From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 94 14:26:10 EDT

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   PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE   
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Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund
1012 14th Street, NW Suite 707
Washington, DC  20005
voice: (202) 842-8679
fax:   (202) 289-3863
email: [email-masked]

Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund Recommends Denver City Council 
Candidate 

National Group Now Supports Twelve Openly Gay
Candidates in Seven States

WASHINGTON, DC (12 April 1994)  The Gay and Lesbian Victory
Fund today recommended fifth-generation Coloradan John Camerlo for the
District 10 seat on the Denver City Council [special election May 17]. 
Camerlo underwent a rigorous screening to determine his viability as a
potential public official, according to Victory Fund Executive Director
William Waybourn.

      A retired biomedical/development engineer, John Camerlo was
born and raised in Denver and attended local schools and the University of
Colorado at Boulder.  Among his community activities, Camerlo is
past-secretary of the Denver Professional Men's Club and a member of the
Capitol Hill United Neighborhood Association and Tikvat Shalom, Denver's
lesbian and gay Jewish congregation.  Camerlo is a founder and current board
member of the Colorado Human Rights Action Council, a lesbian and gay
political group created to watchdog and lobby the state legislature.  The
Council was responsible for defeating legislation that would have
criminalized HIV transmission.  He was one of the founders of Denver's Gay
Holocaust Program, which commemorates lesbian and gay victims of the Nazi
persecution.  

Camerlo also spent time running the Equal Protection Ordinance
Coalition's phone bank in the 1992 campaign against Amendment 2 and later
worked to promote a statewide initiative to repeal the Amendment and replace
it with proactive civil rights protection for lesbians and gays.  

      "The combination of a crowded field of equally unknown candidates,
traditionally low voter-turnout in special elections and a large gay and
lesbian population bode well for Camerlo's campaign," said Denver attorney
and Victory Fund board member Mary Celeste. "If we can convince the gay
community of the importance of electing our own, we can make history here."

      Colorado is home to more than 50 right-wing fringe groups (including
Focus on the Family, Colorado for Family Values, America for Family Values,
and the Traditional Values Coalition of Colorado) that have targeted the gay
and lesbian community in their grab for power.  "Rather than continue
reacting to the Radical Right's agenda," Celeste said, "it's time for us be
proactive.  Electing the first openly gay official in Colorado will increase
our political visibility and send a message to anti-gay forces nationwide
that our community will not be intimidated."    

      John Camerlo joins the other 11 openly gay and lesbian candidates that
have been recommended to the Victory Fund donor network this year.  The
candidates and their races are: 

      Tony Miller for California Secretary of State [primary: 7 June] 
      William Fitzpatrick for Rhode Island State Senate 
       [primary: 13 September] 
      Sheila Kuehl for California State Assembly [primary: 7 June]
      John Duran for the California State Assembly [primary: 7 June] 
      Tim Van Zandt for Missouri House of Representatives 
       [primary: 2 August] 
      Ken Herndon for Kentucky House of Representatives 
        [primary: 4 May] 
      George Eighmey for Oregon House of Representatives          [primary:
17 May] 
      Susan Leal for San Francisco Board of Supervisors 
         [general: 8 November]    
      Tom Chiola for Cook County (Chicago) Circuit Court 
         [general: 8 November]
      Victoria Sigler for Dade County (Miami, FL) Court 
         [general: 6 September]
      Bonnie Dumanis for San Diego City Court [primary: 7 June]

"Being represented by our own is the highest form of political empowerment," 
Celeste said.  "Every time an openly gay or lesbian candidate crosses a
political threshold, the door is opened for others to follow."  
   
[For complete profiles of any of the candidates or for additional information
please contact Kathleen DeBold at (202) 842-8679 or [email-masked].]