From: Hrccomm@aol.com
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 10:15:03 -0500
Subject: New Hampshire Voters Object ot Gay-Baiting By GOP Presidential Candidates

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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
Friday, February 16, 1996

            NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTERS OBJECT TO GAY-BAITING
                      BY GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

New HRC Poll Shows Voters Not Engaged by Same-Sex Marriage Issue

Manchester, N.H. -- Anti-gay themes being sounded by the GOP presidential
candidates are not working with two-thirds of  Republican and independent New
Hampshire voters and are backfiring in the Republican Party, according to a
poll released here Friday by the Human Rights Campaign.

     "These desperate efforts by Republican candidates to win conservative
votes by gay-baiting are failing miserably," Daniel Zingale, HRC's political
director, said at a news conference in New Hampshire. "The candidates need to
wake up to the fact that voters are sick of hearing their discriminatory
rhetoric."

     The poll, of 443 people likely to vote in the New Hampshire GOP primary,
found that 31 percent of respondents felt it is "wrong to use gays to score
points." A total of 32 percent said they "strongly disapprove" of a rally
last weekend in Iowa against same-sex marriage and of "mixing extreme
religious views and politics."

     The poll also found 32 percent of respondents would be "somewhat less
supportive" or "much less supportive" of a candidate who signed a pledge
opposing same-sex marriage. But the largest group, 45 percent of those
polled, said it "makes no difference" to them whether a candidate signs such
a pledge.

     On the question of whether HIV-positive service members should be kicked
out of the military, 59 percent of those polled said no, agreeing with
President Clinton and moderate Republicans in Congress.

     "Gay-bashing in the GOP campaigns has reached an all-time high," David
M. Smith, HRC's communications director, said at the same news conference. He
noted that the anti-gay rally last weekend in Des Moines, Iowa, was attended
by Pat Buchanan, Alan Keyes and Phil Gramm, who has since dropped out of the
race. GOP front-runner Bob Dole did not attend but sent organizers a letter
saying their "Marriage Protection Resolution" did not go far enough. All the
other leading GOP contenders signed this "resolution," which HRC dubbed an
anti-gay  pronouncement masquerading as a pledge to reserve the institution
of marriage for people of opposite sexes.

     "Buchanan's remarks about gay people have been particularly despicable,
but this is not surprising from the man who declared a  cultural war' on us
at the 1992 GOP Convention," Smith said.  "Patrick Buchanan is a walking hate
crime."

     Last Sunday, Buchanan told NBC's "Meet the Press" that, if elected, he
would not appoint openly gay people in his administration. And, he said: "I
do not believe this is a valid, legitimate, moral lifestyle, period,
paragraph."

     "This is just outrageous that a man who is running for president can say
with impunity that he plans to discriminate openly against a segment of
society," Smith said.

     Zingale called it disappointing that Senate Majority Leader Dole has
shown so little leadership when it comes to ending bigotry against gay men
and lesbians. 

     "Dole has acceded to every demand from religious political extremists
that he buy into their anti-gay agenda," Zingale said. "When Lou Sheldon of
the Traditional Values Coalition accused Dole of being too soft on gays, Dole
sent a letter to the Washington Times saying he opposed equal civil rights
for gay men and lesbians."

     And, he said, Steve Forbes has not been appreciably better.  "Forbes has
also pandered to demands from religious political extremists to stake out
anti-gay positions," Zingale said, citing Forbes' assertion that he supports
the discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy prohibiting openly gay
people from serving in the military.

      The Human Rights Campaign, working with Lake Research Inc. of
Washington, D.C., purchased four questions  in a University of New Hampshire
poll, conducted Feb. 13-14 for the Boston Herald and WCVB-TV. The breakdown
of the 443 likely voters polled was 68 percent Republican, 32 percent
independent. The margin of error was plus- or-minus 4.7 percent.

     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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