From: cfjustice@aol.com Date: Mon, 31 Jan 94 00:29:26 EST Subject: NEWS: Christian Coalition Schoo CITIZENS FOR JUSTICE NEWS REPORT January, 1994 Vol. 1, #1 ---------------------------------------------------- CHRISTIAN COALITION OFFERS "LEADERSHIP SCHOOLS" The Christian Coalition is offering a "Leadership School" this year in Columbus, on February 25-26. It is one of more than a dozen such events scheduled around the country in 1994. The "Leadership Schools" teach extreme right wing activists how to run for political office as "stealth candidates". Stealth candidates hide their true plans, ideas, and right wing affilia- tions during the campaigns, telling the truth only after they are elected. Then they put their hidden agendas into action. Stealth candidates often run for school boards and at least one of them has sat on the Hilliard, Ohio, school board. In 1993, one of the candidates for the Columbus City Council was suspected of being a stealth candidate, as was a candidate for clerk of court. Stealth candidates are often, but not necessarily, Republicans (one of the candidates in Columbus last year was a Democrat). As part of the training at Leadership Schools, stealth candidates are taught tricks on how to hide their true agendas. They are taught to avoid answering questions that would reveal the truth. Stealth candidates are taught to say things like "The important thing about my campaign is not exactly what I want to do, but that we have change and a new voice on the school board." The schools teach candidates to hide their affiliation with extreme right and anti-gay movement. Only very careful and persistant questioning can lead to the truth. Stealth candidates are advised to avoid public campaign events and debates. Instead they do most of their campaigning in churches and at house parties where only extreme right voters are invited to attend. It is important to remember that not all churches support extreme right candidates. In fact, one tactic used to trick people into voting for stealth candidates is to place campaign flyers on car windsheilds at mainstream churches during church services on the Sunday right before the election. This gives church members the false impression that their church is supporting the candidate, but it's too late for the church to do anything about it. The Leadership School is very effective at teaching people with extreme right views to invade public office. If you have any doubt about what they're trying to do, just read their motto: "THINK LIKE JESUS. LEAD LIKE MOSES. FIGHT LIKE DAVID. RUN LIKE LINCOLN". -------------------------------------------------- COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST COLORADO FOR FAMILY VALUES The bigots in Cincinnati spent over $500,000 on their campaign to pass Issue 3. Ohio law required them to file a report disclos- ing where that money came from so the public could know who actually paid for the campaign. When they filed their final report, it turned out that $390,000 came directly from Colorado for Family Values ("CFV"), the same group that sponsored the anti-gay Amendment 2 in Colorado. The question is, where did the $390,000 come from? Was it from business owners in Cincinnati who laundered it through CFV, other bigots in Ohio, or other parts of the country? Since CFV is no longer a Colorado PAC, it isn't required to file financial reports in Colorado. Since it wasn't directly involved in Issue 3, it claims that it shouldn't have to file reports in Ohio. Gaybeat, an Ohio gay/lesbian oriented newspaper, has filed a complaint against CFV with the Ohio Elections Commission asking the Commission to require CFV to file financial reports in Ohio. The complaint claims that CFV was attempting to influence the Issue 3 election and therefore meets the definition of an Ohio Political Action Committee. Gaybeat also points out that if CFV isn't required to disclose the source of its money, then it provides a method for laundering political money --- and skirting the purpose of campaign disclosure laws. Anyone who wants to hide donations to a campaign can set up and give money to an out of state organization, which then gives the money to the campaign in Ohio. If the Board of Elections rules in favor of the complaint, CFV will have to file a report (or face a financial penalty). If the Board dismisses the complaint, we'll never know who actually paid for Issue 3. An initial hearing on the complaint should be scheduled for some time in late January or February. Citizens for Justice will keep you up to date as this develops. --------------------------------------------------------- HOUSE BILL 442: The Anti-Gay University Housing and Insurance Bill House Bill 442 has been introduced into the Ohio legislature by Representative Michael Fox, along with 13 other Republican co-sponsors. If passed, the bill will prohibit same-gender couples from living together in university family housing. It will also prohibit life or health insurance benefits for same-gender partners of university faculty and staff. The bill was assigned to the Colleges and Universities Subcommittee of the House Education Committee. On December 28th, Jerry Bunge, Project Director of Citizens for Justice, Susan Bader of the Ohio National Organization for Women, and Marc Conte of the Ohio Students Association met with Johnnie Maier, chair of the subcommittee. The meeting had been set up by Citizens for Justice to let Rep. Maier know that many people are opposed to the bill and to convince him to let it die without any hearings. It looks like it worked. After listening, Rep. Maier said that he didn’t think he would schedule the bill for any hearings. He said that the subcommittee has many more important issues and that House Bill 442 would only divert attention away from those issues. This is good news because if there aren’t any hearings, the bill dies. There isn’t any reason to be writing or calling representa- tives -- at least for now. Letters and phone calls would only call attention to the bill and run the risk of bringing it back to life. Instead, let's just let H.B. 442 die a quiet death. Citizens for Justice will keep watching to make sure the bill isn’t scheduled for hearings, but if it is, we’ll let you know about it right away. ------------------------------------------------------------- CITIZENS FOR JUSTICE NEEDS YOU We need volunteers --- lots of volunteers. We need people who are willing to do any (or all) of the following things: - Office work (typing, helping with mailings, etc.) - Sponsor house gatherings for your friends to help educate them about the threat and tactics of the extreme right in Ohio. - Help organize a public forum or town meeting in your area to help us reach out and let people know what's going on. - Host fundraisers so we can keep working. - Serve on Creative Teams to help design commercials to fight the extreme right and tell the truth about gay, lesbian, and bisexual people. - Help organize local groups where none exist (especially in rural areas). - Serve as regional lobbying coordinators. If you can help, please call us at 614/224-JUST (5878) or 800/700-JUST, or fax to us at 614/224-4708, or email to us at CFJustice@aol.com. -------------------------------------------------------------- A NEW NATIONAL ORGANIZATION A new national organization, Gay & Lesbian Americans (GLA), was formed during a summit in Washington, DC, over the weekend of January 15-16. About 60 activists attended and became the first members. GLA is planned as a grass roots based organization with state and local chapters. The membership will elect both the board of directors and the platform/priority projects each year. There will be four paid staff positions initially. The general feeling at the summit is that a new national organization is necessary because the Human Rights Campaign Fund and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force are not providing enough support for the grass roots movement that GLA founders believe to be to necessary. GLA will concentrate on building a strong les-bi-gay grass roots movement, but founding GLA members made it clear that they aren’t willing to work with existing local and state organizations. They intend to build their own, new, structure. A broad outline of the GLA structure, goals, and program were agreed to during the weekend. A volunteer steering committee will develop a constitution and serve as the interim board until elections are held. Intitial GLA projects will be lobbying for the Federal Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Bill and a "Manhattan-style" funding project for an AIDS cure. ----------------------------------------------------------- JUSTICE NEEDS YOUR FINANCIAL HELP TO SURVIVE Whether we like it or not, it costs money to run an organiza- tion or campaign. If you like what Citizens for Justice is doing, please help pay the price. We're reaching out to work with religious, minority, and les-bi-gay groups --- anyone we can find who agrees that dis- crimination based on sexual orientation is wrong and must be stopped. We're getting bids from and interviewing pro-fessional pollsters, campaign target specialists, and media consultants. We're making sure that we're ready when the extreme right puts their anti-gay initiative on the ballot -- which could be this year. We're doing a massive, professionally prepared public opinion survey to find out what Ohioans really think about gay, lesbian, and bisexual people. We're putting Creative Teams together to take the information from the survey and develop a media campaign. We're raising money to put the media campaign on the air. We're putting together an effective lobbying structure to make sure that we all have a strong voice in the Ohio statehouse. This all takes money. Lots of money. And we need your support. Frankly, unless we start getting more financial support (whether $10 donations or $1,000 donations), we're going to have to cut back on what we're doing. Help us make sure that we have the strength and foundation to fight the anti-gay initiative that the extreme right is preparing for Ohio. They met just last month to finish their strategic plan. The bigots will have all the money they need. Of the $500,000 spent to pass Issue 3 in Cincinnati, $390,000 of it came from out-of-state religious-based organizations. PLEASE DON'T CUT US SHORT . HELP US MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE READY. ------------------------------------------------------------ REGIONAL CAUCUSES TO ELECT OUTVOICE TRUSTEES The parent organization of Citizens for Justice, OutVoice, is governed by a Board of Trustees. The trustees are elected by OutVoice members at regional caucus meetings in February and March. To be a member of OutVoice, you must pay the membership fee. Each of the 24 elected OutVoice trustees is chosen by the members in one of the eight OutVoice regions. In addition to the 24 elected trustees, the board can appoint up to eight at-large trustees who provide particular skills or contacts that strengthen the organization. The OutVoice Constitution allocates the number of trustees for each region, based on population. Region 1 is entitled to elect up to 3 trustees; Regions 2 and 3 are each entitled to 4 trustees; Regions 4 and 5 may each elect up to 2 trustees; Regions 6, 7, and 8 are each entitled to 3 trustees. CANDIDATES FOR TRUSTEE The OutVoice nominating committee, headed by Board Clerk, Rick Kirk, is looking for people who want serve as trustees. If you are willing to work and want to have a larger voice in what OutVoice does, then consider running for trustee. The position involves at least four Board meetings a year, numberous phone calls, fundrais- ing, and serving on one of the standing committees. If you just want a title and aren't willing to work, this is not the job for you. Call Rick at 216/237-2879 if you have questions or a nomination. CAUCUS MEETING DATES AND LOCATIONS Region, Date, Time, & Location 1 Weds. Feb. 2, 6:30 p.m. Tallulah's, 6940 W. Central Ave, Toledo 2 Sat. Feb. 19, 2:30 p.m. The Center, 1418 W. 29th Street, Cleveland 3 Sat. Feb. 19, 10:00 a.m. Akron-Summit Library (2nd fl), 55 S. Main Street, Akron 4 To be announced. 5 Sun., Feb. 20, 3:00 p.m. United Campus Ministry (UCM), 18 North College Street, Athens 6 To be announced. 7 Thurs,Feb. 17, 7:00 p.m. Jessie's City Cafe, 121 N. Ludlow, Dayton 8 Tues, Feb. 1, 7:00 p.m, Ohio Union, Conference Theater 1739 N. High St., Columbus If you have questions about what region you live in, call Citizens for Justice at 8-00/700-JUST, or email to