Subject: Dole Becomes First Senator to Sign On To National Anti-Marriage Bill
From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 16:58:20 -0400

________________________________________________________

NEWS from the
Human Rights Campaign

1101 14th Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
email:  [email-masked]
WWW:    http://www.hrcusa.org
________________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Thursday, May 9, 1996

              DOLE BECOMES FIRST SENATOR TO SIGN ON TO
                            NATIONAL ANTI-MARRIAGE BILL 
                                
                HRC Dubs Move  A Desperate Election-Year Bid'

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                                          http://www.hrcusa.org

WASHINGTON -- Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole is
pandering to extremists by becoming the first U.S. senator to
co-sponsor a national bill to prohibit equal marriage rights for
lesbian and gay Americans. Dole, R-Kan. and the Senate majority
leader, has co-sponsored S. 1740, the "Defense of Marriage Act,"
introduced Wednesday by Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla.

     "Rather than moving to the center, Senator Dole is again
pandering to extremists  in a desperate  election-year bid to
score political points at the expense of lesbian and gay
Americans," said HRC Executive Director Elizabeth Birch. "It
really says something that Bob Dole felt driven to jump onto this 
bill even before Congress' most militant anti-gay zealots,  like
Jesse Helms. It's just one more piece of evidence that Dole is
floundering for an agenda."  

     The Human Rights Campaign issued a report Wednesday exposing
the orchestrated efforts of religious political extremist groups
to pass anti-marriage bills in at least 34 states. U.S. Rep. Bob
Barr, R-Ga., introduced an anti-gay marriage bill in the House on
Tuesday. It has a handful of co-sponsors.              

     Currently, lesbian and gay couples cannot get legally
married anywhere in the United States. Hawaii, the only state
that is anywhere near the possibility of extending equal marriage
rights to gay people, will probably not resolve the issue for at
least two more years.

     Birch noted that the timing of the anti-marriage organizing
demonstrates the political nature of the frenzy surrounding the
issue.

      "These state and national anti-marriage bills propose to
prohibit something that does not even exist. The anti-gay groups
that are coordinating this flood of anti-marriage activity are
shamelessly attempting to inject the issue into the heat of the
presidential campaign, and Bob Dole is taking their bait," Birch
added. "These measures are cynically calculated to divide the
country, promote more congressional extremism and scapegoat one
group of Americans."

     Dole's co-sponsorship of the Senate bill is not his first
action on the issue during the presidential race.  In February,
he sent a letter of support to the organizers of an anti-gay
rally in Des Moines, Iowa, endorsing their anti-marriage
resolution but saying that it "does not go far enough."

     The Human Rights Campaign is the largest national lesbian
and gay political organization, with members throughout the
country. It effectively lobbies Congress, provides campaign
support and educates the public to ensure that lesbian and gay
Americans can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in
the community.

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