FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: SHELLEY GOLDEN, 761; MELINDA SHELTON, 767

NOW LEADERS WHO CAMPAIGNED AGAINST COLORADO AMENDMENT AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT ON SUPREME COURT DECISION

MONDAY, MAY 20, 1996

WHO: NOW Action Vice President Rosemary Dempsey, an attorney and out lesbian who organized against oppressive ballot initiatives in Colorado, Maine and Oregon, and Kim Gandy, NOW executive vice president and an attorney who oversees NOW's litigation work.

WHAT: Available for comment on today's 6-3 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that rejects Colorado's anti-lesbian and gay amendment to the state's constitution, which was based on a ballot measure known as "Amendment 2."

WHERE: NOW National Headquarters

WHEN: Immediately

WHY:

• NOW is a key activist group against these anti-lesbian and gay ballot measures
• NOW vigorously opposed the Colorado measure, with national, state and local activists working for months to organize votes against it.
• NOW successfully organized the student vote to defeat Maine's Question 1 last fall.
• NOW activists are in Oregon again trying to defeat another anti-lesbian and gay ballot measure, after defeating one there in 1994.