GAY RIGHTS INITIATIVES: A COMPARISON

In November 1992, Colorado voters approved an initiative prohibiting the enactment of anti-discrimination laws covering homosexuals (Hill, 1993, pp. 26-28). The Colorado initiative has never been implemented because it has been tied up in court ever since the Colorado electorate voted to make it law. The Colorado State Supreme Court in October 1994 upheld a lower court ruling permanently enjoining the measure (Gallagher, 1994, p. 53). The significance of the success at the polls of the Colorado initiative, however, is not that the initiative has not become law. Rather, the significance of the initiative lies in the fact that its success at the polls provided encouragement to opponents in other states of anti-discrimination laws covering homosexuals. A strong campaign was waged in Oregon in 1994 for an initiative similar to that which was approved by Colorado voters (Gallagher, 1994, pp. 34-40). The voters in Oregon rejected the anti-homosexual initiative.

This research examines some of the factors that may explain the difference in outcomes at the polls in Colorado and Oregon. As a practical matter, the anti-homosexual initiatives did not become law in either state. As a practical matter also, however, the opponents of anti-discrimination laws covering homosexuals continue to launch new initiative campaigns regardless of their past failures. Therefore, the findings of this examinat

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alues lived up to the Fundamentalist Christian tradition of spreading lies and innuendoes to bring down their opponents. Colorado Family Values depicted homosexuals as persons who are promiscuous (the Fundamentalist Christian preachers who continually fall to the temptations of the flesh conveniently overlooked by Colorado Family Values), prone to pedophilia (again, Colorado Family Values ignored the fact that almost all pedophiles are heterosexual), and practitioners of a diseased lifestyle, overlooking the current direction in which the AIDS (acquired immunity deficiency syndrome) is moving--toward the heterosexual community (Gallagher, 1993, p. 38). Largely however, the anti gay rights initiative in Colorado did not succeed because of the big lie of the Fundamentalist Christians. Rather, the campaign succeeded because of the "no special rights" message that, while it was parroted by Colorado Family Values spokespersons, was dictated by Corporate Colorado. Polls conducted shortly before the initiative vote indicated that the anti gay rights measure would be defeated easily (Gallagher, 1993, p. 37). When the opposite result occurred, most people who thought at all about the anomaly concluded that respondents lied to the poll
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Approximate Word count = 5559
Approximate Pages = 22 (250 words per page)

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