Replied: Tue, 26 May 92 20:44:19 -0400
Replied: "mills" <mills@aztec.al.bldrdoc.gov>
Message-Id: <9205270035.AA28135@sub.its.rpi.edu>
Date: 26 May 92 18:34:55 U
From: "mills" <mills@aztec.al.bldrdoc.gov>
Subject: Anti-CFV Editorial
Return-Receipt-To: "mills" <mills@aztec.al.bldrdoc.gov>
To: gaynet%athena.mit.edu@spot.colorado.edu, buckmr@rpi.edu

Here is an editorial I wrote.  I don't generally log into the net, so sent
comments to my e-mail address (mills@spot.colorado.edu).
  -mike

Editorial by Michael J. Mills

Kevin Tebedo, director of the Colorado Springs-based hate group "Colorado for
Family Values,"  obviously grew up in a family with some shocking values.  When
asked by the Capital Reporter (March 9, 1992), the newspaper of the Colorado
State Legislature, if employers should have the right to fire based on race,
religion or sex, Tebedo said they should.  This is not at all surprising to
those of us who have listened for too long now to Tebedo's hateful diatribe
against people who happen to love others of their own gender.
	Last year the administration of Cracker Barrel Restaurants, a chain that
operates throughout the eastern half of the country, established a policy of
not employing anyone who failed to abide "normal heterosexual values."  Cracker
Barrel managers in many states fired their gay, bisexual, and lesbian cooks,
waiters, and other employees.  Most Americans would be surprised to learn that
firing employees based solely on their sexual orientation is perfectly legal in
most of the country.  But having most of the country is not enough for Colorado
for "Family" Values.
In 1987 the citizens of Boulder voted directly by referendum to bar
discrimination based on sexual orientation in this city.  In 1990, a group
called the Equal Protection Ordinance Coalition (EPOC) succeeded in getting the
Denver City Council to pass an omnibus ordinance preventing discrimination on
the basis of race, sex, religion, sexual orientation, and a number of other
factors not related to job performance.  The right wing quickly mobilized to
remove "sexual orientation" from the list.  Last spring the voters of Denver
decided by a wide majority to reject their repeal measure which would have
legalized discrimination.
Clearly the citizens of Denver and Boulder want their anti-discrimination
ordinances.  Yet now the right wing is bothering us again, with Amendment 2,
which would make Colorado the first state to sanction discrimination in the
state constitution.  Once again EPOC, the Equal Protection Campaign, is forced
to wage a campaign just to keep from sliding backwards.  Contrary to what CFV
would have you believe, there are no laws in Colorado which give gays,
lesbians, or bisexuals "minority status," or "special rights."  The laws they
oppose only prevent people from being fired or evicted based on their sexual
orientation.
Can't the reactionaries leave us alone to make our own laws instead of
pestering us with their personal bigotry?  After all, it's still legal for them
to fire and evict people on the basis of sexual orientation down in Colorado
Springs.  Amendment 2 would destroy the local control known as "home rule" that
Colorado cities currently treasure by wiping out laws that people want and
telling others that they can't make certain laws in the future should they ever
decide they want to.
Does Kevin Tebedo feel he has to persecute people, and change laws that don't
even apply to him, in order to prove his own heterosexuality?  A Ft. Lauderdale
priest who railed as loudly as Tebedo against sexual orientation
non-discrimination ordinances was himself caught soliciting sex from an
undercover policeman in a public park.  Tebedo's crusade puts him so far to the
right that he has to say that the former editor of Soldier of Fortune magazine
"holds the same politically correct, pro-gay-extremist, heterophobic world view
as the gay militants with whom he so eloquently sympathizes."  I doubt if
anyone fell for that characterization of Paul Danish.
Kevin Tebedo and his neo-fascist followers have framed the issue as one of
homosexuals gaining "special perks," as he calls such basic rights as
employment and housing.  He feels that heterosexuals are oppressed by laws that
prevent firing and evicting based on a person's sexual orientation.  Anyone
with an I.Q. over 70 can see that the very laws he is trying to defeat prevent
gays and lesbians from discriminating against heterosexuals.  His preposterous
statement that homosexuals are "using the government to rob the poor"
heterosexuals, is itself a good argument for barring discrimination against
heterosexuals based on sexual orientation!
Tebedo knows that heterosexuals are protected just the same as homosexuals and
bisexuals under the ordinances in Denver, Boulder, and Aspen.  He is just
grasping at any arguments he can find to make discrimination legal everywhere,
and to spread hatred against minorities.  When the Denver Post  (April 11,
1992) presented Tebedo with the evidence that once Amendment 2 is passed gays,
lesbians, and bisexuals will have no guarantees of the rights heterosexuals
take for granted, Tebedo fell back to his final retort, "Homosexuality is not a
constitutional right."  In other words, conform to Kevin Tebedo's idea of
societal norms, or face the inquisition of his choosing.  Why is CFV given so
much more respect by the press than the KKK and other hate groups?  Why are
people like CU President Judith Albino afraid to voice their opposition and
condemn CFV?
All of the arguments CFV uses have been heard before.  Amidst the Great
Depression, the Nazi's argued that rich, money-grubbing Jews were the source of
all of the problems.  CFV exploits economic envy in our current recession by
deceitfully portraying gays and lesbians as rich beyond the dreams of most
folks.  CFV matches Ku Klux Klan rhetoric by fabricating lies in its brochure
in order to portray all gays and lesbians as child molesters.  The Nazis argued
that homosexuality and abortion endangered the "preservation of the Volk," and
sent gay men to concentration camps, where half a million were murdered.  This
is the end product of dispensing with people who "do not reproduce,"  to quote
Coach McCartney.  Kevin Tebedo should remember the Nazis, the KKK, and the
Spanish Inquisition when he claims that CFV is "the first group to get back in
the homosexuals' faces." (Denver Post  April 11, 1992)
McCartney was accurate in quoting Leviticus, which does say that men who sleep
with men are "an abomination," but he failed to mention that Leviticus goes on
to say that they shall be put to death!  Inspired by CFV, Reverend Peter J.
Peters of Ft. Collins has produced a pamphlet which picks up on this omission
and once again uses Biblical scriptures to call for the murder of homosexuals. 
I wonder if McCartney chooses to abide by other Old Testament laws.  Does he
make sure his players never use footballs made of real pig's skin, which would
be "unclean?"
I recently read that the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau was first opened in
1933.  I was stunned that the camp was opened just months after Hitler assumed
power, and a full eight years before the war started for the United States. 
Where was everybody?  They were killing Jews, Catholics, and gays for eight
years and nobody did a thing.  Nobody cared.   Knowing this could happen again,
I get a sense of dread when I read articles that treat CFV as anything other
than the hate group it really is.
It would be a different matter entirely if gay and lesbian activists and EPOC
were trying to legalize the firing and evicting of Christian fundamentalists
like Tebedo, on the basis of who they are.  But they are not.  They do not make
outrageous claims that ordinances that prohibit discrimination based on
religion give Christians "special rights."  Gays, lesbians, and bisexuals
merely want to be afforded the right to live, free from fear, able to tell
their bosses and landlords who they really are.  In this issue the two sides
cannot be treated equally.  For while CFV is working to endanger the lives of
gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, EPOC is working to establish equal rights for
all sexual orientations and religions.
Some supporters of gay and lesbian rights see no need for a strong reaction
against CFV.  They think this ridiculous referendum has no chance of passing. 
Unfortunately, it has an excellent chance of passing.  CFV turned in nearly
twice the number of signatures they needed to get on the ballot.  Even Hitler
gained power by a popular vote.  Citizens of Colorado who respect basic the
human right to live one's personal life free from interference should be very
scared right now.  I urge all such citizens to register to vote now and to vote
NO in November on Amendment 2!

Michael Mills is a graduate student in Atmospheric Science at the University of
Colorado, and is working with the Equal Protection Campaign against Amendment
2.