From: WillNich@aol.com Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 16:33:02 -0500 Subject: Fwd: info on 3 anti-gay bills in Frankfort --------------------- Forwarded message: From: JAJONE02@UKCC.UKY.EDU (Jeff Jones) 1. As of last night, it appears there still had not been a vote on Rep. Danny Ford's amendment to HB 219. This amendment would strip HB 219 of its original purpose, redistricting, and instead put a Nov. ballot before KY voters seeking a constitutional amendment allowing the legislature to recriminalize oral or anal sex for both heterosexual and homosexual couples...even in their own bedrooms! Danny Ford is the Republican Minority Speaker in the KY House and represents the 80th House District (Rockcastle, Pulaski, McCreary counties in southern KY). He is from Mt. Vernon. 2. Rep. Sheldon Baugh has introduced HB (House Bill) 500 which seeks to invalidate any legal same-sex marriages/domestic partnerships performed in another state (if they should become legal anywhere). Similar legislatio is up for votes in various states in a pre-emptive move to Hawaii possibly legalizing same-sex marriages by 1997. Baugh is the Republican representative for the 16th House district (Logan and Todd counties). He is a retired Air Force serviceman, an insurance agent, Shriner, Mason, and ironically the current president of the South Union Shaker Study Group! This is odd considering how the Shakers were persecuted for being a communal society with common ownership of property (communism technically) and a code of celibacy and joint family identity that made them something of perverts at their height in the 1800s. Baugh is from Russellville, the town made famouse a few years ago by its harassment and torment of a gay couple who sought to open a bed and breakfast there. This led to them being on national news. 3. Rep. Kathy Hogancamp (R-Paducah) representing House district 4 (Crittenden, Livingston, and part of McCraken counties) has offered an amendment to a bill already passed by the Senate (SB 68...or 63??). This bill must now pass the House. The bill in its original form deals with rules for county clerks marrying people. Hogancamp seeks to amend the bill to also stipulate that same-sex marriages in Kentucky are void if even legal elsewhere. Since both the original bill and the amendment are about marriage regulations, Hogancamp's amendment is germane to the bill. Please write or call (1-800-372-7181) your legislator, House Speaker Greg Stumbo, and even Ford, Baugh, and Hogancamp about your opposition to these bills. You may also send a fax to these people in Frankfort at 502-564-6543 Some points to possibly argue if you write a longer letter/fax: Re-criminalizing Sodomy: -Studies show that sodomy laws can pose a detriment to HIV prevention because people are afraid of being prosecuted if they tell a gov. agency (health dept.) they are gay. -Poll after poll has found that the vast majority of Kentuckians oppose having the government regulate consensual intimacies in the bedroom. -Such an amendment to the KY constitution would make KY the only state to mention sodomy in its constitution and would put KY in the minority of US states that still retain these archaic laws. -Such laws are not equitably enforced but target homosexuals although heterosexuals perform the same acts. -Such laws are most commonly used to deny lesbian/gay people custody or even visitation to their children. -Passing such a law would cost Kentucky in two ways: *the cost to taxpayers of possible lawsuits over this law *the cost to Kentucky (esp. tourism) from potential boycotts Marriage: -Marriage by African-Americans was illegal under slavery until 1865. Some states also forbad inter-religious marriges (Jews and Christians for example). Interracial marriages were illegal in Kentucky until the 1960s with VA only overturning this law thru a US Supreme Ct. case in 1967! Ideas about marriage continue to evolve. -Right-wing politicians and even the media portray gay people as promiscuous. Yet, the states do not provide legal mechanisms to bolster same-sex couples' stability via marriage or legal recognition. In spite of social ostracism, homophobia, AIDS, gay-bashing, and sodomy laws, many same-sex couples do last decades and even a lifetime. Compare this to heterosexual couples which have a 50% divorce rate despite widespread legal and social mechanisms to stabilize such relationships. Same-sex marriage like mixed-sex marriage is good for a society. -Kentucky again opens itself up to lawsuits at taxpayers' expense when/if Hawaii or another state legalizes same-sex marriage. It also opens Ky to boycotts and negative press as a hateful, backward state. -Such a law would fly in the face of several KY religious groups (Friends/ Quakers, Unitarians, MCC, etc.) that marry or perform a similar religious ceremony for same-sex couples. Such a law is un-Christian by some definitions. -Point out to Baugh that his persecution of gays is little different from the persecution of Shakers in the past. You might point out that his district with its history of racism and gay-bashing will be hurt even further by his narrow-mindedness Well, on these lovely thought, everybody have a good weekend ;) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jeff Jones jajone02@ukcc.uky.edu "A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but a reconciled one is truly vanquished." -Schiller ------------------------------------------------------------------------------