Date: Fri, 21 Oct 1994 14:12:13 -0500 (GMT-0500) From: "Thomas W. Holt Jr." Subject: Police job candidate withdraws over gay rights (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 21 Oct 1994 08:56:14 -0700 From: Mills Mike To: Multiple recipients of list GLB-NEWS Subject: Police job candidate withdraws over gay rights _______________________________________________________________________________ Police job candidate withdraws over gay rights Date: Thu, 20 Oct 94 WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Attorney General Janet Reno said Thursday a candidate for a Justice Department job dealing with adding more police officers nationwide withdrew from consideration over concern about his advocacy of gay rights. She said at her weekly news conference that Thomas Potter, police chief in Portland, Ore., from 1990 to 1993, first had raised the issue with her as a potential problem. Potter publicly supported his daughter, a police officer in Portland, when she declared in 1991 that she was a lesbian. He later marched in gay pride parades while wearing his uniform. Reno said Associate Attorney General John Schmidt later had further discussions and ``raised the question'' with Potter about whether his views would be a distraction and hurt the policing program. Potter, at an Oct. 5 meeting with Schmidt, then withdrew as a candidate for the job, she said, adding: ``I respect what I understood to be his decision.'' Reno still praised Potter's work on community policing. ``I have a high regard for him. I think we would still be considering his application if he had not withdrawn.'' Some Justice Department officials had expressed concern that Potter's views might draw fire from other, more conservative police chiefs around the country and undermine the program. The job involves running the Justice Department's program to add 100,000 new police officers nationwide as called for in the recently adopted crime bill. ``I don't think his advocacy, I don't think his belief is a concern,'' Reno said. ``If there are issues with respect to controversy that his advocacy or his work might have generated, those have to be addressed in determining the impact on the program,'' she said.