And again, truly disadvantaged minorities would stand to lose most by the awarding of protected class status to gay special interests. True minorities would be forced to compete with gays for protected class benefits, minority contracts, and government-subsidized health care, with gays siphoning off countless dollars reassigned to pay the cost of already well-funded AIDS research and treatment. Gays, an already highly-favored group, would be granted extraordinary privileges -- at the expense of the truly disadvantaged and just about everyone else. As former Colorado Civil Rights Commission Chairman John Franklin has said:

"Making sexual orientation a protected class does a disservice to all those people presently being discriminated against or mistreated, by diluting the significance of civil rights protection. I would hate to see resources taken away from those who are truly in need of protection."