page 4

Gay Peoples Chronicle

March 1986

gay peoples CHRONICLE

Publisher

Cleveland Gay Peoples Press Associates

Editor-in-Chief Charles Callender

NAMBLA & GAY PEOPLE

Chronicle editorials express the collective opinion of our writing staff. This one, stemming from personal experience and embodying a view we do not entirely share, appears over my signature.

Jerry Bores and I recently talked about gay lifestyles at a Case Western Reserve University dormitory. At a similar session a few years ago, the audience repeatedly shouted down a fundamentalist who tried to harass us. This time we drew a more subtle homophobe who asked questions he expected to embarrass us.

Most of his questions were easy to deal with. The bombshell that he expected would make us slink away in humiliation was his belief that homosexual sex is against Ohio law. His criminology professor said so. We suggested his criminology professor knew shockingly little about Ohio law.

There are occasional advantages in having spent part of one's life as a heterosexual: it confuses homophobes. And when a homophobe asks what makes people gay, attributing the sexual orientation to Judy Garland records expresses a scorn for the question that shocks people; which, one hopes, may make them think.

His final question concerned NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association), which he describd as having kidnapped a boy. Jerry and I responded that NAMBLA is a very small group we know little about and don't like. But that question, unlike

his others, made us uncomfortable.

We can grant a number of things about NAMBLA. The age of consent in the United States is unreasonably high. Adolescent males who are gay can be aggressors in initiating sex with gay men. Police charges that NAMBLA members kidnapped Etan Patz, a New York boy who disappeared, hinged upon a photograph in a calendar they found in a raid upon NAMBLA headquarters; and were exploded when the calendar turned out to be several years old, assembled when Etan Patz was an infant. Granting all this, NAMBLA still makes me uncomfortable.

Moreover, NAMBLA seems to play directly into the hands of those who try to convince the public that all homosexual males seduce boys and so pose a direct threat to their children.

The gay communities in New York and San Francisco have taken steps against NAMBLA, in such forms as refusing to let it use community facilities or join Gay Pride Parades. These measures amount to disowning the organization. Yet the idea of expelling people from our community, even those who make us most vulnerable to heterosexist attack, also makes me uncomfortable.

responding to the question, I argued that pedophilia has to be distinguished from homosexuality. Perhaps, on that basis, we could rid ourselves of NAMBLA without feeling we are disowning gay brothers. Charles Callender

THE ERGPC ELECTION

We congratulate Win Weiser on her reelection as vice-president of the Eleanor Roosevelt Gay Political Club. We also hope she understands the significance of the votes against her. Like the other candidates for ERGPC offices, she was unopposed. Yet in her case alone, half the votes cast were write-ins for other persons. This unprecedented expression of disapproval is another sign that destructive styles of leadership run counter to the trends now changing our community. Win has skills and abilities this community can use. We hope she recognizes this call to use them constructively.

The very small number of persons voting, like ERGPC's difficulties in finding candidates for some of its offices, highlight a problem common to organizations oriented

toward serving the community. Often these groups have fairly large memberships, but å small core of already overburned people must do the work as well as providing leadership.

We honestly don't know the solution, nor the reasons most of the gay population in this area remains uninvolved or keeps its involvement minimal. Except for the Health Issues Taskforce--and even it is not free of these problems--pleas for greater involvement draw little effective response. Each organization has to work with very limited personnel resources. Perhaps we can find solutions in the lesbian segment of our community, where collectives seem to accomplish their aims; or perhaps the newly forming Gay and Lesbian Institute can help.

END HOUSING DISCRIMINATION

This editorial stems quite directly from the previous one. In Cleveland, as in most American cities, gay people can be legally turned away when trying to rent housing. We can be evicted by homophobic landlords. And we have no recourse.

Cleveland City Council is now considering Ordinance_86-86, a Fair Housing bill introduced by Councilman Michael Polensek. The Eleanor Roosevelt Gay Political Club is working to have the ordinance amended to include sexual orientation as one of the attributes for which discrimination is Forbidden.

This goal most directly involves gay people living in Cleveland, but as a step toward civil rights concerns all of us.

ERGPC has to convince members of City Council that gay people, and concern with Jay rights, are found throughout Cleveland ind are not limited to Ohio City and the Fringes of Lakewood. It needs our help to lo this. It is calling on the community o call their councilpersons and ask to

have the ordinance amended to include the words "sexual orientation." It needs us to write letters, to our councilpersons and to those serving on the committees listed on page 5, particularly Health and Legislation. If you are able to call or write as a gay person, fine. If you can't, do so as someone interested in civil rights. This will not stamp you as gay. If you City Council, call Phil at 961-5556 or Win don't know who represents your ward in at 991-1129.

Send copies of your letters to ERGPC, 11101 Lake Avenue #4, Cleveland OH 44102. Also tell it what response your calls received by calling Jerry at 961-5556 or Win at 991-1129. This will give ERGPC information about members of Council who are disposed for or against the amendment.

is an opportunity to help yourself and other gay people, and simultaneously to help an organization accomplish a goal of utmost importance for all of us.

Reporters

Charles Callender Catherine Clark, Rob Daroff Doza Forbes, Joanne Frustaci rk Kroboth Casimir Kuczynski Sebastian Melmoth Martha Pontoni

Photographer & Cartoonist Rob Daroff

Columnists

Peter Beebe, Shana Blessing Jym Roe The Health Issues Taskforce

Production Staff Rod Caldwell Charles Callender Rob Daxoff, Mark Kroboth

Circulation Manager Bob Downing Dirculation Bbaff Ray Davis, Bob Downing Jim Price, Nich Santonë Youngstown: Bill Smith Columbus: News of the Columbus Gay & Lesbian Community

Publication of the name,

Por other represen~ |

an individual, organization, or place of business in The Chronicle is not indicative of his/her/its sexual orientation character.

ΟΙ

Any materials submitted for publication will be subject to editing. The Chronicle cannot guarantee the return of any such material unless accompanied by stamped, self-addressed envelope.

Advertisers

may obtain rate sheets and other information by writing The Chronicle, P.0. Box 5426, Cleveland OH 44101.

The Chronicle is distrib-uted free of charge in any establishment that permits its distribution.

The Chronicle is copyrighted under federal law. Any reproduction of its contents is prohibited unless either written or verbal permission is obtained.

Circulation: 5,000 Distribution: Northern Ohio

Telephone: (216) 932-2195