The Eureka Springs City Council seems to have been afflicted with collective amnesia regarding the Domestic Partnership Registry.

Despite deliberately setting aside time during a January 14 meeting to review its 2007 accomplishments, the council made nary a

mention of last year's historic enactment of the only Domestic Partnership Registry in the state. Having approved the measure unanimously on three separate occasions, the council was more than happy to take credit for it at the time.

Although Gay News Bureau gently reminded the council of its oversight immediately after the January 14 meeting, no mention of the DPR was made at the January 28 meeting, either.

The silence on the subject has become deafening. And disappointing.

In the mere six months since it went into effect, the DPR has poured approximately $2,000 into city coffers and contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the local economy. It has also attracted couples from 34 Arkansas cities and 11 different states.

Surely, in any year-end legislative review, that is a major accomplishment. Yet, at city hall, mum's the word.

Has the DPR become officially unmentionable? It would seem so. For, to our knowledge, the City Advertising and Promotion Commission has issued only one badly-composed press release on the DPR and that was seven months ago.

What can account for this conspiracy of silence? Does the city council now lack the courage of its previous convictions?

How about a reminder? From Ordinance 2052:

«WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, has determined that it is in the best interests of the City to be responsive to the changing needs of society and to treat all persons fairly and equitably; and . . .

. . . further recognizes that family configurations exist in many different forms, including unmarried individuals who consider each other as partners in and for life; and . . .

. . . acknowledges that when any unrelated adults can choose freely to be recognized as domestic partners and to make their relationship status a matter of public record, a vital public service will have been rendered . . .»

When it passed the DPR ordinance last spring, the council boosted the reputation of Eureka Springs as a progressive, enlightened, inclusive community. The new law generated positive publicity nationwide because it put the town amongst the ranks of more than 266 of the Fortune 500 companies, more than 8,000 private and public employers nationwide, at least 15 states and almost 200 local governments that also recognize Domestic Partnerships.

The city council has every reason to boast about the DPR because it set an example for other cities across the country that are now rapidly following our town's lead. The New Orleans DPR was recently validated by a circuit court. Pending a public hearing next week, the city council in Salt Lake City is poised to enact its own DPR.

The Eureka Springs city council could--through resolutions--aid in that effort while solidifying it's own commitment to social justice, economic well-being and the lofty words of the ordinance. It could continue to lead by example and thereby attract like-minded tourists, trade groups, conventions and businesses.

The city council has this month alone had three opportunities to reaffirm that commitment--at its two monthly meetings and then again with the release in early January of the American Family Association's slanderous and sickeningly homophobic video, «They're Coming To Your Town.»

Pathetically, the only thing the public has heard from city hall this month is the slamming of closet doors.

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