Date:         Thu, 30 Jun 1994 10:06:49 EDT
Subject:      Religious Right's Secret War

[ Originally posted in the GEnie Gay area. DO NOT send replies to
PMDAtropos@aol.com ]

BAY WINDOWS reports in its June 23rd issue that:

 "Representatives of 35 religious right-wing organizations from
all over the country met secretly in Colorado last month to map
out a strategy of the 1990s: the defeat of gay and lesbian rights
in all its forms.

 'The gay agenda has all the elements of that which is truly
evil,' John Eldredge, spokesperson for Focus on the Family, told
the gathering. 'It is deceptive at every turn. It is destroying
the souls and lives of those who embrace it.'

  Eldredge's statement reflects a shift in priorities for many
leaders of the religious right from activism on a broad agenda to
making the elimination of gay rights their paramount objective.

  'It's extremely important for gay people anywhere to know whats
happening,'said Skipp Porteous, preident of the Institute for
First Amendment Studies. 'they've really orchestrated an attempt
to see that gays don't have rights.'

  The Institute, an organiztion that tracks the religious right,
secretly obtained tape recordings of the May 16-18 meeting held
in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  The tapes show the 39
participants planning an assault on gay rights and willing to
employ aggressive tactics - such as an enemies list of
politicians and journalists - to achieve their ends...

  ...They plan to create a national computer database of gay and
pro-gay officeholders, to maintain a list of gay activists, to
monitor corporations that advertise in gay magazines and fund gay
causes, to track people in th emedia who are for or against gay
rights, to push the idea that organized crime funds th gay rights
movement and to 'educate the general public about the total
homosexual lifestyle - addiction, violence, economic impact...'

  ...members adopted a policy agenda that includes efforts to
keep laws on the books that criminalize sodomy, repeal all gay
rights laws, establish reporting requirements for HIV infection,
pass the Hancock Amendment banning federal funds for public
schools which support gay students, pass a national statute
'guaranteeing free speech and association on college campuses,'
stiffen penalties against 'unfounded threats and hate crimes
charges against pro- life/pro-family groups,' reintroduce the
sodomy laws in the District of Columbia, and support preference
for heterosexuals in child custody cases...

  ...members plan to campaign and educate the grass roots that
'homosexuality, pornography and organized crime lobbying is one
in the same.' The connection the religious right make between the
three, according to Porteous, is that all pornography is
controlled by organized crime, which takes the profits form that
endeavor and funnels it into gay organizations...

  To bolster their message, they are going to track scientific
literature and seek to influence research towards a finding that
homosexuality is not genetic....They also plan to buy ads in the
media bolstering heterosexuality...They also developed a
well-organized plan to pressure the media to cover the issues fhe
way they want.  For example...'Synchronize all pro-family public
policy and action groups to fax their own press releases to media
outlets on the same topic and on the same day (to force them to
cover our perspective.'...

  ...the religious right groups plan to formulate the best case
to take to the U.S. Supreme Court in their fight to deny civil
rights for all gay men and lesbians. Judges that rule differntly
from the religious right's agenda are targeted. 'Identify and
recall judges...'

  On the grass roots level, they will continue to write voter
guides, do precinct-by-precinct organizing and attempt to
influence voters, candidates and schoolboards."