Whoopi Goldberg, Joan Rivers, an association of law librarians, a group of nuns and an indeterminable number of believers in the impropriety of discrimination against homosexuals say they won’t go to Colorado, where voters, by a margin of 53 to 47 percent, accepted Amendment Two in November. This amendment changes the state constitution so as to bar existing or future laws that prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians. Aspen, Boulder and Denver had such laws.
How far this boycott will spread is not yet known, but steps to combat or overturn the amendment are being taken by the state’s ski towns (the voters in each had opposed the amendment at the polls). Statewide, the fight is led by Aspen, Boulder, Denver and a growing roster of organizations — but not including the Colorado Ski Country, the ski area trade association, which says it doesn’t comment on “social issues.”
Denver says it has lost $10 million in convention business, some as far away as 1998. So far ski-town cancellations have been few but scattered throughout the state, even though the publicity has focused on Aspen, and by extension, neighboring Snowmass.
Christmas would be the first big test; would the usual celebrities come to Aspen? Next, would Aspen’s 16th annual Gay Ski Week get its usual 4,000 turnout or would homosexuals ignore the pleas of Aspen’s vocal gay community to come make noise (and ski) in a town that has always been open-minded?
Passage of Amendment Two surprised most in the state’s $5-billion tourist industry. “We fought the wrong ballot issue,” said Rich Grant, spokesman for Denver Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We feared Amendment One, which limits taxing and spending and in effect kills the Colorado Tourism Board.” Both amendments passed and as of June 30, there will be no more Colorado Tourism Board. (Individually and collectively the state’s ski towns are struggling with one, which impinges on such ski-related matters as roads, airports and recreation facilities.)
Hostile reactions to Amendment Two began making news election night when Denver gay-rights groups took over the Democrats’ victory celebration. Some immediately called for a boycott of Colorado places and products.
The big bang came November 18, when Barbra Streisand told a Hollywood audience, “We must refuse to play where they discriminate,” a sound bite picked up by worldwide TV. She later said she was not calling for a boycott, but might join one. And then changed still again.
Aspen, Boulder and Denver attorneys, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union, were already seeking ways to repeal the amendment or halt it by injunction.
By November 22, after inquiries began coming into the Aspen Chamber Resort Association, the town’s leaders formed an ad hoc committee to dramatize the community’s role as a foe of discrimination. In 48 hours, the Aspen and Snowmass Village municipal councils, their resort associations and individuals raised a $23,000 war chest; the Aspen Skiing Co. put in another $25,000. (Aspen Highlands did not contribute except via its membership in the Aspen Chamber.)
The Skico lined up testimonials from its show-business and sports connections, including Cher, Chris Evert (husband Andy Mill is the Skico’s director of skiing), Reggie Jackson and Martina Navratilova.
The 24 Hours of Aspen ski-athon had been set for November 30 and was expected to raise $200,000 for the American Foundation for AIDS Research. Amfar declined to accept Colorado money, although its president, Mervyn F. Silverman, said that “should not be interpreted as a reproach to the enlightened” town. The ski-athon was held, and another AIDS-research group is being found to receive the funds.
At first the Aspen-Snowmass ad hoc committee planned attention-getting ads in the N.Y. Times or USA Today, but switched to a more modest campaign — a page in the Denver Post (“the battle must be won in Colorado”), in two show-business dailies and in The Advocate, a gay publication. Reaction was slight.
The committee then decided to place a half-page ad in the N.Y. Times of December 11, using up $20,000 but perhaps getting the attention of opinion-makers. The group was considering direct mail or handouts to visitors, but the Aspen City Council led the group to disband and turn over the task to a committee of private citizens. Tom Hines, president of the Aspen Chamber Resort Association, seeing only scattered cancellations so far, wants to “leave the issue alone.”
But Snowmass Resort Association chief Terry Hunt said, “The downside of doing nothing is huge. I watched what happened in Arizona when it was boycotted over not supporting Martin Luther King Day. After a lull, they got hit. Let us pro-act strongly. The downside of action is small.”
The Colorado Association of Ski Towns was expected to adopt a resolution calling for repeal at its December 11 meeting, but adopted a lukewarm resolution that calls for “equal rights for all people” and home rule. Vail’s town council has passed a stronger resolution and individuals in the Vail Valley are organizing their own anti-amendment group.
Mayor Wellington Webb of Denver, after an attention-getting appearance on the Arsenio Hall show, flew to New York to try dissuading that city’s mayor, David Dinkins, from a boycott of the Colorado Springs meeting this summer of the National Council of Mayors. He failed. Coloradans now expect that conference to move elsewhere.
On the brink of what promised to be a banner Christmas season for Colorado skiing, with strong reservations and good snow cover, the fear among ski, lodging and resort association executives is that this could be the lull before a catastrophic storm — or it could simply be a lull before other issues catch the public eye.
At presstime, cancellations were light.
