From: Hrccomm@aol.com
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 1996 18:16:29 -0500
Subject: Elizabeth Birch Challenges Pat Buchanan to Explain His Anti-Gay Statements

________________________________________________________

NEWS from the
Human Rights Campaign

1101 14th Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
email:  communications@hrcusa.org
WWW:    http://www.hrcusa.org
________________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, February 26, 1996

    HEAD OF LARGEST NATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
CHALLENGES PATRICK BUCHANAN TO DEBATE

   Rep. Steve Gunderson Joins Call for Presidential Candidate to 
                          Explain His Anti-Gay Statements
 
           FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO HRC'S WEBSITE
                                       http://www.hrcusa.org


Washington -- Elizabeth Birch, head of the largest national lesbian and gay
political organization, and Rep. Steve Gunderson challenged GOP presidential
candidate Patrick J. Buchanan to defend his numerous  anti-gay statements
because his flawed assertions have gone largely unchallenged.
     "Buchanan's campaign for president has been the most anti-gay in the
history of presidential politics," Birch said at a news conference Monday
where she challenged Buchanan to debate her. "On the campaign trail, and
elsewhere, Buchanan has maligned and mischaracterized the lives of lesbian,
gay and bisexual Americans. Since no other Republican candidate for president
is challenging his anti-gay positions, I hereby challenge Patrick Buchanan to
a public debate on these issues that he himself has raised during his bid for
the presidency."
     Gunderson, of Wisconsin, the only openly gay Republican in Congress,
offered to participate also.
     "I join with Elizabeth Birch in calling for a dialogue or debate on
these issues,"
Gunderson said in a statement. "The party of Lincoln, the party of freedom,
the party of individuals' rights to chart their own destinies cannot be home
to prejudice in any way, shape or form."
     Birch released a copy of a letter she sent to Buchanan on Sunday,
challenging him to debate her, preferably  before Super Tuesday, March 12.
She noted that Buchanan has said recently he's tired of name calling and that
he wants to focus on the issues. "We'd like to take him up on that," Birch
said.
     "It's time for a real debate about the issues, in which lesbian and gay
Americans are treated as citizens rather than as scapegoats to score
political points," Birch said Monday. "Amid all the anti-gay things that Mr.
Buchanan has said, he maintains that he doesn't believe gay people should be
persecuted. If those words are anything more than a disclaimer to excuse
bigotry, he ought to take a stand against the widespread discrimination
lesbian and gay Americans face -- discrimination from which we still have no
basic protection under the law. It's time to
discuss the real issues of freedom from discrimination and basic equal rights
for all."
     She also outlined some of the recent anti-gay statements by Buchanan,
including:
     On Feb. 23 at a rally in Yuma, Ariz., Buchanan called last summer's
international women's conference in Beijing a "crazy dingbat conference"
overrun by homosexual and bisexual women. "It was a horrible thing, dreadful.
It looked like the bar scene in  Star Wars,'" Buchanan said. 
     On Feb. 19, Buchanan said on CNN: "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. I would have no hesitation of having folks like that. But I don't think
their lifestyle should ... discredit the administration."
     On Feb. 11, Buchanan said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that, if elected, he
would not appoint openly gay people in his administration. And he added: "I
do not believe this is a valid, legitimate, moral lifestyle, period,
paragraph." 
     And, on Feb. 10, at an anti-gay rally in Des Moines, Iowa, Buchanan
attacked what he called "the false god of gay rights," and same-sex marriage,
claiming that they threaten the family.
     Buchanan also sent out a fund-raising letter decrying the fact that
"liberals in our party are already demanding the addition of a homosexual
rights plank in the next Republican platform."
     "Patrick Buchanan's views on these issues have not been appropriately
challenged, either by his opponents in the primaries or the news media
covering his campaign," Birch said. "I believe that American voters deserve
to hear his positions more thoroughly explored and to hear
his reasoning after appropriate rebuttal."
     The Human Rights Campaign is the largest national lesbian and gay
political organization, with members throughout the country. It effectively
lobbies Congress, provides campaign support and educates the public to ensure
that lesbian and gay Americans can be open, honest and safe at home, at work
and in the community.


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