Subject: Perot Vows Not to Tolerate Bias Against Gays -- L.A. Times
From: [email-masked] (Bryan J. Blumberg)
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1992 10:17:08 -0800

PEROT VOWS NOT TO TOLERATE BIAS AGAINST GAYS

By John M. Broder and jack Cheevers,
Times Staff Writers

Los Angeles Times, Thursday, July 9, 1992, Part One, Page One

DALLAS--Undeclared presidential candidate Ross Perot, under pressure 
from gay and lesbian activists to clarify his apparently anti-gay 
statements, declared Wednesday that if he is elected, he will not 
tolerate discrimination based on sexual orientation anywhere in the 
government.

     But his effort fell short with some activists, who complained that 
he did not specifically address a key issue:  the military's ban on 
homosexuals.

     The Texas billionaire clearly was trying to back away from comments 
he made to ABC's Barbara Walters last May that he probably would not 
appoint gays to top-level Cabinet positions--such as secretary of the 
defense, treasury or education--and that it was not "realistic" to have 
gays in the armed forces.  Later, as a clarification, he said he was 
concerned that the confirmation process would devastate a gay nominee.  
Perot has been heckled by gay activists at virtually all of his public 
appearances in the last month.

     In a four-paragraph statement issued in Dallas, Perot said:  "I 
have always prohibited discrimination in my business, and I have no 
intention of changing that policy.  If elected President, my policy for 
the nation will be that each person should be judged on merit and any 
discrimination based on gender, race, religion or sexual orientation 
will not be tolerated.  What people do in their private lives is their 
own business."

     The statement also called for accelerated research on AIDS and 
vigorous prosecution of those who engage in hate crimes.  The document 
also states:  "No one should have to lie about who they are.  No one 
should have to live their life in secrecy."

     Perot's new position puts him much closer to Democrat Bill Clinton 
than to President Bush.  Clinton has explicitly rejected anti-gay 
discrimination, including in the military, while Bush has walked a 
tightrope on the issue to try to keep anti-gay conservatives and 
religious fundamentalists within the GOP coalition.

     Perot's proclamation grew from a series of meetings Perot and 
senior aids have had with gay activists over the last month, including 
one in Irvine June 18.  The most recent session, held Monday at Perot's 
business headquarters in Dallas, included highly charged testimony from 
victims of anti-gay discrimination and violence.

     Mike Grossman, co-chairman of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, a 
national gay rights lobby, said the group that met with Perot on Monday 
was particularly interested in Perot's views on gays in the military.  
One of the participants, Dusty Pruitt, was dismissed from the Army 
Reserves just before she was to have been promoted to major after her 
superiors learned she is a lesbian.

     Grossman, who also attended the session, said he was disappointed 
that Perot did not directly address the military ban.  "It would have 
been very easy for him to add the words 'including the military' at the 
end of the statement.  We need to have those words said.  And we're 
going to keep after him until he does say them."

     "That's first and foremost on our minds," said David M. Smith, 
spokesman for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Service 
Center."...My guess is that gays and lesbians are still not going to 
support him until there's a definite statement on this subject."

     But Gloria Allred, a Los Angeles civil rights lawyer who was at the 
meeting, was satisfied.  She said the statement clearly encompasses the 
military.

     "While there are many other ways he could have stated it, I think 
this statement does provide a policy position which is clearly 
protective of gay and lesbian rights in many areas, including, but not 
limited to, the military and the Cabinet," she said.

     Allred, who had submitted a proposed statement to Perot, said that 
she had suggested the wording "my policy for the NATION."  Perot used 
that phrase in his statement.  Allred said she was told Wednesday that 
this was meant to include the military and the Cabinet.  Allred stressed 
that she is not a Perot supporter.

     Morton H. Meyerson, a longtime Perot associate and confidant, said 
that the statement was designed to include the military and every other 
public and private institution.  Meyerson organized the meetings with 
gay leaders and has led the Perot team's policy-making on civil rights 
issues.

     Meyerson said the statement was deliberately crafted as a broad 
statement of principles.  He said Perot was reluctant to interject 
himself into the issue of military anti-gay policies because of pending 
court cases on the matter.

     "Ross is against discrimination any place, any time," Meyerson 
said.  He said that Perot was not retreating from any commitments made 
at Monday's meeting, but that he wanted to make the declaration 
sufficiently broad to include all discrimination in all settings.

     "I'm not trying to dance on the head of a pin," he said.  "Is he 
going to select a gay or lesbian to serve in the Cabinet?  The answer 
is, who knows?  Is he going to tolerate discrimination anywhere?  The 
answer is no.  That goes for the military and everywhere else."

     Grossman applauded Meyerson's clarification but said he still 
wasn't satisfied.  "It's wonderful to have Mort saying it.  It's a 
milestone.  But I'm still going to try to get him [Perot] to include the 
military.

     And Mary Newcombe, a Los Angeles gay-rights attorney who represents 
Pruitt, said Perot could have said whether he supports pending 
legislation to reverse the military's anti-gay policy.  She also said he 
failed to say if he supports legislation to ban job discrimination 
against gays.

     "Until he makes that kind of effort," she said, "what he's still 
saying is that gays and lesbians are second-class citizens."

     Broder reported from Dallas and Cheevers from Los Angeles.  Times 
staff writer Mathis Chaznov contributed to this story.

========================================
Bryan  J. Blumberg, The MacNeal-Schwendler Corporation
815 Colorado Boulevard, Los Angeles, California  90041-1777
(213) 259-4914, [email-masked]