From: WAND_M@gold.colorado.edu
Subject: Atlanta to Boycott CO
Followup-To: co.politics.amend2.discuss
Originator: gina@rintintin.Colorado.EDU
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 21:45:04 GMT

ATLANTA TO BOYCOTT COLO. ON AMEND. 2
By Michael Booth, Denver Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 18, 1992

Atlanta's city council has thrown its weight behind a boycott of Colorado over 
Amendment 2, voting to ban official travel here and saying the new state law 
puts "the civil rights of all people in jeopardy."

A San Francisco supervisor will introduce a Colorado boycott for a vote by that 
city's government and leaders in Los Angeles, New York, Boston and elsewhere 
have asked for copies of Atlanta's boycott law, Atlanta officials said 
yesterday.

The unanimous vote Monday by Atlanta's 18-member council prohibits the spending 
of any city money on travel to Colorado and two cities that passed similar 
laws: Springfield, Ore.; and Concord, Calif.

"It is incumbent on all to stand up against affirmative hatred," the resolution 
said.

Amendment 2 repeals laws protecting gays from discrimination in Denver, Boulder 
and Aspen and prevents the state or any local government from passing similar 
laws in the future.

"Atlanta is the birthplace of the civil-rights movement in the U.S., and we 
feel very strongly about this," said Chris Hagin, author of the resolution and 
a gay-rights lobbyist in Atlanta.

"In the South, we know the scar of hatred; we know the financial implications 
of hatred," said Hagin, adding that Atlanta became the first city to outlaw 
discrimination against gays in 1971.

In practical terms, the Atlanta ban will have a small impact.  But Hagin said 
he will seek the same travel ban from the private group organizing the 1996 
Olympics in Atlanta, which could disrupt contacts with the U.S. Olympic 
Committee based in Colorado Springs.

While coalitions trying to organize boycotts of Colorado hailed the move as the 
first of many to come, Colorado officials said Atlanta's vote could be 
counterproductive.

"Symbolically, it's an important action.  I just don't think it's a helpful 
one," said Briggs Gamblin, spokesman for Mayor Wellington Webb.  Activists 
outside the state should instead join Denver, Boulder and Aspen in their legal 
challenge to Amendment 2, he said.

No national consensus on a boycott has emerged since Amendment 2's passage, 
despite efforts to create a powerful coalition similar to the one that helped 
overturn Arizona's ban on a holiday for Martin Luther King Jr.

A national gay conference in Los Angeles over the weekend failed to reach 
agreement on a boycott.

But activists said the Atlanta vote could create a snowball effect in San 
Francisco and other cities.  San Francisco's proposed law includes a travel banand a boycott of Colorado products in city purchasing. 

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