The DeKalb Human Relations Commission will decide April 4 whether or not to send a proposal for a gay rights ordinance to the DeKalb City Council.

“I’ll bring it up to the commission myself, and it will be voted on and hopefully sent to the city council,” said Lee Schreiner, chairman of the commission’s Ad Hoc Sexual Orientation Committee.

Committee member Karen Seymour was optimistic about the proposal’s acceptance. “With us (the Human Relations Commission) passing it, there will be a definite trend to accept the proposal,” she said.

The committee approved Thursday the addition of the term “sexual orientation” and an appropriate definition of that term to Chapter 49 of the DeKalb Municipal Code. Chapter 49 includes the establishment, operation, and jurisdiction of the Human Relations Commission.

The committee defined sexual orientation as “a male or female homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual by practice or preference.”

The term also was added to the list of protected classes in several clauses of the “Prohibited Discriminatory Practices” ordinance. Prior to the amendment, the commission could not officially investigate incidents of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

The committee decided to add the term after reviewing a similiar section of the Champaign-Urbana Municipal Code. Champaign-Urbana is the only college town in Illinois to include such a term in its list of protected classes.

The addition to the ordinance came after a suggestion by DeKalb Corporate Counsel Rich Turner to amend the city’s existing human rights ordinances. “I think it (the municipal code) left out a class of people that needs to be protected,” Schreiner said.

The idea of proposing a gay rights ordinance first was discussed in February 1988, he said. Since then, several allegations have been made of sexual harassment towards gays and lesbians by DeKalb-area landlords and employers. The commission found it difficult to collect evidence and specific case studies of sexual harassment because victims were not willing to come forward to testify.

“It’s real hard to do (collect evidence) when there isn’t anything to be gained by coming forward. These people (the victims) have no protection,” Schreiner said.

Earlier this month, Stephen Hermann, Gay-Lesbian Union co-president, said a local restaurant asked employees suspected of being gay to quit. He also said some area landlords have not allowed people they suspected to be gay to rent apartments.

The city presently does not have an organization to monitor acts of discrimination against gays, said Bruce Subatich, coordinator of the Gay-Lesbian Community Foundation.

Schreiner said he does not expect any opposition to the proposal at the April 4 commission meeting. “I think the time is here. It happened in Chicago, and people have been talking about. I think they’re ready to see that it won’t hurt anybody.”