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Gay Peoples Chronicle

January 1986

NGLTF Conference on Lesbian Lives

By SHANA R. BLESSING

I spent November 23rd and 24th of last year on the campus of Hunter College in New York City at the Lesbian Lives Conference sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. I decided to attend in response to the pamphlet we received at the GEAR Foundation, which billed this gathering as The first national Lesbian Conference to identify emerging issues and chart a course of action in the decade ahead..."

We were invited as "Lesbian representatives from around the country [to] discuss and map an agenda in the major areas of critical concern to the lesbian community nationwide. Issues that affect our lives today and tomorrow--employment, business, discrimination, health care, AIDS, parenting, substance abuse, relationships, legal concerns, aging, youth, sexuality, and many more...

Ithought it quite a grand effort especially for the Task Force's first attempt to organize lesbians nationwide, to "seek...the broadest possible spectrum of U.S. lesbian priorities today--those that truly reflect the lesbian experience," in order to map a lesbian agenda. What was actually realized at the Conference eluded the embroidery of this glossy public relations release.

Grand turned into grandiose as the nature of the Conference became apparent. The hierarchical organizational structure surprised

because, in this day and age, feminist groups around the globe are attempting to transcend tha patriarchal mode of operation in favor of consensus and collectivism. Hierarchy left many travel-weary women closed out of workshops they had come to attend because of an

Women in mixed organizations support gay male issues such as AIDS and entrapment because we are family and because the State perceives all homosexuals to be members of one category.

arbitrary number-per-workshop attendance limitation. As well, the structure made it almost impossible for participants to form ad-hoc groups. Another feminist ideal of attempting to involve women from different race and class backgrounds was breached here, as virtually all 175 faces were white and many, many minds were educated with the blinders of privilege.

The issues of power and privilege found their way into the workshops themselves. Sadly, in five of the six workshops I attend-

Naiad Survives Hurricane

a

When Hurricane Kate struck the Florida panhandle on the evening of Nov. 21, the twisters it spawned took seemingly direct path through the four heavily wooded acres of Naiad Press.

Huge pines 30" in diameter, ancient and majestic and irreplaceable live oaks, fell everywhere--except, miraculously, on the buildings housing Naiad Press.

But the main roads everywhere were blocked by trees and the women of Naiad Press were five days without water or phones and six days with out power. When the women of the community and other

towns along the panhandle could get through, they pitched in with hard physical labor to dig them out.

In its 14-year existence, Naiad Press had never previously been late with shipments. By working night and day, through Thanksgiving, they finally caught up ōn Nov. 29.

The women of Naiad Press want to assure all their bookstores, their customers, their friends everywhere, that although they are heartsick at the devastation to their land and their lives, they are well--and they are fully back in busi-

ness.

ed, the "agendas" had already been set by "facilitators who might have been better termed monitors." In a workshop on Non-Urban Issues, we focused on coming out and creating community in small towns and rural areas. I was interested in speaking with women from across the country about groundbreaking radical lesbian activities happening in non-urban areas such as at peace camps and on women's land, but there was little interest in these concerns.

In the Spirituality workshop, I expected we would discuss the nature of the rise of Goddess Worship/ Women's Religion/ Wicce within the lesbian/feminist community, and I had hoped to make connections with women with similar spiritual inclinations to my own. Instead, both I and the majority of the workshop participants were stunned when we Found the primary interest of the facilitator was being foisted upon us; she was working to institute lesbianism as a religion to be recognized by the State and granted non-profit status. As far-fetched as it sounds, we wound up spending a major portion of the allotted hour and a half trying to clarify the differences between religion and sexual orientation! By this point, I had lost much hope in the Conference and shared lunch with three women equally as incredulous as I that we kept becoming involved in discussions about how the impacts upon lesbians Page 7, col. 1

Coffeehouse

Dances

The Coffeehouse Dance will be held be held Saturday, January 11, at 2728 Lancashire, from 8 pm to midnight. All women are welcome to a chemical-free space. Donation is $2.

On January 25 the Coffeehouse is holding a Country Dance at the Civic. For information call Robin, 9326085, or Mary, 932-8442.

Women-3

The

Events

next regular meeting Wonderful Westside Women will be January 8, 7:30 pm, at the West Shore Unitarian Church, 20401 Hilliard Rd., in the Sunday School Complex. A 50-cent donation at the door covers room costs. Women-3 will meet again February 12.

The Superbowl Sunday Celebration is January 26. Arrive one hour before game time. $3 includes lunch, but bring your own beverages. For information/directions, call Linda, 238-3814.

Video Night will be SaturThe' film Lianna will be day, January 11, 7:30 p.m. shown. Donation is $2. For information, call Linda, 238-3814.

Interested in tentative plans for cross-country skiing? Call Bobbi, 631-3819.

Women-3 is planning a Cabin Fever Potluck Dinner in Lakewood on Saturday, February 1, 7:30 pm. For information call Bobbi, 631-3819.

Women-3 is planning a winery tour on Saturday, March 15. The group will visit four wineries in Ohio, leaving from Lakewood at noon. For information, call Barbara, 226-0458.

If you are interested in attending the Cleveland Cavaliers game on Saturday, February 22, call Linda, 238-3814, for information.

Variety Show

Oven

Productions

is

holding planning meetings for the February Women's Variety Show on January 12, and 19 at 7 pm in the Community Room of Women's Building at Civic.

the

The

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