Subject: Oz coverage of Senatorial outings
From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 5 Sep 1996 09:15:37 -0400

[The following story is from the gay newspaper in Sydney, Australia, Capitol
Q Weekly. Re-posted with permission. --MP]

Category: international
Newsgroups: US.Doma.657*Senate.Outing.MCC
Date Filed: 4 September 1996
Time Filed: 1730
Status: c Copyright 1996 Peter O'Shea

Last ditch effort to defeat marriage bill

by Peter O'Shea

Three US Senators were outed and the world's largest gay and lesbian church
called for a hunger strike as the US Senate prepared yesterday to vote on
the Defence of Marriage Act, a bill to outlaw gay marriages.

Leading gay activists and the nation's gay political groups were working
overtime last night in a last-ditch effort to defeat the
Republican-sponsored legislation which has already passed the House of
Representatives.

It was due to be voted on by the Senate Thursday US Eastern Standard time,
before Capital Q went to press.

On Tuesday gay activists called a news conference on the steps of the US
Capitol Building to criticise Oregon Republican Mark Hatfield, Wisconsin
Democrat Herb Kohl and Maryland Democrat Barbara Mikulski for failing to
take a position against the bill.

"We want to send closeted Senators a clear message before voting on DOMA:
we expect you to speak out loudly against it and vote to kill it. Anything
less means a capitulation to anti-gay forces in the White House and the
radical right," said Michael Petrelis, an activist and long-time advocate
of outing, in a release beforehand.

When asked by reporters if he had violated the privacy of the alleged
closeted Senators, Petrelis said he was asking the American media to apply
the same standards afforded to heterosexual politicians when reporting
about how the "private" lives of gay politicians affects their public
duties.

"I can't think of a single reporter decrying the violation of Dick Morris'
privacy last week," he said, referring to President Bill Clinton's adviser
who resigned last week over a sex scandal involving a prostitute. "Indeed,
everyone in America now knows about how Morris, a heterosexual, engaged in
toe-sucking sexual practices with a female prostitute."

Petrelis' action follows last month's announcement by one Representative
that he is gay and the exposE of two others by gay journalists after the
legislation passed the House.

Also on the Capitol steps was Metropolitan Community Church leader Rev Mel
White who is on a hunger strike as a means of focusing attention on the
need to defeat the bill. He called on the church's hundreds of thousands of
members to protest in a "Fast for Understanding" on the steps of the
Capitol Building and pray for the bill's defeat.

"If DOMA is approved by the Senate and sent to the President, we will shift
our fast to the White House and continue there, praying that God will give
President Clinton the wisdom and the courage to veto this tragic bill,"
White said. Clinton has repeatedly said he will sign it.

White compared the laws to the notorious "Jim Crow" laws which sought to
segregate black and white Americans and said church members would have to
decide for themselves how long to stay on the hunger strike.

"When our fellow Americans seem to ignore the truth about God's lesbian and
gay children and even to pass laws like DOMA that lead to intolerance and
discrimination, we must show our concern in real, sometimes sacrificial
ways," he said.

Meanwhile the lobbying efforts of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and the
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force were aided with the airing this week of
a television advertisement featuring prominent national figures.

Produced by the HRC, the 30-second commercial featured Coretta Scott King,
widow of assasinated rights leader Martin Luther-King, New Jersey Governor
Christine Todd Whitman, and Kathleen Gingrich, the mother of House Speaker
Newt Gingrich.

They urged the Senate to support an amendment to the legislation, sponsored
by a bipartisan group of Senators led by Edward Kennedy, which would ban
job discrimination against gay men and lesbians. The ad aired on the four
major networks and CNN in anticipation of the Senate vote. Q