gay peoples CHRONICLE

Vol. 2 No. 4

CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

MAY 29 1986

PERIODICALS

C 128

Conference, pp. 8-9

Cleveland, Ohio

CONFERENCE BUILDS UNITY

C 128

May 1986

Kuusk 176

By SEBASTIAN MELMOTH

Larger and even better organized than its predecessors, the 5th Annual Lesbian/Gay/Feminist Conference held the April 25-27 weekend continued last year's trends while striking out in some entirely new directions.

The 369 people who registered were divided rather evenly between women (176) and men (193). The Oven Productions concert drew an audience of 500. About 400 attended the N.O.C.I. party. New Directions

Conference keynote speakers have usually been politicians or journalists, with the workshops also heavily weighted toward the overtly political. Last year Oven Productions and the CWRU Women's Center introduced the arts, manifested by Kate Clinton and Chocolate Waters. Both were political, as anything explicitly gay must be. But if the message remained the same, the medium changed.

This year, only NGLTF director Jeff Levi upheld tradition. The opening address by Judy Grahn, essentially political, presented its message in a very different way. She even read some of her poems. The Saturday keynote slot was filled by "Before Stonewall" and Mabel

Hampton's

reminiscences:

still political, but again different.

Other new features also appeared. The Health Issues Taskforce presented an extraordinarily effective psychosocial drama. Area gay congregations joined in Interfaith Worship Sunday morning.

The games organized by the Gay and Lesbian Institute were new. Were they political? I'll pass. Certainly they were fun, for spectators and participants. Male/Female Rapprochement Unity between men and women of our community grew even stronger this year, with its growing strength evident at several levels.

This theme was clear in the content of Judy Grahn's opening talk and in its enthusiastic reception by the men in her audience. For at least some men this appreciation extended even to her reading a very explicit and equally beautiful poem about lesbian sex.

Unity was evident in Oven Production's inclusion of Romanovsky and Phillips in their concert and in their warm reception by an audience that included many men but was still mostly female.

It could be seen in the growing number of workshops with female and male coPage 8, col. 3

CWRU HAS AIDS POLICY

By CHARLES CALLENDER

Last month Case Western Reserve University adopted a comprehensive policy toward employees and students with AIDS. Designed to protect persons with AIDS as well as the general university population, the policy includes an educational program to reduce potential panic.

The policy was formulated by an Advisory Committee appointed last year. In accepting and implementing its report, CWRU president David

V.

Ragone rejected only one of the Committee's recommen-

dations, a statement that the university does not discriminate because of sexual orientation.

Overall Policy

The three policy statements formulated by the Committee to guide the university's decisions and determinations about AIDS, and accepted by the administration, are:

1. Mandatory testing of students and employees for exposure to the HTLV-3 virus

is not necessary.

2. The university treat AIDS like any Page 3, col. 3

will other

Mabel Hampton at the C.W.R.U. Conference

PBS Causes Furor

By DORA FORBES

On March 25, WVIZ, like Public Broadcasting System stations across the country, showed a Frontline broadcast titled "AIDS--A National Inquiry."

The program combined a film about Fabian Bridges with discussion by a panel of assorted AIDS researchers, gay activists, and homophobes. Several activists, including Jeff Levi and Larry Bush, refused to take part.

Part of the film was shot in Cleveland, where Indiana-

polis sent Bridges after his announcement that he had AIDS panicked the police who had arrested him for stealing a bicycle.

In Cleveland, the film claims, Bridge's mother refused to accept him in her house because her current husband was afraid of catching AIDS from him. News reports, apparently emanating from the film crew that was following Bridges around the country, described him as hustling. The Health Issues Taskforce arranged for his lodging and meals, but he Aisanpeared, later turning Page 3, col. 1