Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 16:30:29 +0100
From: glaad@glaad.org (GLAAD)
Subject: BUCHANAN ANTI-GAY STATEMENTS APPEAL TO CONSERVATIVE FEARS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                Contact:  Mark F. Johnson
                                News Media Director
                        (212) 807-1700


BUCHANAN ANTI-GAY STATEMENTS APPEAL TO
 CONSERVATIVE FEARS



NEW YORK, NY -- February 19, 1996 -- Republican  presidential candidate
Patrick Buchanan threw a new salvo at the gay and lesbian community on the
eve of the New Hampshire GOP caucus today when he stated that he would not
hire anyone openly gay for a staff position in a Buchanan administration.
The candidate, already under fire over a controversy involving two former
campaign aides with ties to racist groups, also reiterated his position
against gays in the military.

"Buchanan is clearly appealing to the homophobia of the religious right and
working class,
mostly rural, southern white voters who have been fed a line of propaganda,
and fear that gays and lesbians and other minorities want  'special rights'
and privileges," said Mark F.
Johnson, News Media Director for GLAAD.   "He is just adding to the 'us
against them' mentality among conservative Republicans by making statements
like this," Johnson added.

Buchanan stated that gays and lesbians would be allowed in his
administration only under one condition--that they remain in the closet.
"I've worked with people in the Nixon White House who were gay, not openly
gay."  They're good people in a lot of ways,  according to Buchanan, who
said that he would not hesitate to have "folks like that " in his
administration.  However, he warned that there would be no "Roberta
Achtenberg's," referring to the former assistant secretary of HUD who left
the Clinton administration to run for mayor of San Francisco.  Achtenberg
was openly lesbian while working in the administration.

Instead of moving forward and continuing the advances made in recent years,
Buchanan would rather turn back the clock to the days when being gay in
government was something to keep deeply hidden for fear of blackmail.  "The
president who takes the nation into the 21st century should be looking
ahead with a new vision of equality and inclusion, tapping into the talents
of a cross-section of Americans," stated Johnson.  "Instead,  Buchanan
would send us back to the ugly period of separatism where the rights and
privileges of whole groups of people were subjugated because of the hatred
and misplaced fears of others."  Johnson concluded that these kind of
statements along with recent negative comments made by the Republican
presidential candidates on same-gender marriage, will  make gays and
lesbians walk swiftly over to the Democrats in November.

GLAAD is a national organization that promotes fair, accurate and inclusive
representation as a means of challenging discrimination based on sexual
orientation or identity.

###

******************************************************************************
Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)
glaad@glaad.org
http://www.glaad.org

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, GLAAD, is a national
organization that promotes fair, accurate and inclusive representation of
individuals and events in the media as a means of combatting homophobia and
all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity.
****************************************************************************
**