Floyd Cochran urges Traverse City to take a stand as charter amendment issue heats up
by Eartha Melzer and Sarah Mieras

Cochran was the chief recruiter and national spokesperson for the Church of Jesus Christ Christian / Aryan Nations. He was the fifth ranking member in a nationwide organization that combines Nazi ideals with biblical fundamentalism known as "Christian Identity."

TRAVERSE CITY - With an anti-gay ballot measure slated for a public vote in November, former white supremacist Floyd Cochran told the Traverse City Commission last Tuesday that hate groups are more aggressive where there are no hate crime laws.

Cochran, who left Aryan Nations in 1993, was in Traverse City last weekend to educate the community on how white supremacist groups organize and function.

"We would check before we came and if there were laws on the books, we would act much more restrained," he said, while addressing the City Commission.

As a spokesperson for Aryan Nations, Cochran said his job was to go into rural communities and make hate palatable. He would do that by exploiting an existing political issue, be it affirmative action, abortion, gun control, or lgbt issues.

"Gays and lesbians are now the politically-correct group to discriminate against," he said. "If someone wants to get you to listen to a message of hate, they can speak out against gays. This wouldn't be permitted against other minority groups."

The slogan used by the Traverse City group seeking to amend the city charter to prohibit protections for gays and lesbians, said Cochran, is identical to language on the Website of longtime Klu Klux Klan activist David Duke. The local group, Citizens Voting Yes For Equal Rights Not Special Rights, which has been backed publicly by the American Family Association, is using rhetorical tactics used by the KKK for the past five years.

The slogan used by the Traverse City group seeking to amend the city charter to prohibit protections for gays and lesbians is identical to language on the Website of longtime Klu Klux Klan activist David Duke. The local group, Citizens Voting Yes For Equal Rights Not Special Rights, which has been backed publicly by the American Family Association, is using rhetorical tactics used by the KKK for the past five years.

Cochran said the anti-gay group's spokesperson, Rita Rathburn, even quoted Hitler during the recent City Commission meeting. The tactics of the Citizen's Yes group, said Cochran, are strikingly similar to those he used as an Aryan Nation's recruiter.

"All the arguments she (Rathburn) used, are things I used to use," he said. "And then here we have a quote from David Duke in the city's newspaper."

"This is like a liberal version of the Aryans," continued Cochran. "There is no difference between the hatred from the Nazis, who held the Nordic Fest up here, and the AFA."

Speaking before an audience of 50 at Northwestern Michigan College and again at the City Commission meeting, Cochran said the most effective way to stop racism and bigotry is to stop it when it is still overt. Cochran urged Traverse City Commission members to use their power as elected officials to take a stand to protect the rights of all local citizens.

"If your area becomes a haven for people who hate, people won't come to vacation here. I have seen it happen. What do you think of when you think of Idaho? Nazis and potatoes."

As a member of the racist movement, Cochran said he assumed that if there wasn't organized opposition to his message, people were to some extent receptive to it. He told the six commissioners that while adults in the towns he visited might ignore him, he found that young people between 12 and 25 were more receptive to his message. He felt that this was partly due to the existing underlying racism in the community but also partly because no one else was reaching out to the young people and offering them positive messages.

Having a human rights ordinance that includes sexual orientation, said Cochran, could keep the Grand Traverse area from becoming a hotbed of bigotry.

Since the fall of 2000, Traverse City has had its share of lgbt issues and white supremacist activity. A series of events triggered by a hate crime has kept the city and its ongoing ballot measure in the spotlight. In September, a bartender at the city's only gay nightspot, Side Traxx, was attacked by three skinheads. The attack prompted the city's Human Rights Commission to place diversity stickers, which read "We are Traverse City," on city vehicles.

The backlash against the stickers, which included a six-stripe rainbow backdrop, made national news at the start of the new year. In response to the stickers, anti-gay minister Fred Phelps picketed gay-friendly churches and establishments throughout the city in January. And more recently, fliers protesting Martin Luther King Day were distributed in the downtown area and a Jewish temple received a package containing threatening anti-Semitic literature.

And the controversy isn't expected to end soon. Residents are currently grappling with a ballot measure that aims to amend the city's charter to permit housing and employment discrimination against gays and lesbians. In an effort to educate local residents about white supremacist activity in the area and the affects of the proposed charter amendment, Cochran said he plans to return to the area sometime this summer.

A group of straight and lgbt citizens in Traverse City has organized a ballot question committee to work against the proposed charter amendment. To contact Traverse City Campaign Against Discrimination: write P.O. Box 6946, Traverse City, MI 49696, call (231) 922-6060 or e-mail info@tccad2000.org; or contact the City of Traverse City Human Rights Commission, M'Lynn Hartwell; or the non-governmental community organization "We Are Traverse City."

Cochran has served as a consultant for federal and state law enforcement agencies and the U.S. military, and he has testified about hate crimes before several state legislatures. He was recently appointed to the education staff of the National Liberty Museum, a Holocaust studies center and tolerance exhibit in Philadelphia. Cochran's story has been featured in "Healing the Hate," an educational manual for school children published by the U.S. Justice Department. In recognition of his efforts to promote tolerance, he has received numerous awards from a wide range of organizations, including the NAACP, the YWCA,FBI and the U.S. Navy Security Command.