| Johnson/Foy
| Public Relations | |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:Patricia Johnson-818-703-8329
Carla Michele-972-420-8866
| ||
Washington, D.C., Oct. 31 -Former U.N. Ambassador and 1996 Republican presidential candidate Dr. Alan Keyes
today denounced Initiative 677, on the ballot in Washington state next Tuesday. The measure is described by
supporters as an extension of civil rights protections to homosexuals in the workplace. Keyes rejected this
description as misleading, and called the initiative itself "dangerous to self-government."
It is wrong to treat sexual orientation like race, in terms of civil rights protections, Keyes said. "Race is a
condition that is beyond the individual's control, while sexual orientation involves behavior. If we equate sexual
orientation and race, we are saying that sexual behavior is beyond the individual's control and moral will. We
cannot embrace such an understanding of civil rights without denying the human moral capacity, and with it the
fitness of human beings for life in a free society."
The attempt to prohibit employers from making any employment-related decisions in light of the sexual behavior
of employees has nothing to do with protecting civil rights, Keyes pointed out. Rather, it is another step in the
unfolding agenda of coercion of the American conscience. "The real purpose of Initiative 677 is to use
government power, under cover of a spurious civil rights claim, to impose views that contravene religious
conscience and prevent the citizens of Washington State from exercising important moral judgments in their free
choice of associations."
Keyes noted that, at a time when the foundations of political liberty in America are threatened by a profound
moral crisis, sound public policy must seek to strengthen the confidence of all Americans in their own capacity
to make the sound moral judgments that make mature self-government possible. Rather than encourage such
discretion, he said, Initiative 677 seeks preemptively to suppress the moral judgments that all citizens must make
as they seek to build families, businesses, and lives according to their best judgment of the appropriate
standards of behavior that will make the pursuit of true happiness possible.
Keyes urged the citizens of Washington to protect the true civil right--the right to make our own moral
judgments free from government coercion--and to reject Initiative 677.
Keyes, who is widely credited for refocusing the debate on moral and social issues during the 1996 primary
season, currently hosts a nationally syndicated daily radio program, The Alan Keyes Show: America's Wake Up
Call. The program is simulcast on NET/Political News Talk Television.
# # #
Member of the Peter C.Foy Group of Companies