Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 12:07:22 EDT From: RAKNGLTF@aol.com NATIONAL GAY & LESBIAN TASK FORCE POLICY INSTITUTE NEWS RELEASE Contact: Tanya Domi, (202) 332-6483, ext. 3308; tldngltf@aol.com THOUSANDS RALLY IN COBB COUNTY TOWN SQUARE AGAINST ANTI-GAY RESOLUTION NOW THAT OLYMPICS ARE GONE, CITIZENS FOCUS ON THE FUTURE MEANWHILE, TERROR SURGES IN TEXAS Washington, D.C., August 31, 1994...Surrounded by a stunning array of police protection, 5,000 citizens of Cobb County, Georgia gathered in the town square to oppose the anti-gay resolution passed last year. The event was also meant to demonstrate solidarity against the growing local threat of the Radical Right. Tensions ran high at the rally, held at the Marietta Square in front of the Cobb County Commission building on Sunday, August 28. Billed as "And Justice for All...Cobb Rally for Human Rights," the event was surrounded by a "small army" of local, county and state police. Tanya Domi, Legislative Director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) and a speaker at the rally, described the scene as unlike any she had seen before. She said scores of armed officers were on rooftops surrounding the square, with a double phalanx of police barricades on the square perimeter and plainclothes officers amidst the crowd. Although Domi said there were no reported incidents, rally organizers and town officials had an "extremely heightened awareness of security" following death threats made to several of the speakers, including Rabbi Steven Lebow of the Marietta Interfaith Alliance. Media coverage of the rally was pervasive, with front page items in the Atlanta Constitution and Journal and other local press. Domi, on behalf of NGLTF, has brought the tension in Cobb County and new information about escalating local hate group activity to the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice for immediate federal action. The rally marked the one-year anniversary of the passage by the Cobb County Commission of a resolution that condemned the "gay lifestyle" as "incompatible with community standards." Following an intense months-long battle, the Olympics Out of Cobb Coalition and other groups successfully pressured the U.S. Olympic Committee to withdraw the popular volleyball competition out of the county. According to rally sponsors, the event was for "organizations and individuals who agree that diversity within a community is a strength and that personal prejudice should not find its way into public policy." The rally was sponsored by the Marietta Interfaith Alliance, Cobb Citizens Coalition, and the Network for Social Responsibility. Also appearing at the event were representatives of the National Organization for Women, Americans for Democratic Action, the Martin Luther King Center, Metropolitan Community Church, and various supportive politicians. "We demonstrated to the people of Cobb that mainstream folks -- people of faith, heterosexuals, gays, lesbians and bisexuals, and all fair-minded people -- demand repeal of the resolution and stand up for an end to bigotry," said NGLTF's Tanya Domi at the rally. "For the last year, justice has been compromised in Cobb. Today our message is, Bigots Beware! We will organize, organize, organize for our lives." Feds Told of "Shadow of Hate" Domi recently briefed U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Deval Patrick at the Department of Justice on Cobb County, and presented him with a copy of "Shadow of Hatred," a report produced by an anti-fascist group called the Neighbors Network. The report tracks a disturbing increase in local white supremacist and other hate group organizing. Domi is taking the Network's newest report, "Hidden Agenda: Implications of Religious Extremism on Politics of Cobb County," written by Walter Reeves, to the Department of Justice to advocate for a greater federal response to anti-gay and other bias violence in general. The rally was a colorful, passionate response by local citizens to the Cobb resolution, and in many ways represented a new phase of community organizing. Shannon Byrne, openly lesbian daughter of Commissioner Bill Byrne, chief sponsor of the resolution, apologized for the damage caused by the measure and vowed to keep fighting until it was repealed. Various political posters, including one that said, "Boot Newt," and featuring a pair of pink stompers, decorated the event. Local progressives are opposing the reelection of notorious arch-conservative U.S. Congressman Newt Gingrich and County Commissioner Gordon Wysong. People are urged to write letters to the major Georgia press. Send letters to Editors, Atlanta Constitution or Atlanta Journal, PO Box 4689, Atlanta, Ga., 30302 (same address for both papers), and the Marietta Daily Journal, PO Box 449, Marietta, Ga., 30061-0449. Send copies to Deval Patrick, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Department of Justice, Constitution Ave. and 10th St. NW, Washington, DC, 20530. Death in Texas Meanwhile, on another front of increasing violence and intimidation -- this time in Dallas and Houston, Texas -- tensions also are high as a horrible wave of homicides has rocked the gay community. In Houston, police recently arrested four local high school football stars and charged them with the brutal July murder of Michael Burzinski, 29, in the openly gay Montrose neighborhood. In Irving, near Dallas, police charged Edwin Perkins with the August stabbing murder of Larry David Allen. Police now consider Perkins a suspect in the killings earlier this year of Leopoldo Quintanilla Jr. and Larry Leggett. All the victims where gay. NGLTF's Tanya Domi has notified the Department of Justice of the murders and is lobbying the agency to establish an anti-violence task force within the Civil Rights division to focus on violence against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people in Texas, Georgia, and elsewhere. end