From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 09 Jul 94 17:34:31 EDT

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TO:	Rev. Dr. Mel White Solidarity Vigil Organizers

FROM:   Ground Zero
        Contact: Frank Whitworth
        719-635-6086 voice
        719-635-6106 fax
        [email-masked]

RE:     Media Action Kit

DATE:   July 9, 1994

HELLO --

First of all, thank you for showing your support for this
activity.  You can do it!  It is actually pretty easy.
Don't worry, all it takes is three or four people to
have a press conference and a related activity.  If you follow
the suggestions here ... your contribution will be a success!

This PEACEFUL event is basically growing out of concern of the
attacks of the Religious Right against gay and lesbian people
across America.

This is truly a grass roots effort for raising public
consciousness.  There is no great "agenda."  No one is asking
for money, just a little time.

Encouragement is coming in from individual members of HRCF,
GLADD, NGLTF, UFMCC, entertainers and just about everyone
that hears about it.

INSIDE:    Following or Attached:

           Pre-Event Instructions          Page 2
           Your Event Suggestions          Page 3
           Text of Song                    Page 4
           Sample Press Advisory           Page 5
           Sample Press Backgrounder       Pages 6-7

NOTE:      Thee sample event speech will be available Sunday.

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PRE-EVENT INSTRUCTIONS

The following assumes that you have identified a vigil
coordinator, a speaker (yourself, MCC minister, lesbian/gay
rights member, or supporting human rights worker), and have
chosen a location.

Hopefully your location will be near a Radical Right office
(Focus on the Family, Christian Coalition, anti-gay church).
Next, invite human rights, gay rights and other groups to
activate their phone trees to encourage people to attend.

Suggested date & time:    Saturday, July 16, time corresponding
                          with 12 noon Mountain Time
                          (2 p.m. East, 1 p.m. Central, 11 a.m. West)

You do not need to get any local permits as long as you hold
your event on the public sidewalk and do not block traffic.

Here's what you need to do:

1.    Get the fax numbers of local news rooms of CBS, NBC, ABC,
      affiliates, and local newspapers, etc.

2.    On either Tuesday, July 12 or, at the latest, Wednesday,
      July 13, send out the attached PRESS ADVISORY and PRESS
      BACKGROUNDER.

3.    On Friday, July 15, do a follow-up by sending out the exact
      same press advisory

4.    Optional.  Saturday:  Send out the press release that will
      be available from Ground Zero by Friday night.

Gather Your Local Information

Customize the to suit your information needs.  Feel free to
alter the Press Ddvisory any way you want.  We suggest you use
the backgrounder text as is.

BEGIN PAGE 3 of 7

YOUR LOCAL SOLIDARITY VIGIL

==>>  Please notify Ground Zero if you are planning an event.

We are working on a sample speech which will be ready on Sunday,
July 10 via fax or internet.

What You Will Need

FLOWERS
Notify attendees to bring flowers.  Mel White will present
Focus on the Family with flowers as a peace offering.  It will
be a gift of love from a peaceful people who say, "please,
stop the hurting."  Encourage lots of flowers.

AUDIO EQUIP:
A good boombox might do or a Mr. Microphone.  Ask around
or buy a copy of Romanovsky & Phillips record "Be Political,
not Polite" and play the song, "Love Is All It Takes to Make
a Family."  R&P have authorized use of their song for this.
If you can't find it, use some other family or love song.

VIGIL AGENDA
Short Meeting, 1/2 Hour Long

MINUTE    ACTIVITY

0-5            Speech

6-7            Moment of Silence for Solidarity & Peace

7-13           Presentation of flowers (leave on door step or
               in sidewalk)

13-20          Pass out copies of lyrics to "Love is All It Takes
               to Make a Family" and have everyone sing.

20-30          Opportunity to answer local reporters
               questions -- select someone to read up on the
               background items and mention your local
               issues.

BEGIN PAGE 4 of 7

For this event, Ron Romanovsky and Paul Phillips have authorized
the playing of and distribution of the lyrics of their song,
"Love Is All It Takes To Make A Family" from their album
"Be Political, Not Polite."  If fact Ron and Paul said they love
Mel White and encourage you to participate in this event.
Photocopy the lyrics and pass them out.

Love Is All It Takes To Make A Family
(c) 1991 Romanovsky & Phillips

Good night my daughter
Sleep tight, my son
The world is full of injustices
Of which you know none.
I wish that I could shelter you
So you'd never have to see
The ways in which some folks have made
An outlaw out of me.

Good night, my precious
Sweet dreams, my little one
While the lawyers and the courts decide
What is to be done.
I wish that you could tell them all
When they dare to question me
That we're every bit the model
Of a perfect family.

It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour
The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family.

Good night my child
So innocent, so young
When they start teaching you to hate me
I pray you won't succumb
To prejudice and bigotry
To ignorance and shame
Because I'm proud of who I am
And hope you'll feel the same.

It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour
The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family.

NOTE:  To purchase the album, contact your local dealer or phone Fresh
Fruit Records,
505-986-5853 or write 369 Montezuma #209, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 87501.

BEGIN PAGE 5 of 7

Press Advisory

Date:                   Tuesday, July 12, 1994
Local Contact:          Your name, phone, fax and e-mail
Additional Contact:     Frank Whitworth, Ground Zero
                        719-635-6096 voice or 719-635-6106 fax

TO:                     Assignment Editor

WHAT:                   Press Conference Announced:
                        America's Gay/lesbian people call upon the
                        Religious Right to Stop their Attacks

WHEN:                   Saturday, July 16, 12 noon

WHERE:                  In front of ____________ offices
                        Address, Street, City

This press advisory is sent to help you plan your weekend
calendar.

Please schedule a reporter and staff to cover a local press
conference in commemoration of the seven-day fast of the
Reverend Dr. Mel White at the Focus on the Family headquarters
in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Our local community is joining Dr. White in a PEACEFUL call for
the Religious Right to stop their persecution and attacks on
gay and lesbian Americans.

Dr. White is an openly gay minister.  Before he was cast out of
the Religious Right inner circle for being gay, Dr. White was a
ghostwriter for Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Billy Graham.

National media feeds will likely be available.

---END---

BEGIN PAGE 6 of 7

Press Backgrounder

Date:                      Tuesday, July 12, 1994
Local Contact:             Your name, phone, fax and e-mail
Additional Contact:	   Frank Whitworth, Ground Zero
                           719-635-6096 voice or 719-635-6106 fax

TO:                        Assignment Editor

Local Communities Unite in Support of Gay Minister's
Seven-day Fast At Religious Right Headquarters

Enough is Enough!

On Monday, July 11, the Reverend Dr. Mel White, an openly gay
minister from Dallas, Texas, will begin a seven-day "fast for
understanding" in front of the world headquarters of FOCUS ON
THE FAMILY, a Colorado Springs-based religious group. With this
fast, Dr. White calls for an end of the attacks against
gay and lesbian Americans by the Religious Right.

In related events around the country, local lesbian and gay
rights supports are showing their solidarity with Dr. White's
peaceful vigil.

Focus on the Family was chosen as the fast site because in May
they co-hosted a Religious Right strategy meeting to formalize
plans for national attacks on gay and lesbian rights.  The secret
meetings were documented in a May 19 article in "The Washington
Times.  Further research has shown that the elimination of gay
rights -- by any means -- topped the list of activities.

According to Dr. White, Focus on the Family leader, James Dobson,
has become the primary spokesman of the Religious Right.  Focus
employs over 1,200 workers, has an annual budget of $150,000,000,
and owns a vast media empire with daily and weekly radio broadcasts,
along with 2,000,000 volunteers in all 50 states.

--MORE--

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"Like his powerful allies -- Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, James
Kennedy, Lou Sheldon and the others -- Dobson has discovered that
attacking gay and lesbian Americans as the new 'evil empire' is
an effective way to raise money and mobilize volunteers to achieve
their larger political goals," says White.

WHITE KNOWS: HE WAS IN THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT

An author as well as a minister, Dr. White wrote books for Pat
Robertson, Jerry Falwell and other Christian leaders.  He was
an inside witness to the development of anti-homosexual strategies
within the Religious Right.  White was cast out of the circle when
he disclosed his homosexuality.  He is now Dean of the Cathedral of
Hope, in Dallas, which has the world's largest gay and
lesbian congregation.

White is calling upon the Religious Right to stop.  "Enough is
enough," he says. "James Dobson may speak of love and
reconciliation but the endless flow of misinformation about
homosexuality that flows from Focus on the Family and its
allies pollutes the national environment and leads directly to
ruined lives, broken families, intolerance, suffering and death."

White continues, "In the hysteria that follows this barrage of
anti-homosexual misinformation, well-meaning Americans volunteer
time and money to eliminate the imaginary 'gay threat.' Already,
there is anti-homosexual legislation pending or planned in 35
different states.  This legislation on city, county and state
levels dehumanizes, demeans, and effectively disenfranchises gay
and lesbian Americans."

"I am hoping," add Dr. White, "that this fast will help alert my
fellow Americans to the lies being told about our gay brothers and
sisters and to the tragic consequences of those lies in the lives
of people they love.  Even more, I hope more people will begin to
realize that James Dobson and his allies on the Radical Rights are
a threat not just to lesbians and gays, but to all Americans
who cherish freedom and justice for all."

--END--

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