Date: Sat, 9 Jul 1994 22:10:40 -0700 (PDT) From: Richard Isaac The following is another in a series of articles written by the Decline to Sign Committee for the Seattle Gay News. (I will post excerpts--it's a lot of typing!--of articles from the Seattle Gay News, Seattle Times and Seattle P-I about the demise of I-608/610 and Bigot Busters' part in it shortly, and after it is approved by the BB Steering Committee, our statement on the defeat of I-608/610.) * Richard Isaac __*_*___ ************************* \* * / Seattle * INITIATIVES 608/610 * *\ * * b. 1/10/94 d. 7/8/94 * ***\**/** rmisaac ************************* \/ @eskimo.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ from the Seattle Gay News, 7/8/94, p.3, reprinted w/o permission, all typos and brackets mine: BIGOT BUSTERS TARGET FINAL WEEKEND IN SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN Decline to Sign Committee, Special to the SGN July 4th weekend was a busy time for Bigot Busters. Yet the number of interventions with 608/610 signature gatherers on the last weekend prior to the July 8 deadline was less than anticipated. the weekend followed revelations in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (June 29) by initiative leaders that the Decline to Sign campaign was seriously affecting their signature drive. The "Bigot Busters are persistent, confrontational, and intimidating," and "It's really forced us to go underground," initiative leaders told Seattle's morning daily. Following the P-I story, KVI (AM 570)'s conservative commentator Mike Siegel asked his listeners to jam the Bigot Busters hotline. Sielgel repeated the Bigot Busters phone number over the air[waves] -- not to have sightings reported but solely for the purpose of disruption. "Call the number and tie it up so they can't get any calls through to go out and harangue people improperly: 322-2782 [repeats three times]. I support homosexual rights and protections and yet they're getting me into feeling angry because they're using the Nazi tactics, the very thing they oppose as the very thing that they're using. And as long as they do that we're going to oppose the process that they use. 322-2782. The full hour ... Keep calling all night ... They're thugs and brutes and bandits to stop people from using the democratic process. It's unbelievable that they would do that. Absolutely unbelievable..." "The rest of that day our phone line was of no value," said Deb Adams, dispatch coordinator for Bigot Busters. The next day Adams phoned Siegel's call-in show to complain. Siegel in turn asked her to stay on the line. She was on the air for two hours. Adams told KVI's listening audience, "Bigot Busters doesn't harass or intimidate. We only talk to people interested in hearing our side of the story. If you're opposed to harassment or disorderly conduct, you are our ally as we train people not to do that." Adams fielded calls from non-supportive listeners for most of that period. [Note: Patrick Hogan was a guest on the same show for 20 mins. the following Monday. --RI] Bigot Busters' weekend activity began from a tip-off that I-610 would be at Westlake Mall [downtown Seattle]. AS it turned out the counter- petitioners arrived 15 minutes before the I-610 supporters on Saturday morning. "You should've seen the expression on their faces when they saw us there waiting for them," said Bill Dubay. Dubay estimated that in the three hours they were there from 10 am to 1 pm they received only 20 signatures. The remainder of Saturday's activity was at two ferry terminals. On Saturday morining Larry Bailey and a friend drove by the Edmonds ferry terminal and saw seven I-608 staffers collecting signatures from cars. The two immediately began intervention, surprising the staffers. The Edmonds Police told them to stay out of the holding lanes, but were allowing I-608 people there. Larry told the police officer, "We have a right to be here. We're just exercising our freedom of speech." Eventualyy, the police demanded both parties stay out of the holding lanes. One woman with 608 was particularly harsh with Bailey. "If you'd change your lifestyle, you wouldn't have to be here right now." "You don't know my lifestyle," countered Bailey. The woman involved was later cited by Edmonds police for stepping into the holding lanes too many times. At approximately 2 pm more Bigot Busters arrived on the scene. At that point most of the 608 staffers left, but a couple styed on until about 4 pm and the Bigot Busters stayed with them. Around noon the same day a call came in that there was a lone 608 petition gatherer at the Fauntleroy ferry terminal in West Seattle. Viki Nielipinski and Bruce Stores were dispatched to the scene. When they arrived, the 608 man immediately started screaming. "You can't be here. You don't have permission." He then ran to alert the terminal office. "After the terminal manager said we couldn't be here we insisted we could," Stores said. He tried in vain to reach the weekend superintendent, but was unable to reach him. Meanwhile, Viki continued leafleting the cars and talking to passengers before the 608 staffer reached them. Apparently the terminal manager didn't know about Viki right away, but the 608 guy must've thought he did as he didn't try to stop her." Nielipinski said one person was so excited he donated $10 to Bigot Busters. "A woman identified herself as a PFLAG member. I asked her to converse with the 608 man as long as she could. When he got to her car, she detained him 20 minutes." Around 4 pm the 608 staffer left after talking with the terminal manager. The terminal manager told Stores he asked him to leave but didn't say why. Later it was learned that a ferry passenger got into a verbal confrontation with the signature gatherer. The passenger said he was called a "fascist homosexual." When he got home he phoned the ferry terminal and complained bitterly. That may have been the reason for the 608 staffer's speedy departure. Sunday provided less activity. The only known event was at Top Foods Supermaket in Lynnwood [north of Seattle] where a variety of initiatives were available for the public to sign. It was here that one of the most unfortunate incidents in the campaign took place. According to Bigot Buster Alyson Rheingold, "An angry man who may have been Gay [he is gay --RI] was very disorderly and disruptive. We tried to explain to him he was hindering our work and asked him to leave. The store manager was brought out and he called the police. The man left before the polcie came, but it was a very unnerving experience for us." [Also at Top Foods, Bigot Buster Bob Lucht was told by a woman he approached who was with her daughter, "I wish I had brought my shotgun," in reference to her feelings about Bigot Busters.] On Monday, the 4th of July, Bigot Busters spread themselves out to a variety of holiday activities throughout King and Pierce Counties. For the most part, no 608/610 activity was seen. At the large waterfront festival on Ruston Way and Defiance Park in Tacoma where thousands of locals celebrated the holiday, no 608/610 activity was noticed. In Steilacoom just south of Tacoma, Sandy Nelson had a table for her case against the Tacoma News Tribune at the town festival. She asked her friends to check the area out for anti-Gay petition activity and a 608 signature gatherer was spotted. Nelson said her "friends worked the crowd as long as they could, and felt they prevented many signatures when they explained the initiatives' discriminatory intent." When the long weekend came to an end, Bigot Busters braced themselves for the remaining few days before the petition signatures had to be handed in. [Note: BB activity continued through Friday, July 8, the deadline.]