Groups Sponsoring Anti-Gay Measures Fall Short of Goals

Groups hoping to pass anti-homosexual initiatives in 10 states this year have fallen short of their goals, filing enough signatures to get measures on ballots in only two states.

More than 250,000 petition signatures were due Monday in Michigan, the last of the 10 states where ballot language has been filed. But George Matousek of the Michigan Family Values Committee, which started the petition drive, said Monday the effort had been put on hold because the wording was identical to a Colorado law that was declared unconstitutional by that state’s Supreme Court.

Several days of reckoning came last week in what has become a battle between gays and the conservatives who are backing initiatives to deny what they call “special rights” for homosexuals.

Supporters of such measures failed to file signed petitions in Missouri and Washington state on Friday, but did submit enough signatures to qualify for the ballots in Idaho and Oregon.

Suzanne Goldberg, a lawyer with the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, said her group would fight the ballot measures, first by challenging petition signatures.

Lambda is leading the gay community’s fight against Colorado’s Measure 2, a 1992 amendment that banned the state and local governments from prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. Amendment 2 was the model for the measures proposed in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Michigan and Nevada.

Other states where attempts were made to get an anti-gay rights measure on the ballot are Arizona, Nevada, Florida and Ohio.