OCR Text |
Show Sunday, October Author of By BRAD CAIN - WILSOtfVlLLE, Ore. Lon Mabon returned from his tour of duty in Vietnam in the late 1960s with a marijuana habit and no sense of purpose. "I let my hair grow long and I stayed in the drug culture," he says of those aimless days. "I took heavier drugs like mescaline and LSD. I was hippie with a promiscuous lifestyle." Then Mabon joined a commune in Eureka, Calif. "That's where I met the Lorcl,'" he said. Aimless no more, Mabon's conversion to Christianity in 1969 set him on a, path that today finds him leading an. effort to get Oregon voters to denounce homosexuality and preyenl any future laws protecting the rights of gay people. Ballot Measure 9 will ask voters on Nov.' 3 to approve or reject a constitutional amendment requirschools ing government:entities in particular. i to help set "a standard for, Oregon's youth that recognizes homosexuality, pedophilia, sadism and masochism as abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse." Mabon insists Measure 9 isn't an attack on homosexuals. He says it's a way of keeping gays from gaining legal status as a minority. "The Measure 9 campaign draws a line in the sand that says, 'No more,' "he said. While casting himself as a defender of "traditional family values" against "militant homosexuals," Mabon said his former drug addiction taught him tolerance and compassion. We ve got former homosex uals in the Oregon Citizens Alii- -- Page B5 rights measure says he's not intolerant anti-ga- y Associated Press Writer THE HERALD, Provo, Utah, 11, 1992 ignited and encouraged by the election of his hero, Ronald Reagan, to the White House. 'We're not looking down at anyone." Lon Mabon ance," said Mabon, who founded the group in 1987 but still is vague about the extent of its membership. "We're not looking down at anyone," he said during a recent interview in his office in this Port land suburb. Mabon's critics disagree, accus ing him of almost unleashing a virulently movement. "For him to say he's is a cruel hoax," said Peggy Norman, manager of the No on 9 campaign. "He's harsh and unforgiving and lacking in any tolerance for people who are different from himself." Mabon, 45, says he has drawn plenty of notice for his cause. "We knew it would get attention, but never in our wildest dreams did we think it would get this much attention," said Mabon, who claims financial support is pouring in from around the country. "We're going to be a million-dollby operation, budget-wisthe end of this year," he said. This prompts further charges from opponents like Craig Berk-machairman of the state Republican Party, who says Mabon is using the gay rights issue to enrich himself. Mabon firmly denies this. "I clear $36,000 a year," Mabon said, adding that his wife receives about $5,000 a year to han dle the group s books Mabon's interest in politics was single-handed- "That's when I started to have a little hope that the people of America wanted traditional values," he said. e, n, z 4, right-win- ly ar - At the time, Mabon and his wife, Bonnie, owned and operated a retirement home in Bishop, Calif. In 1982, they sold the business and moved to Klamath Falls to open another one. Five years later, Mabon formed the Oregon Citi- g zens Alliance to promote his ideology. The group scored its first victory in 1988 with a statewide referendum that repealed an executive order by then-Go- v. Neil Gold-schmi- dt that banned state agencies from bias against homosexuals in hiring and employment practices. In 1990, the alliance played spoiler in the governor's race by helping defeat the Republican frontrunner, former Attorney General Dave Frohnmayer; Mabon's group decried Frohnmayer as too liberal because of his support of abortion rights, among other posi- w' VUHlTAG tions. WILT As a result, the election went to the even more liberal Democrat Barbara Roberts, an advocate of gay rights, as it turns out." Al Mobley, OCA's 1990 candidate for governor, said his friend is MODEL DWU7300 20 Year Tub" misunderstood. Dependably Quiet'" "Lon is a very determined person," Mobley said. "But this has not turned him into some kind of flinty-hearte- d politician. He has very deep compassion for peo ple." iiils! AP Photo Oreaon Citizens Allia group s Wilsonville, Ore. headquarters with a campaign sign touting measure . an rights proposal. SSil WASHERS anti-ga- y Crushed by hurricane, weary parents give back adopted kids By RACHEL L. SWARNS Knight-RiddNewspapers er MIAMI The two children survived abuse, the rough road to adoption and the storm that smashed their house to bits. What came next was worse: Their new parents, who legally adopted them one year ago, gave them back. Struggling to rebuild their lives after Hurricane Andrew, Alma and Gary Knight decided they no longer could care for the troubled children they had adopted from the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. They left the brother and sister ages 1 1 and 7 with a suitcase full of clothes at Dade County's Juvenile Justice Center last month. HRS calls it abandonment. The Knights say they could do nothing else: They lost their home and their business, and simply could not care for the children, who often ran away and smeared feces on the Afanador would not describe the parents who wanted them: Alma and her a background of the children, but the Knight, registered nurse, husband, Gary, a garbage truck Knights say they were told that the driver. girl didn't have serious emotional They had two children already, problems. The boy, however, was but they wanted more without the often depressed, often on medicahassle of pregnancy. HRS warned tion. The Knights talked it over with them that foster children often are troubled, hard to love, hard to un- their two natural children. The kids said it would be neat to have a derstand. denew brother and sister. The parfull the access to had "They tailed records of the children," ents, who had always dreamed of a Afanador said. "Services were big family, decided they would provided for the family, individual love these children no matter what. "We weren't shopping for pup and family counseling." pies," Alma Knight said. through the house like he be longed. He even won a school award: Most Improved Student. On Sept. 5, 1991, six months after the children first moved in, the adoption papers came through. Then things went wrong. "It was like someone flipped a switch," she said. No one knows what happened. Maybe trouble started the first day of school. The teacher called the boy by his old last name. He told her his new name. She didn't be1 The children came for day visits first, then for weekends, then for weeks at a time. It wasn't easy. The little girl was withdrawn and troubled. She screamed for no reason. She ran away. She didn't seem to bond with anyone. Knight brought her back to HRS. But social workers would not separate the siblings. So the family decided to keep her. For the boy's sake. He was wonderful. He never seemed depressed. He romped America's No. preferred brand" Built to last longer, fewer repairs 1 lieve him. DRYERS walls. "I feel guilty as hell," said MAYTAG Alma Knight, a nurse store in who lost her health-foo- d the storm. "I feel like a failure as a mother. I feel like I should have been able to handle it, but I couldn't. I couldn't. "Lord have mercy. You lose your business, your house, everything. If it wasn't for the storm, they would still be here. But right now, I couldn't handle them." A juvenile court judge will hear the case Oct. 13. "It's an agonizing situation for everyone involved," said Jim Towey, Dade County's head of HRS. "But adoption means adoption. It's not a trial run. It's not a 'we'll check it out.' "There is such a thing as criminal abandonment," said Towey, whose department has recognized only eight of 376 adoptions as legitimate failures over the past four years. "The law is clear, hurricane or no hurricane." Stuck between HRS and the Knights: the boy, 1 1, and the girl, 7. Abused by their natural parents, given up by their adoptive parents, they are now undergoing psychological evaluations in a county clinic. They likely will end up back d in Dade County's more where foster care system, than 400 troubled children saw their homes wrecked by Andrew. Theirs is a tragedy in a system where sad stories come cheap. In Dade County, there are 2,920 abused, neglected or abandoned children living with foster families, all waiting for a better place to storm-straine- be. Scores of foster children now live packed in tiny trailers and di- lapidated houses while HRS scrambles to find them better homes. The Knights' children probably will return to this, comtrauma pounding the emotional ' they have suffered. "They have been rejected by everyone they put their trust in," said Isabel Afanador, an HRS adoption supervisor. These kids got lucky. After four found years as foster children, they .0) IPV I (kf) America's No. 1 5, Bea v preferred brand' i ft const"1' bafd txfHfVK surveys REFRIGERATORS n LCL For some people -- health care costs are political. For us they're critical. Political fortunes are made and lost by health care costs these days. Unfortunately, so are many personal fortunes. ' At Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Utah, we're not satisfied to simply debate the issues. Through our system of managed care, we're working every day to contain costs. We've managed to save our subscribers millions. Nearly $30 million last year. We've managed to do so because Insurance is all we do. We don't own hospitals, clinics or testing labs. And we don't have doctors practicing on our payroll. We're a truly organization, free to work entirely in your behalf. And committed to making medical insurance more affordable. non-prof- it So we hope you'll elect to carry our card, just fellow Utahns do. That way. we can continue to represent your best health care interests in the years ahead. as more than 600.000 BlueCrossBlueShield mi Wo fUtah XT Insurance is all ice do. All FPU DCTAIll Flexible storage bins wr r |