Date: Sun, 24 Mar 1996 13:11:03 -0500 From: "David B. O'Donnell" Subject: CFV seizes same-sex marriage to revive itself (CO, USA) [ Originally submitted by CORick@aol.com. Send replies to that address ONLY ] **PRESS RELEASE** Rick Cendo GLAIL CORick@aol.com COLORADO FOR FAMILY VALUES SEIZES SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IN BID TO REVIVE ITSELF "You can't marry an animal," Will Perkins proclaims DENVER, CO, March 24, 1996 -- Shaken by a phone-sex, child molestation scandal involving its "ex-gay" minister Colin Cook and lacking an executive director ever since Kevin Tebedo departed four months ago under a cloud, Colorado For Family Values is seeking to revive itself with scare tactics over the issue of same-sex marriage. In its first communications since the Tebedo departure, CFV within the last month has sent out a fund-raising letter and a newsletter addressing same-sex marriage. In the March 1996 "CFV Report," Executive Board Chairman Will Perkins writes an article headlined, "Gay Marriage is a Play for Power and Minority Privileges." Perkins demonstrates that homosexuals are not the only people discriminated against by marriage laws by pointing out that "you can't marry an animal." "But maybe the best argument against granting legal status to homosexual 'marriage' is that it would affirm homosexuality to an extent we never have before," Perkins writes. Such affirmation, Perkins frets, would then open the way for the "power and minority privileges" that Perkins claims homosexuals are really after. "Once society affirms homosexual 'marriage,' how will we refuse them the rest of their agenda," Perkins writes. "How do we deny them minority status, or affirmative curricula in the schools." "Perkins manages to spin absolutely everything and anything into his 'special rights' argument," said Rick Cendo of Gays and Lesbians Against Immoral Lifestyles. "By Perkins' reasoning, any equal rights for gays are really special rights because equal rights have the potential to eventually lead to a claim for special rights. This 'my way or the highway' position leaves no room for compromise, mutual understanding and fairplay, which are really the only ways these issues will ever be resolved." "One has to question why Will Perkins is so insecure in his anti-gay beliefs that he constantly needs forced affirmation by government of his personal prejudices," Cendo said.