Subject: PRO-LIFE GAYS MARCH DESPITE ATTEMPTED EXCLUSION
From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 18:02:25 -0500

Media Release From:

THE PRO-LIFE ALLIANCE OF GAYS AND LESBIANS

Post Office Box 33292
Washington, DC 20033
Tel: (202) 223-6697
Fax: (202) 265-9737
Internet:  Plagal [email-masked]

For Further Information:
Philip Arcidi (508) 369-0700

	GAY PRO-LIFERS  MEET AND MARCH 
DESPITE ATTEMPTED EXCLUSION

Washington, DC.  January 22, 1996.   Twenty three members of the Pro-Life
Alliance of Gays and Lesbians from throughout the nation today marched from
the Ellipse to Capitol Hill in the Twenty Second Annual March for Life.  They
joined several tens of  thousands of other pro-life citizens in calling for a
prohibition of  abortion on demand in the United States.   They marched
 carrying a large banner emblazoned with their name, their motto, "Human
Rights Start When Human Life Begins" and their symbol, a pink triangle
 enclosing an unborn child, despite the demand from Miss Nellie Gray, who
directs the March for Life, that lesbians and gays abandon their identity and
their banner.   (Miss Gray's jusdtifications for this attempted exclusion
were shared by her with The Washington Post and The Washington Blade, copies
of whose articles are avaialble from PLAGAL by mail, fax, or e-mail.)  They
were greeted as they have been for the six years they have marched -- with
remarks of consternation, appreciation, and friendliness -- but no evident
hostility.  As has been its custom, PLAGAL's members stopped at the crest of
Capitol Hill in front of the Russell Senate Office Building and distributed
two flyers, An Open Letter to the Pro-Life Movement and Save the Whales! Save
the Rainforest! Kill the Babies?  to the other participants in the March for
Life. 

Following the March, the PLAGAL delegation kept their appointment with Henry
Hyde (R- Ill.), the pro-life leader who is now Chairman of the Judiciary
Committee of the United States House of Representatives.  They offered
Chairman Hyde their " heartfelt gratitude for his unwavering support of the
rights of  unborn children."   Additionally, they urged him to support a ban
on abortions based on both gender and sexual orientation in the future.
  PLAGAL members then expressed their thanks and presented their hopes for a
ban on sex and sex-orientation abortions to Congressmen Chris Smith (R-N.J.),
the Chairman of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, to Congressman Bart Stupak
(D-Mich.), the leading pro-life Democrat, and to pro-life Congresswoman Helen
Chenoweth (R-Id.).

The previous evening, January 21, 1996, Mary Haines, a Vice President of
NOEL, the National Organization of Episcopalians for Life, the wife of the
Episcopal Bishop of Washington, D.C., and the mother of a gay HIV+ son,
addressed an audience of 35 hosted by PLAGAL at the Hyatt Hotel on Capitol
Hill.   Mrs. Haines carries the pro-life flag in a church were the defense of
the unborn is "episcopally incorrect."  

Mrs. Haines testified to the "great diversity" of the Pro-Life movement.  She
urged pro-lifers of every variety to let their talents be known.  The
Pro-Life movement, Mrs. Haines observed, needs the God-given gifts of
everyone, gifts that are to be used, not overlooked.  She described her
wellspring of energy in her pro-life efforts:  "a deep Christian belief that
human life is a gift to be welcomed, no matter how difficult the
circumstances of its arrival."  She urged both pro-choicers and pro-lifers
 -- both of which were represented in the audience -- to do more to care for
unanticipated children if their support of women in need is to appear
authentic.

Missing from the March this year was Ms. Betty Ann Keener.  Ms. Keener, a
National Vice- President of PLAGAL, was in New York City participating in a
news conference announcing a "Contract With The American Woman," a proposal
to alter the malpractice insurance laws of the fifty states "to insure that
women who have abortions are protected against the criminal acts, anti-social
behavior, and inferior medical practices of abortion providers."
__________

The Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians was organized in 1990 to advance
the Pro-Life Message within the lesbian and gay community.  Currently, it has
active groups in Boston, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and
Washington, DC, and has a mailing list of about 530.  It has participated for
the last six years in the March for Life.