Subject: NGLTF Flash Points 3/31
From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 14:02:25 -0500

NATIONAL GAY & LESBIAN TASK FORCE
FLASH POINTS -- A tip sheet for reporters covering gay/lesbian/bisexual
issues

Contact: Robin Kane, 202-332-6483, ext. 3311; [email-masked]

March 31, 1995

Pontiac, MI
Vigil for Scott Amedure/Arraignment for Jon Schmitz
April 4 
 
 Issue:  Scott Amedure was shot to death March 9 while he stood unarmed in
the doorway of his home.  Three days prior to his murder, Amedure appeared as
a guest at a taping of the Jenny Jones Show focusing on "Secret Admirers."
 Amedure, who is gay, was invited onto the show to reveal his "secret crush"
on another man.  That man, Jon Schmitz, is currently under arrest for
murdering Amedure.  According to police, the suspect bought a shotgun and
ammunition, went to Amedure's mobile home and shot him twice in the chest
after a struggle.
 Community organizations in Michigan will host a Candlelight Vigil in Memory
of Scott Amedure and other victims of anti-gay violence on Tuesday, April 4,
the date of Schmitz's arraignment.  The vigil and speakout against homophobia
will be held at the Oakland County Courthouse, 1200 Telegraph in Pontiac, at
7 p.m.  Another Michigan gay man, Gary Rocus of Dearborn Heights, was
murdered in November in a separate anti-gay assault.
 Speakers include Frank Amedure, Scott Amedure's brother, in the first public
comments by a family member since the day after the murder.  Also invited are
Sen. Carl Levin (D), Rep. Sander Levin (D), State Rep. David Gubow, and
representatives from the Anti-Defamation League, the National Organization
for Women, Parents of Murdered Children, the Women's Survival Center, the
University of Michigan Sexual Assault Prevention Office, Affirmations, and
the Triangle Foundation.
 Local contact:  Jan Stevenson, Executive Director of Affirmations (the
Lesbian/Gay Community Center) and board member of NGLTF, (810) 398-7105 ext.
14; Jeff Montgomery, Triangle Foundation (anti-violence project), (313)
537-3323.
 NGLTF contact: Robin Kane, NGLTF Media Director, (202) 332-6483, ext. 3311;
800-757-7736 pager; [email-masked].
---------------
Anchorage, AK 
Community Mobilization Against the Right
March 31 - April 2

 Issue:  The state legislature is considering two bills that would ban
domestic partnership policies and same-sex marriages in Alaska. Meanwhile,
students at the University of Alaska are attempting to add sexual orientation
to the school's non-discrimination policy.  In this atmosphere, NGLTF field
staffers Scot Nakagawa and Curt Shepard were invited to lead a
Community-Building Conference to create strategies to defeat the two
statewide anti-gay measures, pass the campus non-discrimination policy and
build a stronger gay/lesbian/bisexual community in Alaska.  The NGLTF
conference  itself has been the target of full-page anti-gay newspaper
advertisements.
 Local contact: Alison Mendals, Alaskans for Civil Rights, 907-279-5001;
Laura Burelson, EQUAL, 907-474-6036.
 NGLTF contact: Curt Shepard, 213-466-1797, [email-masked]; Scot Nakagawa,
503-282-1811, [email-masked]; Robin Kane, 202-332-6483, ext. 3311,
[email-masked].
 --end--