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Gale Norton, Bush Nominee,
Hired Anti-Gay Propagandist

Choice for Interior Secretary Attacked GLBT Community

Paul Cameron Defended Colorado's Infamous Amendment 2

Compiled By GayToday

Interior secretary nominee Gale Norton

Washington, D.C.--The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force released additional information Wednesday on the background and record of Gale Norton, President-designate Bush's nominee for Secretary of the Interior.

The newly-released background information shows a callous insensitivity to the civil rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, and questions Norton's commitment to the role of the federal government. Norton's confirmation hearings are scheduled to begin today.

"George W. Bush is dividing our nation with his extremist Cabinet nominations," said Elizabeth Toledo, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

"The fact that he has nominated yet another Cabinet member who has attacked the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community shows there is a real disconnect between his promise to be a 'uniter' and his actions."

The complete report is available at NGLTF's new W Watch web site.

To visit the site, simply go to www.ngltf.org and click on the George W Watch banner. The site also includes extensive information on former Senator John Ashcroft, Bush's nominee for Attorney General. NGLTF already has called on its members and allies to speak out against Ashcroft's confirmation.

The NGLTF report includes the following:

As Colorado attorney general, Norton paid professional homophobe and discredited psychologist Paul Cameron more than $15,000 to be an "expert witness" in defense of Amendment 2.

Amendment 2 was a state constitutional amendment--approved by Colorado voters but overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court--that would have outlawed sexual orientation nondiscrimination laws.

Although Cameron's work was never entered into the public record during Norton's failed attempts to defend Amendment 2, he was heavily involved in Amendment 2's passage.

The week before the election, Cameron distributed nearly 100,000 copies of a pamphlet entitled, "Medical Consequences of What Homosexuals Do." The pamphlet, full of descriptions of sexual practices and diseases, warned that Colorado was about to be overrun by an army of child molesters.

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Cameron is a nationally renowned anti-gay "researcher" whose methods led to his being ousted from the American Psychological Association. Although Cameron's work has been thoroughly discredited, his pseudo-science continues to be cited by the Religious Right.

After Amendment 2 was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in Romer vs. Evans, Norton called the ruling "insulting to Colorado voters" and said voters had approved the amendment because they object to "special rights" for GLBT people.

In her unsuccessful Republican primary campaign for the U.S. Senate, Norton disagreed with the concept of a federal minimum wage. "We should explain to people how it's contrary to a free market system," she said.

In the area of federalism, Norton has a lengthy record that is hostile to many federal laws and regulations. In 1996, Norton told a conservative group "we lost too much" when the South was defeated in the Civil War.

"We certainly had bad facts in that case where we were defending state sovereignty by defending slavery," Norton said in a speech to the Independence Institute, a conservative think-tank in Denver. "But we lost too much. We lost the idea that the states were to stand against the federal government gaining too much power over our lives."

In that same speech, Norton said she once considered filing a lawsuit challenging the Americans With Disabilities Act because it required that renovations of the Colorado statehouse include a wheelchair ramp. She called the proposed ramp "a really ugly addition to the state capitol" but ultimately decided against filing a lawsuit.

Toledo today called upon members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to aggressively question Norton about her past record and statements.

"This nominee hired the most virulently anti-gay, pseudo-scientist in the country and paid that pseudo-scientist more than $15,000 in taxpayer funds," Toledo said.

"This nominee wanted to abolish the federal minimum wage. This nominee rejects the role of the federal government in enforcing the laws of the land. This nominee is not fit for public office."

Toledo specifically questioned Norton's "We lost too much" Civil War comment. "Who did Norton refer to when she said 'We'?" Toledo asked.

NGLTF's Elizabeth Toledo

"And more importantly, does Norton believe that under the U.S. Constitution, the federal government has the authority to enforce civil rights laws?"

Regarding Norton's spirited defense of Colorado's Amendment 2, Toledo questioned what will happen to GLBT employees of the Department of Interior if Norton is confirmed.

"Will Norton continue the existing policies of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and outgoing President Bill Clinton and enforce anti-discrimination policies?" Toledo asked. "We urge members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to aggressively put these questions before Gale Norton."