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Gay Peoples Chronicle

May 1, 1985

Kate Clinton tells audience where to stick it.

Brian McNaught gives closing address at the conference.

4TH ANNUAL ALL-OHIO GAY/LESBIAN/FEMINIST CONFERENCE

COMMUNITY CONGREGATES,

By SEBASTIAN MELMOTH

Justifiably proud of past Conferences that brought to Cleveland such national figures as Virginia Apuzzo and Troy Perry, the Lesbian/Gay Student Union regards its Fourth Conference as the most successful to date.

Its success can be meas-

ured in numbers. About 350 people attended the various Conference events, fortunately without congregating for a single event.

He also sounded two of the themes reiterated throughout the weekend: the need for unity among gay people, and the need to present ourselves to straight society.

straight-jacket, she urged her audience to be themselves.

Chocolate Waters, who gave the after-lunch address on Saturday, may have been the most controversial speaker, stirring much of her audience to enthusiasm and part of it to indignation. It seemed to most observors that the enthusiasts predomSuccess can also be measinated. Arguing that feminured in the presence of ism, like any ideology, can lesbians, who numbered about become a repressive one-third of those attending. Normally, only a handful of women attend. The credit for this unprecedented increase should probably be divided between the Women's Center, who selected Chocolate Waters as a keynoter, and Oven Productions, who scheduled Kate Clinton's performance. Another measure of success was the caliber of the speakers. Larry Bush opened the Conference Friday night with an unexpectedly somber but characteristically forceful examination of AIDS as a political phenomenon.

Valerie Terrigno's evening address began with a 45 minute delay, but her audience was patient. Their enthusiastic and almost affectionate reception made her status as a symbol of gay pride tangible. Her relatively low-keyed addTess, part of which echoed Bush's advice about working with straight people, ended with a standing ovation.

Brian McNaught closed the Conference with a very moving address that clearly

engaged his audience, whether he was describing aspects of gayness peculiar to those who are Catholic, or noting the extreme loneliness we all felt growing up gay. Thoughtful as well as stirring, it was a very fitting close to the weekend.

The Sunday morning panel, moderated by Larry Bush, lost two proposed members-both of them straight, but that was coincidental. Brian McNaught and Clark Niblock (chair and a founder of the Alamo Human Rights Commission in San Antonia; and a Republican) filled in, joining Chris Riddiough and Pat Baskin.

During a discussion of the need for gay civil rights legislation, McNaught pointed out that in spite of much evidence that gay people are discriminated against, they have not made their case clearly.

Baskin, who had perhaps the most thankless position on the panel, speaking for the Cleveland lesbian/gay community, skilfully threaded her way through its Byzantine complexities without offending any group. This was the judgement of the Chronicle staff, but we may be underestimating Cleve-

landsensitivies.

Kate

Clinton played to a sold-out house, with every seat filled, part of the audience sitting on the stairs and floor, and many persons turned away because there literally was no room. Oven Productions deserves congratulations, first for bringing Clinton to Cleveland--she's a superb humorist--and second for coping very efficiently with the overflow audience.

I would like to make two very personal observations about the performance. An audience that is almost entirely lesbian closely resembles a gay male audience in ways that initially seem surprising, but perhaps really illustrate the common elements of our cultures. The second observation concerns the lead-in act, Iris, a Cleveland humorist. Does the female part of our community have to keep her to themselves? She's good. One final aspect of the Conference's overall success was the very strong feeling of community that it engendered in many of those attending it--a feeling much more intense than that experienced at its predeces-

sors.