June 1976

CENTER SITE CHOICE NEAR

CLEVELAND At its June 7 Board of Director's meeting, the G.E.A.R. Foundation heard the building committee recommendations on ther proposed Gay Community Center site. A building on W. 6th St. Clair has emerged as the front running candidate. The leasors are interested in renting the space to the Foundation, fully aware that the facility will be used as a Gay Community Center.

The owners have offered the Foundation an optional lease agreement. The only reason the rent would ever be raised is for heat which is paid for by the proprietors. G.E.A.R. would pay. electricity. An added advantage is that RTA loop bus stop is at the door of the building, making it readily accessible to a Rapid station.

At press time this particular site was not confirmed as the actual locale of the community center. But indications are that some spot will definitely be chosen by either late June or early July.

Dear Sir:

I wish that you would stop this foolishness of calling Congressman John Sieberling "anti-gay." The whole thing seems to have started when an inexperienced reporter for another gay paper and I visited him and asked him to cosponsor the federal gay rights bill. John replied that he probably would vote for the bill, but for political reasons would not cosponsor it and he had questions about whether gays should be teachers.

He was friendly, but obviously was uncomfrotable with the subject and emphasized his own heterosexuality. The reporter got all upset about this and in his subsequent story distorted John's statements of lukewarm support so that they seemed like anti-gay bigotry. Actually, John is a potentially valuable ally.

It may be gratifying to say that anyone who is not enthusiastically with us all the way is against us, but that is both untrue and politically self-defeating. The name of the game is getting support from people who have the power to do us some good (as opposed to people on the political fringes who will use the gay movement or anything else to win converts.) This is done by writing. letters, visiting them in their offices, getting to know them and letting them get to know us.

The gay rights bill is not scheduled for hearings because the subcommittee has over a hundred bills before it, and it can find time for considering only the most pressing. Our bill is low on their priority list because neither Seiberling nor the subcommittee chairman has received much mail on it, and that is our fault, not theirs.

Here in Akron there is no gay lib movement because the gays are too busy enjoying themselves in their communal closets to be bothered with activism. Why should, a congressman or anyone else bother about people like that?

Sincerely, Walter Sheppe Dept. of Biology University of Akron Akron, Ohio 44325

Gentlemen:

For a long time I have been reading with great pleasure and interest the many fine perceptive articles of your publication. It was with much regret and disappointment that I read your grotesque caricature of the Pope on page 6 of the current issue.

Freedom of the press does exist in this country, and I should never question the right of an article, such as the one on paganism also appearing in this issue, to be printed, no matter how lopsided and incomplete personally felt the exposition of the Judeo-Christian tradition to be. The gross portrayal of the Pope is quite another matter. Freedom does involve responsibility and discretion. Your vilification, therefore, of the man considered to be the Vicar of Christ on earth by Roman Catholics and the Bishop of Rome by the Orthodox and Angelicans seems a cheap shot indeed. Its purpose was perhaps humor; and I am sure it will elicit many a smirk and a giggle or two. I sincerely hope you will consider the loss of good will the article has cost you.

Raymond Fortune Associate Professor of Modern Languages, Lakeland Community College

Member of: National Gay Task Force Gay Academic Union integrity (Gay Epsicopalians)

Friend of: Dignity and other gay groups

Mr. Fortune: We regret any ill will our satirical portrait may have created. Eds.

Dear Editor,

During a weekend visit to Columbus a few weeks ago, I picked up a copy of HIGH GEAR, in one of the bars. I had to write and tell you how overwhelmed I was!

a

I have NEVER seen such sophisticated, tasteful, dignified, and ENTERTAINING gay journal in my life! Many gay newspapers often are riddled with porno ads, sexist advertising, and almost totally male oriented articles. HIGH GEAR (issue 8) avoided ALL these trappings, and showed what the OTHER gay publications SHOULD be doing! I was so delighted to see more coverage of women's news, plus a woman on the cover!!! I especially enjoyed the Lily Tomlin interview, the "Personal Note On Loneliness", "Odds And Ends"; and most of all, the very beautiful poem "Interlude For D.

There was so much variety, and something for everybody. Even the drag queens weren't excluded ("Queen Anne's Lace")

I really wish we had something like HIGH GEAR down south; however, there's a paper in Atlanta fits the (THE BARB) which description above, and it would be nice to have a paper to show straight friends that would really point out that gay people have more than one thing on our minds; that we aren't only after just anything that walks in pants (or skirts, as the case may be.) So, keep putting together that fantastic paper, as you're inspiration to us all. Peace & happiness to ya. Van Ault P.O. Box 156 Wildwood, Ga. 30757,

an

HIGH GEAR

LETTERS

WORSE THAN PLAYBOY?

Dear Editors:

Before I get into the substance of this letter, I want to point out to you that Oven Productions is not affiliated with CALFA, and is not a service provided by the "LesbianSwitchboard", as you called the CALFA phone. Oven Productions, a totally separate entity, has its own phone, 371-1697.

--

OK in conversations with you and through the grapevine I've become aware that GEAR is trying to involve more women. Certainly the cover story on Oven Productions and other stories indicated that you are trying but the feminist consciousness in High Gear is so low that I as a dyke-feminist am outraged and offended by the paper and intend to boycott it. (There are also many women in this community who have felt the same way about how gay activities relate to women and have no desire to identify with the gay world).

Specifically, two things in the last issue of High Gear were totally obnoxious, and those I found in only skimming the paper... the basic issue is that I do not support the "right" of men to get themselves up in drag it is not amusing, or interesting, or anything but a male put-down of women. Drag is generally a manifestation of the exact images of women that I am dedicating my life to eradicate femme, cute, coy, and sexy and I have found many queens take these images VERY seriously. Even as a parody, I find them most offensive. The article "Queen Anne's Lace" in the last HG issue was a case in point women do not have "boobs," we are not "girls" and all these men,

--

we are

playing at being what they see women to be, do not realize that even just these clothes have oppressed women, as they are totally nonfunctional, what supposed to look like is totally controlled (and changed yearly) by the fashion industry for profit, plus such little added benefits as not being able to run from attackers in 3" platform shoes.

Secondly, the "odds and ends". column mentioned an attempted rape of a TV in California -couple of points here the qualification "attractive woman" is a subtle enforcement of the idea that only women who are "attractive" (by male standards, no less) get raped, which is totally untrue. Also this man is not my sister. A PERSON WITH A PRICK IS NOT A "SISTER," or a "SHE."

I am totally offended at the cute gay habits of calling men "sister" when as a feminist I am struggling to regain and retain my identity as a woman in this patriarchy. Gay men still do have male privileges and do use it (granted, TV's are pretty much negating that privilege, but they can still dress up in accepted male attire and look straight when convenient like at work; I can't ever change my status when it's convenient, except from oppressed woman to dyke)

it is

even-more oppressed

As I said, I intend to boycott High Gear, and to not recommend that women get involved in GEAR until men, on their own (without women to teach them) learn to give up these misogynist attitudes. I'd rather read Playboy, at least they don't make a pretense at feminism...

Angrily

Lori Holmes

Dear Lori:

Page 3

Thank you for your letter and for investigating High Gear. We sincerely regret your outrage over our journal as it relates to women. What you regard as tokenism relative to women, we must view as fair play. High Gear does not pretend to be a feminist journal! Any articles which we feature by or for women are freely submitted by people who feel such material is useful or relevant to the community as a whole.

To publish information pertinent to women is, in fact, a liability for any gay publication and many, at least covertly, discriminate against women in deference to male businesses selling to male publics. High Gear will continue to poriray women "up front" in defiance of such exploitation and at the risk of alienating monied male readership.

We respect and support feminist separatism. We agree with the separatist thesis that woman's consciousness can best be raised in an environment uncluttered by male crudeness and myopia. We believe, however, that we, as males, have a right to raise our own consciousnesses vis-a-vis women and to receive and dispense the feminist point-of-view en route to acquiring a better understanding. We concur with many women who feel that propaganda, and NOT isolation is a better way to achieve liberation.

Before you castigate High Gear for what we print, consider what we do not publish. Again, unlike many gay publications we oppose sexism. We define sexism as a) discrimination against anyone on the basis of gender and sexual orientation b) the proliferation of an arbitrary ideal of physical human beauty which few can attain. Everyone working on our staff does so in a strictly voluntary capacity. Our rejection of sexist, racist, and classist advertising has compelled us to operate on a subsistence budget. Although we do not ban nudity per se, we prohibit or discourage the use of photographed male figures with exaggerated musculatures and genitalia and promote instead aesthetic renderings of the human body which focus attention on the universal human form for its own sake. Such a policy has resulted in our losing important advertisers who use this method in their displays.

As for drag queens, we feel that transvestites comprise a legitimate sexual minority. Transvestism is an historial phenomenon exhibited by both sexes. Indeed, some of the foremost feminists of the past have also been female transvestites.

It is unfortunate that women in our society have been oppressed and that therefore male transvestites must reflect that oppression in their apparel and mannerisms. Hopefully, the complete liberation of women in our society in our lifetime will result in a future liberated drag.

To demand that transvestites opt for "straight" gay lifestyles is, however, facist. Even, if we consider drag degrading, a drag has a right to his/her own body and therefore is entitled to degrade his/herself. Please be reminded that many accessories which are popular among radical feminists including levis, aviator glasses, etc. are not feminist inventions but are borrowed from oppressive "butch" male culture, and technically qualify as a form of drag.

We sincerely apologize for the use of such tasteless and offensive expressions as "boobs." We are genuinely embarrassed and will take care to prevent a repeat.

Finally, thank you again, Lori, for your articulate and provocative letter. The fact that you bothered to write us at all seems to suggest that you feel we are not outright Nazis and perhaps can even be salvaged. Are we really worse than Playboy? Leon Stevens, John Nosek