From: Date: Thu, 2 Mar 1995 20:51:44 -0500 Subject: GLUD starts "Olympics Out of Utah" project NEWS RELEASE Thursday, March 2, 1995 Contact: Gay and Lesbian Utah Democrats Post Office Box 11311 Salt Lake City, Utah 84147-0311 (801)238-2526 metropolitan Salt Lake City telephone number (800)648-9996 national toll-free telephone number Internet: glud@aol.com Tear sheet requested a000 rp ^BC-Gay,293< GLUD starts "Olympics Out of Utah" project SALT LAKE CITY - Gay and Lesbian Utah Democrats leaders announced today their creation of an "Olympics Out of Utah" project which will encourage the International Olympic Committee to choose a 2002 Winter Olympics host other than Utah which is one of four competing international locations. The project is the group's response to the passage of the state's House Bill 366, "Recognition of Marriages," which would ban recognition of same-sex marriages which are performed outside the state. "The International Olympic Committee and would-be Olympics participants must be warned that this state is unprepared to offer equal protection of legally married same-sex couples including those who would choose to attend the Games," GLUD Founder David Nelson said. "The Olympics deserve to be hosted by a venue which recognizes and protects the diversity of the world's athletes and citizens. The passage of this bill is stark proof that this state is unprepared to do that." Nelson pointed to the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics where the adoption last year by Cobb County, Ga., commissioners of a controversial homophobic resolution prompted Olympics organizers to move the volleyball competition from that county in response to a similar request from gay and lesbian Georgians. GLUD leaders also asked Utah Gov. Michael O. Leavitt to veto the bill, and state Attorney General Jan Graham to review the constitutionality of the bill because it was passed one minute after the midnight legislative deadline. The state has two laws which govern the performance and recognition of marriages. Same-sex marriages are prohibited from being performed, but marriages which are performed in other countries, state and territories are valid in the state if the marriages are valid where they're performed. No state of the United States performs same-sex marriages, but Hawaii may soon become the first.