Subject: Kentucky Fairness Alliance

From: Keith Elston <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 93 21:01:39 EDT

FROM THE SEPTEMBER 25, 1993 LEXINGTON (KY) HERALD LEADER:

ACTIVISTS LAUD GAY RIGHTS TRIUMPHS, PUSH PROGRESS

      by Mayrav Saar, Herald-Leader Staff Writer

      FRANKFORT - A diverse group of Kentucky citizens yesterday stood a few
feet from Abraham Lincoln and celebrated what they saw as the anniversary of
equal rights.

      The Kentucky Fairness Alliance rallied near a statue of the former
president at the state Capitol both to praise and to criticize the progress
of gay and lesbian rights since the Kentucky Supreme Court reversed the
state's sodomy law last year.

     The court's 4-3 decision declared unconstitutional the state law
prohibiting homosexual behavior.

      "I haven't done all of this for nothing," said Jeffrey Wasson, the
defendant in the case that took seven years to win.  "I'm not going to give
up now."

     The group, which formed last year to support Wasson's case, is still
active in addressing discrimination.  And Wasson has gond on the road to
promote tolerance, appearing on "Donahue" this week and awaiting the release
of a book about his life.

     Several speakers also addressed a bill proposed by Rep. John Harper,
R-Shepherdsville, to reinstate the sodomy law.

     "We will work as full partners to the KFA to defeat the Harper Bill,"
said Everett Hoffman, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union
of Kentucky.  "We will not allow Kentucky to be consumed by campaigns of
bigotry that have consumed other states."
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KEITH ELSTON, [email-masked]
              PHONE: (606) 266-3934
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"IT IS A GENERAL POPULAR ERROR TO IMAGINE THE LOUDEST COMPLAINERS FOR
THE PUBLIC TO BE THE MOST ANXIOUS FOR ITS WELFARE." - EDMUND BURKE, 1769
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