From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 1996 13:00:33 -0400

Stonewall Democratic Club

Press Release

For Immediate Release							July 30, 1996
Contact: Eric Bauman 							(818) 780-4590			

STONEWALL ANNOUNCES "PLAN OF 100's" 
MASSIVE LESBIAN AND GAY VOTER EDUCATION, 
MOTIVATION AND MOBILIZATION PROGRAM
Program is designed to target over 100,000 lesbian and gay voters

Los Angeles, CA - Stonewall Democratic Club president Eric Bauman announced
on Sunday, July 28th, that Stonewall would be undertaking the most extensive
and intensive grassroots-based campaign to educate, motivate, and mobilize
lesbian and gay voters ever attempted by a local Democratic group in Southern
California. The program is designed to reach over 100,000 lesbian and gay
voters through advertisements, direct mail, slate cards, speaking
engagements, and a variety of other methods.

In his statement, Bauman said "Today marks 100 days until election day. Today
also marks the beginning of the most extensive and intensive grassroots-based
campaign to educate, motivate, and mobilize L.A.'s lesbian and gay voters
ever attempted.

We call our plan "the plan of 100's." It begins with community magazine
advertising designed to be seen by at least 100,000 lesbian and gay people.
We will circulate 100,000 campaign pieces designed to persuade and energize
our voters and clearly define the choices.  We will also distribute 100,000
Stonewall voter guides. Stonewall will participate in 100 community speaking
engagements, and develop 100 editorials, news stories, and letter
-to-the-editor. Finally, in the days leading up to the election, we will
staff 100 phone lines for GOTV, directed to 100 targeted precincts. The
expected cost of the program is expected to be $100,000."

Bauman further defined the program, "Our advertising campaign begins in
August with a series of ½ page ads in Frontiers magazine. We will run ads
focused on the accomplishments of the Clinton/Gore Administration, ads
focused on comparing and contrasting Democrats with Republicans on lesbian
and gay, AIDS and HIV issues, and ads advertising our voter recommendations.
It is our intention of expanding this campaign to at least three other
magazines beginning in mid-September."

"Our campaign pieces will be directed at lesbian and gay voters who voted in
‘92, but became discouraged and dropped out, and to recently registered
lesbian and gay voters. A special women's outreach piece will designed that
addresses both lesbian-specific issues and the President's general record on
women's issues. Stonewall Vice President Deanna Stevenson will be
coordinating the content development of the women's piece."

"The community speaking program has already begun. We have spoken to groups
like Catalyst in Pasadena, the San Fernando Valley Unitarian Church, the
Jewish Response group, and the newly formed L.A. Gay & Lesbian Young
Democrats. We will be speaking to groups like the L.A. City Gay and Lesbian
employees, and non-traditional groups in upcoming months."

Bauman described Stonewall's on-going earned media program, which began
several months ago with a series of gay media interviews with top Democratic
Party leaders and openly gay appointed and elected officials. Stonewall has
already arranged interviews with people like Assistant Secretary of Commerce
Bruce Lehman, DNC Chair Don Fowler, White House Gay Community Liaison Richard
Soccarides, Representative Barney Frank, White House liaison to the Interior
Department Bob Hattoy, and California Democratic Party Chair Art Torres.
Several more interviews, including a few surprises,  are planned during the
next 3 months. The opinion piece and letter campaign will begin after the
Democratic National Convention, and will be coordinated by Jeff Richmond.

To achieve the goal of 100,000 lesbian and gay voters, Stonewall has spent
months collecting lists, perusing voter files, and reviewing voter
demographic crosstabs.

When asked why Stonewall is undertaking such a massive effort, Bauman replied
"The answer is simple, we all know what's at stake, what the choice is: an
America that values, respects, and embraces our diversity, the America of
Bill Clinton and the Democratic party; or the Dole/Gingrich/Robertson America
of "Leave it to Beaver" times, where everyone who was anyone was a white,
upper-middle class man. An America where lesbians and gays were stuck in the
closet, and women and people of color were forced to clean the closet. A time
when gays were arrested for daring to express the love they felt, where women
kept house and didn't need a college education, where good Negroes sat
quietly in the back of the bus, and Latinos were parodied in cartoons and
picked grapes for $2 a day."

Bauman continued his response "Perhaps the starkest example of the choice
before us is the Supreme Court. With the votes of President Clinton's two
justices, the Supreme court ruled that lesbians and gays had the right to
equal protection under the law. The Reagan/Bush/Dole/Gingrich court would
have denied us this right, as was so clearly stated by Justice Scalia in his
rabid dissent. With over 40% of federal judgeships due to be appointed by the
next president, we can draw a clear line between a President whose
appointments will help us out of the closet, and a President who would shove
us back in, head first."

In concluding, Bauman said "The members of Stonewall Democratic Club will not
go back into that closet. We will not sit idly by and watch the election of a
president who can not even utter the words lesbian or gay; who thinks that
the California Civil Rights initiative and proposition 187 will fix all that
ails America; a president who thinks a group of grumpy old white men should
control every uterus in the nation; and who thinks that the rights of working
women and men should be determined by business owners, stock holders, and the
market place, no matter the effect on peoples lives. We will not accept a
president who says Medicare was a bad idea, and Medicaid is for loafers,
leeches, and losers."

"If Stonewall is successful with its "plan of 100's," we will help assure
President Clinton's re-election, and we will help send Rick Zbur to
Washington and Gerrie Schipske to Sacramento. We will also help the
Democratic party retake control of the California Assembly and the Congress.
And, perhaps most importantly,  we will help send Newt Gingrich, Curt
Pringle, and their band of conservative extremists back into the holes they
climbed out of!"

People interested in joining Stonewall Democratic Club,  volunteering in our
election program, donating money, or requesting a speaker for an event, can
call Stonewall at (818) 780-4590.

Stonewall Democratic Club is Southern California's oldest and largest lesbian
and gay Democratic club. Its members included every openly gay elected
official in Los Angeles. Nineteen Stonewall members will be attending the
Democratic National Convention next month in Chicago.

-end-

-tear sheet requested-