Lecturer to argue against gay rights

The News & Observer, Oct. 10, 1994, Page B6

CHAPEL HILL -- Just last weekend, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance sponsored a conference at Chapel Hill High to promote greater sensitivity of the hardships and pressures faced by gay students.

Tonight, it's equal time for the conservatives. Bill Horn, who travels the country's Christian speaker circuit, will lecture on "The Gay Agenda in America and the Public Schools" at 7 p.m. at Phillips Middle School on Estes Drive. He wants to push gays back into the closet.

The Christian Coalition of Orange County invited Horn, a sportscaster who is more famous for his anti-gay videos than his baseball coverage.

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"I think in this political climate in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and even the whole county, that sort of opposition is likely to backfire," said Joe Herzenberg, the first openly gay elected official in the state. "It offends people so much I don't think it's effective."

Horn's organization, The Report, produced "The Gay Agenda" last year.

The video consists of interviews with former homosexuals, medical experts and clips from gay pride parades showing men strutting half-naked down city streets or dressed up as women, gesturing obscenely.

The video drew national attention when conservative activists used it to build opposition to gay rights ballot measures and to President Clinton's proposal to drop the ban on gays in the military. Since then, Horn and his small production company, have produced several other anti-gay videos, including one
on the public schools.

"When you talk about homosexuals, you don't just get the attorneys and school teachers," he said. "You get the transvestites, the people from ACT-Up, the QUEERs, SLUTs. Unfortunately, the other ones are not in leadership positions. If you have such good decent people, why aren't they stopping the people going in those parades?"

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