NEWS RELEASE    
 ****************************************************************************
 1012 14th Street NW, Suite 1000
 Washington, DC 20005
 email: victoryf@aol.com
 202/842-8679 (voice)
 202/289-3863 (fax)


     Former Speaker of the Wisconsin House Named Executive
             Director of Nation's Largest Gay PAC
                            =======
            David Clarenbach to Head Victory Fund 
                               
     WASHINGTON, DC -- 14 June 1995 -- The Gay and Lesbian Victory
Fund today announced the selection of former nine-term Wisconsin State
Representative David Clarenbach to replace retiring Executive Director 
William Waybourn.  The Victory Fund is the nation's 15th largest independent 
political action committee and has contributed more than $1 million directly 
to the campaigns of qualified openly gay and lesbian candidates.  Since the 
Victory Fund's inception in 1991, the number of openly gay and lesbian 
officials has doubled.  
     "Thanks to William Waybourn's leadership, the Victory Fund has matured
from an activist's dream to a dynamic player in the political arena," says 
Victory Fund Co-Chair Joy Tomchin.  "Our goal now is to 'grow' the Victory 
Fund so we can train and support the ever-increasing number of openly gay and 
lesbian candidates.  We are confident that David has the vision and the 
skills to take the Victory Fund to the next level."
     A seasoned veteran of state, local and national politics, David 
Clarenbach won his first term as a Dane County [WI] Supervisor at the age of 
18, and was elected to the Madison [WI] Common Council in 1972.  He served in 
the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1975 to 1993, and was Speaker Pro Tem from
1983 to 1993. In 1992 Clarenbach was a Democratic Congressional candidate from
Wisconsin's 2nd District.   
     Throughout his career, David Clarenbach has been intimately involved in 
the growth and development of the gay and lesbian civil rights movement.  
During his tenure in the legislature he wrote Wisconsin's Gay and Lesbian 
Civil Rights Act of 1982 --  the first in the nation to include gay and 
lesbian people in state-wide anti-discrimination laws.  Clarenbach authored 
Wisconsin's Hate Crimes Act, which was upheld unanimously by the U. S. 
Supreme Court, and a Bill of Rights for people with AIDS and HIV infection.  
He has also served as a consultant and mentor to openly gay and lesbian 
candidates throughout the country.
     "One of my goals is to bring an outside-the-Beltway wake-up call to the
nation's capitol," says Clarenbach. "The rest of the country is way ahead of
Washington in recognizing the contributions of gay and lesbian citizens.  
The people of my home state of Wisconsin have been electing qualified openly 
gay candidates for years."  Despite the conservative swing in the
November election, seventy-six percent of Victory Fund candidates won their 
races, and every openly gay incumbent on the ballot was re-elected.  
     "The problem is not that gay and lesbian people haven't been involved in 
the electoral process, it's that we've been invisible." says Clarenbach, 
"One of the biggest regrets of my life is that I didn't run for Congress as 
an openly gay candidate.  As Executive Director of the Victory Fund, I will 
do everything in my power to keep other qualified candidates from making the 
same mistake."