws, but Irvine’s anti-LGBTQ ordinance is a cruel and embarrassing relic of a more prejudiced time.  The City of Irvine has a responsibility to ensure that all residents feel safe and welcome in our city — it is time to repeal and remove [Sec. 3-5-501 through 503] from the city’s municipal code.”

Just last year, the Council voted 3-2 against Councilmember Fox’s motion to fly the Pride Flag at City Hall, with Councilmember Mike Carroll stating, “Irvine does not need a spectacle of divisiveness.”  (Only Councilmember Khan supported Fox’s 2019 motion.)

This year, it took two Council meetings and lots of pushing from voters, but Fox’s motion to fly the Pride Flag finally passed 4-1 at the June 23rd Council meeting.  (Mayor Shea voted against the motion.)

And now, on July 14th, the Council voted to repeal Shea’s disgraceful anti-LGBTQ ordinance, which had remained on the books in Irvine for more than 30 years.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE: https://irvinecommunitynewsandviews.org/irvine-city-council-repeals-anti-lgbt-ordinance-previously-championed-by-mayor-shea/