From: rrizzo@star-trek.bbn.com (Ron Rizzo)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Oregon & Colorado antigay initiatives
Date: 9 Nov 1992 22:58:45 GMT
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: archive.bbn.com
Keywords: OCA, CFV, Nazis, ballot measures

Folks,

2 points to keep in mind when discussing or worrying about the anti-gay ballot
measures in Oregon and Colorado.

Oregon's Measure 9, which was defeated, was an order of magnitude more severe
than Colorado's Amendment 2, which passed by a slightly smaller margin than 9
failed.  Amendment 2 prohibited the *passage of future laws* protecting the
civil rights of gaypeople (which sounds meaningless and unconstitutional to
me under our form of government), but didn't itself outlaw homosexuality or
any practices relating to it.  (At least that's my understanding of it, from
the poor coverage it's received on the east coast.)  Measure 9 would've made
homosexuality illegal, practices erlating to it punishable by law and required
all public schools to teach that it was sick and immoral.

This difference may partly explain why Oregonians worked so feverishly to
defeat the measure and Coloradans didn't, as I've been told.

The second point is that the Oregon Citizen's Alliance (OCA), the putrid
sponsor of Measure 9, announced after the defeat that they would try again
"in a few years"!  Not next year??  (Or is it not legally possible?)  That
sounded to me like the measure's defeat was a major setback to them, and who
knows even if we'll ever hear from them again?  

The OCA also said their second try will probably be with a measure resembling 
the different tactic embodied in the milder Colorado measure, that is, attempt-
ing to ban future, additional civil rights legislation.  Again, if they're merely
going to copy a ballot measure already written, in this case Colorado's, why
will it take them "a few years"?

Were both these measures binding?  That is, would they have automatically
become law if a majority of voters approved them, without any further
legislative or executive action?

Finally, these creeps said they intend to launch similar political initiatives
in Washington, California, Nevada and Idaho.  They'll need a lot of luck in
Washington and California:  these states are more diverse and somewhat less
redneck than Oregon.  But Nevada and Idaho sound like just the kind of states
where their message would receive a friendly hearing.  In any case, their
announced plans are still limited to the Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain states.

I don't mean to counsel indifference or nonchalance.  The Colorado result
shows where that attitude leads.  But I think we should put the 2 measures
in perspective.  Another motsser commented that he thinks people are coming
away from the election with alarm rather than confidence because they're
relatively young and new to politics, and not sufficiently cynical about
the voters.

I remember frantically trying to leaflet and persuade people as part of a local
anti-Vietnam War group during a desperate and bloody phase of America's war on
Indochina.  Voters are remarkably callous; we found the only appeals that were
likely to work with significant numbers of people were gross appeals to their
pocketbooks.  We had to go through contortions to argue that atrocities and
mass destruction were bad: they cost us $$:  diverting resources, piling up a
huge war debt taxpayers would be paying off with interest for decades, etc.
Discovering this ugly but banal fact about people isn't pleasant but it isn't
the end of the world, either.

I haven't been reading soc.motss except sporadically, so most of my points
or requests for information may already have been addressed.

I don't have time to read the newsgroup with anything remotely resembling
regularity.  I'd like to help start a Nazi watch, concentrating on groups
like Colorado's CFV (Center/Committee for Family Values?) and the OCA and
their possible connection to KKK and neo-Nazi groups.  So I'd be obliged
to anyone who could send me any collections of online information about
these groups, as well as summaries of the campaigns for/against the ballot
measures.

Regards,
Ron
Newsgroups: soc.motss