ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 26, 1996 TAG: 9601260092
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
"Chet from Lawrenceville" minced no words Thursday in thanking Gov. George Allen for his effort to deny state first-time home loans to unmarried and gay couples.
"To do otherwise would be legitimizing their immorality and putting the commonwealth's imprimatur on their abominable lifestyle," said Chet, a caller to Allen's monthly radio show.
Allen did not quibble with Chet's description of a Virginia Housing Development Authority decision this week to make loans available only to individuals or families related by marriage, blood or adoption.
Allen defended the VHDA policy as a "common-sense" meaning of a family.
"Is there a dictionary?" Allen asked, casting around the studio at WRVA-AM, near the Capitol. "Find the definition of a family."
During a commercial break in the hour-long show, an aide handed him an American Heritage Dictionary. The first entry read: "a fundamental social group in society consisting especially of a man and woman and their offspring." The fourth definition read: "all members of a household under one roof."
Allen never returned to the topic in the second half of the show. He later told reporters the dictionary proved his point.
"The VHDA went with the first definition, not the fourth definition," he said.
Civil-liberty organizations have threatened to sue, saying that the narrow, conservative definition of family discriminates against a wide variety of qualified home buyers: gays, unmarried couples or single parents trying to pool their resources.
LENGTH: Short : 39 linesby CNB