Cincinnati gay-rights repeal already costing conventions
By Lew Moores
The Cincinnati Enquirer

  CINCINNATI -- A vote to repeal Cincinnati's gay-rights law appears to be
costing the city convention business.

  "We are beginning already to have cancellation of conventions and there is
already significant financial loss," Mayor-elect Roxanne Qualls said yesterday.
[seeming to invite a wider boycott...]  "And this is probably just the
beginning."

  "One group once considering Cincinnati as a convention site has dropped out,
another is looking for an alternative site and a third has called the Greater
Cincinnati Convention & Visitors Bureau to express concern about passage of
Issue 3, which scrapped a city law extending civil rights protections to
homosexuals.

  How hard Cincinnati may get hit financially because of Issue 3 will depend on
how forcefully gay advocacy groups call for any boycott of the city and the
legal outcome of a suit expected to challenge constitutionality of the
amendment.

  "We don't take this issue lightly," said Mike Wilson, president of the
convention and visitors bureau.

  Among groups that may move their conventions:

  o The executive board of the Chicago-based American Library Association is
looking at alternative sites for their mid-winter 1995 convention.  "We are
very concerned about infringements on human rights," said Peggy Sullivan,
executive director.

  o The American Historical Association based in Washington, D.C., has
expressed concern, Wilson said.  "Both were considered very critical," he said.
 "They were two very special and important meetings."

  o A third group, United Church of Christ, was considering Cincinnati or
Kansas City for an 1997 convention.  "They said they will no longer consider
Cincinnati," Wilson said.

  The convention business pumps millions into the local economy.  In 1992, $192
million was spent on hotels, restaurants and services.  A conservative estimate
being updated later this year is that a convention delegate spends $640 during
an average 3.8-day stay.

  Gay rights advocacy groups will meet this evening to discuss the aftermath of
the campaign and whether to seek a boycott.  Alphonse Gerhardstein and Scott
Greenwood, attorneys for Equality Cincinnati, the group that campaigned against
Issue 3, said a suit will be filed within a week challenging the charter
amendment on constitutional grounds.