From: WAND_M@gold.colorado.edu
Subject: What next on Amendment 2?
Followup-To: amend2-discuss@cs.colorado.edu
Originator: doherty@ucsu.Colorado.EDU
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 01:18:38 GMT


>From the editorial page of
The Denver Post
December 13, 1992

The adage "When you're up to your ears in alligators, its hard to remember that 
your original objective was to drain the swamp" aptly describes the dilemmas 
now besetting Colorado more than a month after voters scrambled the state's 
economic and political leadership by adopting Amendment 2.

Amendment 2's legal impact is quite limited.  It stops Boulder, Aspen and 
Denver from enforcing local civil rights ordinances providing legal protection 
for homosexuals and bisexuals, and voids an executive order by Gov. Roy Romer 
that pledged not to discriminate against state employees on the basis of their 
sexual orientation. It's not likely that many, if any, employees will be fired 
or otherwise discriminated against because of Amendment 2's passage.

But precisely because Amendment 2 is an easily understood *symbolic* issue, it 
has stirred up a political hornet's nest.  Grandstanding politicans have 
sponsored boycotts of Colorado in such cities as New York and Boston.

Even Atlanta politicians are now loudly boycotting Colorado, establishing 
something of a highwater mark for hypocrisy in the process. Georgia's sodomy 
law makes homosexual activity a crime even between consenting adults--while 
Colorado repealed its laws against sodomy, adultery and fornication 20 years 
ago.  Thus, Atlanta is boycotting Colorado because it is now legally possible 
to be fired from your job in Colorado for behavior that can get you sent to 
*prison* in Atlanta.

Still, the hard work of Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, Linda Fowler, head of 
Denver's gay-lesbian task force, and business leaders seem to be slowly 
defusing the Bash-Colorado campaign.  After a personal plea by Webb, New York 
Mayor David Dinkins settled for a largely symbolic ban on city-paid travel to 
Colorado, not the more sweeping ban on purchase of Colorado goods and services 
militant gays had demanded.  Seattle took an even more logical step in banning 
travel to Colorado *except* for Aspen, Denver and Boulder.  That move shows 
supporters of gay rights are at least becoming rational enough to remember the 
old Samuel Gompers rule of "Reward your friends and punish your 
enemies"--rather than trashing all Coloradans en masse.

As the political tempest abates, Amendment 2's opponents in Colorado need to 
take a calm look at how best to repeal the measure,as House Minority Leader Sam 
Williams is already doing.  While Secretary of State Natalie Meyer has said she 
would put a repealer on the 1993 ballot if opponents gather the necessary 
signatures on petitions, voting so early would probably be a mistake.

The 1993 election, required by the terms of Amendment 1, is basically a special 
election that will be dominated by budget issues.  Older voters, who vote 
heavily in such elections, tend to have conservative attitudes on social issues 
such as gay rights.  For their part, younger, more socially tolerant, voters 
are notorious for skipping special elections.

Finally, the hate-Colorado campaign by such radical fringe groups as Queer 
Nation and Lesbian Avengers has at least temporarily prompted a massive surge 
of support *for* Amendment 2 in Colorado.  The gay and lesbian community in 
Colorado is overwhelmingly composed of responsible, hard-working citizens, but 
its leaders will need time to convince the general populace that the handful of 
hatemongers don't represent anyone but their obnoxious selves.

For such tactical and practical reasons, the best course for now is to 
vigorously pursue the lawsuit already filed against Amendment 2 in hopes that 
the Colorado Supreme Court wil strike it down--perhaps as early as next summer. 
Meanwhile, business and civic leaders should begin a carefully researched, 
well-financed and broadbased campaign to overturn Amendment 2 in the 1994 
general election--thus returning the 14th Amendments promise of equal 
protection of the laws to all Coloradans.


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