Date: Sat, 28 Feb 1998 10:28:41 -0500 (EST) From: A Jay Eddy Subject: CA Republican Party Resolution (fwd) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information contact: Shane Patrick Connolly 510/226-1701 or 408/942-7614 Mark S. Patrosso 408/294-7469 or 408/865-3200 pgr GAY & LESBIAN REPUBLICANS DENOUNCE CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN PARTY RESOLUTION February 24, 1998 – San Jose, CA: In a strongly worded statement issued Tuesday, Mark S. Patrosso, President of the Silicon Valley Log Cabin Republicans, denounced Resolution S98-15, passed at the closing session of the California Republican State Convention in Burlingame, as "an attempt to redefine individual rights to deny gays and lesbians the free exercise of those rights." Patrosso further stated that "the Silicon Valley Log Cabin Republicans reject this redefinition and will fight it at every turn as anti- Republican and anti-American." While the lead statement of the Resolution, ironically titled "Equal Protection Under the Law", innocuously called for "equal protection under the law for all citizens", the resolution insidiously devolved into equating homosexuality with child abuse, bestiality, and incest. "The gay and lesbian community has heard this reprehensible rhetoric before – we, as Log Cabin Republicans, must continue our efforts to educate our party’s membership until these comparisons are rejected out of hand, and the purveyors of such absurdities are dismissed as the charlatans they are" said Communications Director, Shane Patrick Connolly. Mr. Patrosso said "The California Republican Party (CRP) has gotten it all wrong again. They appear to be confusing special protected minority status with individual rights and equal protection. Protection of individual rights is guaranteed by our Constitution and is inherent in our form of government. As citizens, gays and lesbians are entitled to exercise these rights. The grounds used in the resolution for denying gays and lesbians our rights are firmly rooted in ignorance and bias. The organized opponents of gay rights, exploit this ignorance and bias in an attempt to substitute their sectarian religious morality for the constitutional guarantees that allow individuals to determine how best to live their lives." Continuing, Mr. Patrosso stated "A major component of personal freedom is the right of free people to live their lives without fear of unwarranted government intrusion. Equal protection requires that distinctions causing unequal treatment be justified by something other than prejudice against an unpopular social minority." When asked about the "special rights" that were referred to in the resolution, Mr. Patrosso responded "the special protections that the resolution seeks to deny are, simply, ordinary rights that other American citizens enjoy. California Republicans should prevent liberty from being denied to the minority, because these efforts ultimately encroach on the liberty of the majority. The sectarian religious movement has already trespassed on the majority’s right to free expression as it has attempted to ban gay-themed books and to expunge any positive references to lesbians and gays from school curricula." Patrosso continued, "the Republican Party requires an allegiance to the principle of individual liberty. The price that we pay for liberty is the recognition that other people, especially people with whom you may not like to identify, have an equal claim to the same liberty." The resolution also seeks to define discourse that "reflects adversely" on gays and lesbians in the public school system as benign; and, the positive portrayal of gays and lesbians as "indoctrination" and wrong. Again, Patrosso; "the adverse speech, to what they refer, is the harassment, abuse, and threats that young gays and lesbian must endure. The acceptance of this behavior is teaching that others may be unjustly denied personal freedoms and individual rights." "Silicon Valley Log Cabin Republicans will continue to take up the fight against attempts to deny people their personal freedoms and against those who would distort the ideals of our party," Patrosso concluded. The Silicon Valley Log Cabin Republican Club is the six-year-old local chapter of the national Log Cabin Republicans. Log Cabin is made up of lesbian and gay Republicans and their supporters and promotes the ideals of individual liberty and fiscal responsibility within the Republican Party. You may contact the club at their e-mail address: svlcr@aol.com. COPY OF RESOLUTION PASSED BY THE CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN PARTY FEBRUARY 22, 1998. S98-15 EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW WHEREAS, California Republicans desire equal protection under the law for all citizens; and WHEREAS, a small aggressive group has been seeking special protected minority status through the California Assembly and Senate; and WHEREAS, this group, through the provision of protected minority status, has sought to prohibit California public education, kindergarten through graduate school, from adopting instructional materials, providing instruction, or sponsoring an activity that "reflects adversely" on persons because of their "sexual orientation"; and WHEREAS, sexual orientation is defined as "a person's sexual habits, practices, predilections, or compulsions"; and WHEREAS, this definition of sexual orientation includes practices associated with incest, sexual child abuse, bestiality, gays, lesbians, transsexuals, pedophiles, and crossdressers, among others; and WHEREAS, such practices are behavior-based and do not meet any of the three criteria the Federal Courts have ruled as being necessary for protected minority status, namely: 1. The group or class must have suffered a history of discrimination which is evidenced by the lack of ability to obtain economic mean income, adequate education, and must have been deprived of cultural opportunities. 2. The group or class must exhibit obvious, immutable, or distinguishing characteristics that define them as an insular an discreet minority. 3. The group or class must show they are politically powerless.; and WHEREAS, removing any intellectual discourse in California public education, kindergarten through graduate school, that "reflects adversely" on those practices falling under the rubric "sexual orientation" is clearly indoctrination which the experience of history decries; now THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the California Republican Party declare its opposition to providing protected minority status to persons because of their sexual orientation. SUBMITTED BY: DORSEY BRAUSE