From: rks@cscns.com (gisle j benediktsson)
Subject: Re: Ammendment 2 in Colorado 
Organization: Community_News_Service
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 18:02:19 GMT

gxc (gxc@cscns.com) wrote:
: comments.

: I have lived in Colorado for the last 16 years and its a great place to live.
: The people here are some of the friendliest any where and generally this is
: a pretty progressive state.  The passing of ammendment 2 was a gross error
: in judgement for the state and there are people like me that are working
: very hard to get the ammendment appealed.  We have an element here in the 
: state of Colorado that is quite disturbing, it is a concentration of 
: fundamentalists that have been attracted to this part of the country.  They

Focus on the Family and other likeminded organizations have made it clear
in their newsletters that their interest in coming here has largely to 
do with the lower taxes and their ability to influence the population. 
Because of Colorado's proximity to the "Bible Belt", their influence
is more readily felt. 


: are making life very difficult for the rest of the free-thinkers that live
: here.  We have 'Focus on the Family' and the 'New Life Church' that are 

That is their purpose in the universe.

: asking for lists of single parent families in the school district that they
: are concentrated in, looking for suspected homosexuals.  District 20 is not
: cooperation with them, thank you district 20.  I believe that the majority

Focus on the Family, Ed Womack Ministries, Marilyn Hickey Ministries,
The Navigators, and others, have moved here with hopes of additionally
influencing the transient military population.They have inculcated themselves
into every facet of the community -- including volunteering at the library,
the school district and other areas of public influence. 

Just recently, during a debate over the inclusion of Madonna's book "Sex"
in the library, Director Bernie Margolis publicly thanked Focus on the
Family and it's volunteers for helping with the library's selection 
process. 

: of the Colorado population feel much like the people in northen Idaho where
: the headquarters of the Aryan Nations are, they are here, we don't like them,
: but we are not going to give them the attention that they so desperately need.

Here is a point of major disagreement. Aryan Nations is a group of 
perhaps 6 or 7 people (10 in a good month) that has relatively little
influence in Hayden Lake. There are too few of them to exert influence
over the City Council or local politicians. (They may have had some
influence during their heyday.) The fundie groups that have moved
into Colorado Springs are highly organized, credible (the Aryan Nations
is composed of obvious misfits such as Denver Parmenter, Betty Tate (the
mother of David Tate who killed a state patrol officer during the seige
of the Order, Richard Butler (a senile old Identity Pastor) -- on and 
dreary on.) F on the F and other organizations like it have money and
power behind them. (Pat Robertson gave Will Perkins of the New Life Church
20K to help with Amendment Two.) 

These organizations require vigilant attention from the population. If
people want to effectively boycott, find out who these people are, what
businesses they own and boycott *those*. Find out which organizations
and businesses are GLB friendly and support those businesses. 

Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. 


: Please, before you pass judgement on the entire population of Colorado, 
: understand that Ground Zero, and Citizens Action Committee are working very
: hard to repeal ammendment 2.  Not all of us are homophobic, and most of us 
: do enjoy the diverse population that live here in this jewel called Colorado.

The citizens of Colorado and others who care about this issue should 
support these organizations financially and otherwise as possible. 

Colorado doesn't have a cornerstone on hatred. It is everywhere and
should be fought on *every* front. A boycott of the entire state is
both counterproductive and misfocussed.



Newsgroups: alt.personals