gay peoples CHRONICLE

Vol. 1 No. 8

Cleveland, Ohio

More on Summerfest,

pp 8 9

September 1985

SUMMERFEST DRAWS 2,400

BY CHARLES CALIENDER

The August 18 Summerfest-Dancin' in the Streets, combining an AIDS benefit with street fair and community celebration, was an outstanding success.

least 2,400 gay people gathered on West Ninth Street for the event.

Most-

ly Cleveland-area residents, they also included contingents from Lake and Lorain counties, Akron, and Columbus, as well as visitors from Michigan and Pennsylvania. About one-third of them were women.

The $13,000 that Summerfest grossed included $4,500 in gate donations and $1,000 in other donations and pledges. Most of the balance represented beverage sales. With expenditures for supplies, equipment, and security totalling $4,000, the festival netted about $9,000..

Jeff Swindler, chairperson of the Summerfest '85 Committee, assures the gay community this money will be used for necessary purposes.

of it will be expended on Cleveland-area education programs on AIDS and for supporting local AIDS victims.

Closed to traffic during the 3 to 11 p.m. Summerfest hours, West Ninth Street was lined with organizational booths and tables, and with food vendors including a hot dog stand and purveyors of sundaes and home-made cookies.

Organizations that had booths included the Akron Gay-Lesbian Crisis Infoline

480

and Metropolitan Christian Christian WOMEN TAKE BACK

Church, All-Peoples Cong-

ress, Body Works, Eleanor

Roosevelt Gay Democratic Club, GEAR Foundation, Health Issues Taskforce, High Level Wellness, and Take Back the Night. They offered information and literature, and sometimes petitions to sign. One could also obtain Play Safe buttons, free condoms, and have one's face painted.

The Health Issues Taskforce staffed two booths, one dispensing information about safe sex, the other providing medical personnel who answered questions about

Page 8, col. 1

THE NIGHT

By MARTHA PONTONI

On September 28 women will take to the streets of downtown Cleveland to protest raping, battering, abuse,

economic deprivation of women and children.

About 200 women and children are expected to march from Cleveland State University's Marshall Law School to Public Square in the Seventh Annual Take Back the Night March.

The protest will start at 6 p.m. with a brown-bag din-

GEAR Names Executive Director

The GEAR Foundation has appointed Shana Blessing its new executive director. Ms. Blessing was one of 30 candidates for the position.

directorship, which began August 28, includes supervisory responsibility for all GEAR programs. She will also be responsible for ob-

taining taining additional funds through grants.

A graduate of Oberlin College, where she majored in Women's Studies and PsycholOgy., Ms. Blessing describes herself as a lesbian/femigist who has been politically and socially active since 1981. While at Oberlin she

was active in the Lesbian/ Gay Union and in the Women's Center.

Ms. Blessing belongs to the Radical Consciousness Group, as well as the What She Wants collective, and works with the Women's Building Project.

Photograph, Page 3

ner and a talk by the Rape Crisis Center. The march itself will begin at 7:30.

Although Take Back the Night is not an exclusively Lesbian event, Cleveland's lesbian community plays a large part in its organization every year.

This year's organizing committee consists of 12 dedicated women, who were disappointed that no march took place last year. The group has no leaders, but one menber, Sandy Koster, agreed to talk to the Gay Peoples Chronicle about the march. Ms.

the

tion.

do,

Koster explained that march centers on educa-

"What we are trying to she said, "is educate women about violence--all violence. This will empower women who want to stop the violence happening in their lives. In order not to be a victim, you have to be aware that you can be one."

Ms. Koster also encouraged

Page 7, col. 1