17 GAYSWEEK September 25, 1978

Gay Rights in Seattle

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lates both the spirit of the Constitution and the Bible, which is to "love thy neighbor as thyself."

"History shows us that once you allow discrimination against one minority, other minorities are added to the list," said King County Councilperson Ruby Chow. "Initiative 13 also destroys the effectiveness of the Seattle Office of Women's Rights-a program I strongly support. It would remove the enforcement and investigation powers of the office."

Jackie Griswold, copresident of the local chapter of the National Organization for Women, also said Initiative 13's "small print provides, very quietly, for the destruction of the Seattle Office of Women's Rights, by transferring its monitoring and enforcement power to the Department of Human Rights."

Others who spoke against Initiative 13 were campaign manager Jill Schropp, the Rev. Dr. Samuel B. McKinney of Mt. Zion Baptist Church and Astrid Hedman, president of the League of Women Voters here.

The pro-13 radio ads were called a charade by Schropp, who said their deceptions included a contention that "employers could be jailed for tolerating homosexual activities on the job." Neither gay nor heterosexual activities on the job are legally tolerated, she said. In addition to former Mayor Wes Uhlman and former Seattle Police Chief Robert Hanson, elected officials on the anti-13 steering committee include Secretary of State Bruce Chapman, State Reps. Scott Blair, Bill Burns, Jeff Douthwaite, Gene Lux, Dick Nelson; State Sen. Jim McDermott; city and county council members Michael Hildt, Paul Kraabel, Phyllis Lamphere, Randy Revelle and Jeanette Williams.

Provincetown Sex Rap

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sodomy conviction because sodomy is very difficult to prove in court. Conviction on such a charge carries a maximum 20year sentence. The sodomy statute is considered to be out of date; many criminal lawyers are convinced that the statute could not withstand a constitutional challenge.

Police Chief James Meads would not comment on why his department tried to press the sodomy charge in court. He refused to comment on his policy for controlling sex on the beach, which has been called harassment by gay residents.

Judge Roger Champagne dismissed charges against Miner after a probable cause hearing in Orleans last week. He was not convinced Miner was guilty of performing sex acts in a public place. McGrath did not attend the hearing. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

If Judge Champagne had found probable cause to charge Miner, Miner would have been bound over to the grand jury and perhaps indicted. He would have then had to face a jury trial.

The sodomy statute dates back to New England's Puritan days. It states that any person who commits an abominable and detestable crime against nature, either with man or beast, can be sentenced to 20 years in jail. In the early 1800s, a 16-year-old boy was executed after a sodomy conviction.

sachusetts Supreme Court last year which established that a jury, not a judge, must decide whether a specific location is private or public. The case established guidelines for a private place. The defense attorney was Evan Lawson of the law firm of Lawson and Wayne, which has offices in Boston and Provincetown.

A private act was said to be an act removed from the public view and free of the possibility that the defendent's conduct might offend persons present in the area for business, entertainment and the like. Unless a jury rules an area to be a public place, sexual acts are not punishable.

Several Provincetown attorneys, in addition to Snow, agree that the harbor beach at night is private because it is not used for business or entertainment and is removed from the public view. Their argument is further supported by the fact that the beach is privately owned down to the high water mark.

Since there is doubt about whether a cubicle in a theater in Boston is a public place (Commonwealth v. Scagliotti), it is easy to understand the uncertainty about the status of the harbor beach late at night.

Several attorneys have suggested that the police charge people found performing sex acts on the beach with criminal trespass because of the difficulty in obtaining convictions for sodomy or committing unnatural acts.

Chief Meads has been criticized by members of the gay community who claim his department harasses gays instead of protecting them.

His department has also been criticized for using manpower to prevent sex on the beaches instead of patrolling the streets to protect public safety and property.

Since the key legal question concerning sexual activity is whether it is performed in public, not the type of sex act per-

formed, civil libertarians suggest drop-

ping sodomy and unnatural acts statutes from the books and dealing with public sex in a uniform manner, whether the activity is homosexual or heterosexual.

As the law reads now, men convicted of public sodomy face a maximum 20-year jail sentence while a heterosexual couple convicted of public fornication and openand gross lewdness faces a maximum three-year-and-three-month sentence. ■

Provincetown Guild

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"It's a matter of economics," Christo said, conceding that some complaints of harassmen of gays here have been blown out of proportion. "We've got to try to counter it," he said. "Provincetown is still a good place.

"This has been a long time coming. We need a cohesive force to stimulate the economy. With the overhead taxes, weather and inflation, things have got to be done to keep businesses going."

Christo said tourism, still the biggest... industry in town, must not be allowed to wilt. For many businesses, the profit margin is so small that merchants need all the help they can get.

Membership forms will be accompanied by a questionnaire for prospective guild members. The questionnaire asks, among other things, what kind of clientele--heterosexual or gay-is generally served or welcomed by the establishment. If desired by the businessman, that kind of

directory planned for publication starting this fall. The directory would also include information about rates, hours and other usual tourist aids.

In order to make sodomy stand up in court, the prosecution must convince the jury that the act was performed in a pub-information would be included in a guild lic place. This is because a landmark Massachusetts case, the Commonwealth v. Balthazar, established that sexual activity between consenting adults in private is outside the scope of criminal law. Although deciding whether a place is private or public sounds simple, the status of Provincetown's harbor beach at night is not clear in a legal sense. Chris Snow, Miner's attorney, argued that the beach is private late at night.

Snow referred to Commonwealth v. Scagliotti, a case heard before the Mas-

"We're not asking people to leave the chamber of commerce," Christo said, "just take part in a better advertising and referral service, particularly for guesthouses."

Christo said the chamber has failed to initiate practical innovations for the business community, such as weekend packages combining several businesses or

cooperative supply purchasing schemes. "The chamber just isn't doing these things," he said.

But Hal Goodstein, chamber president, said the new group will serve only to hurt Provincetown's promotional efforts.

"I feel this town has always been a mix of everything. There's no need to factionalize the community into white and blue or gay and straight," Goodstein said. "The mix of businessmen in the chamber reflects the percentages in Provincetown."

He said it would be a mistake for one organization to solicit tourism from any single group.

Goodstein said the biggest potential difference between the work of the two groups might be the publications chosen as advertising media. The guild plans to advertise in specifically all gay newspapers and magazines. Goodstein said the chamber avoids "special interest" publications of any kind.

He said the chamber isn't totally blind to some tourists' desire to, for instance, stay at gay guest-houses. Some town establishments want to be identified as gay businesses and if a tourist specifically asks for that, chamber representatives pass on the information. But beyond that, the chamber does not and should not. identify any sexual, ethnic, racial or other characteristics, Goodstein said.

In general, it is not necessary to make a big deal about Provincetown's openness to gays, Goodstein said. He said the chamber brochure makes clear Provincetown's tradition of tolerance without belaboring the point, that "you don't have to say it very loud" for most gay persons to get the message.

In addition, many of Provincetown's businesses already advertise individually in national gay publications, Goodstein said.

Claudia Weill

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We touched on this a bit earlier, the recent wave of films such as Julia and Turning Point. I guess you could add An Unmarried Woman. Do you think there is such a thing as a woman's film?

It's hard to tell yet. There haven't been enough films made by women. Do you mean films by women or about women?

Both.

There's not enough material to tell yet. Also, I don't think it's a useful category. I think you just want to make good films. You want to get them out there.

Women? To be known as a woman's film somehow sounds a little bit like it's limiting the people it should be reaching. I think that once there are enough films by and about women there'll no longer be that category and that's what I'm looking forward to: Women making action and adventure films or thrillers or whatever.

But I agree we should have the right to fail. It's a bad thing to do. But that's not what I made this for.

Along with that statement, do you think that women involved in film have an extra burden because audiences may have higher expectations of their work-they're being looked at more closely?

Well, they're certainly under the spotlight: we have a kind of great advantage in that we can't lose. I mean just in the sense of getting more attention. If a film's bad, it's going to get a lot of attention too, but if it's good, then that's nice. I guess.

But I think that ultimately, a piece of work is judged on whether it's a good piece of work or not. So I think things. even themselves out eventually.

Do you think there is a particular sensibility that a woman brings to her work either as a producer or a director?

I don't think that we can talk about it yet. There hasn't been enough work to know what that would be.

My film is certainly very different from one of Lina Wertmuller's films; it's different from Joan Darling's films; or from Joan Silver's films; from Varda's films. So I wouldn't say that there was any one thing separating those films from films made by male directors. It isn't like that, you know?

So it's really more a matter of individual perspective?

I think so. I think there are certain common sense relationships. But God knows any good male director is sensitive. to his characters' development.

One reason cited for the lack of good roles for women in films is because there are no good scripts for women. Do you think this is true?

That's true. The hardest job is to come up with a good idea and do a good screenplay. For that reason I think there are not a great number of roles for women in films. But there will be more. There's a lot more coming. A lot of people are working.

That's from the writing angle. Do you think that other jobs in film and in theater are opening up for women?

Yeah. I think so. As women are seeking them. Nobody's going to offer it to you. You have to go on out there and just take

it.

What sort of advice would you offer women who are considering careers in film?

Just get to work and make them, and try to figure out as quickly as you can what you want to do. Getting into film doesn't mean much. Would you like to direct? Would you like to write? Would you like to shoot? Would you like to produce? Would you like to run a theater? What part of it really interests you?

Try to be as specific as possible about the kind of work you would do.

Do you want to be a writer? Start writing. If you want to be an editor, see if you can get an apprentice job with an editor. Do it. Just get right in there and do it. Even if you have to do one job part-time. and another free. Just get some experi-

ence.

Or go to film school if you want to get a chance to direct a film. As quickly as possible, what you want to do in whatever way you can. Whether it's through school or a job.

You've done a variety of jobs-freelanced as a camerawoman, edited film, directed-in the theater, and made films for Sesame Street. What has been most satisfying for you?

Each thing at the time I did it was really satisfying.

Is Girl Friends opening throughout the country, or is New York its first opening?

New York. Everything depends on how it does here. So if it doesn't do well because of a strike, then it can be dumped for the whole country. That's why it is so critical. That is why the word-of-mouth is just so critical right now.

What do you hope to be doing ten years. from now?

I don't know. I really don't think too much ahead. I'd like to get back to work, but I can't really abandon this film right now. It takes a lot of work to release a picture. I realize that now.

One last thing. Your film reflects a real fondness for New York City. Do you miss New York now that you've been spending. a lot of time out in California?

No, I live in New York. I've just been in California a lot the last few weeks, working on the release of the picture.

Two days after our interview, Girl Friends. opened to a newspaperless city, and Claudia and Melanie Mayron were out in the streets distributing promotional flyers. Yes, Claudia, it does take a lot to release a picture and you've got it all.