From: ZAHNISER_S%CUBLDR.Colorado.EDU@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu
Subject: Colorado's Amendment 2
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 23:12:54 GMT

Election night in Colorado was full of exhilarating highs and excruciating
lows.  Clinton and Ben Nighthorse Campbell, the Democratic nominee for the
U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Tim Wirth, both won easily, and the vast
majority of pro-choice candidates for the state legislature who were opposed
by pro-life candidates prevailed.  But two extremely vile amendments were
added to the Colorado State Constitution.

Amendment 1 greatly shackles the state government's discretion in the area
of fiscal policy.  As I understand the amendment, spending increases which
surpass the sum of the rate of inflation and the rate of population increase
must be expressly approved by the voters.  I believe that many new tax
increases must go before the voters as well.

Amendment 2 effectively legalizes discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation by prohibiting any state governmental entity to enact measures
that protect the rights of persons of all sexual orientations.  Practically
every poll prior to the election suggested that Amendment 2 would fail.  The
final vote was roughly 56% to 44%.

As it became obvious that Amendment 2 would win, several hundred angry and
intensely disappointed opponents of the measure stormed the Radisson Hotel
in downtown Denver, where the Democrats were holding their celebration.
The opponents of the Amendment 2 seized the stage and spoke out.  Many gay
men in the group charged that while many in the homosexual community had
worked hard for the Democratic ticket, some Democratic leaders had made at
best a half-hearted effort to defeat Amendment 2.  Later the crowd went
outside the hotel, demanding that Governor Roy Romer, Denver Mayor Welling-
ton Webb, and U.S. Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder join them in a late-
night, early-morning march on the state capitol.  Romer and Webb did join
the march, which took place in the middle of the night despite temperatures
in the low 20s.

Yesterday evening (Wednesday, November 5), protests were held in Boulder
and in Denver against the passage of Amendment 2.  The crowd in Denver
numbered roughly 7,000.

At a Wednesday morning gathering at Denver's First Baptist Church, Mayor
Webb indicated that the City of Denver would file suit against Amendment 2
on the grounds that the amendment violates the city's home-rule charter.
Legal scholars interviewed on television seemed to suggest that a challenge
against Amendment 2 could also be made on the grounds that it violates the
equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

Kevin Tebedo, a leading member of Colorado for Family Values, one of the
organizations that fought for the passage of the amendment, has indicated
that the organization is interested in helping other states pass their own
versions of Amendment 2.  So WATCH OUT!!!  Measures such as Amendment 2
constitute a kinder, gentler form of bigotry than the obviously rabid
proposition defeated in Oregon.

I will try to post the text of Amendment 2 over ACTIV-L in the next day or
two.  (I do not have time to post the text of Amendment 1, which is rather
lengthy.)  Thank you for your indulgence of this somewhat lengthy message.

Steven Zahniser
zahniser_s@cubldr.colorado.edu

P.S.  Some of the facts cited above were drawn from the Colorado Daily's
Nov. 5 edition.  Others were gleaned from watching the tube and reading
the Denver dailies.
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive,misc.headlines