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SOUTHERN VOICE NOVEMBER4/1993
Gingrich draws fire for supporting
congressmen who won't hire gays
John Lewis and Cynthia
McKinney among colleagues
who denounced Marietta
congressman’s comments.
Washington D.C.—The backlash against a
group of Oklahoma congressmen who said
they wouldn’t hire gays and lesbians on their
staffs has created a rift among Georgia’s con
gressional delegation.
After Marietta Republican U.S. Rep. Newt
Gingrich told the Washington Times that a
congressman shouldn’t be forced to hire gays
or lesbians if it was “against his religion,”
U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Atlanta, and U.S.
Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Lithonia, joined
14 of their colleagues in sending a letter to
Gingrich saying they were “extremely disap
pointed” in his position.
“Your statement is simply that one should
not criticize others if they have a religious
basis for discriminating. If in fact you mean to
say that there are some religious objections
that are better than others, we would be inter
ested in what scriptural text or religious insti
tution you would have us look to in discrimi
nating between religious bases for discrimi
nating,” the letter said.
The controversy started on Oct. 3, when
the Tulsa World asked all of Oklahoma’s con
gressmen and senators whether they would
hire lesbians or gays. While both of the state’s
senators and three of its congressmen said
they had no problem hiring gays or lesbians,
three others—Republicans Jim Inhofe and
Ernest Istook and Democrat Bill Brewster—
said they would not. Inhofe said hiring an
“If a member of Congress stated
he wouldn’t hire a black person
or a Jew in his office, there would
be proceedings under way today
to censure them,” said Gregory
King, spokesman for Human
Rights Campaign Fund.
openly gay person for his staff would be “dis
ruptive in terms of unit cohesion.”
House Speaker Tom Foley, D-Washing
ton, then added fuel to the fire when he said
that while he deplored discrimination, he didn’t
believe House rules could be changed to pro
tect gays and lesbians from employment dis
crimination.
“Whether it’s a person who does not hire
someone because of gender, or religion, or
race or sexual orientation, I do not approve in
any way such a decision,” Foley said. “But
how you require individual members of Con
gress to hire specific individuals, other than
those they say they have confidence in and
wish to employ, is a difficult problem.”
Under House rules, members cannot make
job decisions based on a person’s race, color,
national origin, sex, disability or age. Sexual
orientation is not mentioned. Federal civil
rights laws do not forbid discrimination based
on sexual orientation, although legislation has
been introduced that would add that category.
However, those laws do not apply to Con
gress, although Foley has said he supports an
effort to review whether they should. The Dis
trict of Columbia has enacted legislation for
bidding discrimination against gays and lesbi
ans, but it also does not apply to members of
Congress.
Foley said that members of Congress, by
the nature of their jobs, need freedom in hiring
that would be intolerable elsewhere. For ex
ample, liberal Democrats should not be forced
to hire conservative Republicans.
“I don’t know how you can set up stan
dards other than serving at the pleasure of the
member,” Foley said.
Foley’s statement drew fire from national
gay/lesbian groups.
“If a member of Congress stated he
wouldn’t hire a black person or a Jew in his
office, there would be proceedings under way
today to censure them,” said Gregory King,
spokesman for Human Rights Campaign Fund.
Gingrich, in a story about the controversy
and openly gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank’s de
nunciation of the Oklahoma congressmen’s
comments, was quoted as saying, “How can
U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney joined Rep.
John Lewis and 14 other congressman
in sending a letter expressing “extreme”
disappointment in Gingrich’s position.
Barney Frank suggest that we impose on a
member of Congress a standard which that
member of Congress may regard as against
his religion?”
Gingrich, whose district consists of the
northern suburbs of Atlanta, is in line to be
come the next Republican leader of the House.
“For a member of the Republican leader
ship to make such a statement seems to us to
encourage behavior in members of the House
which contrasts with our ideals of fair treat
ment,” said the letter from Lewis, McKinney
and the 14 members of Congress.
As the controversy intensified, Istook de
fended his position, saying it was not based
not on prejudice but on a desire to employ
people who shared his political ideology.
“If Barney Frank and some other people
don’t like it, well, I’m not about to kneel to the
false god of political correctness,” he said.
RICHARD SHUMATE
and ASSOCIATED PRESS
SIC at EMORY
Ursula Oppens, piano
“The soloist was the compellingly intense
Ursula Oppens, who simply knows better than most
how to draw a listener into musical discourse.”
—LOS ANGELES HERALD EXAMINER
Friday, November 12, 8:15 P.M.
Qlenn Memorial Auditorium
Beethoven: Fantasia in G minor, Op. 77, Sonata No. 32
in C minor, Op. 111
Harbison: Sonata No. I
Ravel: Vaises Noble et Sentimentales, La Valse
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Emory University
The Inaugural Performance
by the Emory Chamber Music
Society of Atlanta
Brice Andrus, horn • Laura Ardan,
clarinet • Teresa Hopkin, soprano •
Daniel Laufer, cello • Jun-Ching Lin,
violin • Amy Leventhal, viola • Keiko
Ransom & William Ransom, pianists
Tuesday, November 9, 8:15 P.M.
Cannon Chapel
Beethoven: Sonata for Horn and Piano
in F, Op. 17
Villa-Lobos: Duo for Violin and Viola
Brahms: Trio in A minor, Op. 114
Dohnanyi: Sextet in C Major, Op. 37
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