The Denver Post
January 24, 1993
By Mark Obmascik, Staff Writer
In short: Amendment 2 falout continues as a 5,000-member convention snubs
Denver.
The American Library Association yesterday canceled plans to bring 5,000
members to Denver for a 1998 convention because of Colorado's vote in favor of
Amendment 2.
The association, which has 5,000 people at the Colorado Convention Center this
week as part of another meeting, said it won't return to the state until the
amendment is overturned by voters.
Amendment 2 would ban government from enacting laws that protect homosexuals
from discrimination in housing, employment and public accomodations. A Denver
judge, citing constitutional concerns, earlier this month issued an injunction
preventing the law from taking effect as scheduled.
The national boycott of Colorado because of Amendment 2 so far has cost Denver
at least $5 million in business, city officials said. Among the groups that
have canceled Colorado meeting plans are the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the
National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
"The American Library Association has a long tradition of supporting equal
rights and intellectual freedom, said the group's president, Marilyn Miller.
"We feel the existence of Amendment 2 threatens both in Colorado--and perhaps
in other parts of the country in the form of copycat legislation.
"As a profession, librarians are committed to providing information and
resources that reflect the diversity of human experience and promote
understanding of all people. Curtailing one freedom only makes it easier to
curtail another."
Colorado's approval of Amendment 2 in the November election caught the trade
group off-guard, said spokeswoman Pam Goodes.
It would have been difficult--if not impossible--to relocate the convention now
under way in Denver in just two months, she said. The group also would have
lost $4 million in deposits if it had canceled this year's convention, which
started Friday and runs through Thursday, she said.
The library association's policies specifically support "equal opportunity for
gay librarians and library workers."
Group directors voted 8-2 to cancel the 1998 Denver convention. The two
dissenters were Nancy Bolt, deputy Colorado state librarian, and J. Dennis Day,
director of the Salt Lake City Public Library.
The group's Social Responsibilities Round Table and Gay and Lesbian Task Force
plan a rally tomorrow against Amendment 2. It will begin at the Colorado
Convention Center and progress to the steps of the state Capitol.
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