From: Hrccomm@aol.com
Date: Thu, 2 May 1996 17:47:52 -0400
Subject: Extremists Jam Right-Wing Social Issues Into Defense Bill

________________________________________________________

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
Thursday, May 2, 1996

                            EXTREMISTS JAM RIGHT-WING SOCIAL
                                    ISSUES INTO DEFENSE BILL

                             Leadership Is Losing Control, HRC Says

                                     GO TO HRC'S WEBSITE FOR
                                         MORE INFORMATION AT
                                              http://www.hrcusa.org

WASHINGTON -- Extremist members of Congress are yet again using a
defense authorization bill to push their obsessive, right-wing
social agenda, rather than dealing with the nation's vital
defense interests, the Human Rights Campaign charged Thursday.
     "These members are abusing their power as legislators, with
the tacit approval of Republican House leaders," said Daniel
Zingale, HRC's political director. "These issues have absolutely
nothing to do with the national defense and do not belong in the
legislation authorizing the Defense Department's 1997 budget."
     These extremists have attached the following irrelevant and
inappropriate measures to the 1997 defense authorization bill:

* a mandate to discharge, within two months of diagnosis, all 
  members of the armed services with HIV, the virus that causes 
  AIDS. A similar measure, enacted in January, was repealed by 
  Congress last week;

* a ban on abortions at overseas military hospitals;
 
* a gratuitous reopening of the ban on gays in the military and a 
  reversion to the old anti-gay policy, including reinstating the 
  policy of asking recruits their sexual orientation and 
  sanctioning witch hunts of suspected gay men and lesbians;
 
* a ban on the sale of "adult" magazines and videos on military 
  bases, which may even include self-help books for married 
  couples;
 
* a directive to survey the armed forces (with the exception of 
  high-ranking officers) on attitudes toward women in combat.

          "Extremist Rep. Robert Dornan, R-Calif., who is author
of the HIV provision and the measure to reinstitute the old ban
on gays in the military, is clearly motivated by spite and
bigotry," Zingale added. "These provisions serve no purpose other
than to give him a public forum in which to bash gay men and
lesbians."
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