[Photocopied Dallas Times Herald clipping: Rabbis group backs judge against gays] Part: 1 of 2
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DALAS TEXA. S
Dallas Times Herald
Saturday, January 7, 1989:.
Rabbis group backs
judge against gays
By Lori Montgomery
OF THE TIMES HERALD STAFF
A New York-based organization of more than 500 Or-
thodox rabbis on Friday condemned gay leaders in Tex-
as and elsewhere for maintaining a "vindictive and un-
forgiving attitude" toward state District Judge Jack
Hampton, despite Hampton's apology for offensive re-
marks about gays.
Calling "the radical homosexual lobby" the second-
greatest "internal threat to our country," Rabbi Abra-
ham Hecht, president of the Rab-
binical Alliance of America, issued
a statement "in defense of this gen-
tleman who really didn't do any-
thing so terrible.
"While no person has a right toy
take the law into his own hands
against homosexuals," Hecht said, e
"there must also be strict social and
legal restraints against soliciting by
homosexuals who, by their con-
duct, violate the law and often cor-
rupt the morals of minors, as well
as spread disease." aampton
The statement comes just one week before the Texas
Commission on Judicial Conduct is scheduled to review
complaints lodged against Hampton in the wake of his
remarks last month about two homosexual murder vic-
tims.
In-an interview with the Times Herald, Hampton said
he rejected a life sentence for their killer, 19-year-old
Richard Lee Bednarski, in part because the victims were
"queers cruising the streets picking up teenage boys."
Hampton sentenced Bednarski to 30 years in prison; he
will be eligible for parole in 7 years.
Hecht said the alliance, which represents half a mil-
lion Orthodox Jews across the nation, decided to ad-
dress the issue to offset coverage sympathetic to the
victims in national newspapers.
William Waybourn, president of the Dallas Gay Alli-
ance, called Hecht's statements "certainly very differ-
ent" from those issued by the American Jewish Con-
grass, which condemned Hampton's remarks. Waybourn
noted there is no evidence the gay murder victims were
"soliciting teenage boys."
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Dallas Times Herald. [Photocopied Dallas Times Herald clipping: Rabbis group backs judge against gays], clipping, January 7, 1989; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc916962/m1/1/: accessed June 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.