Date: Tue, 25 Jan 1994 19:58:31 -0500 From: "David B. O'Donnell" Subject: Morality Crusade just beginning. MORALITY CRUSADE JUST BEGINNING, CFV SUPPORTERS SAY AT BANQUET The Sunday Denver Post 01/23/94 by Michael Booth COLORADO SPRINGS--Setting aside for the moment their judicial defeats on Amendment 2, Colorado for Family Values supporters gathered last night in Colorado Springs for a standing room-only banquet and vowed their morality campaign is just beginning. Standing at a podium bearing the groups's new slogan, "Promote Morality", former U.S. senator and early Colorado for Family Values backer Bill Armstrong told the crowd of 700 people, "We're more than a team. We're more than an organization. We're a movement and a crusade." Amendment 2, passed by Colorado voters in the fall of 1992, would have repealed local gay-rights laws and prohibited any government body in the state from passing such measures in the future. Denver District Judge Jeffery Bayless declared Amendment 2 unconstitutional last month, but the issue will likely be appealed through higher courts for years to come. The majority of Colorado citizens who oppose homosexuality will eventually prevail no matter what the courts do, said speaker Armstrong, featured speaker at the Red Lion Hotel banquet. The ideas embodied by Colorado for Family Values will endure "in the court of public opinion, where we are winning," he said. Many in the audience said they hope the Colorado Springs-based group will expand its political organizing to issues beyond gay- rights, including abortion, intrusive government and Christianity in education. Evangelicals who used to shy away from politics are no longer afraid to use their influence, some said. At seminars earlier in the day, CFV leaders from around the state were urged to keep watch at the local level for domestic- partnership laws and other actions that would benefit gays. Banquet organizers promising "old-fashioned patriotism and humor" delivered for the friendly audience, turning their sharpest tongues exclusively on Democrats. "Bill Clinton is a Baptist kind of like Madonna is a Catholic," said Chuck Asay, the conservative editorial cartoonist for the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph, frequently lambasted himself by gay activists. Colorado for Family Values Chairman Will Perkins, noting the booming state economy, sunny weather, and relative shortage of earthquakes said "Our office is besieged by callers from other states who want to know how they can get boycotted." Before giving up the microphone, Perkins the shameless car salesman hinted that the new bumper sticker "looks best on a Chrysler."