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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE August, 1990

JESSE HELMS

IS THE REAL

Marlboro

MAN

WARNING: Philip Morris, Inc., funds Sen. Jesse Helms. Buying Marlboro promotes ignorance about AIDS. Call 800-343-0975 or 800-446-7030 and give them hell for it.

BOYCOTT MARLBORO!

ACT UP/DC P.O. BOX 9318, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005 (202) 728-7530

ACT UP urges Marlboro boycott

Gay bars in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia have pulled Marlboros from their vending machines. This added momentum boosts the boycott of Marlboro cigarettes called for by ACTUP/D.C. in April. The boycott was called because of Philip Morris Co., Inc.'s support of the reelection campaign of noted homophobe, Jesse Helms. Not only has Philip Morris given Jesse Helms the maximum campaign contribution allowed under federal law in all past elections but they are also providing significant funding for the Jesse Helms Citizenship Center, a museum to memorialize the AIDS-phobic senator.

Bars pulling Marlboro from their vending machines are leaving the former Marlboro slots empty and are placing

BOYCOTT MARLBORO stickers inside the windows of the machines.

A growing number of activists, community leaders, lesbian & gay organizations, artists groups, businesses and prominent individuals have added their support to the boycott. Recently the Fourth International Conference of PWAS which met in Madrid endorsed the boycott. Non-smokers are reminded that they can support the boycott by calling Philip Morris's toll free numbers: 800-446-7030 (retail order line); 800343-0975 (Smoker's Advocate line); and 800-552-2222 (Bill of Rights order line).

Philip Morris last year sold 138 billion Marlboro cigarettes in the U.S. last year, and 180 billion worldwide 60 Marlboros for every living person on the planet. They are the world's best seller.▼

NGLTF gets Working Assets grant

The Working Assets Funding Service, a "socially responsible consumer services company for practical idealists," has granted the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) $20,000 for its work on behalf of gay and lesbian civil rights.

Working Assets awards funds generated over the past year by its Visa, MasterCard, long distance, or travel ser-

Rhode Island

rights fails by only one vote

by Robin Kane

Rhode Island was just one legislative vote and a governor's signature away June 28 from becoming the third state in the country to protect gay and lesbian people from discrimination.

The state House of Representatives came up with a 45 to 45 vote on a statewide gay rights bill, thus defeating the measure. The Senate had already passed the measure May 3 in a close 24 to 22 vote.

Republican Gov. Edward DiPrete did not take an official stand on the measure, according to his deputy press secretary. However, in 1985, DiPrete became the first and only Republican governor in the country to sign an executive order prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in state government.

Only Wisconsin and Massachusetts currently have statewide gay rights laws.

Legislators have introduced gay rights bills in Rhode Island during the past five legislative sessions. In 1988, the full Senate defeated the bill, and last year, a Senate committee killed the measure. The house passed the bills in both 1988 and 1989. The reversal of votes this year amazed advocates of the bill.

"It was a surprise that we won in the Senate and a surprise that it died in the House," said Chris Burke, president of the Rhode Island Alliance for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights.

Burke said he believes the bill passed the Senate because the bill's sponsor, Senator Sean Coffey, D-Providence, is deputy majority leader and "enjoys the respect of all his colleagues."

The alliance aided Coffey's efforts, as did a progressive coalition of groups called Ocean State Action. Burke said the ACLU and a number of labor unions also supported the bill, along with many prominent candidates for governor, Congress, and mayor of Providence.

After the measure passed the Senate this year, Burke said, some House members may have withdrawn their previous

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vices. Every time a Working Assets member charges a purchase to his or her credit card, makes a phone call or buys an airline ticket, a percentage of the bill goes to the Working Assets Funding Service, at no charge to the member.

The organization makes grants to environmental, human rights, justice and peace organizations. Working Assets' 100,000 members nominate and vote on which groups will receive funding. In the most recent granting period, more than $300,000 was distributed to 32 action groups last year.

NGLTF ranked third in size of awards, behind Greenpeace ($27,787) and the National Abortion Rights Action League ($24,132). Earth Day 1990, Amnesty International and the Fund for a Free South Africa were among other groups to receive awards.

For more information on Working Assets Funding Services, call 800-522-7759

support because the next stop, after House approval, would have been the governor's desk. The House's final responsibility for the measure might have scared some supporters away.

"Passing a bill when you think it's going to be defeated," he said, "and passing a bill when it is going to become law are two different things."

Burke also said religious opponents "put on a full-court press" to defeat the measure once it passed the Senate. The Coalition to Preserve Traditional Values, which includes a number of churches an conservative organizations, demonstrated against the bill May 31 at the Statehouse.

Burke said the Alliance plans to push a similar measure next year in the legislature. He also said the group "changed our strategy and our tone overnight after the loss we're much more militant."

The Alliance will publicize the names of businesses owned by legislators who voted against the bill in order to encourage the gay community to boycott those establishments. The group also plans to target one or two legislative seats "and beat the pants off them as a signal in the upcoming election, Burke said, to the rest that when you lie to us you suffer."

Burke said several legislators lied to the Alliance about how they would vote on the bill.

Coffey said he thinks the close vote indicates that the bill has "reached a critical mass in terms of consideration by members" and that the bill "is going to pass sooner or later."

"Hopefully," he said, “next year.” Reprinted with permission from the Washington Blade.

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