by Rachael Wright

Forty-Five Years Ago This Week: Legislation sponsored by Rep. Bev Scherling, R-Aurora, sought to prohibit sexually explicit material from being distributed to minors.

Scherling’s House Bill 81-1310 stated that the “sale, loan, or display to persons under the age of 18 of depictions of sexually explicit material would be a class 2 misdemeanor. The bill would exclude works of art, books, magazines, or other printed material by an accredited museum, library, school or institute of higher education.

“This is specifically a children’s bill and does not apply to adults,” said Scherling on the floor of the House. “It would prohibit displaying sexually explicit materials in any place where minors frequent or are entitled to go. The courts have ruled that the power of the state to control the conduct of children reaches beyond the scope of its authority over adults.”

In 1979, a similar bill was vetoed by Gov. Dick Lamm on the grounds that it was unconstitutional under the opinion of Colorado Attorney General J.D. MacFarlane and that it was unnecessary because sellers of adult books, magazines, and movies often voluntarily agreed to prevent minors’ access to the materials.

Scherling disagreed and said that this so called “agreement” had not worked and said the bill was workable, enforceable, and constitutional.

The bill passed the House by 53 to 10 but was later vetoed on June 5 — again by Gov. Lamm. But on June 29 the veto was overridden by the General Assembly.

Twenty-Five Years Ago: “If farms and ranches are going to be taken out of production in an effort to preserve habitat and restore species populations, then the agricultural producer must be compensated for the land that is being restricted as well as the loss in agricultural production,” Dr. Alan Foutz, president of the Colorado Farm Bureau said in an address to a joint session of the Colorado General Assembly’s House and Senate Agricultural Committees.

Foutz added that if the state wanted them to grow “mountain plovers, you’ll have plenty of plovers,” one of the bird species being proposed for an Endangered Species act listing, “but the policy question for you as legislators is: ‘Is my time as a farmer better spent growing wheat to feed our citizens?’”

In 1999, The Colorado Farm Bureau Board of Directors established an Endangered Species Act Task Force, which Foutz chaired, to investigate all facets of the ESA, to review all listed and potential species, and to make policy recommendations to the Farm Bureau Board. 

Ken Morgan, director of leadership development for the Farm Bureau, told the joint committee that several activities were taking place as a result of the report, including, working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to study the mountain plover and determine what might be causing the decline of the species, with the intent to quantify that agricultural practices in eastern Colorado were a benefit, not a detriment to the species. 

The Farm Bureau was also participating as member of the 11-state prairie dog memorandum of understanding committee to develop a recovery plan for the black-tailed prairie dog.

In other news, with approval on a party line vote, Senate Bill 00-75 sponsored by Sen. Penfield Tate, D-Denver, passed the full Senate. Tate’s bill sought to change Colorado’s “ethnic intimidation” law to “hate crime” and expand it to cover sexual orientation, age and disability. 

Tate faced an uphill battle in the House with its strong Republican majority.

Outside the Capitol building, Leslie Feinberg, author of “Transgender Warriors” told a crowd at Denver PrideFest 2000 that, “Hate crime legislation won’t protect gays, lesbians and bisexuals from violence as effectively as good people standing up to bigotry.”

Rachael Wright is the author of several novels including The Twins of Strathnaver, with degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing columnist to Colorado Politics, the Colorado Springs Gazette and the Denver Gazette.