CONSERVATIVES SEE A WIDER THREAT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 14, 1993                   TAG: 9303140244
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: D-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By BOB DART COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
CONSERVATIVES SEE A WIDER THREAT
Conservatives believe homosexuality is an issue more of morality than of civil rights.
The national outcry over President Clinton's proposal to lift the ban on gays serving in the military stems "from a certain sense of righteousness in the hearts of Americans," said Oliver North.
But there is agreement between the religious right and gay and lesbian activists that the military issue is only an initial step in a planned march to obtain wider, government-protected rights for homosexuals. Conservatives want to stop this budding movement in its tracks.
"Once homosexuality is accepted, it will be logically impossible to oppose any other perversion or sexual indulgence," said Don Feder, a Boston Herald columnist and author of "A Jewish Conservative Looks at Pagan America."
Feder said conservatives must convince the country to reject the concept that homosexuality is an innate trait - that gays and lesbians have no more control over their sexual orientation than blacks have over their skin color.
If the gay rights movement succeeds in its "efforts to divorce sexuality from morality," he warned, "what's to stop a pedophile from saying `I can't help it. This is just the way I am.'?"
Conservatives do not see sexual orientation as something Congress should be legislating about.
"On principle, we're against extending civil rights protection to people based on what they do in bedrooms," said Gary Bauer, president of the Family Research Council and a domestic adviser in the Reagan White House.
They think Clinton's push to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the armed forces shows that he is out of touch with the American mainstream on this emotional issue.
"We didn't vote to have homosexuality accepted as an alternative lifestyle," said Bill Dannemeyer, a former Republican congressman from California.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB