From: WAND_M@gold.colorado.edu
Subject: Outrage over Amendment 2 doesn't faze Springs voters
Followup-To: amend2-discuss@cs.colorado.edu
Originator: doherty@ucsu.Colorado.EDU
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 02:55:24 GMT

By Louis Aguilar
Gazette Telegraph, Colorado Springs
December 13, 1992

Supporters respond to 'blackmail' tactics

El Paso County voters, who led the charge for passage of Amendment 2, are 
anything but intimidated by the nationwide backlash against the amendment, 
according to the results of an informal Gazette Telegraph survey.

More than two-thirds of the 350-plus callers who jammed a GT Amendment 2 
hotline this week were steadfast in their support for the amendment, which bars 
laws prohibiting discrimination against gays based on sexual preference.  
They're fed up with the flak and disgusted that their vote wasn't the final 
word.

Interviews with people on the streets of Colorado Springs confirmed the point.  
Even cabbies at the Colorado Springs Municipal Airport are tired of being in 
the eye of the Amendment 2 storm.

"Two days ago, some guy says he's from Philly.  He gets in and he says 'Hey, do 
they really hate queers here?' I thought I'd heard it all, but that was new," 
said an eight-year veteran driver who didn't want to be named.  "I don't like 
the amendment, but to have some big city chump crap over my town...I just 
drove."

Two-thirds of voters in Colorado Springs approved the amendment (compared with 
53 percent statewide.)  Since  then, they've heard their city called "the 
epicenter of hate" by gays and their supporters.  And they've seen their vote 
picked apart in a national debate--the subject of a boycott, a lawsuit, daily 
newspaper headlines, national television talk shows and denouncements by 
Hollywood stars.

"Why in hell do we even bother to vote if these special interests and some of 
our politicians stab us in the back?" asked Joel Haswell, 38, of Colorado 
Springs.  "Homosexuality is filthy and disgusting and I don't want that pushed 
on me."

But even in metro Colorado Springs--usually a quiet, conservative town--the 
debate continues to rage.

"For the first time in my life I'm ashamed of the state in which I live," said 
caller Steve Virden of Monument.  "Why is it that so many people in the state 
feel it necessary to deny the rights of a minority?  What are people afraid 
of?"

Frank Wendallman, who is a temporary office worker, said he "almost expects" to 
be told not to talk about the amendment whenever he arrives in a new office.  
"I've worked three different places since (the election)>  Two of them said 
there was a ban because it causes people to talk too long."

At the heart of the argument in this city are strong beliefs and two words: 
special rights.  Nearly everyone who told the GT they voted for the amendment 
repeated that as the reason.

"I've had gay friends before.  They're nice people," said Theresa Lopez, 32, of 
Fountain.  "But faggots shouldn't get jobs just because of what they are.  
That's the kind of special rights they wanted."

Like many others, she didn't think the amendment took away any tools gays have 
to fight discrimination, even though it repealed Denver, Boulder and Aspen laws 
banning discrimination against homosexuals in housing and employment.

Amendment author Colorado for Family Values used the "special privilages" label 
extensively during the campaign, but the actual amendment does not include 
those words.  The National Legal Foundation, a Virginia-based group started by 
fudamentalist minister Pat Robertson, advised Colorado for Family Values in a 
June 1991 letter that the phrase would make a good campaign motto but might 
cause legal ramifications if included in the amendment itself.

"The language of the amendment should prohibit homosexuals from claiming any 
rights regarading employment, education, housing or status," the National Legal 
Foundation attorney wrote.

Critics have charged that those tactics confused voters.  Many callers in 
Colorado Springs, however, begged to differ.

"I did know what I was voting for on Amendment 2, and I voted for what I 
thought to be in the best interest of the people of Colorado," said Vincent 
Johnson of Colorado Springs.  "It seems to me several other people voted the 
same way.  Outside monies, lobbies, celebrities' comments, boycott or anything
else should have no influence on the outcome of the vote by the public."

It's too early to tell if voters will cling to their stance or be swayed by 
economic boycotts and anti-amendment arguments ovdr time.

Critics hope for the latter, and look to Arizona, where a diverse group of 
leaders lobbied residents for years to overturn a ban on a state holiday 
honoring Martin Luther King Jr.  Over five years, the city lost millions of 
dollars of convention business and a shot at hosting the 1993 Super Bowl.  This 
year, after two earlier attempts, voters finally opted to get rid of it.

"We had the benefit of saying, 'Look, this is not going to go away'" said Tony 
Alba, a Phoenix convention and tourism official involved in the lobbying 
effort.  Colorado can't say that right now..."

It's unlikely a majority of Colorado residents would ever switch their votes on 
Amendment 2--despite a boycott, said Colorado College economist Bill Weida. 
"Many of them are basing their vote on a theological view.  That's something 
that usually doens't change quickly, if ever..."

Colorado Springs residents who called reinforced that point.

Like Mary Spradlin of Security, who termed the backlash a "terrible, terrible 
evil striking our state" and urged fellow voters not to "compromise our values 
for the sake of the dollar sign."

Or Gerald Bonebrake of Colorado Springs, who said simply: "I won't be 
blackmailed into changing my mind at any time."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corrections, new info, and requests for info: amend2-info@cs.colorado.edu
Administrative comments                     : amend2-mod@cs.colorado.edu
General Discussion                          : amend2-discuss@cs.colorado.edu
Boulder/Denver area local meetings/events   : amend2-local@cs.colorado.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to a list, send mail to Majordomo@cs.colorado.edu, with
        subscribe <list-name>
in the BODY of the message.  For multiple lists, use multiple lines.

Newsgroups: co.politics.amend2.info