From: burkel@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (respect others' visions- live your own)
Subject: _CO_&_A2_
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 04:21:11 GMT


The Amendment appeared on the ballot as:

"Shall there be an Amendment to Article II of the Colorado Constitution
to prohibit the state of Colorado and any of its political subdivisions
from adopting or enforcing any law or policy which provides that
homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation, conduct or relationships
constitutes or entitles a person to cliam any minority or protected
status, quota preferences or discrimination."

That was the wording on the ballot; it is not the wording of the
amendment itself.  The following is:

"Neither the state of Colorado, through any of its branches or depts.,
nor any of its agencies, political subdivisions, municipalities or
school districts, shall enact, adopt or enforce any statute, regulation,
ordinance or policy whereby homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation,
conduct, practices or relationships shall constitute or otherwise
be the basis of, or entitle any person or class of persons to have or
claim any minority status, quota preferences, protected status or
claim of discrimination.  This Section of the Constitution shall be
in all resepcts self-executing."

The passage of this law strikes down three laws already in existence
in the Cities of Aspen, Boulder and Denver, which protected ALL people
from discrim. based upon sexual orientation.  In other words, these
laws protected everyone, while this new law singles out only the
gay and bisexual community.

Supporters of "No on 2" included The Equal Protection Campaign (EPO),
ColoradoNOW, The Governor of the State, Roy Romer, the mayors of
Boulder and Denver, Wellington Webb and Leslie Durgin, several
Christian organizations, the University of Colorado-Boulder's student
union, the Democratic Party in Colorado and me.

The founders and main supporters of the law were a group known as
Coloradans for FAmily Values (CFV), a Colorado Springs-based group
and an off-shoot of the Traditional Values Coalition, a national
anti-gay organization based in Anaheim CA.  Members of the CFV's
executive and advisory boards represent fundamentalist, right-wing
groups such as TVC, Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America,
Summit Ministries and the Eagle Forum. (This information comes from 
a pamphlet compiled by EPOColorado, compiled in March of this year.)
-I want to thank Murray Altheim for posting his article which mentions
these groups and is a great resource as well.

Those who supported A2 touted it as an issue of special rights, which
restricted gays from being declared a minority, that that status
should be saved for the "true" minorities of color. They wished
to make hiring quotas for gays(hardly a pressing legal issue) impossible.

Those against A2 pointed out that this law is about basic human
rights, and pointed to the wording of the amendment as basically
legalizing discrimination. Read without the propaganda, they said,
the bill reads like this: "Shall there be an amendment to prohibit
the state of Colorado from enforcing any law which provides that
homo/bisexual or lesbian conduct entitles a person to claim
discrimination."

This law passed in Colorado on November 3rd, by a 53%-47% margin.

Laura


Xref: sparky alt.pagan:12968 talk.religion.newage:5336