Bill Moyers Legacy Includes '90s Colorado Documentary

Bill Moyers, the renowned broadcast journalist and commentator, died June 26 at age 91 in Manhattan. He was known for exploring ideas and in 1993, his PBS series Bill Moyers Journal focused on a hot issue in Colorado. "The New Holy War" was an hour-long exploration of the blend of religion and politics that brought the state Amendment 2, passed by Colorado voters in the November 1992 election that propelled Bill Clinton to the White House.

This amendment to the state constitution banned municipalities from enacting anti-discrimination laws protecting, gay, lesbian or bisexual people, and earned Colorado the nickname "The Hate State" as well as boycotts by supporters of LGBT rights. The amendment was ultimately declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1996.

The year the amendment went into law, Moyers traveled to Colorado Springs to report on what he termed a "holy war" between conservative Christian values and homosexual rights. Then as now, the Springs was a hotbed of Christian conservatism, anchored by James Dobson's Focus on the Family. Colorado Springs preacher Ted Haggard figured prominently as well — but then, this was before Haggard was discovered to have consorted with a male escort.
Some of the bigotry on display in the episode is startling, particularly when Moyers visits Gazette Telegraph editorial cartoonist Chuck Asay and opinion editor Dan Griswold, who wrote more than twenty editorials supporting Amendment 2.  Asay shows off a crude drawing of three soldiers, the first two wearing "GAY" as name badges, the third a skeleton soldier whose badge reads "AIDS."

"I'm still known as 'the fag reporter,'" Louis Aguilar, a former Westword intern, tells Moyers in the bullpen of his newsroom.

Moyers also talks with gay-rights advocates in the Springs, including Bruce Loeffler, who tells Moyers it's "very burdensome to constantly have to stand up and say, 'No, I do not molest children, no, I have not had 1,500 sexual partners this year.' It's at some level really, really offensive."

Moyers brings the episode full circle towards the end, interviewing Reverend Jim White of the First Congregational Church, who was opposed to Amendment 2. The last line in the program is from White: "That's the way God made them, so how can we say that who they are is unacceptable?"

Moyers was an ordained Baptist minister as well as a journalist, but his thoughtful investigation of Colorado Springs's role provided a rare balanced look at this shameful chapter of state history, one particularly worth remembering during Pride month.