MARCH 9, 1988 THE WEEKLY NEWS PAGE 3

MAYOR REBUFFS PLANS FOR GAY TOURISM

BY CLIFF O'NEILL

FORT LAUDERDALE Local government officials expressed concerns with a local gay business guild's plans for a national advertising campaign designed to bolster gay tourism to the area last week. Comments made by the city's mayor to the local press about the guild's designs angered both local and national leaders only several days before Tuesday's reelection bid by the mayor.

The Gay Business Association, formed in Fort Lauderdale only two months ago, had only begun to talk about plans, to advertise the city as a fun, warm and exciting year-round vacation spot for lesbians and gay men in the national gay media when they were contacted by the local mainstream press. Shortly after Business Guild President Jim Rakvica, owner of Tacky's bar, spoke to a reporter from The Fort Lauderdale News/Sun Sentinel, Mayor Robert Cox expressed his reluctance for his city to be associated with gay tourism.

"I don't think we want to have the image of the gay resort any more than we want to have the image of a vomiting college student resort, or the image of any other group which is clearly not part of the family orientation that Fort Lauderdale fully and clearly said it wants," Cox told the Sun Sentinel.

BY CLIFF O'NEILL

In recent years, Fort Lauderdale city officials have gone to great lengths to distance themselves from the image as a mecca for college students on Spring Break vacation much to the dismay of local business owners.

Nicki Grossman, chairperson of the Broward Tourist Council, once endorsed by the area's gay political action group, also voiced her apprehension with the guild's advertising plan to the Sun Sentinel.

"AIDS is on everybody's mind," she stated. "Even the more educated among us still relate AIDS to the gay population. I think that would be the first thing that some potential visitors would think if they knew Broward County was making an attempt to cater to a gay population."

Grossman did not return a reporter's calls.

Cox, contacted Monday, called the controversy "so much flap over this unflappable business," weary of the controversy that has ensued for several days. Cox explained that he made his comments upon being told that the gay community "wanted to make Ft. Lauderdale the gay capital of the world."

"I simply stated that I didn't want the City of Fort Lauderdale to be made the capital of anything," he stated. "I feel the citizens of this community have given a mandate that this city

BUSINESS GUILD PRESIDENT JIM RAKVICA.

is to be kept a year-round family-oriented city. Some gays even say that this already is the gay capital of the world."

The guild's plans, which Rakvica admitted are still only in the talking stages, were to join area businesses in securing co-op advertising

in gay publications such as The Advocate in order to save money and promote year-round business. Rakvica stated he "doesn't even know" where the local media came up with the $200,000 figure they announced the guild was planning on spending on the campaign.

When informed that the guild's plan was simply to advertise the city's gay businesses in the national gay media, Cox expressed no con-

cern.

"No I don't think that'll do any harm," he said. "There, they (the business guild) are only advertising within their particular community, just like if the Boy Scouts were advertising in a Boy Scouts' magazine."

Rex Howe, general manager of the Marlin Beach Hotel and a member of the guild, was dismayed by Cox's statements. He felt that the mayor's comment's to the Broward County daily were "in bad taste" and promoted the illusion that the guild was hoping to attract colleges students on their Spring Break vacation.

"We're looking to attract all age segments, not just specifically college age students," Howe said.

Members of the area's gay political community took a somewhat harder line stance against the mayor.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

the weekly news

A TIME OF WAR:

THE WAR CONFERENCE CONVENES IN RURAL VIRGINIA

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven... A time to love, and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace."

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

"This is a call to conference. A call to a war conference, because, indeed, we are at war."

War Conference call to action.

WARRENTON, Va. On February 26, they came. From the canyons of New York and from the beaches of Los Angeles; from the ports of Seattle and from the mountains of Tennessee they converged. The activists. The movers and shakers. The loose federation of proud lesbians and gay men who lead what we call a national movement of lesbian and gay rights.

National leaders from Washington-based groups and local activists heading up the fight in small-town America came to hear the call of war, the call of confederation; the call of a movement at odds with the world.

On October 11, 1987, over 650,000 gay and lesbian people marched down Pennsylvania Avenue calling for their civil rights; fair and equitable treatment by a government that treats them with apathy at best; and ample funding for a disease that continues to scourge their community.

The calls were ignored.

Major American newsmagazines treated the largest gathering in Washington D.C. history as if it didn't occur. Three days later, the U.S. Senate voted 94-2 in favor of the Helms Amendment which would ban the federal funding of any AIDS-service organization "promoting homosexual sexual activity." This "better-dead-than-gay" bill roused the ire of many of the activists who had worked so hard for an ailing community. Many realized something else must be done.

Soon thereafter, Larry Kramer, author and AIDS activist, issued a call for a conference, a War Conference, to coalesce the separate. agendas of the nation's lesbian and gay community into one giant "super-organization." The process had begun.

After many of the nation's gay and lesbian leaders expressed their concern that the concept of the melding of such a mass organization would not be feasible for various reasons, Kramer resigned from the planning committee.

GAY AND LESBIAN LEADERS AT THE WAR CONFERENCE SHOW THAT THEY DO HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR AS THEY EMULATE THE COVER OF THE SGT. PEPPER ALBUM COVER FOR THE LENS OF TWN PHOTOGRAPHER CLIFF O'NEILL.

In a haphazard manner, the lists were compiled without much consideration for regional representation, gender parity or representation by People of Color. The first-come, firstserved conference began to take shape. The gay and lesbian leaders heading up the movement in various parts of the nation were contacted. The conference was set.

Come February 26, the groups of travelers mounted shuttle busses from airports and train stations. The roll call began. On the lists were the headliners. Each name brought with it another victory in the movement.

Off into the Virginia countryside they rode. To a country estate 45 miles away from the nation's capital, the conference-goers went.

They met at Airlie House, an old Virginian estate, secluded from the outside world. This site, reminiscent of the locale for an Agatha Christie novel, was where the decisions were to be made.

A Time For Remembrance

As with most gatherings of gay, lesbian and AIDS leaders, a moment was set aside for the remembrance of those that we have lost. Lost to the scourge; to the beatings; to the depths of loneliness. Holding hands and call-

ing out names as they were remembered, these veterans of many remembrances before this were once again moved.

"This if for the Dan Bradleys and the Charlie Howards; for the Harvey Milks and the Tom Waddells," the organizers declared.

A brief moment in the weekend's time was to explain how far we've come. How we have come from a time where all of society viewed homosexuality as "The Holy Trilogy" of sin, sickness and criminality, through the battles of the 70s with Anita Bryant and John Briggs to the battles with AIDS and the "bullies" of the 80s, all heard how a diverse and disjointed movement has had its share of both victories and losses.

This conference was to be one of the victories.

A Time To Be Frank And Forthcoming

To identify the threat facing the community would take all minds working together if they were to be identified even in part.

The threats of misogyny and racism were expressed throughout as the small handful of People of Color and Hispanics invited to the conference voiced their outrage at their lack of inclusion in the decision-making process. Al-

though the lesbian membership was somewhat larger than most co-sexual gay gatherings, the one-third female participation also left a sour taste in the mouths of many.

The lack of a sound financial footing also was voiced as a threat. Although one participant pointed out, "we have aqueducts upon aqueducts of money," pointing out that the nation's gay and lesbian groups cumulatively raised over $70 million in the last year alone, it was noted that few groups are financially secure over the long haul.

The threats of the closet were verbalized. Many noted that it is the community's invisibility that the closet affords that reduces the movement to subjugate status.

The threats of infighting, prima donnas and burn-out by activists in the major cities, but most keenly felt by leaders in between New York and the California coast, were also heard. A voice from the heartland of the nation described the problem: "We gnaw upon one another until we devour one another."

The meetings began. The questions were posed.

How can the gay and lesbian community get the government off its back and by its side? How can the community respect the CONTINUED ON PAGE 32