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  By Steven Shelton
To the American Family Association of Michigan (AFAM), the campaign to prevent civil rights protections on the basis of sexual
orientation is an exercise in "compassion."
The group's leader, Gary Glenn, explained the organization's position to the Detroit News in February: "Homosexual behavior is a threat to an
individual's health and life. So who is more compassionate: individuals who encourage this behavior, or individuals who discourage it?"
Glenn's organization—whose website boldly displays headlines like "It's
Official: 'Diversity' Includes Sex-with-Children and Sex-with-Animals" and "Homosexuals More Likely to Molest Kids"—has used the issue of
same-sex benefits for city employees to fuel a ballot proposal aimed at preventing civil rights legislation protecting the rights of homosexuals.
The charge is being led by Jacob Van Giessen and pushed by Republican Kalamazoo County Commissioner Jack Hoogendyk, and is being overseen by Glenn.
Glenn oversaw similar campaigns in Royal Oak, Traverse City, Ypsilanti, and Ferndale and has now set his sights on Kalamazoo. His
successes in all of those cities but Ypsilanti emboldened the group to make a stand in Kalamazoo.
"We hope that the Royal Oak campaign will provide a template to traditional-values supporters all over the country who want to
defend the culture of life," Glenn told the right-wing publication Credo after that city's vote in May. "We have proven that if you present the truth about the extremely radical
agenda behind these ordinances and run the campaign the way it was run in Royal Oak, you should reasonably expect a similar outcome in most any community in America."
Critics have accused Glenn and his supporters of speaking everything but the truth,.charging them with misleading the public in attempts to
sway voters. The least of these offenses, say critics, is disguising language intended to promote discrimination as "anti-discrimination activism." In Ypsilanti, petitioners hired by the American Family
Association's allies were accused of lying to residents to obtain signatures. Evan Wolfson of the LAMBDA legal defense and education fund said the AFAM goes further by slurring homosexuals.
"Their material and fundraising appeals consistently contain hateful and
vicious stereotypes and demonizing language about lesbians and gay men," he said.
In a June media release, Glenn called upon the American Legion in Kalamazoo to support Proposal A to "protect young boys from
exposure to adult males openly involved in homosexual behavior." The release went on to say that the dangers of this exposure include child molestation and other unspecified health risks.
For his part, Van Giessen says that homosexuals are lying to the public. Speaking before the Kalamazoo City Commission in March, he
accused the city of "giving special rights for behavioral problems."
"Gays are not born that way," he said. "They can be cured, although they won't admit it."
 The issue of civil rights and sexual
orientation came to Kalamazoo in the fall of 2000 when City Manager Pat DiGiovanni made a suggestion designed to make the city a more attractive employer: provide benefits
for the partners of city employees, regardless of gender. The suggestion raised the ire of religious conservatives in the city, and the city's approval of the measure spurred Van Giessen to
initiate a petition drive to change the city's charter. The change would prevent the city from enacting "any ordinance, regulation, rule or
policy which provides that homosexual, lesbian, or bisexual orientation, status, conduct, or relationship constitutes, entitles or otherwise
provides a person with the basis to have any claim of minority or protected status, quota preference or other preferential treatment."
Van Giessen's group, "Kalamazoo Citizens Voting Yes for Equal Rights
Not Special Rights," collected nearly 2,500 signatures, assuring that the issue would appear on the November 6 ballot in Kalamazoo.
Critics of the group say that the group's use of same-sex benefits for
city employees as an issue is misleading. The city's attorneys, who were charged with reviewing the proposal for approval on the ballot, told the Kalamazoo Gazette that even if the proposal were approved, it
would have no effect on the city's domestic benefits policies.
Instead, critics say, the proposal would have the effect of legalizing
discrimination against people in Kalamazoo on the basis of their sexual orientation.
"The effect of this ballot initiative would be fairly simple; it would prevent
the City of Kalamazoo from ever enacting any law that would protect the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community from discrimination," said
John Wilkerson, Field Director of Kalamazoo Against Discrimination (KAD), the group leading the opposition to the proposal. "If the city ever
felt that they needed to pass a law that would protect gays and lesbians, they would not have that option if this proposal passes," he said.
"If this went through, what it would mean for people who are gay or
lesbian or bisexual in town is that they could be fired just for being gay," echoed Carol Anderson, a member of Kalamazoo Against
Discrimination. "This isn't about domestic partner benefits. It's about denying people an equal right."
Meanwhile, supporters of the proposal—and others like it in Michigan—acknowledge that the goal is to legalize discrimination
against homosexuals statewide through legislative action in Lansing. Bloomfield Hills attorney John Robertson, who has been a financial contributor to similar campaigns in
other cities, told reporters after their success in Royal Oak that they would pressure the state legislature to "ban municipalities from enacting" civil rights laws that
recognize sexual orientation.
AFAM has previously provided funding and logistic support for anti-gay campaigns in Michigan, but calls to the group to determine its
involvement in the Kalamazoo campaign were not returned. Similar calls to members of Kalamazoo Citizens Voting Yes for Equal Rights Not Special Rights were also not returned.
Wilkerson said that his group, Kalamazoo Against Discrimination, "is a
group of local citizens opposed to the anti-gay City Charter amendment petitions that have been submitted to the City Clerk on the grounds that
they deliberately target one segment of Kalamazoo's population for legalized discrimination. They were formed during the last half of last
year, around October, 2000." The group is taking no chances, he said, and has hired Robert Dempsey, a Democratic campaign manager, to head the campaign against Proposal A.
Other groups, such as the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Human Rights Campaign, have also gone on record against the
proposal. A number of local churches, businesses, and community leaders—including Jon Stryker—have said they also oppose Proposal A.
The message, said Demspey, is simple: "Oppose discrimination."
"This proposal is plainly intended as a means of legalizing
discrimination against a group of people," he said. "This isn't about 'special rights.' It's about equal rights."
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Related Links and References
Kalamazoo Against Discrimination
The official website of the
group leading the opposition to Proposal A.
The American Family Association of Michigan
The website of the group promoting Proposal A and
measures like it throughout the state.
The American Family Association
The national organization, of which the AFAM is a state chapter.
Man on a Mission
The Detroit News profile of
Gary Glenn, leader of the AFAM.
Intolerance
Essay by Alan Hainkel, who says that the hatred that fueles Proposal A is the same hatred that fuels violence worldwide.
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