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HIGH GEAR

APRIL 1976

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Saxe's Defense Fund, delivered the most emotional and thoughtprovoking speech of the weekend. Cooper, who is also co-authoring an annotated bibliography of women phyisicians (Scarecrow Press, Library Science Press), initially discussed gay health care benefits, bereavement benefits,

Janet Cooper and health maintenance plans benefits that heterosexuals take for granted; but that gay people face obstacles in procuring.

Cooper then spoke of Jill Raymond and Susan Saxe. Here is a portion of her speech:

her

"We all have an inherent constitutional right not to have to talk to the FBI. Yet sometimes they hold grand juries to find out what they want to know. You can't have a lawyer or invoke the Fifth Amendment at a grand jury... Jill, she's in a holding jail; she can't go out in the courtyard, and all conversations are under surveillance. She's not accused of commiting crime. She's getting all this because she's refused to talk..." "about Susan Saxe, a lesbian radical accused of bank robbery in Philadelphia. Susan stood outside a bank, holding a molotov cocktail which didn't go off. Usually, in such cases, the first offender gets probation or at most three years. Susan got ten years

Max

imprisonment because she refused to talk about the underground."

"Susan also broke into Newport National Guard Armory where she took a typewriter, a pick-up truck, rifles, ammunition, and a document entitled Operation O.G., Operation Geronimo detailed description of military plans for a civilian takeover of the city of Boston and others."

"In Boston Saxe was accused of a bank robbery where a guard was killed after the robbers left. The constitutional question here is that of felony murder. If you're committing a felony and someone is killed during it, each person involved can be charged with murder. You could be in a getaway car three miles away and still be accused of murder. This is really a case of unequal justice; because in contrast, a pre-meditated murderer can get probation or only 5 10 years in jail."

In response to an inquiry about Saxe's justification of her own terrorism, Cooper referred to Poems of the Sisters, an anthology of Weather Underground poetry. The last poem by Diana Otton, Ms. Cooper said, closely reflects Ms. Saxe's views on terrorism. She

Marc Rubin and Pete Fisher

added, "Who has the power and the gun? The Vietnam aviator bomber, the policeman who thinks every black is a criminal and shoots people in the back? Are they not terrorists? And what of employers who harass gays? Violence done against any group is terrorism."

Presently, Ms. Cooper reported, Susan Saxe is suing the Worster County House of Corrections for discrimination against women prisoners because of a lack of health facilities. (Those interested in either receiving more information on Susan Saxe or donating to her defense fund may write: Susan Saxe Defense Fund c/o National Lawyer's Guild, 1427 Walnut Philadelphia, Pa. 19103.)

Show Us the Light

The Beacon Journal

Beau McDaniels,

MCC District Coordinator

As the morning session came to a close, a news conference was held. Though all major Cleveland and Akron media were notified, the only non-gay medium in attendance was The Akron Beacon Journal, represented by reporter Geraldine Coleman. Ms. Coleman interviewed all keynote speakers. The Beacon Journal should be commended for being the only widely circulated Northern Ohio newspaper to provide consistent coverage of Gay Movement News. It not only grants all minority groups periodic space; but espouses a policy of minority people covering minority news.

I'll Have a Rubin-Fisher After a brief lunch break, the conference tuned in on activists Pete Fisher and Marc Rubin. 'Fisher, best known for his highly acclaimed work, The Gay Mystique, is an author by trade. He has recently finished a novel entitled Numb Nuts and is looking for a publisher. The novel, according to Fisher, will present a portrait of America in 1972 from a gay perspective. During the press conference, Fisher said he strongly felt one can make both political and cultural change through writing.

Marc Rubin, a long time activist is a teacher in special education in N.Y.C. where he works with juvenile delinquents. He has come out to the school and is a leading member of the Gay Teacher's Association. Rubin also is on the National Gay Task Force Board and is a poet.

Here are highlights from their presentation: Rubin: "I'm a lambda chauvinist. People need symbols to unify them as a

group."

Fisher: "To be a political activist is to stop talking about change and actually doing. something about it. Anything you do is political if it challenges a norm wearing a button, hanging crepe paper for a dance, is just as important as more dangerous' acts. The purpose of activism is to find ways to channel your rage."

Fisher: "Those of us who work through the system should be careful which part of the system we choose. Attacking

Deb and Delores

(the system's) invulnerable parts makes for progress."

Rubin: "Gays won't have any effect on either political convention. The Democrats have some component of liberal guilt. They get blackmailed into support which is shaky, but at least it gives us good publicity..."

St.

Mike Anderson

Fisher: "If you stop playing by their rules and make your own, they don't know how to handle it

Once the Commissioner of N.Y. City made a statement that he would accept gay employees So long as they passed psychiatric exams which showed they wouldn't molest any passengers. N.Y. activists picked up on that and decided it was the commissioner who needed psychiatric treatment. So one day we just walked into his office past the secretary, carrying a couch, and five people in clinical smocks

Phil Murawa, Dignity Cleveland

trailing behind us to 'treat' him."

Rubin: "Violating personal spaces totally disorients

bureaucrats.'

Fisher: Back in 1972 the women of G.A.A. decided to secede and form a separate caucus called Lesbian-Feminist Liberation. Starting around 1973 colorful zaps became passe'; people felt they should be working for a real revolution; and gay males were divided by internal squabbles. The L.F.L. became the source for movement for the city civil rights bill. The heroine of this time was Lynn Farley who lead a group of gay people on a march to St. Patrick's Church. Activists were outraged at the firemen, policemen, and Catholic Church for uniting to defeat the gay legislation. When we arrived, there was an enormous crowd of

policemen and firefighters to greet us. They wouldn't let us march in front of the church so Lynn said, "Let's go in and pray," and everyone stormed inside. "It was great. Women had raised the fists, done the work, and were the leaders."

·

Rubin: "Tactics saturate the media fast. Zany and colorful zaps appeal to the media while the heavier revolutionary acts get less coverage. Now there's a vacuum of tactics. We're unsure. We have to stop the hate. trips. It perverts our own movement. We need a re-birth. I It's a constant challenge to gay activists to be imaginative and take actions against all anti-gay propoganda wherever and however we can."