Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN VOICE
NOVEMBER 3/1994
Gay ties cost former police chief a chance at federal job
Portland, OR—A former chief of city po
lice said Oct. 19 that his support for gay rights
led him to give up on a chance to head the new
federal community policing program.
Tom Potter said he withdrew as a finalist
for the job after a U.S. Justice Department
official told him his stand on gay rights could
hurt the Clinton administration.
“I thought [withdrawing] was in the best
interest of the program and certainly the Clinton
administration,” Potter said.
Potter, 54, declined an offer from the Jus
tice Department to be reconsidered for the post
on Oct. 21, after Attorney General Janet Reno
acknowledged that administration officials dis
cussed controversy arising from Potter’s ad
vocacy work.
“I think if there are issues with respect to
controversy that his advocacy or his work might
have generated, those have to be addressed in
determining the impact on the program,” Reno
said.
Potter served as Portland’s police chief
from 1990 to 1993. He made national head
lines when he marched in uniform in several
gay pride parades.
He has openly supported his daughter, Port
land police officer Katie Potter, who is a les
bian. Since his retirement as chief, he has been
active in Oregon on gay rights issues.
Justice Department officials asked Potter
to apply for the job in August. The program
was instituted under the new crime bill, and
administration officials say it will help pro
vide as many as 100,000 new officers in the
next few years.
Potter said he learned of the admin
istration’s concerns earlier this month after
meeting with John Schmidt, the lead adminis
trator for the crime law.
“John Schmidt raised the issue by saying,
‘There’s a problem’ or ‘We have a problem,’
and then we started talking about that issue,”
Potter said.
According to Potter, he brought up his stand
on homosexuality himself during initial inter
views, but it didn’t become an issue until sub
sequent background checks revealed that he
had openly recruited gay and lesbian officers.
Potter said that Schmidt told him the ad
ministration was concerned that his advocacy
could harm the program and act as a barrier
between him and other police chiefs around
the country.
Potter added that Schmidt told him he “felt
relieved” when Potter withdrew his name.
A Justice Department official, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said the White House
never weighed in on the matter.
“The administration didn’t oppose his ad
vocacy nor did we ask him to withdraw,” the
Justice Department official said. “The issue
was whether he would be a controversial fig
ure at the head of a program that’s already
under partisan attack.”
ANDREW WATERS
Tom Potter withdrew from consideration
after his support for gay rights became
an issue.
Anti-gay laws cost
states millions
Washington, DC—Passage of anti-gay ini
tiatives and ordinances has cost states and cit
ies at least $169 million in lost business, ac
cording to a survey released October 19.
“Business organizations are standing up to
the radical right groups as the costs of their
divisive agenda become painfully clear,” said
Stacie Spector, director of Americans Against
Discrimination, a project of the Human Rights
Campaign Fund.
Her group surveyed convention and visi
tors bureaus, chambers of commerce and
groups working to defeat such initiatives to
estimate the losses.
In Colorado, for example, which passed
the anti-gay Amendment 2 in 1992, the state
lost almost $120 million in convention and
tourism business through the end of 1993, the
group found. At least 47 organizations can
celed plans to hold conferences or conven
tions in Colorado as a result of Amendment
2’s passage, the group said. Several compa
nies also dropped plans to move to the state.
The group estimated that Cincinnati has
lost some $19.2 million since voters there
passed an initiative in 1993 repealing an ordi
nance protecting gays from discrimination
based on sexual orientation.
And in Portland, Ore., more than $15 mil
lion worth of convention business has been
put on hold pending the vote on a statewide
anti-gay initiative in November. That figure
represents business from eight conventions
expected to bring almost 27,000 visitors.
“Most are waiting to see,” said Deborah
Wakefield of the Portland Visitors Bureau.
“I’m sure if this passes, the state will see an
effect everywhere.”
In 1992, when voters faced a similar anti
gay initiative in Oregon, organizations put an
estimated $19.3 million worth of meetings and
other activities on hold in Portland, Wakefield
said. But when that measure was defeated,
those groups went ahead with their meetings.
Cobb County, Ga., has lost an estimated
$10 million since it passed a resolution in Au
gust 1993 that said “lifestyles advocated by
the gay community” were incompatible with
community standards.
And following a vote in 1992 to repeal
sections of the city’s human rights ordinance,
Tampa, Fla., lost at least $5.5 million with the
cancellation of the 5,000-member GALA Cho
ruses convention and a meeting of the Catho
lic Campus Ministers Association, Spector’s
group said.
Blockbuster Music. Marshalls.
Publix. Coconuts. Tower Records.
Backstage Discount Music
CHARGE-BV-phone: (404) 249-6400
Produced by Cellar Door
jggff IT
WITH SPECIAL SUES!
jS^ ' : i if
hootie and
the blowfish
to/ 1
Tp
at The Omni
November 30,1994
7:30 PM
F „
Tickets available at all
Ticketmaster outlets,
charge-by-phone
at 249-6400.
KIM I. MILLS