AMERICAN GAY AND LESBIAN ATHEISTS
                          P O Box 66711
                     Houston, TX 77266-6711


September 29, 1994
PRESS RELEASE
Contact person: Don Sanders (713) 863-9537
For Immediate Release


         DIAL-A-GAY-ATHEIST EXAMINES RELIGIOUS ROOTS OF
                        BURZINSKI MURDER


     In its second weekly commentary on the recent gay-bashing
murder of Michael Burzinski, a young gay man abducted recently
outside a Houston gay nightspot, forced to withdraw $400.00 in
case from an automatic teller machine, and then shot, execution-
style in the back of the head by members of a teenage youth gang
members of which proudly announced upon capture they had targeted
a gay person for robbery and murder because of their desire for
money to afford new clothes for the coming school year, Dial-A-
Gay-Atheist delves into the religious backgrounds of the four
young men, each a star athlete at his high school, and each
considered a popular guy, a "school stud," of the class.
     In last week's Dial-A-Gay-Atheist message, moderator Don
Sanders questioned the possible connections the young men might
have to religion, given they were held in high-esteem by the
school and community from which they hailed. It was revealed, in
a Houston Post article of August 22, that indeed, as Sanders
suggested prior to the release of the information, that religion
had been a highly influential force in each of their lives. One
of the gang members' father is a minister of a local church, and
all four sing in the choir. The families from which they come are
considered pillars of the Black community, a community dowsed in
religion.
     "Religion killed Michael Burzinski," accuses Don Sanders,
host of the outspoken telephone editorial service and national
director of American Gay and Lesbian Atheists. Playing this week
on Dial-A-Gay-Atheist are the comments of callers who are
reacting to Sanders' assertion that the planting of homophobic
Christian ideas in the minds of these well-respected youths and
stars of the football team is what prompted them to take the life
of a gay man.
     Dial-A-Gay-Atheist may be reached 24 hours a day by dialing
(713) 880-4242. The service is sponsored as a community service
of American Gay and Lesbian Atheists, a non-profit, 501(c)(3)
educational foundation dedicated to keeping state and church
separate and promoting freedom FROM religion.

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