Subject: LEGAL Letter to Editor: Shreveport
From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 13:58:49 -0400

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              LOUISIANA ELECTORATE of GAYS AND LESBIANS (LEGAL)
                                PO Box 70344
                         New Orleans, LA 70172-0344
                                504/525-7117
                              [email-masked]
                          
       Louisiana's statewide non-profit for lesbian and gay human rights.

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Friends,
Here is a letter addressing an issus that has become commonplace for our
community -- the use of lesbians and gay men as political scapegoats. Have
fun reading...
BRIAN
LEGAL

Lately it has become very fashionable for socially conservative political
candidates to attack their opponents in the public forum by associating them
with a group that has virtually no voice in the political process: lesbians
and gay men.

It takes a lot of guts to throw such a rock. Who would be willing to endure
the inevitable second volley after having spoken out against the lies and
distortions?

Well, for those of you who have not seen the paid political ads of such
candidates, I will stand up and inform you of the rock-throwing that is
occuring in our own backyards:

In the race for Senate District 37, the self-proclaimed "conservative"
candidate Max Malone has sullied his name by sending out a mailing which not
only distorts the truth about the voting records of Sen. Greg Barro and Rep.
Melissa Flournoy but it simply lies outright about them.

Malone states that our legislators both "voted for special priviledges for
gays" by citing two bills: 1993's Senate Bill 43 and 1994's House Bill 130.

These two bills have NOTHING to do with special priviledges for ANYONE. They
are bills dealing with hate crimes. One bill simply provides for police
education as regards hate crimes and the other increases the penalties for
criminals who commit crimes based upon a motive of hate directed at ANY group
of people. (Senator Barro, by the way, never even saw House Bill 130 -- HB
130 never even made it to the Senate floor for his vote.)

So, it's plain to see that Malone's tactics to bring the records of our
legislators down to his own level is simply a cheap smoke screen employed to
divert our attention from his own lack of a plan for District 37.

And by the way, if these bills were such bastions of liberal thought, then
why on earth did Louisiana's most conservative Republican gubernatorial
candidate -- Senator Mike Foster -- vote for them, too?

BRIAN J.P. HARTIG
Louisiana Electorate of Gays And Lesbians (LEGAL)