Subject: Hearings Prompt Campaign of Outrage
From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 20:44:38 -0500

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National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
NEWS RELEASE

Contact:          Beth Barrett       (202) 332-6483 ext. 3215
                      [email-masked]   

2320 17th Street NW   Washington, DC   20009
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HEARINGS BASHING YOUTH
PROMPTS CAMPAIGN OF OUTRAGE
Congress in the "Back Pocket" of the Radical Right Says Paras

Washington, DC -- November 30, 1995 -- The on-again off-again Congressional
hearings, which many believe will provide a tax-payer funded pulpit for
anti-gay extremism, have once again been rescheduled.  Now called "Parents,
Schools and Values," the hearings will take place Tuesday and Wednesday,
December 5 and 6 before Rep. Peter Hoekstra's (R-MI) House Economic and
Employment Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

 Outraged by the increasing evidence of Congressional pandering to the
Radical Right the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force today called on gay and
non-gay Americans to appeal to the common decency of their Congressional
leaders.  Exclaiming that Congress appears to be perched in the "back pocket
of the Radical Right," Melinda Paras, NGLTF Executive Director, pledged to
mail her own back pant's pocket to Rep. Hoekstra.  NGLTF called on activists
around the country to follow suit, sending pockets to their Representatives
and calling on Congressional leadership to speak out against the extremist
hearings as yet another example of right wing control of Congress.

 "I wonder which parents, which young people, and which values the
subcommittee's hearings will highlight?" said Paras

 "Right wing extremists hope to promote only their narrow definition of the
'acceptable' family.  Will the hearings fairly and fully reflect the lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender youth who face harassment, hostility and violence
in their schools every day, with no one to defend them?  Will the hearings
fairly and fully reflect the aspirations of the many lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender parents who are raising children?   Will the hearings fairly
and fully reflect values such as respect, tolerance, and compassion?  Or will
the hearings merely be a platform for the narrow-minded bigotry of extremists
like Lou Sheldon, the Christian Coalition and others who share their views?"
asked Paras.

 The "Back Pocket Campaign" is the latest in a series of national outrcries
sparked when Lou Sheldon, an anti-gay extremist and director of the
Traditional Values Coalition, claimed in a 
fundraising letter that the hearings were scheduled at his request.  Sheldon
has a long history of 
irrational, extremist proclamations related to lesbians and gays, even
suggesting that people with
AIDS should be segregated in "cities of refuge" for their own good and the
good of society, according to reports in the Los Angeles Times.   According
to Lou Sheldon and others who support his views, any school services or
programs which address prevention of HIV, hate crimes and the high incidence
of suicide among gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth should be
eliminated because they "recruit and promote homosexuality."

 "The Radical Right will not rest until they have forced their narrow-minded
ideas onto every facet of our society," Paras declared.  "By holding these
hearings, Congress is playing into the plans of the Right to raise a
generation of hateful, intolerant and mean-spirited young Americans.  Now is
the time for decent Americans to stand up and say 'no' by demanding that
Congress step out of the back pocket of the Radical Right.  We cannot allow
our nation's young people to be pawns in the agenda of the far right."

--

The "Back Pocket Campaign" is sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force, for a sample letter to accompany your back pocket or for more
information, please call NGLTF at (202) 332-6483.  Write {your
representative}, US House of Representatives, Washington, DC  20515.