Perspectives on Gay Rights : Who Will Decide? Who Is Next? : When laws are passed that stigmatize certain people and revoke their rights, no one is safe--except the Nazis.

Oregon is considered one of the more progressive and hospitable states in the nation. Because of this, young people, many with their families, have been drawn to the state to seek better lives and to reach out for the American dream.

But, there are those in Oregon who do not want or like young dreamers, especially if they be gays and lesbians. They hate gays and lesbians. They fear gays and lesbians. They want them to disappear and leave the state and the country to them and their own version of “traditional family values.”

Who are these Oregonians? They call themselves the Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA), an amalgam of self-styled Christians and professional bigots. The “Christians” preach not the love, tolerance and compassion on which the faith is based, but its antithesis.

Standing with them are the bully-boys of Oregon who hate for the sake of hating, who will strike out at anything and anyone who is different from them--Jews, African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and, the easiest prey of all, gays and lesbians. They are the local storm troops of Pat Robertson and Pat Buchanan and they do their masters proud.

They have placed Measure 9, a referendum aimed at gay and lesbian Oregonians, on the ballot. The general purpose of the measure is to put gays and lesbians outside the protection of the U.S. Constitution, to make us pariahs in our own land. The parallels to Nazi Germany in the ‘30s are plain to see.

Adding insult to injury, the language of the measure includes “pedophilia, sadism and masochism,” which are far more prevalent in heterosexual than in homosexual society. If this were enforced among the membership of the Oregon Citizens Alliance, its membership might be considerably diminished.

Measure 9 has three primary requirements: The state is forbidden to “recognize” sexual orientation; state and local governments are forbidden to “promote, encourage and facilitate” homosexuality, and, finally, public schools, colleges and universities will be required to teach that homosexuality is “abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse” and should be “discouraged and avoided.”

This latter requirement is to call nature itself abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse. Homosexuals are born, not taught. To be born homosexual is no different than to be born with blue eyes. No matter what the OCA, Dan Quayle, Pat Robertson or Pat Buchanan may dream up, I know. I was born a homosexual. Now, after 67 years of hiding and pandering to the Robertsons, Buchanans and Quayles of my time, I am an open and proud homosexual.

This measure would be the first to take civil rights away from Americans. Some of what it would do:

* Religious and public groups that may have had the temerity to adopt anti-discrimination measures would be barred from the use of any public facilities. This would include the Oregon branch of the American Bar Assn.

* Libraries would be required to remove from their shelves any books deemed to “promote” homosexuality--for example, “The Color Purple” and “Catcher in the Rye.” - Gays and lesbians would be barred from all professions if they were deemed to “promote, encourage or facilitate homosexuality.”

To teach children such ignorant and stereotypical nonsense is to ensure that more young boys and girls discovering their own sexuality will die by their own hands rather than endure lives regulated by the Oregon Citizens Alliance.

Who will decide just who and what is homosexual? Will it be the same type of bureaucrat who judged who was a Jew or politically undesirable in Germany? Or will it be a designated official of the Oregon Citizens Alliance who will serve as the modern Torquemada? And where will it stop?

I paraphrase what Pastor Martin Niemoller said almost 50 years ago: When Hitler attacked the Jews, I was not a Jew and was therefore not concerned. When he attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic and was therefore not concerned. When he attacked the unions and industrialists, I was not part of them and I remained unconcerned. Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant Church. There was nobody left to be concerned.

Now is the time for all Americans to be concerned.