From: mike@gordian.com (Michael A. Thomas)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: OP ed on Measure 9 in the LA Times
Date: 16 Oct 92 01:17:55 GMT
Organization: Gordian; Costa Mesa, CA


		Who Will Decide? Who is Next? 
		   by Marvin Liebman
		(typos mine, of course)

   Oregon is considered one of the more progressive and hospitable
states in the nation. Because of this, young people, many with their
families, have been drawn to the state to seek better lives and to 
reach out for the American dream.
   But, there are those in Oregon who do not want or like young dreamers,
especially if they be gays and lesbians. They hate gays and lesbians.
They fear gays and lesbians. They want them to disappear and leave 
the state and the country to them and their own version of "traditional
family values."
   Who are these Oregonians? They call themselves the Oregon Citizens
Alliance (OCA), an amalgam of self-styled Christians and professional
bigots. The "Christians" preach not the love, tolerance and compassion
on which the faith is based, but its antithesis.
   Standing with them are the bullyboys of Oregon who hate for the sake 
of hating, who will strike out at anything and anyone who is different 
from them -- Jews, African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and, the easiest
prey of all, gays and lesbians. They are the local storm troops of Pat
Robertson and Pat Buchanan and they do their masters proud.
   They have placed Measure 9, a referendum aimed at gay and lesbian
Oregonians, on the ballot. The general purpose of the measure is to
put gays and lesbians outside the protection of the US Constitution,
to make us pariahs in our own land. The parallels to Nazi Germany in
the '30s are plain to see.
   Adding insult to injury, the language of the measure includes
"pedophilia, sadism and masochism," which are far more prevalent
in heterosexual than in homosexual society. If this were enforced 
among the membership of the Oregon Citizens Alliance, its membership 
might be considerably diminished.
   Measure 9 has three primary requirements: The state is forbidden
to "recognize" sexual orientation; state and local governments are
forbidden to "promote, encourage and facilitate" homosexuality, and
finally, public schools, colleges and universities will be required
to teach that homosexuality is "abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse"
and should be "discouraged and avoided."
    This latter requirement is to call nature itself abnormal, wrong,
unnatural and perverse. Homosexuals are born, not taught. To be born 
homosexual is no different than to be born with blue eyes. No matter
what the OCA, Dan Quayle, Pat Robertson or Pat Buchanan may dream up,
I know. I was born a homosexual. Now, after 67 years of hiding and 
pandering to the Robertsons, Buchanans and Quayles of my time, I am 
an open and proud homosexual.
    This measure would be the first to take civil rights away from
Americans. Some what it would do:
   o Religious and public groups that may have had the temerity to
     adopt anti-discrimination measures would be barred from the
     use of any public facilities. This would include the Oregon
     branch of the American Bar Assn.
   o Libraries would be required to remove from their shelves any
     books deemed to "promote" homosexuality - for example "The 
     Color Purple" and "Catcher in the Rye."
   o Gays and lesbians would be barred from all professions if they
     were deemed to "promote, encourage or facilitate homosexuality."
   To teach children such ignorant and stereotypical nonsense is to 
ensure that more young boys and girls discovering their own sexuality
will die by their own hands rather then endure lives regulated by
the Oregon Citizens Alliance.
   Who will decide just who and what is homosexual? Will it be the same
type of bureaucrat who judged who was a Jew or politically undesirable 
in Germany? Or will it be a designated official of the Oregon Citizens
Alliance who will serve as the modern Torquemada? And where will it
stop?
   I paraphrase what Pastor Martin Niemoller said almost 50 years
ago: When Hitler attacked the Jews, I was not a Jew and was therefore
not concerned. When he attacked Catholics, I was not a Catholic and
was therefore not concerned. When he attacked the unions and 
industrialists, I was not part of them and I remained unconcerned.
Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant Church. There was nobody left
to be concerned.
   Now is the time for all Americans to be concerned.

   Marvin Liebman is the author of _Coming Out Conservative_ (Chronical
Books). He works in Washington DC.
-- 

		Michael Thomas	(mike@gordian.com)
	"I don't think Bambi Eyes will get you that flame thrower..."  
		-- Hobbes to Calvin
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