Date:         Wed, 16 Nov 1994 14:05:12 -0500
Reply-To: AHRF@AOL.COM
X-Lines: 69

[ Send all responses to AHRF@aol.com only. Any responses to the list
or list-owners will be returned to you. ]

Governor hopefuls split over gay issues

by Mary Jo Pitzi
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona)

Date: November 1, 1994

Arizona doesn't need laws that protect homosexuals from discrimination on the
basis of sexual orientation, two of the three candidates for governor said
Monday.

Republican Gov. Fife Symington and Libertarian John Buttrick said they would
veto any bills designed to provide "special protections" for homosexuals.

Democrat Eddie Basha said he would sign a bill protecting gays and lesbians
because he does not endorse discrimination on the basis of a person's sexual
orientation.

The candidates also split two to one - but along different lines - when the
issue of same sex marriages arose in a radio broadcast with the three.

Symington said he would veto such a bill because it would demean the
institution of marriage.

Buttrick and Basha said they would sign a bill that would allow homosexual
marriage.

The question arose when a caller to radio station KFYI (910 AM) pointed out
that California Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, in September vetoed a bill
that would have established the nation's first statewide domestic-partner
law.  The law would have granted domestic partners the right to visit each
other in the hospital and to will property more easily to each other.

Buttrick said he questions government's role in regulating marriage but said
homosexuals should be provided the same rights as everyone else.  Same-sex
marriages are illegal in Arizona.

"I've often wondered why government is the broker of marriage," Buttrick
said.  "Marriage is a contract between two individuals."

Basha agreed with Buttrick.

Buttrick said his belief in equal treatment for all is the reason he would
veto legislation that would ban discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation.

That puts him in the same camp as Symington, who has said that Arizona's
current laws adequately protect homosexuals against discrimination.

The governor earlier this year denounced a failed petition drive that sought
to ban laws protecting homosexuals from discrimination.  Symington said the
extra step of amending the state Constitution to ban such laws was
unnecessary and divisive.

Basha differed with his opponents.

"I would support laws the would protect gays," he said.

Basha, like Symington, opposed the failed petition drive to ban laws on
homosexual rights.  Buttrick, in later comments, said he saw no need for the
law, pushed by the Traditional Values Coalition of Arizona.

"I don't see why you would do a pre-emptive strike," Buttrick said, adding
that public officials could vote against specific laws when they arose.

-END-