Court rejects Colorado's antigay amendment

Christian Century, June 5, 1996

In a decision hailed by homosexual groups as a major legal victory, the U.S. Supreme Court May 20 struck down a voter-approved Colorado constitutional amendment that prohibited laws specifically designed to protect gay and lesbian rights.

Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based national gay and lesbian lobbying group, called the 6-3 decision an outstanding moral victory ... especially important in light of the congressional gay-bashing, which has reached an all-time high in the last two weeks." Her statement referred to congressional hearings on proposed legislation to allow states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. But Frank Whitworth, executive director of Ground Zero, a coalition of Colorado homosexual groups formed to fight the amendment, said the ruling "does nothing to erase the extreme campaign of vilification, hatred and stereotypes" that the "fundamentalist evangelical community" had directed at gays and lesbians.

Conservative political and religious organizations were equally vocal in their reactions. Will Perkins, chairman of Colorado for Family Values, the group that authored the amendment, told reporters in Colorado Springs that the high courts ruling had resulted in a "truly chilling day for people of conscience across America." Perkins called the courts decision "extremist," giving "preferred status" to "a conduct that is considered reprehensible by a majority of the people." Tom Minnery, vice-president of Focus on the Family, an evangelical Christian ministry based in Colorado Springs, said the court had rejected an amendment that "politically disenfranchised no one" but "merely preserved the rights of the people of Colorado to respect their own moral beliefs about homosexuality."

The court ruled that the amendment - approved by Colorado voters in 1992 but never enforced because of court challenges - violated the constitutional rights of homosexuals to seek protection from bias in such areas as housing and employment. The Colorado Supreme Court had earlier ruled the amendment unconstitutional.

Said Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority: "We must conclude that Amendment P. classifies homosexuals not to further a proper legislative end but to make them unequal to everyone else. This Colorado cannot do. A state cannot so deem a class of persons a stranger to its laws." Siding with Kennedy were Justices John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the dissenting opinion, argued that the amendment was "a modest attempt by seemingly tolerant Coloradans to preserve traditional sexual mores against the efforts of a politically powerful minority to revise these mores through use of the laws." He said the amendment did not discriminate against homosexuals but sought to deny them "preferential treatment." Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas sided with Scalia. The courts ruling did not address the legality of homosexual conduct. In 1986 the Supreme Court upheld a Georgia law that outlawed homosexual activity between consenting adults.

The Colorado amendment was approved by 53.4 percent of the voters in a 1992 referendum after Denver, Aspen and Boulder earlier enacted laws that specifically protected gays and lesbians from discrimination. The state vote overturned the municipal laws and barred passage of any new ones. Passage of the amendment prompted a homosexual-led boycott of Colorado tourism, which is estimated to have cost the state about $40 million in convention business.