Page 6 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
December 18, 1992
Boycott divides activists in Colorado and elsewhere
Continued from Page 1
boycott should punish those cities, such as Aspen, Denver and Boulder, which support gay rights.
But Robert Briggs Daniels, spokesperson for the Denver-based group Boycott Colorado, described the effort as one of "shared sacrifice."
"The people in Aspen," Daniels said, "are more concerned about money than they are about civil rights." He pointed to Arizona and the economic suffering of its residents, including African Americans, when many groups boycotted the state for refusing to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday, in honor of the slain civil rights leader.
Boycott Colorado is urging the gay community to boycott Lesbian and Gay Ski Week as part of the larger Colorado boy-
cott.
"We're very displeased with them," said Aspen activist White. "We don't think they understand our position, and we certainly don't understand theirs." The boycott of ski week, White said, was "a slap in the face."
Daniels said that his group initially promised to "not take a position" on Lesbian and Gay Ski Week if the 1993 event was a "political forum" against Amendment 2 and if future gay ski weeks were barred. But he said Boycott Colorado changed its mind after learning that Aspen organizers were already planning an Aspen gay ski week for 1994.
"Aspen stabbed the gay community right in the back," Daniels said.
Other groups have begun to publicly address where they stand on the boycott question. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation-U.S.A. (GLAAD)
Suit filed to declare Colorado amendment unconstitutional
Denver-Advocates for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals filed a lawsuit on Nov. 12 in state court in Denver challenging Colorado's recently passed anti-gay Amendment Two.
The case was filed on behalf of several lesbians and gay men, a heterosexual man with AIDS and the City and County of Denver, the City of Boulder and the City of Aspen. The plaintiffs include tennis star Martina Navratilova, who lives near Aspen, and an ordained minister who has never before publicly acknowledged being a lesbian.
The plaintiffs are represented jointly by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, the ACLU's national Lesbian
and Gay Rights Project, the Colorado Legal Initiatives Project (CLIP), and the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.
The complaint alleges that Amendment Two violates several provisions of the United States Constitution, primarily the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The complaint says that the proposed amendment would authorize and encourage public and private discrimination on the basis of perceived sexual orientation and establishes a right to discriminate against gay men, lesbians and bisexuals as one of the basic policies of the State of Colorado.
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voted to endorse a boycott of Colorado and agreed to move its January 1993 national conference from Denver to Kansas City, Missouri. A large part of the decision, according to GLAAD National Capital Area member Cathy Renna, "was based on the fact that GLAAD Denver really wanted us to be behind them" in their decision to support a boycott.
Also on record as supporting a boycott are the National Safety Council, the Eighth International Conference of Lesbian and Gay Officials, the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR), the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, and Queer NationNational Capital Area.
AmFAR had originally been selected to receive the proceeds from the "Land Rover 24 Hours of Aspen" ski event. AmFAR, however, declined to be the beneficiary of the Nov. 30 event to protest Amendment 2. On the other side of the boycott question are entertainers such as Cher, Barbra Streisand, Robert Wagner, and Jill St. John, who have issued statements criticizing Amendment 2 while urging support for Aspen.
"In a boycott of Aspen," said Cher, one of the city's celebrity residents, “you are lashing out at the wrong target."
Streisand seemed to contradict her early support for a boycott by releasing a state-
ment with Aspen Mayor Bennett's saying, "I have not called for a boycott."
Streisand said that she supports organizations challenging the validity of Amendment 2, and that she will support a boycott "if we are asked to."
Streisand's statement was issued on Nov. 24; Boycott Colorado announced its boycott on Nov. 20.
"The people living in Colorado... are contemplating many strategies," said Streisand's statement. "I will respect whichever one they feel is most effective."
The International Gay Travel Association's (GTA) president Fred Kohn wrote members asking them to "urge your friends and clients to attend [Gay Ski Week] in even greater numbers."
"There is unity in numbers," the letter says, "and we need to show the world that wherever and whenever our rights are threatened anywhere, we will be there--united and strong."
However, unity does not exist even with the GTA. One member, Charles Kelly of Starlight Holidays in Alexandria, Virginia, write Kohn back to say that Kohn's letter "calls into question our credibility as representatives of the community we purport to serve."
Reprinted with permission from the Washington Blade.
Labor union women move 1993 convention from Denver
Washington, D.C.--The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), a national organization of trade unionists who advocate women's rights, have notified Colorado Governor Roy Romer that it is moving its 1993 convention from Denver because of a referendum approved in the November
Miller said a new location for the meeting which draws 1,000--1,500 participants and exhibitors has not yet been selected.
Miller estimates the cancellation of the CLUW convention will cost Denver as much as $3 million in lost revenue.
"I hope other organizations and indi-
3 election which permits discrimination Vidual vacationers will follow the lead of against pays and le
lesbians in the state.
In a letter sent to Governor Romer, Joyce D. Miller, CLUW president, stated that since the organization is opposed to policies which discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation, "it would be contrary to our beliefs to hold an event . . . in a state that advocates such discrimination."
Australia
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from unlikely corners. Sir Edward "Weary" Dunlop, 85, one of Australia's most famous war heroes and former prisoner of war, said military leaders and politicians were "probably worrying too much" about a breakdown of discipline.
"Don't let us delude ourselves," he said. "There have always been homosexuals in the services."
According to the U.S. General Accounting Office report on gays in the military, which recommended that the ban be overturned, Australia joins a large number of other countries that already allow gay soldiers. Austria, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden allow gays to
its
and shun Colorado so long as citizens reject the civil rights of gays and lesbians," Miller said. "Iftheir conscience doesn't bother them, perhaps the loss of business will convince the voters of Colorado to reverse the ill-advised and abhorrent discriminatory position they have taken."
serve without restrictions. Belgium, Finland, France, and Germany allow gays to enter, but place certain restrictions on them, such as limited access to confidential documents, exclusion from leadership positions, and exclusion from recruiting positions.
The U.S. and British armed forces still do not allow gays to serve. In the U.S., President-elect Bill Clinton has promised to end the ban, despite strong opposition from some military leaders. The British parliament voted in June to decriminalize sex between consenting, adult male soldiers. But on the recommendation of a select committee, which said "the time has not yet come to require the Armed Forces to accept homosexuals," the British parliament retained the ban on gays.
Reprinted with permission from the Washington Blade.
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