From: RMVLUG_4@FLINT.MINES.COLORADO.EDU (FRANK BERNDT)
Subject: Denver Mayor Webb tries to shift focus
Followup-To: amend2-discuss@cs.colorado.edu
Originator: doherty@ucsu.Colorado.EDU
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 18:35:49 GMT

SMRY: Webb Tries to Shift Focus

WEBB TRIES TO SHIFT FOCUS TO RELIGIOUS RIGHT
By Brian Weber, Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
Rocky Mountain News, Tues., Dec. 8, 1992

-------------------------------

     NEW YORK -- Mayor Wellington Webb has shifted his fight
against a boycott of Colorado by turning his attention to other
states and the religious right.
     In interviews with local and national publications here
Monday, Webb and a delegation of economic development officials
said Amendment 2, which bans anti-discrimination laws for
homosexuals, is a tragedy waiting to happen all across the
country.
     Colorado and Oregon, where voters rejected a harsher version
of Amendment 2, were "part of a national campaign promulgated by
religious groups that test-marketed Oregon and Colorado to see
how they could get this amendment passed across the country,"
Webb said while taping a segment for ABC Radio's Perspective
program.
     Until now, the mayor and others said the boycott would hurt
the very people who support civil rights protection for
homosexuals and are trying to repeal the amendment.  While the
measure passed statewide, Denver, Boulder and Aspen, which all
had gay-rights laws, rejected it.
     The new argument, however, is aimed as persuading opponents
of Amendment 2 to focus on the architects of the measure and
their alleged national game plan rather than Colorado.
     But a spokesman for Colorado for Family Values, the group
behind Amendment 2, objected to Webb's argument.  Will Perkins
said his group is "happy to share information," but it operates
independently from the national religious right.
     Moreover, Perkins denied repeated allegations that Colorado
for Family Values was funded by the religious right.
     "This is a Colorado grassroots organization," he said.
     The mayor speculated that national Christian fundamentalist
groups were partially responsible for Amendment 2.  Webb said he
had been informed by the Greater Denver Chamber of Commerce that
the sponsors of Amendment 2, Colorado for Family Values, now
refers all inquiries to televangelist Pat Robertson's
headquarters.
     "Who paid for Amendment 2?" Webb asked before the radio
interview.  "It's time we started looking at that."
     Who assisted in the campaign with money or advice is still
important, Webb said, because it would help prove that "this is
ont a home-grown issue."


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