From: WAND_M@gold.colorado.edu
Subject: Springs mayor gives peers a scolding
Followup-To: amend2-discuss@cs.colorado.edu
Originator: doherty@ucsu.Colorado.EDU
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 04:38:27 GMT

The Denver Post
January 19, 1993

By Kelly Richmond, States News Service

WASHINGTON--Colorado Springs mayor Bob Isaac lashed out at the U.S. Conference 
of mayors yesterday for yanking a scheduled meeting form his city in protest of 
Amendment 2.

"Not coming to Colorado Springs is your loss," he told the mayors at their 
winter meeting.  "We will survive the boycott by this organization and others.  
In fact, we're going to do quite well."

The conference's executive committee voted last month to move its June 
convention to honor a boycott of Colorado organized by gay-rights groups.  The 
five-day conference would have attracted 1,500 attendees and an estimated $1 
million in direct spending and free publicity.

Amendment 2, approved by state voters Nov. 3, would prohibit laws that 
specifically protect gays and lesbians from discrimination. El Paso County, 
which includes Colorado Springs, voted heavily in favor of the measure.

The conference's site-selection committee--of which Isaac is a member--voted 
over the weekend to recommend Reno, nev., as a replacement site.  Isaac said he 
had abstained from voting until he was needed to break a tie between Reno and 
New York.  The site will now be decided by the executive committee.

Nevada has a seldom-enforced sodomy law, which makes oral or anal sex between 
members of the same sex punishabale by up to six years in prison.  The Nevada 
Legislature amended the law in 1983 so tht it applies only to homosexuals, 
making the state one of only nine in the nation where that is the case.

The state laso has a hate-crimes law, imposing stricter penalties on crimes 
committed against gays.

There is virtually no chance that the mayors conference will come to Colorado 
Springs, Isaac said.  "But I felt compelled to make a comment or two."

His comment or two turned into a five-minute, strongly worded denunciation of 
the decision.  He accused the conference of trying to "blackmail" cities into 
"doing what a majority of the members of the conference think they should do."

Isaac, a forer presidnet of the conference, recevied a warm round of applause.  
Several mayors said that reflected the group's respect for him rather than 
agreement with his views.

Some 200 to 300 mayors and top city officials were at the breakfast meeting, 
which inlcuded a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.

During his 14 years with the conference, Isaac said,the emphasis has "gone from 
substance to symbolism, from reality to perception."  Relocating the convention 
will set a precedent, making social and political concerns the criteria in 
site-selection decisions, he said.

"I think that will narrow your choices down to a few politically correct 
cities.  What will be next?  Abortion?  Animal rights?  Acid rain?  Indian 
rights?"

Coloradans "are not bigoted, not mean-spirited.  Colorado is not the hate 
state."

The speech drew mixed reviews.  "I think Colorado Springs has been left out in 
the cold," said Mayor Donna Smith of Pomona, Calif

Mayor Joan Darrah of Stockton, Calif, supports the decision to relocate.  
Animal rights and acid rain "aren't the kind of issues we would move (a 
convention) for," she said.  But honoring the boycott "is a clear-cut case of 
our respect for equality regardless of race, religion or sexual identity."

Darrah also suggested Isaac would have geen better off to drop the matter.  "I 
don't think he did his state any good."

Isac said he anticipates New York officials will try to lobby the executive 
committee; a final decision is due today.

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