Gay Activists Unsure on Calling for Colorado Boycott

Gay and lesbian activists from around the country ended a three-day conference in Los Angeles on Sunday unsure of whether to call for a national boycott of Colorado to protest that state’s recent approval of an anti-gay referendum.

“At this point, we are neither condemning nor condoning a boycott of Colorado,” said Bruce Pfrommer of Colorado, one of more than 1,100 activists who attended the fifth annual Creating Change conference at the Airport Hilton over the weekend.

“We want to be real careful about what we’re doing here. . . . There’s a lot of concern that we don’t rush into a call for a boycott,” Pfrommer said.

Chief among those concerns is fear that a boycott would hurt businesses and communities that opposed Colorado’s Amendment 2, a constitutional amendment that rescinds gay rights ordinances in Denver, Boulder and Aspen and prevents state or local governments from passing any such protections in the future. Voters approved the measure this month with a 53% majority.

“Why do you punish Aspen, which did not vote yes?” asked Pfrommer. “How do we draw the line on this?”

He said discussion of the boycott of Colorado’s lucrative tourist and convention business will continue among activists in the state, who are forming a coalition to overturn the amendment.

Gay rights groups and affected cities have filed a lawsuit challenging the initiative. Activists are also planning a statewide march to protest the amendment, and are considering launching drives for a pro-gay initiative, said Robert Bray of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which organized the conference.

Meanwhile, independent attempts to persuade Hollywood entertainers to avoid Colorado are encountering resistance. “There seems to be a reluctance on the part of the entertainment industry to step up to the plate and declare their support for an outright boycott,” said Philip Lobel, who is trying to promote a Hollywood boycott through a new group called COFFIN, Coloradans and Californians for Fairness in the Nation.

“I don’t know which direction the entertainment industry will take on this,” he said, adding that many entertainers had repeated concerns that a boycott would harm the very towns, such as Aspen, that have been the most supportive of gay rights in the state.

Still, Lobel said, a number of people he had spoken to in the industry were quietly canceling plans for vacations in Colorado. He has also received many offers of financial assistance to help pay legal bills for the court challenge. To encourage such donations, COFFIN has designed an ad that the group hopes to run in gay publications and Hollywood trade papers.

At the same time, the organization Hollywood Supports, a group that fights anti-gay and anti-AIDS discrimination in Hollywood, is encouraging entertainers to keep their money and film projects out of Colorado.

Richard Jennings, the group’s executive director, said: “The most effective way to show (Amendment 2) isn’t going to be accepted . . . is to apply basic economic pressure.”