From: esm@che.utexas.edu (Edward Scott Meadows)
Subject: Austin to prohibit official travel to CO
Followup-To: amend2-discuss@cs.colorado.edu
Originator: doherty@ucsu.Colorado.EDU
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 01:30:43 GMT

>From the Austin American-Statesman
December 18, 1992
Used without permission.
								   
		     CITY JOINS COLORADO BOYCOTT
			     by Bob Bants
		   Austin-American Statesman Staff

The Austin City Council added its voice to the protest against
Colorado's anti-gay amendment Thursday by voting to halt city employee
travel on business to that state.

"I'm very proud of the council today," state Rep. Glen Maxey,
D-Austin, said after the vote.  "This resolution sends a message to
the people of this country taht bigotry is not OK."

[Glen is the only openly gay member of the Texas legislature.  He was
re-elected from his Southeast Austin district with ~70 percent of the
vote in November.  --esm]

The measure, sponsored by Council Members Gus Garcia and Max Nofziger,
aligns Austin with New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Seattle in
forbidding travel by city employees to Colorado.

Support for the boycott began in November after Colorado voters
approved a state constitutional amendment that overturned municipal
ordinances preventing discrimination against gays.

The measure also prohibited future laws from being passed in Colorado
to protect gay rights.

Shortly after the Colorado election, Denver Mayor Wellington Webb
conducted an unsuccessful nationwide tour to persuade city councils
not to pass travel boycotts against his state.

Webb pointed out that the majority of voters in Denver voted against
the amendment.  

In addition to bans from Austin and four other major cities, the
executive committee of the U.S. Conference of Mayors joined the
protest Thursday by canceling its annual conference planned Colorado
Springs next June.

The Austin City Council's resolution passed unanimously Thursday, 6-0,
with Mayor Bruce Todd absent.

Todd said this week that while he opposes discrimination, he is
concerned about the boycott.

Todd said the ban would hurt cities such as Denver, where the
majority of voters opposed the anti-gay amendment.

However, the council passed its resolution Thursday without
exemptions.

The measure says, "No city funds shall be expended for employee
travel to or from the state of Colorado."

It also bans city employee travel to Springfield, Ore., and Concord,
Calif., which also have laws limiting protection of gay rights.

The Austin resolution contains a clause that would allow City Manager
Camille Barnett to make an exception to the ban only if she finds that
it is absolutely necessary "to further the interests of the city."

Acting Assistant City Manager Oscar Rodriguez said Thursday that he is
not aware of any city-sponsored trips to Colorado scheduled for 1993.

Maxey said gay organizations will push for a federal gay rights
measure in Congress "to eliminate having to fight our battle
state-by-state and city-by-city"

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