>From The Cincinnati Enquirer - 11/4/93
     
CONVENTION TRADE HURT BY PASSAGE
     
Church group drops city from consideration as site
     
By Lew Moores
The Cincinnati Enquirer
     
A day after Cincinnatians voted to repeal a gay-rights law, city
officials and convention planners were facing lost business from groups
concerned with the action.
     
"We are beginning already to have cancellation of conventions, and there
is already significant financial loss," Mayor-elect Roxanne Qualls said
Wednesday. "And this is probably just the beginning."
     
One group once considering Cincinnati as a convention site had dropped
out, another is looking for an alternative site, and a third has called
the Greater Cincinnati Convention & Visitors Bureau to express concern
about passage of Issue 3.
     
how hard Cincinnati may get hit financially because of Issue 3 will
depend on how forcefully gay advocacy groups call for any boycott of the
city, and the legal outcome of a suit expected to challenge
constitutionality of the amendment.
     
"We don't take this issue lightly," said Mike Wilson, president of the
convention and visitors bureau.
     
Two of the conventions in question are scheduled for January, 1995, a
critical month in the convention business because it is typically slow.
     
The executive board of the Chicago based American Library Association is
looking at alternative sites for its mid-winter 1995 conventions. "We
are very concerned about infringements on human rights," said Peggy
Sullivan, executive director.
     
The American Historical Association, based in Washington, D.C., has
expressed concern, Wilson said. "Both were considered very critical,"
he said. "They were tow special and important meetings."
     
A third group, the United Church of Christ was considering Cincinnati or
Kansas City for a 1997 convention. "They said they will no longer
consider Cincinnati," Wilson said.
     
The convention business pumps millions of dollars into the local
economy. In 1992, $192 million was spent on hotels, restaurants and
services.
     
A conservative estimate - being updated later this year - is that a
convention delegate spends $640 during and average 3.8 day stay, Wilson
said.
     
As the bureau was assessing what groups and organizations in the coming
years might reconsider coming to Cincinnati, the city found itself being
forced to defend expected litigation over the charter amendment, which
many city council members opposed.
     
Deputy City Solicitor Rober Johnstone would not speculate on the city's
actions until a lawsuit is filed. But he conceded that, depending on
how a suit is styled, the city would likely have to defend the Issue 3
charter amendment.
     
Qualls, who counted the gay community as one of her most solid blocs of
supporters, strongly opposed Issue 3. She said she would support the
city solicitor if an opinion were issued to defend the charter
amendment.
     
Gay advocacy groups will meet this evening to discuss the aftermath of
the campaign - and whether a boycott will be called for. Alphonse
Gerhardstein and Scott Greenwood - attorneys for Equality Cincinnati,
the group that campaigned against Issue 3 - said a suit will be filed
within a week challenging the charter amendment on constitutional
grounds.
     
The charter amendment denies equal protection to a group of identifiable
people, saying they can't use the legislative process to secure
protections, both said. It further prohibits them from a redress of
grievances, violating both the 14th and First amendments, they said.
     
Greenwood said the charter amendment no only authorizes discrimination
against homosexuals and bisexuals, "it encourages it."