Date:         Fri, 16 Sep 1994 18:53:03 -0400

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RI SENATOR'S ELECTION
A LITMUS TEST OF VOTER'S AND GAY ISSUE

Providence, RI (September 15, 1993) -- GLNB -- Democratic voter's in the
11th Rhode Island Senatorial District overrode the party's endorsement and
placed William P. Fitzpatrick's name on the November ballot, virtually
insuring the State's first and only openly gay elected official will be
returned to office for a second term.  He is unopposed in the general
election.

"It is the first time," said Fitzpatrick, "that any block of voters in
Rhode Island have had the opportunity to vote on anything directly related
to gay issues.  In my first campaign, my sexual orientation was not an
issue."  In 1992, when the State's major daily newspaper, The Providence
Journal-Bulletin,  printed an interview in which Fitzpatrick discussed
being gay shortly after his first election, some political opponents
claimed he was being dishonest with the voters.

"Now," says Fitzpatrick, "that controversy is behind me."  As one of the
most visible leaders in the gay community and a outspoken figure in the
State's legislature, it is difficult to imagine that anyone who knows
Fitzpatrick's name doesn't also know he's gay.   Fitzpatrick and media
pundits have attributed Fitzpatrick's recent victory to the legislator's
coalition of progressive, liberal, environmental, and human service
supporters.  He serves as vice chair of the Joint Committee on Environment
and Energy.  This coalition of supporters has helped demonstrate that
Fitzpatrick's agenda is not simply a gay agenda.

"Civil rights and equality are important to me, however so is education,
economic development in the State, the environment, and human services.
Some of the most important legislation I have been involved with had
nothing to do with gay rights and everything to do with the people in my
district.  I sponsored a bill that brought a $25 million dollar technology
development center into a blighted section of my district and I was also
the proud sponsor of a successful mental health parity bill."  He
remarked, "Even though I am a staunch supporter, I am not even the prime
sponsor of the gay rights bill."

Fitzpatrick, who first won office against a 15-year incumbent in 1992, ran
on a platform of reform and accessibility.  He said, "Our State Senator
wasn't listening to his constituents and I was obviously one of many
people he was ignoring.  I saw the distrust people had in our legislators
and understood how the collapse of our state's Credit Union insurance fund
fueled a voter backlash.  I wanted to be a part of the solution so I ran
for the seat."

Fitzpatrick's district is heavily Democratic with mostly working class
neighborhoods.  Both his election wins have been heavily influenced in
primary elections where he beat old-time partisan's connected with the
State's scandal-ridden past.  "The voter's are on to them and that is why
I have won twice without the endorsement of the old boy network," he said.

Fitzpatrick was challenged in his latest primary by  a former state house
lawyer and a second-time anti-choice candidate -- respectively, Steven
Robinson and Raymond Turgeon.  Turgeon was endorsed by the local
Right-to-Life committee.  In their endorsement letter to members the group
said Fitzpatrick was  a "practicing homosexual" and urged voters "to take
back your community for solid family values."  In the final tally of
Tuesday's primary Fitzpatrick racked up 53 percent of the vote, Robinson
41 percent, and Turgeon captured only 6 percent.

In a 1993 poll conducted by Brown University, it was determined that 60
percent of the state's population supported gay rights legislation.  A gay
rights bill has been defeated in the legislature for ten years running.
It has passed one side of the legislature and failed in the other in three
of the years it was introduced.  In 1993, Fitzpatrick's freshman session
it passed the Senate by an overwhelming shift in votes of 30 to 17.

Fitzpatrick said the most obvious sign of anti-gay sentiments during the
campaign were defaced campaign posters which had "homo" scrawled across
them on several occasions.  One newspaper reported that Steven Robinson
told a constituent that he supported gay rights, "but they will never be
equal to us."

"Otherwise," said the 33 year old computer analyst, "the sexual
orientation issue was driven in the visible campaign by indirect
code-words of the right wing."  Robinson's campaign slogan was "finally,
someone who will be our (sic) voice at the state house."  Fitzpatrick
said, "The inference was that that I was just the gay voice.  This was
merely an anti-gay scare tactic."

Fitzpatrick says he is looking forward to serving again and will continue
his agenda of introducing legislation "that strengthens the people who put
me here and not my friends."  As for another run, or higher office,
Fitzpatrick isn't making any commitments.  "I'm just looking forward to
getting this job done."

According to the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, nationally there are only 12
openly gay state legislators out of 7,461.  There are only 70 openly gay
elected officials out of 497,155 in the US.
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