Subject: HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE POSTPONES HEARING SOUGHT BY ANTI-GAY EXTREMIST
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 1995 16:45:36 -0400

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PRESS RELEASE            PRESS RELEASE            PRESS RELEASE

               THE HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN FUND                    

 The Nation's Largest Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights Organization
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To contact the HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN FUND, please call us at     
(202)628-4160, fax us at (202) 347-5323 or write to us at PO Box 
1396  Washington, DC  20013.  
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, September 5, 1995

            HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE POSTPONES HEARING
               SOUGHT BY ANTI-GAY EXTREMIST

     Washington -- After the public response to press reports
that a congressional panel would hold a hearing sought by
anti-gay extremist Lou Sheldon, staff members from the U.S. House
of Representatives have told the Human Rights Campaign Fund
(HRCF) that the hearing will be postponed.

Last week, staffers for Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), chair of
the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House
Economic and Educational Opportunities Committee, had confirmed
claims Sheldon made in an August fundraising letter that the
subcommittee would hold a hearing on Sept. 12.  In the direct-
mail letter for his Traditional Values Coalition, Sheldon
communicated his intentions to use the taxpayer-funded forum to
attack local school efforts to prevent AIDS, violence and
suicide, and sought donations to mount a $25,000 media campaign
to publicize the event.  In the past, Sheldon has gained
notoriety for advocating that men, women and children with AIDS
be confined in what he called "cities of refuge."  Today, House
staff informed HRCF that the hearing would be indefinitely
delayed while efforts were made to ensure fairness and balance in
the selection of witnesses.

"I don't think Lou Sheldon realized what an outcry there would be
when the public got wind of his extreme agenda," said HRCF
Political Director Daniel Zingale.  "Sheldon has made it his
mission to single out lesbian and gay Americans for
discrimination.  Lesbian and gay youth are at high risk of
bias-motivated violence and suicide, and it is incredibly
mean-spirited that Sheldon wants the federal government to forbid
local communities from dealing with these vulnerable young people
in a fair and compassionate manner.  Targeting at-risk youth for
discrimination in school is about as low as you can get."

Traditionally, local communities and state education boards set
guidelines for curriculum, counseling and instructional materials
-- not the federal government.  Some communities have adopted
modest programs to address an epidemic of violence and
discrimination against lesbian and gay youth in schools.  Sheldon
claims that such local efforts are actually part of a covert plan
to "promote" homosexuality, rather than to prevent
discrimination.  "Local schools are not in the business of
promoting sexuality of any kind -- and that is as it should be,"
Zingale added.  "The programs Sheldon is attacking are in the
business of saving lives."
    
The Human Rights Campaign Fund (HRCF), the largest national
lesbian and gay political organization, works to end
discrimination, secure equal rights, and protect the health and
safety of all Americans.  With a national staff, and volunteers
and members throughout the country, HRCF lobbies the federal
government on lesbian, gay, and AIDS issues; educates the general
public; participates in election campaigns; organizes volunteers;
and provides expertise and training at the state and local level.

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     1101 14th Street, NW  Suite 200  Washington, DC  20005
          phone:(202)628-4160      fax:(202) 347-5323