Date: Thu, 10 Aug 1995 10:22:04 -0400 From: "Scott T. Greenwood" ************************ACLU RELEASE***************************** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 9, 1995 Plaintiffs Appeal Cincinnati Antigay Issue 3 Decision to Supreme Court Today, Equality Foundation of Greater Cincinnati, Housing Opportunities Made Equal, and five individual lesbian and gay people filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court of the United States, asking the Court to accept their case and to overturn the Sixth Circuit's May 12, 1995 decision reversing their landmark victory. In May, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed, on every basis, the August 9, 1994 decision of U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel which invalidated Cincinnati's anti-gay Issue 3 as violative of the constitutional rights of gay, lesbian, and bisexual citizens. Issue 3 is the Cincinnati initiative enacted in 1993 which carved gay, lesbian, and bisexual people out of the City's Human Rights Ordinance and forbid the City from ever again addressing issues of concern to gay citizens. Already pending in the Court in an appeal of a challenge to Colorado Amendment 2, a similar anti-gay measure. Civil rights attorneys Alphonse Gerhardstein and Scott Greenwood represent the plaintiffs, along with Pat Logue and Suzanne Goldberg of LAMBDA Legal Defense and Education Fund and Richard Cordray. "The Sixth Circuit is just wrong, and the Supreme Court should reverse it. Under our Constitution, the civil rights of individuals do not depend upon majority approval, nor can they ever be taken away by majority vote. " Gerhardstein said. ACLU attorney Greenwood added, "The Supreme Court has consistently recognized that all people enjoy the equal protection of our Constitution and laws, and that a majority vote cannot take away fundamental rights. The Sixth Circuit's decision runs contrary to our society's cherished notion of individual rights by allowing hatred of a group of people to take away their rights." Press: Contact Scott Greenwood at (513) 684-0101 Al Gerhardstein at (513) 621-9100 ###