The Denver Post
January 17, 1993
By Alan Gottlieb, Staff Writer
Voters went to the polls recently and the outcome cost their western state tens
of millions of dollars.
As a result of the voters' action, people from throughout the nation began
labeling the state as a place rife with bigotry. Organizations that had
planned conventions decided to boycott instead, costing hoteliers,
restauranteurs and others dearly.
But the boycott fueled a backlash among voters, who resented being told how to
think. Positions hardened. Compromise seemed impossible.
The description fits Colorado in 1993, but it also applies to Arizona between
1990 and last year.
The fact that Arizona has resolved the controversy surrounding its initial
rejection of a state holiday for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. should
encourage Coloradans who fear the divisive issue of Amendment 2 may never go
away, Arizonans say.
A Denver district judge Friday barred the measure from taking effect until a
state court can determine whether it is constittuonal. Meanwhile, the boycott
continues to be a factor in Colorado's economy.
Just last week, Arizona began picking up some of the conventions that Colorado
has lost since Nov. 3, when voters approved the constitutional amendment to
erase laws protecting gays from bias.
In Arizona, the boycott is over but the pain lingers, tourism officials said.
For instance, Phoenix was to host this month's Super Bowl, but the game was
moved because of efforts to steer business away from the state.
Larry Hilliard, vice president of the Phoenix and Valley of the Sun Convention
and Visitors Bureau, said most of the 166 groups that canceled meetings and
conventions did so in the first six to eight months after a boycott of the
state started in 1987. A second wave of cancellations occurred after Arizona
voters rejected a King holiday in 1990.
The biggest blow came early in 1991, when the National Football League decided
to move the Super Bowl from Phoenix to Pasadena, Calif. Hilliard projected
that the two-week extravaganza leading to the game would have heaped $190
million in direct and indirect economic benefits on the city.
Other groups planning meetings and conventions after 1987 didn't even consider
Arizona, he said. The state will continue to suffer a decline in convention
business for years, because large gatherings are planned up to five years in
advance, he said.
"Now that we've resolved the issue, we have found some new business" that
wouldn't talk to us before, he said.
A diverse collection of organizations canceled meetings in Arizona. They
included the National League of Cities, which was to bring 10,000 people to
Phoenix; the Association of College and Research Libraries, 2,800 people; the
American Physical Therapy Association, 2,000 peple; the Amaerican Probation and
Parole Association, 1,500 people; and American Youth Soccer, 1,000 people.
Arizona gains
Now Colorado stands to lose some conventions to Arizona.
The Arizona Republic newspaper reported last week that three groups with 7,700
members have decided tentatively to move upcoming conventions from Denver to
Phoenix. The potential business is worth about $6 million, Phoenix tourism
officials estimated.
The officials wouldn't identify the three groups, because they haven't notified
people in Denver yet. But they said one group was scheduled for later this
year, another for next year and the third for 1997.
Despite the recent shifts from Denver to Phoenix, Hilliard said, his group is
not soliciting Colorado business. "I want to state as emphatically as I can
that it is not ethical and it is not the policy of this bureau to solicit
business that Colorado has because of the misfortune you're going through," he
said. "We don't want Colorado to go through what we went through."
Although Arizona's experience has some parallels with Colorado's, the two
boycotts and the issues that led to them are difrerent in many respects.
In Arizona, no organized group within the state pushed a boycott after voters
rejected a King holiday in 1990. The Boycott Colorado organization seems to
have grown stronger by the week since Amendment 2 passed.
"The boycott has a life of its own," said Boycott Colorado's Jan Williams. "If
we asked people to stop it now, we'd have no effect." By Williams' count, 20
groups have canceled "coventions or other activities" in Colorado during the
past 2 1/2 months.
At least $5 million lost
State and local tourism and convention officials declined to place an overall
dollar value on lost business. But Rich Grant of the Denver Metro Convention
and Visitors Bureau said two conventions booked into the Colorado Convention
Center have been canceled, at a cost to the city of $5 million.
For Coloradans, the divisive issue centers on sexual orientation; in Arizona,
race relations were at the heart of the dispute.
Arizonans angered blacks and others who admired King by refusing to grant state
workers a paid holiday on the civil rights leader's birthday. Rejection of a
King holiday was not an action that led to heightened discrimination against
blacks. But it upset a spectrum of people sensitized by the civil rights
movement of the 1960s.
The gay rights movement hasn't yet achieved a similar degree of broad-based
support. As a result, even though Amendment 2 can be interpreted as overtly
discriminatory, a boycott of Colorado is less likely to be effective than the
Arizona boycott, said the Rev. Warren Stewart of Phoenix, who headed a group
that worked to win a paid King holiday.
"It's still debatable whether gay rights constitute a fundamental right
guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution," Stewart said. "We're not talking about
personhood here, but behavior.
"It's not exactly a parallel situation, and I imagine there would be some
organizations who won't cancel conventions because they haven't come to the
same conclusion on gay rights as they have on civil rights."
Many would disagree with Stewart's description of homosexuality as a behavior
rather than an innate characteristic. But few would disagree that King has
become the central symbol of the civil rights movement, and that rejecting a
holiday in his honor cost Arizona dearly.
The state's troubles actually began six years ago, when newly elected Gov. Evan
Mecham rescinded a 1986 executive order by his predecessor, Bruce Babbitt,
creating a paid state holiday in King's honor. Mecham's action spurred
immediate calls for a boycott.
"We met with Governor Mecham and asked him please, please don't do it," said
Stewart, who headed a group called Victory Now. "But we didn't support a
national boycott until that March, when we lobbied the legislature to enact the
holiday and they turned up their noses at us."
But then the boycott took hold and businesses started feeling financial pain.
In September 1989, the legislature had a change of heart and passed a bill
creating a paid state holiday in King's honor. At the same time, lawmakers
also eliminated Columbus Day as a paid holiday.
That decision came under attack when a citizens' group spurred by Mecham--who
had been impeached a governor--gathered enough signatures to force the King
holiday issue to a vote of the people in November 1990.
Proposition 301, to create a King holiday and elimnate Columbus Day, was
defeated by a sizable margin. Proposition 302, to add the King holiday but
leave Columbus Day intact, lost by less than 1 percent of the vote.
Hilliard said the pace of cancelations grew markedly following the vote.
"That period was a lot more emotional, intense and involved more national
publicity than what had come before," he said. Between November 1990 and
November 1992, when Arizona voters approved the King holiday, 108 groups
canceled conventions and meetings in Phoenix alone. That represented a
potential 119,000 visitors. Their absence, Hilliard said, cost the city $132
million.
In addition, between 1987 and 1992, Phoenix lost $14.4 million in sales and
occupancy taxes.
Hilliard and Sally Hankin, his counterpart in Tucson, said they managed to save
some business through an aggressive campaign to market Arizona as a tolerant
and diverse place.
'One of the best'
"We put out several different documents, a perspective showing Phoenix has long
celebrated the holiday, since 1984, before cities in most other states,"
Hilliard said. "In terms of fair housing and equal employment opportunities,
we ranked as one of the best cities in the nation.
"Labeling us a racist state--well, nothing could be further from the truth."
Margaret Walker, executive director of the Hotel and Motel Association of
Arizona, said her attempts to portray the state as a tolerant place mostly fell
on deaf ears. "We floated the trial balloon of showing the real steps we've
taken in civil rights here," she said. "But no one was interested. They only
wanted the politically correct vote, not real action. It was very
discouraging."
Gov. Rose Mofford signed the King holiday into law last November. Stewart and
his group then ceased calling for a boycott.
At that point Hankin, Walker and Hilliard started contacting groups that had
canceled, hoping to lure them back. Their success has been limited.
Still, the boycott's end spells relief, Hankin said. "It was just as if a big
weight had been lifted.
"Our business is so competitive. Anyone who is representing a community,selling
your fine points versus others, knows how much something like that can kill
you."
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