From: blough@tigger.cs.Colorado.EDU (Eric Blough)
Subject: 8/16/92 NYT article: Oregon measure 9
Followup-To: amend2-info@cs.colorado.edu
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 10:26:44 GMT

Thanks to Daniel Katz (KATZ@MSBCS@enet.dec.com).
Source: nifty.andrew.cmu.edu:/pub/QRD/qrd/rights/colorado/amend2-NYT-8.13.92

WILSONVILLE, Ore, Aug. 13 -- Using videos from gay pride marches and a
children's book called "Heather Has Two Mommies" to stir the electorate,
a conservative political group has forced a referendum on the strongest
anti-homosexual measure ever considered by a state.

The proposal, which would classify homosexuality as "abnormal, wrong,
unnatural and perverse" and allows discrimination against homosexuals is part
of a burgeoning backlash in the West against homosexuals and a theme that
has flared, in a much less defined way, in the Presidential campaign.

In November, voters in Oregon and Colorado will decide on citizen-initiated
measures that would remove legal protection for homosexuals.  But Oregon's
initiative is far more extreme.  It would require the state government to 
actively discourage homosexuality, teaching that it is a moral offense
similar to pedophilia, sadism and masochism.

The questions of whether homosexuals can serve in the military, in the
Cabinet and as foster parents have become part of the national debate
in recent years.  The issue has become a subtext in Vice President Dan
Quayle's comments on the campaign trail on family values.  But here, in
Oregon, the issue is much more overt.

"This is what we're fighting against," said Lon Mabon, waving a copy of
"Daddy's Roommate," which is intended to describe gay relationships to
children.  Mr. Mabon is the director of the conservative group sponsoring
the initiative, Oregon Citizens' Alliance.

"Cultural diversity is the buzzword used to make homosexuals full fledged
minorities that require civil rights protection," he said. "Homosexuality
is not a civil right, but an aberration."

Some legal scholars in the state say the measure could be used to remove 
homosexuals from teaching positions or state jobs, and as a basis to take
books from libraries and deny parade permits and liquor licenses.

If the measure passes - and political experts give it a strong chance, based
upon previous support in the state for anti-gay measures - it could do for
Oregon what David Duke did for Louisiana during his run for governor last 
year.  Similar to threats raised in Louisiana when Mr. Duke, a former Ku
Klux Klan leader, made his unsuccessful bid, some business and convention 
groups outside the state have already talked of boycotting Oregon.

While Oregon has long been considered a bastion of tolerance and innovative
social policy, its voters have also come out against gay rights in several
recent elections.  Poll takers say there is little sympathy among the general
electorate for homosexuals if they can be portrayed, as the Oregon conservatives
have successfully done in the past, as demanding special rights.

"Most of society is willing to tolerate a subculture built around a
homosexual life style," Mr. Mabon said.  "What we want to do is establish
a barrier.  The state must ultimately say that homosexuality is wrong."

Mr. Mabon is using videotapes from gay pride marches and excerpts from
alternative newspapers as part of his campaign to show that homosexuals 
have gone too far and should be condemned by the state.  One video, an
edited tape from a 1991 gay march in San Francisco and a 1987 rally in 
Washington, shows men and women in outlandish costumes simulating sex acts.
Banners from the "Bay Area Sadomasochists" and the "North American Man/Boy
Love Association" are prominently displayed.

The campaign, which largely plays on public fears of homosexuals, was used
successfully by Mr. Mabon's group in May, when the Oregon town of Springfield
voted, by 55 percent to 45 percent, to become the nation's first municipality
to include anti-gay language in its city charter.  The act bars Springfield from
taking steps that protect homosexuals and it says the town may not "promote
or encourage or facilitate" homosexuality, sadism, masochism or pedophilia.

Four years ago, Mr. Mabon's gorup led a successful statewide campaign to
overturn an executive order by the Oregon governor that had barred
discrimination against homosexuals.  The statewide vote against gay rights
was approved by 53 perrcent of the voters in 1988.

Passage of the Springfield measure has led to more brazen harrassment of 
homosexuals, some homosexuals in the city said.

"I was walking out of a supermarket the other day when a man came up to me
and spat in my face and called me a queer," said Jean Marchant, a lesbian who
lives in Springfiled and is chairwoman of that town's human rights 
commission.

"I no longer feel entirely safe or welcome here," Ms. Marchant said. "It
seems that it is now acceptable to call someone a faggot and spit on them.
That's not the Oregon I grew up knowing."

*******************************

CAMPAIGN AGAINST MEASURE

The campaign against the measure is relying on support from gay-rights groups 
aorund the country, appearances by Hollywood celebrities and fund-raising
events with major rock bands.

The Colorado measure would amend the state constitution to prohibit "protected
status based upon homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation."  It would 
invalidate local ordinances that protect homosexuals from discrimination in
Denver, Boulder, and Aspen.

Tony Marco, founder of Colorado for Family Values, said he was troubled by
the extreme provisions of the Oregon measure.

"We have taken a strong stand against gay-bashing," he said.  "we're
simply saying that certain behavior should not have protected status.  
What got us going was an attempt by gay activists in this state to make
it a crime to criticize gay life styles."

Both Colorado and Oregon have liberal political traditions and are
considered likely to vote Democratic in the Presidential election
this year; Oregon was one of only two states in the West to vote against
George Bush in 1988.  But with gay rights, the voters do not follow
traditional conservative-liberal line, some political experts say.

"we find in out polling that homosexuals are not the most sympathtic
group in society, and that's not a value judgement on my part but a
statement of fact," said Tom Hibbitts, an Oregon poll taker. "People 
hold a lot of misconceptions about homosexuals, making voters very
easy prey for a manipulative type of campaign such as the one we're
seeing in Oregon right now."

Although there are no recent polls on Ballot Measure 9, Mr. Hibbitts
said he believed the vote would be very close.  "We are progressive in 
this state, but it's a peculiar form of progressiveness," he said.  
"If the message from Lon Mabon's group is, 'We're just trying to keep
these people from having special rights,' then the measure will most
likely pass."

In fact, Mr. Mabon has named his group the No Special Rights Committee.
They operate out of an unmarked building in a business park just off the
freeway in this small town, 35 miles south of Portland.  From this base,
Mr. Mabon hopes one day to take his campaign to the rest of the nation,
he said.

by Timothy Egan (special to the New York Times)

reprinted w/o permission from the New York Sunday Times, August 16, 1992

some sections edited for size
            
=====================================================
Daniel S. Katz		Digital Equipment Corporation
			GIS/VSS Boxborough BXB1-1/E11

MSBCS::KATZ or KATZ@MSBCS@enet.dec.com

"The modern pantheist not only sees God in everything,
but takes photogrpahs." D.H. Lawrence
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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