Subject: HRC Blasts Anti-Gay Rally in Iowa and Presidential Candidates who Participated
From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 18:47:06 -0500

_______________________________________________________

NEWS from the
Human Rights Campaign

1101 14th Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
email:  [email-masked]
WWW:    http://www.hrcusa.org
_______________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, February 12, 1996

   GOP CANDIDATES BUCHANAN, GRAMM AND KEYES
                         ATTEND ANTI-GAY RALLY;
FORBES, DOLE, ALEXANDER SEND LETTERS OF SUPPORT
                                    
In Republican Presidential Political Caucuses, They Need an Enemy.
                        At the Moment, We Seem To Be It'  

        GO TO HRC'S WEBSITE TO SEND THEM MESSAGES
                                  http://www.hrcusa.org

Des Moines, Iowa -- The GOP presidential candidates who attended a rally
against same-sex marriage joined an anti-gay right-wing feeding frenzy
leading up to the Iowa caucuses Monday, the Human Rights Campaign charged.

     The rally, organized by several national religious political
organizations, featured a political operative who was paid by the Christian
Coalition to whip up fear of same-sex marriage all over the United States,
HRC said.

     "In the Republican presidential political calculus, they need an enemy.
At the moment, we seem to be it," said David M. Smith,  communications
director for HRC, the largest national lesbian and gay political group.

     Smith spoke at a news conference Saturday outside the First Federated
Church in Des Moines. He was joined by Bill Crews, the openly gay mayor of
Melbourne, Iowa.

     HRC also helped to organize an Iowans Against Bigotry candlelight vigil
attended by 250 people in front of the church.

     Inside, GOP presidential candidates Pat Buchanan, Phil Gramm and Alan
Keyes addressed the anti-marriage rally.

     The other GOP presidential hopefuls  who signed onto their reactionary
"Marriage Protection Resolution" included Lamar Alexander, Bob Dornan and
Steve Forbes.

     The GOP front-runner, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, sent a letter to
the anti-gay rally organizers, endorsing their resolution but telling them it
did not go far enough.

     "I fully support the position taken in the resolution -- that the state
should not legalize same-sex  marriages' but  should continue to reserve the
special sanction of civil marriage for one man and one woman as husband and
wife,'" Dole wrote on Feb. 8.

     HRC labeled Dole's action as stooping to join a conservative right-wing
feeding frenzy that characterized the final days leading up to the Iowa
caucuses. 

     "This rally was the most insidious political attack on the lives of gay
men and lesbians in the history of presidential politics," Smith said. "We
are seeing here in Iowa a repeat of the viciousness of the 1992 Republican
Convention. Each GOP candidate who attended this rally
exploited prejudice against gay and lesbian Americans."

     Jay Sekulow, lead attorney for the Christian Coalition's legal arm, the
American Center for Law and Justice, was a featured speaker at the rally.
Sekulow bragged that his group is spearheading a drive to put anti-gay
marriage bills in all 50 state legislatures. The organizers of Saturday's
anti-marriage rally also showed their latest hate video targeting gay and
lesbian Americans. 

     "These candidates are using hate as a political tool to bludgeon one
another, bashing America's gay community in the process, and alienating the
moderate mainstream of this country," Smith said.

     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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