From: GARY SMITH <SMITH_G@gold.colorado.edu>
Subject: State leaders seek ways to stop boycott
Followup-To: co.politics.amend2.discuss
Originator: gina@rintintin.Colorado.EDU
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 18:11:40 GMT

--The Daily Camera, Nov. 23, 1992

   Colorado business and civic leaders met Saturday to launch and effort
aimed at putting an end to a nationwide boycott prompted by the passage
of an anti-gay rights amendment in the Nov. 3 election.
   "We don't want to be the victim.  We want to get it turned around real
quickly," said Ken Parks, vice president of the Greater Denver Chamber
of Commerce.
   Less than three weeks after the passage of Amendment 2 -- which bans
civil rights protection for gays -- the state has been the target of a
nationwide boycott by a string of businesses and arts and civic groups.
   That includes an announcement Sunday by Boycott Colorado calling for
a total boycott of Aspen Gay Ski Week, planned for late January.
   Parks coordinated Saturday's meeting of more than two dozen leaders,
including officials representing Gov. Roy Romer, Denver Mayor 
Wellington Webb and more than 3,500 Colorado companies.
   The group agreed the boycott is hurting the state's economy, but they
did not issue a unified statement against discrimination, as U.S. Rep.
Pat Schroeder suggested to them on Friday.
   But Tim Gill, founder of software company Quark, Inc., said the "are
ready to do that."
   Meanwhile, Denver-based Boycott Colorado organizers intensified
their movement, launching research groups to identify companies considering
moving to Colorado to urge them to go elsewhere.
   Boycott Colorado is also preparing a list of "hate-free" companies, and
another list of corporations deemed deficient in combatting discrimination
based on sexual orientation.
   "A boycott is never meant as a punishment.  It's meant to awaken the
oppressor," said Tom Witte, an organizer of Boycott Colorado.
   But some leaders said they feel they are being punished, and said an
organized response is needed.
   The leaders formed four work groups and planned to meet again to discuss
long-term issues such as repealing the amendment.
   A $5 million San Francisco software company has announced it isn't coming
to Colorado because of the amendment, and rumors are flying about other
corporations joining the boycott.
   Companies such as IBM and Lotus Development Corp. also are said to be 
interested in contributing to a boycott of Colorado, said Atlanta gay-rights
lobbyist Chris Hagin.
   Hagin wrote the resolution severing Atlanta's link to Colorado in protest
of Amendment 2.
   In a related story, gay activists in San Francisco who are angry about
Amendment 2 are using gay newspapers to launch a campaign against tourism
to that state.
   According to stories running in this week's Bay Area Reporter and other
publications, they are urging gays and lesbians to call toll-free numbers
set up by the state -- (800) COLORADO, for example -- to provide tourist 
information to potential visitors.  Callers can then express their dismay
over the legislation, and inform the clerks that they don't want vacation
kits or other tourist information.  Calls are paid for, of course, by
Colorado.
   Operators who staff the numbers are required to make note of each call
and the callers' comments, thereby passing along the callers' decision
to boycott the state.

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