James Norton: “the Riggs Amendment might just as well be called the ``Join the District of Columbia Club'' amendment. Until now, bald…”

“the Riggs Amendment might just as well be called the ``Join the District of Columbia Club'' amendment. Until now, bald intrusion into the affairs of a local jurisdiction was confined to the nation's capital. Now another noble city joins the ranks of local jurisdictions run by the Congress of the United States. San Francisco local code not only bars discrimination based on sexual orientations; San Francisco requires contractors who benefit from city contracts to provide health care and other benefits to domestic partners only if they provide these same benefits to married partners. This is a wise policy because it assures health care at no cost to the city from companies who profit from city contracts. Otherwise the city of San Francisco might well be left to pay for the health care of people with AIDS or other illnesses. Is there nothing we will not do to promote gay bashing? Some of the most revered principles in this chamber have been sacrificed in the name of anti-gay chest thumping--religious tolerance, civil rights, privacy, service in the armed forces, and now, devolution and local control. We've done enough harm through Federal laws. But this is still a Federal republic. Let each jurisdiction decide its own local laws locally.”