From: Hrccomm@aol.com
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 08:52:42 -0500
Subject: HRC Slams Buchanan for Anti-Gay Diatribes

________________________________________________________

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
Wednesday, February 21, 1996


            LARGEST NATIONAL GAY ORGANIZATION SLAMS
                       BUCHANAN FOR ANTI-GAY DIATRIBES
                                    
   Anti-Gay Schlafly Endorsement:  One Extremist Endorses Another,'
                                                 Birch Says

Columbia, S.C. -- Voters in New Hampshire  and Iowa have rejected
the divisive message of GOP presidential contender Patrick J.
Buchanan, including his anti-gay bigotry, the Human Rights
Campaign asserted Wednesday.
     "Nearly three-quarters of New Hampshire Republican voters
repudiated Patrick Buchanan's message of hatred, and more than
three-quarters rejected it in Iowa," said Elizabeth Birch,
executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest
national lesbian and gay political organization. "Americans want
a leader who unites the country.  Patrick Buchanan only serves to
divide -- not to mention that he is a walking hate crime."
     Birch held a news conference in Columbia the day after the
New Hampshire primary to highlight evidence that Buchanan's
anti-gay rants will not play well with voters, and to dismiss
Buchanan's endorsement by anti-gay, anti-feminist activist
Phyllis Schlafly.
     "Today, one extremist endorses another," Birch said.
     Americans are turned off attacks on gay people, Birch added.
"A poll conducted for HRC the week before the New Hampshire
primary found that nearly a third of GOP primary voters believed
it is wrong for candidates to use gays to score political points.
Another third strongly disapproved of mixing extreme religious
views and politics. Only 20 percent of those polled said they
were glad that Republicans are raising this issue."
     Birch also said Buchanan is mistaken if he thinks attacking
gay people will resonate with the people who voted for Ross Perot
in 1992. According to a 1995 Times-Mirror poll, they are among
the most tolerant voters.
     Buchanan's anti-gay statements are part of a pattern of
unabashed bigotry that cannot go unanswered, said David M. Smith,
HRC's communications director.
     "Patrick Buchanan has said on numerous occasions over the
last two weeks that he would not hire an open gay to work in his
administration, and the silence from the rest of the GOP field
has been deafening," Smith said at the news conference. "If Bob
Dole and Lamar Alexander want to lead, why are they not
condemning Buchanan's scapegoating of gay people?"
     On Feb. 11, 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."
     On Feb. 19, he repeated his assertion, this time 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."
     HRC's 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 on Feb. 10 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.
     "Gay-bashing in the GOP campaigns has reached an all-time
high," Smith said. He noted Buchanan attended the anti-gay rally
in Des Moines, along with Alan Keyes and Phil
Gramm, who has since dropped out of the race. Senate Majority
Leader 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.
     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.

                                 - 30 -