Subject: IWG Cincinnati discrimination letter
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 9 Aug 1998 23:27:00 -0400 (EDT)

August 9, 1998

Cincinnati Enquirer
312 Elm Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202

Dear Editors:

We are writing to point out some problems with Tim
Davish's July 26 letter.  The national ad campaign to
which Mr. Davish refers has done much more than offer
an alternative to sexual minorities.  The ads promote
political organizations that work against equal rights
for gay people, strongly imply that we need a single
national religion (rather than our religiously
pluralistic society), attack the notion that criticism
is a protected form of free speech, allege that gay
rights activists have only negative goals and
motivations, and stereotype gays and lesbians as
promiscuous substance-abusers.  

Not everyone who is alarmed by those ads or the
medically-confused remarks from Senator Lott are
themselves gay.  Some of us object on purely religious
grounds.  And while we are glad that Mr. Davish objects
to mistreatment of people on the basis of skin color
and religion, and recognizes the connection with
mistreatment on the basis of sexual orientation, we are
surprised that he does not realize that such
mistreatment is frequently motivated by religious
belief, and that to the person being mistreated, the
question of whether the motivation is fear, faith, or
some combination of the two is largely irrelevant,
since the effect is the same.

Sincerely,
Barbara Purdom     Christopher Purdom
Interfaith Working Group Coordinators

The above letter went out on IWG letterhead listing 16 congregations and
organizations and 59 clergy from 16 religious traditions. If you are in 
the general Philadelphia area and represent a congregation or religious 
organization or are clergy, let us know if you want to be added - all faiths 
are welcome. We will also be happy to help start similar organizations in 
other areas.

-- 

Interfaith Working Group                Religious organizations, congregations
[email-masked]                      and clergy supporting gay rights,
http://www.libertynet.org/iwg/          reproductive freedom, and the 
215-235-3050                            separation of church and state.