From: WAND_M@gold.colorado.edu
Subject: New York City mayor urges travel boycott of Colorado
Followup-To: amend2-discuss@cs.colorado.edu
Originator: doherty@ucsu.Colorado.EDU
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 05:55:08 GMT

>From the Gazette Telegraph of Colorado Springs
December 9, 1992

Associated Press
NEW YORK - Mayor David Dinkins on Tuesday recommended a travel boycott of 
Colorado to protest the state's prohibition of gay rights laws.

Dinkins said he has asked the U.S. Conference of mayors to move its annual 
meeting from Colorado Springs next June to join in opposing the constitutional 
amendment adopted by Colorado voters.

Amendment 2 prohibits laws protecting gays from discrimination based on sexual 
orientation, and repeals such ordinances in Denver, Boulder and Aspen.

"The sad part about this is the majority of the people in Denver, Colo., do not 
have this view," Dinkins said after a meeting with Denver Mayor Wellington 
Webb.

He told reporters in City Hall, "I will not travel to the Conference of Mayors 
meeting to be held in Colorado Springs because of the legislation that they've 
passed there that says, in effect, that gays and lesbians are not entitled to 
rights that everyone else has."

He said he has written to other mayors asking that the meeting be moved to New 
York City.

Dinkins said he was "calling for a travel boycott-for lack of a better 
expression right now--as opposed to an economic boycott for Colorado."

Webb was accompanied at the meeting by Linda Fowler, chairman of the Gay and 
Lesbian Committee in Denver.

"We expect that this issue is going to be on the ballot in many other states 
across the country," Webb said.

He said he was disappointed by Dinkins' support for a travel boycott.

"For the long term, I think it's an ineffective one for addressing the issue of 
gays and lesbians across this country," he said.

He also said it punished people in Denver, Boulder and Aspen who voted 2-to-1 
and 3-to-1 against it.

Webb was in New York City on a trip originally scheduled to boost tourism in 
Colorado.  Since the passage of the amendment, it has taken on a new meaning.

He has been meeting with editors and reporters to explain why he thinks a 
travel or economic boycott would be an ineffective way to protest the action 
of the state's voters.

Fowler called for support of Denver's homosexual community, "to join with us in 
crafting a national strategy to address what is a very grave threat to 
constitutional rights in this country."

New York City Councilman Thomas Duane of Greenwich Village, who took part in 
the meeting, called the travel boycott "a good first step that's part of a 
larger strategy...to overturn this terrible, terrible referendum."

He said he would draft legislation to have the city of New York start an 
economic boycott of Colorado.

Webb has been accompanied by a handful of demonstratoars who want him to do 
more to win back gay rights legislation in Denver and Colorado.

On Monday, about 10 members of the Lesbian Avengers, a gay rights group, 
briefly interrupted a breakfast appearance by Webb at the Regency Hotel by 
chanting "We're here.  We're queer.  We're not going skiing"--a reference to an 
economic boycott of the state.  The protesters left peacefully.

Later Monday, about 50 demonstrators gathered outside the CBS Radio network 
building where Webb was being interviewed on a live syndicated talk show.

The amendment was approved Nov. 3 by 53 percent of those Coloradans who voted; 
47 percent were opposed.

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