From: bbergquist@claven.idbsu.edu Sun Dec 19 20:20:28 1993 Date: Fri, 3 Dec 93 12:30:42 -0700 From: Brian Bergquist To: FREEDOM@IDBSU.IDBSU.EDU, amend2-discuss@cs.colorado.edu, qn@queernet.org, GLB-NEWS@BROWNVM.brown.edu Subject: Lewiston (ID) Morning Tribune Editorial Reprinted without Permission Lewiston Morning Tribune Thursday, December 2, 1993 Page 10A Opinion (Official editorial from the paper) Note: This paper usually has a conservative editorial slant... A COMPASSIONATE ATTEMPT TO CONTROL PERVERTS The guy who moved here from Oregon to save Idahoans from their homosexuals believes gay people constitute a howling pack of perverts but he wouldn't want you to think he has anything against them personally. Kelly Walton was involved in the unsuccessful attempt on the Oregon ballot to get the homosexuals under control in that state. He has now been sent to Idaho by an Oregon organization that sees this state as fertile ground for that kind of politics and he is now trying to stir things up between Idahoans and their homosexuals. Walton was smarting this week at the latest denunciation of his efforts by an Idaho church. Idaho Episocopal Church leaders formally differed with the initiative, characterizing it as a mean-spirited effort that "promotes a climate of divisiveness, alienation, and disunity among people." The Episcopal Church, the resolution said, has "no outcasts." Walton was obviously stung by the rebuke. "The initiative is exposing a dangerous lifestyle and a dangerous behaviour," hd explained. "This is an act of compassion," he added, "not an act of discrimination or hatred. The initiative is not attacking individuals." Similarly, a declaration by the Ku Klux Klan that "we have to get all them shiftless niggers under control" should not be taken as a personal attack on individual members of that race. Walton has come into this state to save the people of Idaho from "dangerous behavior" of the wicked perverts among us and he would have us believe it is "an act of compassion." The people of Idaho must show him the same level of compassion that he truly feels in his heart of hearts for the gay people of this state. After all, he can't help what he is. He was born that way. -B.H.