From: WAND_M@gold.colorado.edu
Subject: Amendment 2 Boycott of State Spreads
Followup-To: co.politics.amend2.discuss
Originator: gina@rintintin.Colorado.EDU
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 19:31:12 GMT

Amend. 2 boycott of state spreads
By Michael Booth, Denver Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 20, 1992

The boycott of Colorado over Amendment 2 built more steam yesterday, as a local 
gay coalition for the first time called on businesses and tourists to avoid the 
state and entertainer Barbra Streisand urged Hollywood to join the ban.

Colorado business leaders and politicians scrambled to contain the damage, but 
sentiment for the boycott apparently is spreading quickly.

'Consensus is definitely being forged for a national boycott of Colorado until 
such time as Amendment 2 is repealed or struck down in court,' said David 
Smith, a Los Angeles leader of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Smith and leaders of other national gay activist groups had previously said 
they were waiting for a local consensus to build in Colorado before calling for 
a boycott.

They got their signal from Denver yesterday.  As a result, out-of-state gay 
activist groups will throw their support behind the boycott.

A newly formed group called Boycott Colorado said it will use grassroots 
politics to tell every corporation, convention, association and tourist to stay 
away from the state until the anti-gay-rights amendment is killed.

'We are calling upon all the citizens of the United States and of the world to 
boycott Colorado as a destination for business or recreational purposes, and to 
boycott all products originating in the state of Colorado,' said Terry 
Schleder, a Boycott Colorado organizer speaking on the steps of the state 
Capitol.

'We realize fully that this call for a boycott will have an impact not only on 
those who support bigotry, prejudice and discrimination, but also on those who 
oppose it.  We hope that our friends will understand we are in a major civil 
rights crisis,' Schleder said, calling the boycott effort 'shared sacrifice.'

Boycott Colorado leaders also said they would promote an internal boycott of 
the state, drawing up lists of businesses supporting and opposing gay rights, 
with the aim of encouraging consumers not to patronize businesses that are 
unfriendly to gay rights.

'We call for the citizens of Colorado to selectively boycott businesses and 
organizations which practice discrimination and are not hate-free in their 
hiring ad promotional policies,' Schleder said.

At least one Colorado company, the nationally known software developer Quark, 
said it would support the internal boycott and pull its $20 million account out 
of Denver banks unless they have a formal anti-discrimination policy covering 
gays.

'I've promised my employees I won't discriminate, and I think I owe it to them 
to prove that the people I do business with don't discriminate, either,' said 
Quart founder Tim Gill.

He added that he would ask users of Quart software, which include Time magazine 
and the New York Times, whether they want to remove a semi-annual training 
seminara that brings 300 people to Denver for a week at a time.

Streisand's declaration was the most visible in a day filled with cross-country 
phone conferences among boycott organizers.  Streisand told a star-studded 
audience at a Los Angeles AIDS fund-raiser late Wednesday night that Hollywood 
should support a tourism boycott if Colorado residents call for one.

'Just look at the vote for hate in Colorado where voters rescinded any 
protection for gays in employment or housing,' Streisand said to concertgoers 
that included Elton John, Billy Joel, Christy Brinkley and Dolly Parton.

'There are plenty of us who love the mountains and rivers of that truly 
beautiful state, but we must now say clearly that the moral climate there is no 
longer acceptable, and if we're asked to, we must refuse to play where they 
discriminate.'

Denver concert producer Barry Fey, who attended the Los Angeles fund-raiser, 
said Streisand was calling for a tourism ban, not a boycott of concerts or 
other performances.  Musicians would rather help raise money for the ongoing 
legal challenge to Amendment 2 than cancel performances, Fey said.

Fey and Hollywood producers are working on gay rights benefit concerts for the 
holidays in Denver and Aspen.

Mayor Wellington Webb and Greater Denver Chamber of Commerce President Dick 
Fleming, meanwhile, spent time on the phone trying to stop the roll call of 
cities voting to boycott the state.

Atlanta's city council on Monday bannd any official travel or spending in 
Colorado, and officials there say they have been flooded with calls thanking 
them for the ban.  Oakland, Chapel Hill, N.C., and other cities joined Los 
Angeles, New York and San Francisco in seeking copies of the Atlanta ordinance, 
officials said.

Gov. Roy Romer is leaving Amendment 2 and opposition to the boycott up to an ad 
hoc committee he formed last week.  The committee includes business, religious 
and political leaders.

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