Date: Sat, 18 Feb 1995 18:02:13 -0500
From: DavidN1327@aol.com

NEWS RELEASE

Saturday, February 19, 1995

Contact: Gay and Lesbian Utah Democrats
 Post Office Box 11311
 Salt Lake City, Utah 84147-0311
 (801)238-2526 metropolitan Salt Lake City telephone number
 (800)648-9996 national toll-free telephone number
 Internet: glud@aol.com

Tear sheet requested

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GLUD to testify against Utah marriage bill 

SALT LAKE CITY - The controversial bill H.B. 366, "Recognition of Marriages,"
which is being considered at the Utah Legislature which would ban the
recognition of same-sex marriages which are performed outside the state is
scheduled for its first public hearing in the state House of Representatives
Energy, Natural Resources and Agriculture Standing Committee at 4:00 p.m. on
Monday, Feb. 20 in room 403 of the Utah Capitol Building.

Gay and Lesbian Utah Democrats leaders are planning to testify against the
bill. They say the bill is discriminatory and would adversely affect the
state's business and tourism, and its 2002 Winter Olympics bid.

"The arguments for this bill are the same as those that supported the state's
law against interracial marriages which was repealed in 1963," GLUD Founder
David Nelson said. "That kind of discrimination is likely to provoke the kind
of reaction against Utah as happened in Colorado when voters in that state
adopted a homophobic ballot initiative in 1993, and in Cobb County, Ga., when
county commissioners adopted a homophobic resolution in 1994."

A yearlong effort to boycott Colorado cost that state more than $120 million
in business and tourism, while Cobb County, Ga., lost its chance to host the
1996 Summer Olympics volleyball competition.

Utah law prohibits same-sex marriages from being performed in the state but
recognizes marriages which are performed in other states and countries.
Same-sex marriages are legal in Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, but
aren't legal in any state of the United States. The Hawaii Supreme Court is
expected to decide this year that same-sex marriages are legal in that state.
Other states may be required to recognize such marriages.