page 6

888888

The Annual Women's Variety Show, February 15th at The Civic

-Women-3

Events

The regular meeting this month, on February 12, will be a dinner meeting at Adams Row, 11921 Lorain Ave-

Due.

Next month's meeting, March 12, will again be at the West Shore Unitarian Church, 20401 Hilliard Road.

Tentative plans for the Winery Tour on Saturday, March 15, call for leaving Lakewood at noon. The group will visit four wineries near Madison. Cost will be $7. For information call Barbara, 226-0458

If you are interested in tentative plans for crossCountry skiing, call Bobbi, 631-3819.

North Coast

Lesbian Assn.

The North Coast Lesbian Association will meet at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, February 11, in the Small Group Room in the West Wing of the Civic. For information call Barb, 381-3722.

Gay Peoples Chronicle

-Gay and Lesbian-Substance Abuse

By DAWN L. VANDERZEE and ALLEN L. RALSTON

February 1986

Virtually no positive atOnce you find you are gay, tention has been paid to a every part of your existence major health problem that has to be reinvented. That currently threatens the option "of passing" as hethealth, the sanity, and the exosexual to any or all of lives of one out of every the world, the consistent three gays and lesbians in choice of self-affirmation Ohio and in the United or self-denial, is a confusStates. Research reported ing and often painful one during the post decade indifor many gays and lesbians. cates that one-third of the The confusion and pain also lesbian and gay population is intensified by the feelis abusing alcohol on a ings of isolation and aloneregular basis. ness in that struggle. Gays are the only minority group whose parents do not EYER share that sense of "being different." So again, that cultural experience of asserting uniqueness and wholeness is absent. In its place is a sense of inadequacy, loneliness, and guilt which leads many human beings, regardless of sexual orientation, into alcoholism.

Kinsey's estimate that one out of every ten adult men and women are homosexual, combined with a 30% rate of alcohoism in this population, indicates that homosexual alcholics comprise a significant percentage of all alcoholics.

Jacques Brel Coming Conservative as most of them

The Near West Side Community Theater is presenting a production of Jacques Brel that it suggests may be the bargain of the century.

Tickets are only $2.

Directed by Stephanie Morrison-Hrbek, Lauren Persons, and Bob Navis, the production includes, as one unique feature, a cast of 20.

It will be presented in a cabaret setting, with freshments.

Those familiar with alcoholism are aware of the denial aspect of this disease and the resulting tendency of some individuals to minimize or deny alcohol related problems. Thus, these percentages actually may be conservative as most of them are based on self-reports. The limited number of studies that have been conducted show that the rate of alcoholism among sexual minorities may be two or three times the national average in the general population.

Alcoholism is a problem that is epidemic in the gay community--a problem that is not being adequately addressed by existing programs and strategies. It is significant to note that there are few articles rein alcohol treatment and research literature on gay alcoholism at a time when alcohol services for special populations are bring stressed, ie., youth, women, elderly, black, Indian, chicano, and Appalachian. It would seen that it is not only those with the disease of alcoholism that utilize denial.

Performances will be held at the Near West Side_Community Theater, St. Pat's Club Building, 3606 Bridge Avenue. Secure parking is provided.

Performance dates are February 21, 22, and 23; February 28, March 1 and 2.

All curtains are at 8 p.m.

ACA/AL-ANON

for Lesbians-

Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA)/Al-Anon for Lesbians meets every Monday at 7 P.m. in the Small Group Room of the Women's Building Project, the West Wing of the Civic.

INDIVIDUAL COUPLE • FAMILY. GROUP

FOCUS-

COUNSELING SERVICES, INC.

DEBRA DUNKLE, A.C.S.W. NICHOLAS PALUMBO, A.C.S.W. SUELLEN SAUNDERS, M.S.S.A.

2100 FULTON ROAD CLEVELAND, OHIO

651-7111 7-11 P.M. FOR APPOINTMENT

For an alcohol abuse program to be successful within any community, the program must be sensitive to the values and norms of that community. It must be conducted by trusted and visible community members, incommunity leaders in its volve a broad spectrum of planning and implementation, and finally be integrated into the existing institutions and service delivery networks within that community.

17

Large Numbers, Little Response

To understand the high incidence of alcohol abuse in the gay community is to understand some almost universal facets of the gay existence. Ever present in gay life is oppression: both overt and covert. The prevalent negatism toward homosexuals is impossible to avoid.

Societal pressure is the most often cited reason for the high rate of alcohol abuse in the gay community. The numerous social and moral pressures, including anti-homosexual statements by members of the mental health profession, church leaders, and government officials, are seen as having the cumulative effect of creating coping problems in the sexual minority.

The second most frequently cited factor in gay alcoholism is the gay bar scene. A high percentage of gays and lesbians spend an average of 60-80% of their social activity time in bars and at parties or gatherings where alcohol is served. There are few comfortable social alternatives to the bar for gays and lesbians.

Sadly, most of the twenty million gay Americans still ation, isolation, and releare willing to accept aliengation to bars from the larger non-gay community. As a result of this collective immobility, one-third of the Page 7, col. 1

SUSAN M. WEAVER

Attorney at Law

INITIAL CONSULTATION FREE

300 Engineers Building Cleveland, Ohio 44114-1373

(216) 621-8118