GOP congressional aides' group

همیشد

JAIDEA

bars women; they don't care

By Thomas J. Brazaitis

Plain Dealer bureau

WASHINGTON

Kenneth L. Black, a round-faced man with dark eyes and a full head of hair, every strand precisely in place, leaned forward and for the first time in the interview raised his voice.

"I defend the right of people to band together, male or female homosexual, for that matter where they seek their own kind," Black said.

"I believe in the exclusiveness of organizations," he said. "You band together in an organizatinn because you want exclusiveness, whether it be all white, all black or all Indian. I think it's a Constitutional guarantee as long as you abide by federal

law."

Black is administrative assistant to Rep. Barry M. Goldwater Jr., RCalif., and the president of an organization of top Republican staff members that has one rule that seems slightly out of step in these enlightened times: no women allowed.

They call themselves the Bull Elephants.

Black said if women ever were permitted to join, the Bull Elephants would collapse. That is what killed the Burro Club, the once thriving all-male Democratic staff members' club, Black said. Records show the Burro Club went out of business in 1976, two years after women were admitted.

The Bull Elephants, formed in 1950, meet monthly for lunch, attracting such speakers as the late President Eisenhower, former Presidents Nixon and Ford, cabinet officers, columnists like Art Buchwald and James J. Kilpatrick and media stars like Walter Cronkite. The Bulls have invited actress Elizabeth Taylor, who lives near Washington, to join them for lunch.

So far, the only loud protest has come not from females, but from a disgruntled Bull named Sherwood Boehlert, administrative assistant to Rep. Donald J. Mitchell, R-N.Y.

"The by-laws say male staff members only," Boehlert said. "I wanted to substitute the word 'professional' for 'male.' My colleagues didn't agree."

As a concession to the women's

liberation movement, every two years for the last six years, the Bull Elephants have held a referendum on whether to admit women. The idea was voted down this year, 140 to 1.

Fourteen years ago, perhaps because the men would not let them join their club, women staff members formed the Republican Women's Club of Capitol Hill. **

Barbara Thoelke, current president of the women's group, said there has not been much agitation to mix with the Bull Elephants. The idea has been discussed, but never voted on.

Told the men voted, 140 to 1, to continue to keep women out, Miss Thoelke said, "I'm not surprised. I know some of them."

Sandra V. Porter of NOW said she had not heard of the Bull Elephants, but offered a theory on why they covet exclusivity..

"Since bull elephants usually roar to attract female elephants, clearly these large male animals from Capitol Hill have had to join together. to roar in unison in order to get anyone to pay any attention to them," she said.