From: WAND_M@gold.colorado.edu
Subject: Lesbian Avengers give Webb a wake-up call in N.Y.
Followup-To: amend2-discuss@cs.colorado.edu
Originator: doherty@ucsu.Colorado.EDU
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 20:37:54 GMT

By Bill McBean
Denver Post Staff Writer
December 8, 1992

NEW YORK - It wasn't yet 8 a.m. yesterday when Mayor Wellington Webb looked up 
from his bowl of fresh raspberries to see the Lesbian Avengers circling his 
table and chanting, "We're here, we're queer and we're not going skiing."

Score one for the Avengers in what became a day-long game of hide-and-seek.

The radical group, while saluting Webb's opposition to the anti-gay rights 
amendment passed by Colorado voters last month, believes he should support the 
resulting boycott of the state instead of trying to stop it through national 
appearances.

Six members of the group that claims membership of 300 slipped past the posh 
Regency Hotel's security and Webb's bodyguard to get to the mayor.  After 
delivering their wake-up call to Webb and his traveling party, they marched 
around the dining room trilling "No respect, no revenue," and "Boycott 
Colorado--the Hate State."

About 75 puzzled diners watched.  The New York City police were called, but 
when they arrived the Avengers were gone.  Four cops, two in plain clothes, two 
in uniform, were assigned to Webb for the rest of his visit.

The mayor had expected the Avengers to dog him as he arrived for his appearance 
on last night's Gil Gross Show on CBS  Radio.  And, the group had vowed to show 
up at various media offices where he was being interviewed about Denver's new 
airport and baseball team, as well as Amendment 2.

But the Avengers' early morning ambush so bothered Webb that for the rest of 
the day, he arrived early for apointments or hopped out of his limo a few 
blocks away to trick the protesters.

Said the mayor between appointments, "I think the boycott campaign will 
backfire."  He added he thinks Colorado voters are contrary enough to refuse 
to repeal the amendment if coerced to do so by economic necessity.

"I think they'll say, 'I'm not going to do it because you're forcing me to do 
it,'" Webb said.

At the New York Times, Webb thwarted the Avengers by showing up 15 minutes 
early for a session with the travel editor about Denver International Airport.

So the Avengers showed up a half-hour early for the mayor's next appointment at 
the Time-Life Building, where he was to be interviewed by reporters and editors 
of Time.  Webb, seeing the group waiting for him, had his limo driver let him 
and the New York cops out across the street and about 300 feet short of the 
entrance.

The limo then pulled up to the entrance, drawing the protesters, as Webb and 
the cops darted for the door.

The plan lost something in the execution, and the Avengers were able to shout 
their slogans and stick their signs in his face before he got inside.

In front of CBS Radio, about 50 Avengers and supporters braved the subfreezing 
night to carry signs and chant slogans.  Eight New York police officers guarded 
the building's front entrance as the mayor slipped in the back.

While the protesters claim to take the amendment seriously, they clearly 
enjoyed their day badgering Webb.  Outside the Regency Hotel after their 
morning surprise, the six Avengers gathered on the sidewalk, giggling.  "Did 
you see their faces?" one asked another.  "God, I love this stuff."


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