By slim Jim Puvee

Deviltry by the religious right aims to confuse voters about Issue 3

Don't bother packing a lunch. Following the money trail left by Equal Rights No Special Rights is a short trip.

Campaign finance reports filed Oct. 22 with the Hamilton County Board of Elections show vast differences between No Special Rights and Citizens to Restore Fairness, the grassroots organization scrabbling money and scrambling door-to-door to convince Cincinnati voters to repeal Article 12 of the city charter.

No Special Rights filed a campaign finance report whose contributions were summed up in less than one page -- three lines, in fact: two checks from Citizens for Community Values, one for $50,000 and another for $95,061 and a $20 check from one Phil Burress, founder of ... Citizens for Community Values (CCV).

As a nonprofit organization, CCV can endorse issues but not candidates. It doesn't have to disclose the names of its donors on campaign finance reports.

Focus on the fringe right
Burress, CCV and a group called Equal Rights Not Special Rights led the 1993 campaign that convinced voters to pass Article 12, prohibiting legislation to protect anyone from discrimination based on sexual orientation.

This year the No Special Rights political action committee has a total of about $150,000 to spend on yard signs and a slick Web site and to pay its consultants, who include the Rev. K.Z. Smith, City Councilman Sam Malone and others from his office and former Councilman Charlie Winburn.

Citizens to Restore Fairness (CRF) raised $556,000, nearly four times more than No Special Rights. Donations range from $4 in cash to a $30,000 check from Procter & Gamble Co. CRF's campaign finance report recounts 117 pages of fund-raising events, including 36 house parties and 21 dinners. Someone once bought $15 worth of water for volunteers.

But wait. Who's paying for the "No on Issue 3" commercials? According to channels 5 (WLW), 9 (WCPO) and 12 (WKRC), CCV paid for hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising.

Then there's Focus on the Family, the right-wing group from Colorado that saw fit to pay for a full-page ad in The Cincinnati Enquirer featuring Hamilton County Commissioner Phil Heimlich trying to refute the economic hurt caused by Article 12 and slipping in that "special rights" phrase at the last minute.

CCV paid Heimlich $55,000 in consulting fees in 2002, according to the group's most recent IRS tax return. God -- whom CCV credits for much of its work -- must have told Burress to pay himself $91,331.

There's also the American Family Association (AFA) from California, which joined Focus on the Family in calling a boycott of P&G products because of P&G's support for the repeal of Article 12.

AFA's Web site says P&G supports the "homosexual political agenda, including homosexual marriage."

They drew this conclusion in this way: "P&G said they 'will not tolerate discrimination (against homosexuals) in any form, against anyone, for any reason.' To keep homosexuals from being legally married is discrimination for good reason, which P&G says they will not tolerate. Taking them at their word, P&G supports homosexual marriage."

A P&G hotline reminds callers that Issue 3 has nothing to do with same-sex marriage. Under the cover of moral righteousness, the small group of white men and the black men serving as the public faces of opposition are not above lying to keep Article 12 on the books.

Protecting women's butts
What No Special Rights proponents say: They're protecting civil rights.

What they do: spend all their money in convincing black voters that this is the issue, just as they did in 1993 to pass Article 12 in the first place. Advertising is concentrated in black radio vehicles such as WDBZ (1230 AM) and the local African-American paper, The Cincinnati Herald.

What else they do: expropriate the image of the late Martin Luther King Jr., whose heirs support civil rights for the gay and lesbian community. The anti-repeal campaign also makes frequent references to the association between King and the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, fellow civil rights (for blacks) crusader.

What No Special Rights says: They're protecting marriage.

What they do: try to confuse voters into thinking Issue 3 has something to do with gay marriage. They stick signs saying, "Save Civil Rights and Marriage; No on 3" in some people's yards without permission. CRF has filed an objection with the Ohio Election Commission that says, "Clearly, Issue 1 is the marriage amendment in Ohio. Equal Rights No Special Rights is trying to tell voters that Issue 3 is the marriage amendment." Hearings are pending.

What else they do: worry only about the potential of marriages between gays and ignore the high rate of heterosexual divorce -- and their own failed marriages.

"We did not see them put up signs to save marriage when one out of two heterosexual marriages were ending," says the Rev. Damon Lynch III, who supports the repeal.

He also notes that the people now so concerned about civil rights were nowhere to be seen during the recent uproar about violations of African Americans' equal rights through economic apartheid and police brutality.

What No Special Rights says: Article 12 is not about discrimination or equal rights for homosexuals; it's about not granting them special rights. Homosexuality is not an "immutable characteristic" like skin color or gender as defined by the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

"Personal discrimination based on legitimate values is a virtue, and discrimination even when based on whimsical preferences is a right," CCV's Web site says.

What CCV says a couple paragraphs down: The existence of the inclination or desire to engage in sexual relationships with members of the same sex "is not a matter of choice, just a matter of fact." However, "as in the case of any inclination or desire contrary to the Creator's plan, the decision to actually engage in homosexual behavior is a matter of choice."

What CCV says will happen if Cincinnati ends discrimination based on sexual orientation: Protection will extend to incest, exhibitionism, necrophilia (sex with the dead), prostitution, transgenderism, bestiality and frotteurism ' "approaching an unknown woman from the rear and pressing or rubbing the penis against her buttocks" '.

What No Special Rights, Phil Heimlich and Phil Burress don't do: return reporters' phone calls to discuss Issue 3. ©