ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 21, 1996 TAG: 9605210098
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
Monday's Supreme Court ruling on gay rights was embraced by advocates as swiftly and fervently as it was condemned by opponents.
Reaction highlighted the chasm between those who see a movement for civil rights and those who see a campaign for special rights.
As gay and lesbian organizations around the country threw impromptu parties and spoke in almost giddy tones about the ruling, opponents vowed to keep chipping away at it.
``This is a huge breakthrough,'' exclaimed Beth Barrett, spokeswoman for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington. ``It's a victory not just for gays and lesbians but for all who believe in civil rights. It's another notch for us on the scorecard of wins and losses''
Keith Meinhold, the former Navy petty officer who battled to stay in the service after revealing his homosexuality during a 1992 television interview, said, ``I'm very happy with the decision.'' The Defense Department devised its ``don't ask, don't tell'' policy after losing two federal court decisions to discharge Meinhold.
The head of Concerned Women for America, which filed a Supreme Court brief supporting the Colorado constitutional amendment at the heart of the decision, spoke defiantly Monday.
``We'll stop at nothing. We'll redouble our efforts at the grass roots,'' Jim Woodall, the group's chief executive officer, said in Washington.
Homosexuality is not the issue, Woodall said.
``We're willing to tolerate their behavior. Who they want to sleep with is their business. But that does not give them special protected status under the law.''
At the heart of the euphoria and fear is the belief that the Supreme Court ruling will pave the way for other gay-rights victories, particularly same-sex marriages, or make prohibitions more difficult.
In Georgia, state Sen. Ed Gochenour, a Republican from Macon who helped pass a bill banning gay marriage, promised to fight any attempt to change the law there.
``I think that we need to look at our moral situation in this country,'' he said. ``It is rapidly deteriorating from rulings of the Supreme Court like this one.''
The sentiment was echoed by Lon Mabon, head of the anti-gay Oregon Citizens' Alliance.
``To one degree or another, the court has really established gay-and-lesbian as a class and not a behavior,'' said Mabon, a candidate for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination. The OCA sponsored unsuccessful anti-gay measures in 1992 and 1994.
The Supreme Court ruling, Mabon said, ``is extremely problematic for our society for the future in setting what is right and wrong in sexual behavior.''
Some church groups also worried about implications. ``This comes at a most inopportune time because of the movement in the gay community to establish same-sex marriages,'' said William Donohue, president of the Catholic League in New York.
``The effect will be to help propel that agenda,'' Donohue said. `` It is an attempt to restructure the American marriage.''
In Cincinnati, where a disputed 1993 city charter amendment is worded similarly to the Colorado amendment, the decision was anxiously anticipated.
While Cindy Abel, executive director of Stonewall Cincinnati, a gay-rights group, welcomed the ruling, opponents were quick to brand it ``judicial tyranny.''
``If the justices have given sexual behavior a special-class status, that means that all other behaviors must be considered also,'' said Phil Burress, president of the Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values. ``Smokers would have to be considered a minority class ... tall people, short people, left-handed people.''
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB