Add republican Shirley Horton to the list of noted homophobes. The 78th District state Assemblymember voted no June 4 on two monumental domestic partner bills that passed the state Assembly by a narrow margin.

The bills Horton opposed include AB 17, which will require contractors doing business with the state to provide health insurance for their employees’ domestic partners, and AB 205, which will greatly increase the benefits, rights and responsibilities afforded domestic partners in California (sans some 1,000 federal marriage rights they are still denied). Asked for a comment on her decision not to support equal treatment for her gay and lesbian constituents, Horton declined to return repeated phone calls to the Gay and Lesbian Times, her staff saying she was simply too busy.

But how could she vote against gay and lesbian couples residing in her district, you ask? Update columnist Bob Fox referred to Horton as “a Republican Friend in the State Assembly” in an April 3 column. Fox said he had served with Horton and knew her to be “sympathetic to our plight” — a person who “votes more according to her own conscience….”

Perhaps the former Chula Vista mayor was more sympathetic to Fox’s homosexual plight when he was serving as a Chula Vista City Councilmember because he was then in the closet — posing less of a threat for Horton. To paint Horton as a friend of our community is misleading, if not blatantly irresponsible.

Though Horton refused to comment on her vote, the Times did receive a comment from her successor as mayor of Chula Vista, Steve Padilla. “I would have voted yes,” said Padilla. “You look at the first section of the language of the bill and it talks about fulfilling promises of inalienable rights, liberty and equality contained in sections one and seven in Article 1 of the Constitution. It talks about how it can foster and promote stable and lasting relationships and I think we all know families take many shapes and forms today…. One of the things we should be encouraging are the commitments to those relationships and the stability they bring.”

If looking at the way Horton votes isn’t enough to gauge her feelings towards the GLBT community, just take a look at the people she associates with — mainly avowed “Jesus Freak” George Stevens, who, as a member of the San Diego City council, repeatedly refused to sign a pride proclamation and likened gays and lesbians to prostitutes, thieves, drunks and murderers, before voting to support Proposition 22, which banned gay marriage in California.

After losing the Democratic primary in the 2002 78th Assembly District race to GLBT-supportive Vince Hall, Stevens gathered a group of Baptist ministers and held a press conference to voice his support for Shirley Horton’s campaign. What did he tell people during this press conference? That he couldn’t support Hall because he was an advocate for gay rights and not a pro-family man.

Did Horton distance herself from the short homophobe prone to dark pinstriped suits and bowler hats (like his beliefs, relics of another era)? No, in a blatant political payback, Horton turned around and hired Stevens as a field representative.

And how is Stevens representing himself these days?

As a member of the San Diego Unified School Board’s redistricting committee, Stevens recently opposed recognizing the GLBT community in terms of drawing up new boundaries for the board of education. When San Diego Democratic Club President Jess Durfee testified before the committee that the GLBT community should be recognized as a community of interest, Stevens questioned the validity of Durfee’s data, because gays and lesbians are not counted on the Census with other ethnic groups. Local attorney Mike Aguirre backed Durfee up in advocating for the GLBT community to be recognized, though Stevens still refused to accept numbers outside of the Census.

Meanwhile, Stevens admitted last week to a federal grand jury that he had taken $3,000 from Lance Malone, a Las Vegas lobbyist working for Cheetah’s strip club owner Michael Galardi — linking him to the corruption investigation of three current San Diego City Council members. FBI agents and SDPD detectives, Stevens soon learned, had observed two meetings between himself and Malone. With Bible in hand, Stevens told the grand jury that he “couldn’t remember” the information or location of the meetings as recounted by law enforcement.

Though Horton seems to have a problem with granting equal rights to gays and lesbians involved in long-term, loving relationships, she seems to have no moral qualms with Stevens’ cozy relationship with strip club lobbyists.

Meanwhile, as Horton was hiding from the great big ‘No’ she sent her GLBT constituents, the Court of Appeal in Ontario, Canada, ruled June 10 that the country’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional. Toronto’s city clerk was ordered to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples and many proceeded to tie-the-knot on the spot.

Though the decision is not likely to have much of an affect on Shirley Horton or George Stevens, Canada’s ruling makes it the first country in North America to legally recognize full gay marriage, setting an important precedent.

In response to California’s newly passed domestic partner bill, Prop. 22 author Pete Knight and his right wing ilk are already trying to raise money for a legal challenge to the legislation, should it pass the Senate and be signed into law by Gov. Davis as predicted. During this pivotal point in history, we can only hope that Canada’s just and courageous act will embolden politicians in this country to do the right thing and vote in the interest of equality for all of their constituents — whether or not their “conscience” or moral predisposition tells them they should.