of Monterey & Monterey County

ODDS AND ENDS

1. Become a member of PFLAG and join with thousands of people from all walks of life, working to end discrimination against lesbians, gays, and bisexuals.
2. Teach your children that being gay, lesbian, or bisexual is simply another means of expressing love.
3. If one of your family is gay, lesbian, or bisexual be sure to let them know you love them just the way they are.
4. Don't tell anti-gay jokes. You just perpetuate the stereotypes about gays and lesbians.
5. Read our PFLAG literature and find out more about what it is really like to be a lesbian, gay, or bisexual in our society.
6. Be open with others about having lesbian, gay, or bisexual friends or family. Secrecy breeds shame.
7. If you overhear someone making an anti-gay comment, let them know you don't agree or approve.
8. Write Congress to protest any anti-gay legislation as you become aware of it.
9. Encourage open and honest discussion of gay, lesbian, and bisexual issues in your home, workplace and church.
10. Stand with those who believe that discrimination against anyone is a crime against humanity -- TAKE A STAND WITH PFLAG.

You can do a lot to change the way people think by educating them to the hateful agenda behind organizations that hide beneath the innocuous banner of family values. In addition to those listed below, the Christian Coalition, the Oregon and Idaho Citizens Alliances and Colorado for Family Values are all organizations that abuse the true meaning of family.

AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION
Promotes the "agenda" through court actions; also targets media/entertainment industry. Concerns include homosexuality, pornography, profanity, "anti-Christian bigotry," liberal media Influential on National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) funding and public school curricula censorship. 600,000 members, 640 local chapters. Donald Wildmon. P.O. Box 2440, Tupelo, MS 38803.

CONCERNED WOMEN OF AMERICA
Anti-gay, anti-abortion, "pro-family" agenda via grassroots organizing and Congressional lobbying. Pressures elected officials via local groups ("prayer chains"). 600,000 members, 800 US chapters. Beverly LaHaye, 370 L'Enfant Promenade SW, #800, Washington, DC 20024.

EAGLE FORUM
A women's organization powerful in national and Republican party politics thanks to Phyllis Schlafly, founder. Mother of a gay man, she opposes AIDS education, sex education, daycare, family leave, abortion rights, the ERA, and NEA funding. 80,000 members. Phyllis Schlafly, Box 618, Alton, II 62002.

FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL
Lobbies against G/L/B civil rights, reproductive freedom, government-funded health care, child care and equal protection laws for women in the workplace. Says lifting the military ban on gays will dramatically increase AIDS incidence. Not the someos Paul Cameron's Family Research Institute. Split from Focus on the Family in 1992. Gory Bauer, 700 13th Street, NW, Ste. 500, Washington, DC.

FOCUS ON THE FAMILY
Employs almost 1,000. 1,550 radio stations worldwide. A leader in the passage of Colorado's Amendment 2 to disallow equal rights For G/L/B. Conducts seminars nationally to involve fundamentalists in political process. James Dobson, P.O. Box 35500, Colorado Springs, CO 80935.

TRADITIONAL VALUES COALITION
Opposes gay rights, reproductive freedom, teaching evolution, and sex education except abstinence. Newest group is National Task Force for the Preservation of the Heterosexual Ethic in America. Active in DC, OR, and CA to outlaw civil rights protections for G/L/B people. Now organizing anti gay ballot initiatives in California and elsewhere. helped repeal G/L rights in Irvine and Concord, CA. Advocates AIDS quarantine. 25,000 Churches nationally. Rev. Lou Sheldon, 100 S. Anaheim Blvd., Ste. 320, Anaheim, CA 92805.

FREE CONGRESS FOUNDATION
A research/education organization. Formed National Empowerment Television (NET) to mobilize Right for grassroots lobbying. Hopes to expand to cable TV. Operates Judicial Selection Monitoring Project. Has f our n/ shows including two to target black conservatives and college campus Weyrich, 717 Second Street, NW, Washington, DC 20002.

OFERATION RESCUE
Nationally known for violent shut-downs of abortion clinics and vandalizing property, terrorizing women and health-care providers including stalking, harassment, and other intimidation tactics. Trains activists. Added gay rights to agenda when Clinton proposed to lift the military ban. 35,000 + members. Randall Terry, P.O. 1180, Binghampton, NY 13902.

CHALCEDON
Principle center of the Christian Reconstruction Movement. Leader in establishing Christian legal organizations and a major think tank. Publisher, speakers bureau, and seminar presenter. Rousas John Rushdoony.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATORS/CITILENS FOR EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION
Goal is to bring public education under Christian control. Priority is disruption of public schools via attacks on curricula, text books, and school boards. 1,250 chapters. Dr. Robert i. Simonds, P.O. Box 3200, Costa Mesa, CA 92628.

Politics and Civil Rights

1. The first openly gay or lesbian elected official was Kathy Kozachenko, who was chosen for the Ann Arbor, Michigan, city council in 1974.
2. In January 1980 there were 5 openly gay or lesbian elected officials in the USA.
3. In January 1994 there were 133 openly gay or lesbian elected officials in the USA.
4. The Democratic Party first adopted a platform plank favoring lesbian and gay rights in 1980. The Green party has a gay rights plank. No Republican Party platform has endorsed gay or lesbian rights.
5. Bill Clinton received 89.2% of the lesbian and gay vote in 1992.
6. The first state to decriminalize homosexuality was Illinois, in 1961.
7. The first city to ban discrimination against gay men and lesbians was East Lansing, Michigan in 1972.
8. The first county to prohibit job discrimination against gays and lesbians was Santa Cruz County in California, in 1975.
9. The first state to pass a civil rights law protecting the rights of gays and lesbians was Wisconsin, in 1982.
10. The first bill to extend federal civil rights protection to gay men and lesbians was introduced in Congress on May 14, 1974. No federal civil rights law has yet been enacted.
11. In 1993 elections, 3 cities--Cincinnati; Lewiston, Maine; and Portsmouth, New Hampshire-passed antigay measures by margins of 61% to 31%, 70% to 30~0, and 60% to 400/0, respectively.
12. From November 3, 1992, to September 30, 1993, at least 132 attempts to restrict the rights of gay men and lesbians occurred in 41 states and the District of Columbia. This activity included statewide ballot initiatives, legislative battles, state court decisions, local ordinance, curriculum controversies, and attempts at censorship.
13. Lesbians and gay men have virtually no legal rights when a partner becomes incapacitated because of accident or illness.

Demographics

1. The 7 largest concentrations of the lesbian and gay population in the USA are:
   1. Manhattan
   2. San Francisco
   3. Boston/Cambridge
   4. Seattle
   5. Oakland/Berkeley
   6. Washington, D.C.
   7. Chicago/Evanston
2. Of all lesbians and gay men, 45.1% and 52.7% live in urban areas, respectively, while 33.1% and 31.7% live in the suburbs, respectively.
3. The average household income for lesbians in the U.S. is estimated at $45,927, while for gay men it was $51,325. In 1990 the average household income in the U.S. for all families was $36,520.

Health/Medicine

1. In 1942, the American Psychiatric Association declared that Homosexuality is a disease.
2. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed Homosexuality from its list of diseases.
3. The next year, 37% of its membership voted to reclassify homosexuality as a disease; they were not successful.

Family/Relationships

1. In a 1992 study, 55.5% of gay men and 71.2% of lesbians were in steady relationships.
2. As of November 1997, all 50 states denied gay men and lesbians the right to marry.
3. An estimated 6 million to 14 million children have a lesbian or gay parent.
4. Courts in 11 states have ruled that gay men and lesbians, on the basis of their sexual orientation, are unfit to receive custody of their children.
5. A review of 9 studies of aspects of personal development--such as self-concept, moral judgment, and intelligence-revealed no significant difference between children of lesbians and gay men and children of heterosexuals.

Violence

1. In the five major U.S. cities that have professionally staffed agencies that monitor anti-lesbian and antigay violence--Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis and St. Paul, New York, and San Francisco-- reports of anti-gay and anti-lesbian incidents increased by 172% between 1988 and 1992;
2. In 1988, 697 incidents were reported
3. In 1990, 949 incidents were reported
4. In 1992, 1,898 incidents were reported
5. The most common perpetrators of anti-lesbian and anti-gay violence-responsible for 50% of all reported incidents--are youths ages 21 or under; 94% of the perpetrators are male. About two-thirds of the perpetrators are unknown to the victims.
6. 89% of all incidents reported to the New York City Anti-Violence Project in 1992 resulted in no arrest.

Youth

1. As many as 7.2 million Americans under age 20 are lesbian or gay.
2. 45% of gay males and 20% of lesbians experience physical or verbal assault in high school; 28% of these young people feel forced to drop out of school due to harassment based on sexual orientation.
3. According to Kinsey, 28% of boys and 17% of girls have one or more same-sex experiences before age 20.
4. 80% of lesbian and gay youths who took part in a 1987 study reported severe isolation. 5. Every day, 13 Americans ages 15 to 24 commit suicide. In 1989, suicide was the leading cause of death among gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered youths; 53% of transsexual youths surveyed in 1981 had attempted suicide.
5. Lesbian and gay youths account for up to 30% of all completed suicides among youths. 7. In December 1993, Massachusetts became the first and only state in the country to outlaw discrimination against lesbian and gay students in public schools.

Public Opinion, and other stuff

1. In 1965, 82% of men and 58% of women said that homosexuality represents a "clear threat" to the American way of life.
2. In 1977, 56% of Americans said homosexuals should have equal rights in employment.
3. By 1992, that number had risen to 74%.
4. 11% of Americans would object to having a gay airline pilot.
5. 55% of Americans would object to having a gay elementary school teacher.
6. 49% of Americans would object to having a gay doctor.
7. In 1993, 66.3% of the American population believed that sexual relations between two consenting adults of the same sex were always wrong.
8. In a 1993 U.S. News and World Report poll of 1,000 registered voters, 53% said they knew someone who is gay of these, 73% supported equal rights for gays. 46% said they do not know someone who Is gay or lesbian; of these, 55 % supported the same rights.
9. Among world religions, Buddhism is notable in that it does not condemn homosexuality.
10. The word "homosexual" did not appear in any translation of the Christian Bible until 1946.
11. There are words in Creek for same-sex sexual activities, yet they never appear in the original text of the New Testament.
12. In 1972 the United Church of Christ became the first Christian denomination to ordain an openly gay candidate.