From: WAND_M@gold.colorado.edu
Subject: Telluride calls boycott unfair, forwarded by dsilverm@aludra.usc.edu
Followup-To: amend2-discuss@cs.colorado.edu
Originator: doherty@ucsu.Colorado.EDU
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 01:18:14 GMT

Telluride Cites its Record, Called Boycott Unfair
by Jane Galbraith
LA Times, 17 December 1992

The entertainment industry might be in a tizzy over whether to join
Barbra Streisand and other gay-rights advocates in their boycott of
Aspen, Colo,. this holiday, but what Hollywood celebrities think about
the issue holds little weight with residents a few hours away in Telluride.
Locals there are more concerned with how their town is being dis-
criminated against.

Telluride, the second home of Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey, Sylvester
Stallone and Oliver Stone, is home of the Telluride Film Festival 
every Labor Day weekend.

Festival co-founder Stella Pence said in a telephone interview that she
finds Streisand's stand slightly disingenuous:  "Has someone asked
Barbra Streisand to withdraw 'The Prince of Tides' from all the video
stores in Colorado?  When I see that, then I can believe there's some
serious commitment here."

A statement written with her husband, Bill, ran in the local Telluride
Times-Journal and said, in part:  "We realize that on the heels of this
election, the 'PC' behavior, the trendy and 'now' thing would be to leave
the State of Colorado.  Rather than act in a negative knee-jerk manner, 
we would like to join the world and Colorado organizations to fight this
injustice -- not to turn our backs on it."

They said the Telluride festival has been in the "vanguard" of gay rights
and a place whre gay-themed films such as "The Life and Times of Harvey
Milk" were showcased "long before it became fashionable."

As of Monday, LA joined the cities of Atlanta, NY and Philadelphia
banning city employees from traveling on business to Colorado,
supporting the protest fanned by Streisand's declaration last Friday at 
an ACLU dinner that she will boycott the state.

Like Aspen, Telluride voted overwhlemingly against Amendment 2, a 
statewide measure that voids and prevents legislation that protects
the rights of homosexuals. 

Aspen, however, had a 15-year-old local ordinance on its books pro-
tecting gay rights prior to the election (now struck down) and the 
"Aspen Community" even took out full page ads in the Hollywood trade
papers and in the NYT in recent weeks to remind imagemakers of its
longtime commitment to "openness and diversity."

Rather than join in a lawsuit filed jointly by Aspen, Boulder and
Denver to challenge the constitutionality of Amend 2, Telluride, a 
tiny mountain mining villiage nestled in the Rocky Mountains seeks 
its own pro gay-rights identity.

"I can understand the emotion that drives the [boycott] decision,
but people should be reasonable.  It's like condemning the entire US
for the war in Viet Nam," said Telluride resident Rick Silverman,
who runs the annual Mountain Film Festival.

To that end, former town councilwoman Anna Zivian said a petition
has been turned into the town council seeking a new local ordinance pro-
tecting gay-rights in defiance of the statewide ban, which the 
governing body decided Wed. to put before the voters in Feb.  If 
passed, the ordinance will invite a challenge by the state attorney 
general's office, which is the kind of pro gay-rights publicity Zivian
said the anti-Amend 2 supporters in Telluride want.


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