A delicately woven deal to keep pro- and anti-gay-rights bills off the agenda for the 2010 Legislature could be unraveling.
Last week, Rep. Christine Johnson, D-Salt Lake City, and Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, announced a "compromise" aimed at keeping lawmakers from challenging ordinances in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County that protect gay and transgender residents from housing and workplace discrimination.
Johnson plans to drop a statewide anti-discrimination bill for the session and instead launch a yearlong study of such statutes in Utah and out. If Johnson's bill, HB128, garners approval, a legislative committee would decide whether to recommend action on anti-discrimination in 2011.
But some Republicans still are weighing whether to push bills that could break the truce. And they might ask for modifications to the study bill, which is co-sponsored by Stephenson, that could prove to be deal breakers.
"It's hard to tell exactly what will happen in the end," Stephenson said Wednesday. "It is a fragile agreement, but I'm hopeful that we can get everyone to stand down this year and to let cooler heads prevail."
Senate Majority Whip Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, has opened a bill file for a resolution regarding the traditional family.
But he said he will support the compromise -- besides Johnson, two other Democrats are dropping gay-rights bills -- if it is "a real moratorium" that holds together and issues over the interim study can be resolved.
Sen. Ben McAdams, D-Salt Lake City, who has set aside his wrongful-death bill as part of the compromise, said he needs to see the resolution's language before he could say if it would blow up the stand-down.
"We'll need to see what the legislation is before we decide what our reaction is," he said, "but I would urge them to not add flame to the fire."
Johnson said she is pressing ahead with the compromise.
"Until my colleagues come forward and say that the deal is dead," she said, "I'm going to move forward."
