Gazette Telegraph, Colorado Springs
March 12, 1993, pg 1B

Colorado, Oregon ballot issues blamed for 'open season'

By Louis Aguilar and Ray Flack

DENVER--Colorado experienced a dramatic increase in crimes against gays after 
the November passage of Amendment 2, according to a survey by a Denver gay 
rights group.

The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Colorado reported Thursday that 40 
percent of the 204 crimes targeting gays in Colorado last year happened in 
November and December, after the Nov. 3 approval of Amendment 2 by 53 percent 
of state voters.  The amendment bans laws that protect gays and bisexuals from 
discrimination based on their sexual orientation.

Hate crimes against gays also increased in record numbers in five urban areas, 
according to another survey by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, based 
in Washington, D.C.

Altogether, that group reported, 1,898 anti-gay incidents--harassment, assaults 
and even 12 homocides--were reported last year to gay community agencies in San 
Francisco, New York, Minneapolis, Chicago and Boston.

In Colorado, the bulk of the cases were harassment incidents, including 
telephone insults and vandalism, and almost two-thirds of the incidents 
occurred in Denver, according to the Gay and Lesbian Community Center.  Its 
survey was based on reports to police as well as those incidents reported only 
to the community center.

Martin Hiraga, author of the five-city survey, said he believed the results of 
that work and two other surveys in Oregon and Colorado were enough to say 
this state had the grestest increase in anti-gay crimes in 1992.

"Look at the Oregon numbers and (Colorado), both states where anti-gay measures 
are everyday news," he said.  "That's where the tensions are highest."

Hiraga was referring to Oregon's failed Measure 9, a severely worded statewide 
initiative that labeled homosexuality "perverse and abnormal."  A survey in 
Oregon tallied 968 anti-gay incidents--the highest number recorded in any of 
the surveys.  Now, the Oregon authors of Measure 9 are working on an Amendment 
2-style initiative.

It's just proof, more proof, that these types of laws make it open reason for 
gay-bashing," Hiraga said.

Denver police didn't dispute the figues compiled by the community center.  But 
officials said that since most of the incidents reported were minor in nature, 
they didn't merit any heightened concern by gays.

"We're not having a gigantic impact in Denver from this type of crime," said 
David Metzler, a spokesman for Denver Police Chief David Michaud. Metzler said 
the crimes agianst homosexuals are treated like any other crime.

In Colorado Springs, however, police and Amendment 2 critics are at odds over 
how widespread the harassment of gays is.  Colorado Springs police say two hate 
crimes occurred agianst gays last year and three this year.  But members of 
Ground Zero, a Springs-based gay rights group, contend that phone harassment, 
verbal confrontations and vandalism have occured to dozens of gays and 
Amendment 2 critics.

"There could be more going on out there, but they are not telling us, said 
Springs police spokesman Lt. Rich Resling.

That's a point Ground Zero spokeswoman Julie Cooper conceded.

"Unfortunately, a lot of it is still going unreported because many people are 
afraid to make their sexual orientation known," she said.  "A lot just don't go 
thorugh the hassle because they think it's an isolated incident."

Will Perkins, chairman of the group that authored Amendment 2, Colorado for 
Family Values, said he has been threatened at his place of business and that 
CFV offices routinely get threatening phone calls. Earlier this week, three 
Colorado Collge students were arrested in connection with the spray painting of 
anti-Amendment 2 graffiti on the headquarters of Focus on the Family, a 
conservative religious group.

As defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a hate crime is a criminal 
offense motivated by bias against someone's race, religion, ethnicity or sexual 
orientation.