From: WAND_M@gold.colorado.edu
Subject: Amendment 2 leaves no neutral ground in Colorado
Followup-To: amend2-discuss@cs.colorado.edu
Originator: doherty@ucsu.Colorado.EDU
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 04:38:01 GMT

Gazette Telegraph, Colorado Springs
January 17, 1993

Opponents' defiance continues

By Jeff Thomas

Just because Amendment 2 has been blocked temporarily doesn't mean the battle 
over gay rights in Colorado is settled.

Far from it.  A Denver judge's ruling Friday that the amendent must be deemed 
constitutional by the courts before it takes effect will maintain the status 
quo for now.

But even if Amendment 2 is eventually upheld in a later trial, pockets of 
resistance--even outright defiance--will remain, creating a confusing legal 
patchwork across the state that could take the courts years longer to sort out.

The amendent says gays can't ask the government for help if they are denied a 
job or housing because of their homosexuality.
Many folks will never notice its presence or absence in their lives.  Still, 
plenty is at stake for the homosexual community and thosd allied against it.  
To them, Colorado would be a profoundly different place under Amendment 2.
If the amendment is upheld, 'somebody can be terminated from their job solely 
because they are gay, and they have no recourse," said Tony Ogden, acting 
director of Equality Colorado, sworn to somehow dismantle Amendment 2.  Worse, 
he said, Colorado would officially sanction displays of hatred toward gays.

To Amendment 2 supporters, the measure would take from homosexuals a tool 
they've uyed to obtain protection they don't deserve.

Amendment 2 "merely says homosexuals have equal rights, but they don't get any 
special consdieration because of the way they have sex," said Will Perkins of 
Colorado for Family Values, the Colorado Springs group that brought Amendment 2 
to the ballot in November.

Whichever view prevails, it doesn't appear Amendment 2 will weave smoothly into 
the state's legal fabric.

A handful of cites--Vail, Breckenridge, Frisco and Grand Junction--have adopted 
resolutions denouncing the amendment and hav pledged their help to repeal it.  
If it goes into efect, they will obey it, however grudgingly.  

Some towns, however, will behave as if Amendment 2 never happened, even if it 
does become law.  Aspen will continue to enforce its 1977 civil rights 
ordinance, which protects homosexuals and 12 other groups, even though 
Amendment 2 specifically nullifies the language protecting gays.

"Until a court tells us we have to obey this amendment, we have no intention of 
doing so," said Aspen Mayor John Bennett.  "We sincerely believe that 
discrimination of any minority group has o place in a civilized society."

Boulder and Denver hae similar ordinances, and are free to continue enforcing 
them now that amendment 2 has been put on the shelf.  Aspen, Boulder, Denver 
and nine individuals are suing the state to overturn the amendment.

Even if Boulder and Denver were to obey Amendment 2, they could interpret it 
differently.  Dani Newsum, director of Boulder's Office of Human Rights, said 
the amendment would permit her to follow up on complaints from heterosexuals 
that they are being denied a job or housing because of their sexuality.  But it 
would prevent her from helping gays who claim the same thing.

Residents in Telluride are so upset that they will vote Feb. 2 on an spen-style 
ordinance of their own just to thumb their noses at Amendment 2.  Supporters of 
the ballot measure want the town to join the lawsuit against the amendment.

"We felt it was a vile addition to the constitution, and we wanted to change 
that," said Zeb Landsman, a Telluride lawyer who helped get the measure on the 
ballot.

If it passes, and the courts lataer uphold Amendment 2, Telluride town attorney 
Laura Harper someday might have to perform some trickhy legal footwork: 
enforcing a town ordinance that violates the state constitution.  She wouldn't 
predict how she'd do it, and lawyers for other cities were also uncertain how 
to proceed.

"If we enforce our ordinance, we'll do it under the belief that it violates the 
federal Constitution," said Darlene Ebert, assistant city attorney for Denver. 
"It certainly leads us into a dilemma, because we're also sworn to obey the 
state constitution."

Should Amendment 2 ultimately win court approval, the renegade cities would 
have to try again to prove it unconstitutional, said Gene Nichol, dean of the 
University of Coorado law school.

"If nothing else, (disagreement over Amendment 2) shows it's a good thing that 
we have one, final, U.S. Supreme Court" to decide the issue once and for all, 
Nichol said, adding there's a good chance the issue will wind up there.

But already legal wheels are turning that could prevent a Supreme Court 
showdown by making Amendment 2 academic.  U.S. Rep. Pat, D-Colo., has 
introduced a bill in Congress that would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to 
prohibit discrimination against homosexuals.

Colorado legislators are pushing their own ideas.  State Sen. Regis Groff, 
D-Denver, has drafted a proposed constitutional amendment that would simply 
repeal Amendment 2.

Rep. Ken Chlouber, R-Leadville, is pushing a bill that would expand privacy 
rights to include sexual orientation.  That would mean employers would have no 
business asking whether an employee is gay.

A third measure proposed by Sen. Bill Ownes, R-Aurora, and Rep. Sam Williams, 
D-Breckenridge, would permit workers to sue their employers if they were 
punished for any legal pursuit--including sex--off the job.

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