OUT FRONT Colorado's Gay Community Forum 3/24/93 | BOYCOTT COLORADO OPERATING TOLL-FREE LINE | Boycott Colorado, Inc. is operating a toll-free 800 number for those wishing to obtain information on the boycott or to volunteer to help with the boycott effort. The number is 1-800-4-BOY-COTT. | GAYS MISTREATED AT DENVER COUNTY JAIL | My name is Robert Letsinger and I am an inmate at the Denver County Jail. I am also a homosexual. I am in the Jail on a trespass charge along with a D.U.I. for which I will be serving about six months. Since I have been in this facility, homosexuals have been treated badly. We are constantly picked on and put down by the inmates and guards. We are propositioned, harassed, threatened and ordered by other inmates to comply with their demands whether it be sexual or physical labor (such as doing their laundry, or spending all of our money on them) in order to avoid being beat up. This facility houses almost all of the homosexuals in jail on C Tier in Building 6. This tier is where you will find the drag queens, cross dressers, transsexuals, and effeminate homosexuals who request protective custody, so that they will not be harmed by the general population of the jail. But, even here we are not protected. They also house homophobic, heterosexual men on this tier with us, who are constantly physically and mentally abusive to the gay men on this tier. We are kept in 7' by 10' cells and we are locked down 23 hours a day every day. It would not be so bad if they did not put men that hate homosexuals so much on this tier, but they do. We are forced to wear gray uniforms that say to all the other inmates, "Hey, I'm gay" or "Hey, I'm a snitch." Just the color of our jail uniform causes us verbal abuse. There are about ten or twelve effeminate homosexuals on this tier. Whereas, there are 14 heterosexual males. So as you can see, not only are we the minority of the jail, but also the minority of the tier where only homosexuals are supposed to be housed for their protection. Is it too much to ask that we be kept separate from the heterosexual inmates? The women in this facility are kept separate and only see the other inmates during transportation to court or to the hospital. And, even during transportation, they are completely separated. When we are transported to court we are put with the people with mental disabilities, (which cause them to be medicated 24 hours a day), and the people who are violent and separated from the general population of the jail to be punished. Now to me, and I'm not only speaking for myself but also for the other gays in here, that does not sound like we are getting the protective custody we requested. They say that the duty of our sheriffs, deputies, and police are here to serve and protect the citizens of this state. Well, we may have committed a crime, but that crime, whatever it may have been, does not exclude us from our citizenship of this state or country. Yes, we made a mistake and for that we are being punished. But we are also being punished and put through hell for being gay. It has only become worse since Amendment 2 passed in Nov. Now the inmates see it like they can harm us and get away with it. I would try to do something about this inhumane unjust punishment, but being in this jail there is nothing I or anybody else can do. The only hope we have (meaning the homosexuals in Denver County Jail) is you, the gay and lesbian community of the city and county of Denver and in the state of Colorado. All of the gay men and lesbian women in this facility on Smith Road are counting on you. On behalf of all the gay men and lesbian women in this jail, I thank all the gay and lesbian men and women of Denver for your support. Robert Letsinger Inmate Denver County Jail | GOVE SCHOOL PREPARING QUILT PANELS | Gove Community School instructor Kate Doyle has been helping a group of people who didn't know how to get started to make quilt panels for the Names Project Quilt. Each three-foot by six-foot panel celebrates the life of someone who has died of AIDS. The quilt-making process has helped those working on the quilts through their grieving. | COLORADO SUPREME COURT SETS DATES FOR HEARINGS ON AMENDMENT TWO | The Colorado Supreme Court has set the schedule for hearing the state's appeal of the preliminary injunction concerning Amendment Two. The State's opening brief is due on April 2. The Plaintiff's response brief is due on May 3. The State's reply brief is due on May 17 and oral arguments will be heard on May 24. The Colorado Legal Initiatives Project is the organization financing and coordinating the legal challenge to Amendment Two. Under the direction of former Supreme Court Justice Jean Dubofsky, the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and other attorneys have established a strong lawsuit against Amendment Two. CLIP and their legal team is committed to fighting this amendment because it not only attacks civil rights for gay, lesbian, and bisexual citizens but also because it leads to the erosion of basic civil rights for all. | MAYOR WEBB NOT ATTENDING CONFERENCE OF MAYORS | Mayor Wellington Webb will not attend a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors this summer in New York City. In a letter addressed to Mayor William J. Althaus of York, Pennsylvania, who is the current chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Mayor Webb stated, "It is very difficult for me to accept an invitation from a city whose actions against Denver and Colorado and its other cities will directly benefit them." The Mayor also made reference to a letter that he had faxed to Mayor Althaus on Jan. 15 requesting that, given the organization's decision to pull their meeting our of Colorado Springs, the Conference's board of directors choose a city that had not decided to boycott Colorado. "I have been a strong and consistent opponent of Amendment 2; however, I have also opposed calls for a boycott of Colorado as unproductive and unfair," said Mayor Webb. The Mayor closed his letter to Mayor Althaus by saying, in part, "I feel that for the same reasons Colorado Springs was disqualified as a host city, almost every other city in the United States, when held to similar scrutiny, would be subject to the same fate."