News

"Liberty for All" Conference Launches New Gay Think Tank

New Forum, Website for Gay and Lesbian Conservatives Explores "Redefining the Gay Agenda" at Chicago Conference

July 17, 2001

(WASHINGTON, DC) – With a new look and expanded operations, the Liberty Education Forum (LEF), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank and policy organization, will debut at its "Liberty For All" National Leadership Conference in Chicago this weekend.

"The mission of the Liberty Education Forum is to work toward achieving individual freedom and fairness for gay Americans by applying the principles of individual rights, individual responsibilities, free markets and limited government," said Robert J. Kabel, Chairman of LEF. "With the election of a new administration in our nation's capital, LEF is now positioned to become an important vehicle for fresh and constructive ideas about federal policies that affect the daily lives of gay and lesbian Americans."

Liberty Education Forum (LEF) has evolved over the past six years, since its founding as the Log Cabin Education Fund. LEF was originally established to provide a non-partisan education and research component to complement the work of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay and lesbian organization. But with a full-scale launching on July 21, 2001, the Liberty Education Forum is a brand new, non-partisan educational think tank that is dedicated to new ideas and new directions for the gay community, with a centrist approach.

The "Liberty For All" Conference, being held on Saturday, July 21 at the Swissotel Chicago, will also feature the debut of a centerpiece of its operations – the national LEF website [www.libertyeducationforum.org]. The website will debut with analysis on key issues, such as hate crimes, AIDS policy, anti-discrimination policies and economic fairness in tax policy for gay families, as well as invite visitors to participate in a National Survey of opinion.

"Beginning on July 21, visitors to the LEF website will find articles, white papers and interactive discussion on perspectives people may not have seen before, ideas that are provocative and unique, and issues that have long been important to all of us, but never brought to the forefront of the so-called gay agenda," Kabel said.

One of the articles appearing on launch day – July 21 – will be a legal memorandum prepared by Trevor Potter, Esq., Laura Foggan, Esq., and Meredith Fuchs, Esq., entitled "In Support of Federal Executive Order 13087." This document, commissioned by LEF in January 2001 and not publicly released until now, is a definitive case in favor of retention of the federal executive order protecting gay and lesbian federal employees from discrimination. The memo was circulated to the Bush-Cheney transition in January 2001, and to the Bush Administration in its early weeks.

A panel discussion, entitled "Redefining the Gay Agenda," will open the conference. Participants will include Verna Eggleston, executive director of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, New York, NY; State Representative Steve May (R-AZ), Bob Roehr, Washington correspondent for the Bay Area Reporter and other gay newspapers nationwide; Hastings Wyman, syndicated columnist and editor of Southern Political Report, and Washington, D.C. Councilmember David Catania (R).