May 1986

played Cleveland. They have improved tremendously; or maybe the acoustics were much better, or perhaps the audience's enthusiasm was contagious. Maybe all three factors came into play. Without having been in any sense bad before, they are much better this time. And there is something irresistable in the idea that one's prince, when he finally does come along, turns out to be

something of a queen.

Gay Peoples Chronicle

If the concert introduced women to music by gay men, it also introduced gay men to women's music; or to more of it. The next time Oven presents Deidre McCalla or Teresa Trull with Bonnie Hayes, I expect the audience will include more men. We expected superb musicianship but there were some surprises. A song by Annie Ross? Scat singing?

[in the place where] in the place where her breasts come together two thumbs' width of channel ride my

eyes to anchor hands to angle

in the place where

her legs come together

I said "you smell like the

ocean" and lay down my tongue beside the dark tooth edge

of sleeping

"swim" she told me and I did, I did

from

The Common Woman The Women's Press Collective, The Crossing Press, 1969

page 9

Teresa Trull and Bonnie Hayes performed at the sold out concert

to

parents:

close his/her sexual identity 1. Be patient--give your parents time to adjust.

2. There is no right way of coming out, but try to enlighten rather than hurt them.

3. Give them positive literature to read; they need to understand and break old stereotypes.

4. The easier you make it for them the easier it will be for you in the long run.

The Kriedys are strong supportrs of parents attending P-FLAG meetings, saying, "If we didn't have P-FLAG [here] we would drive distances to get there."

long

They even suggested calling P-FLAG yourself and having a member call your parents and offer to take

them to a meeting.

The most touching advice Mrs. Kriedy gave was, "Try to give [your parents] the unconditional love they can't give you. They love you, but don't understand." Commenting on the painful process that both parents and children must go through, Mrs. Kriedy ré-

marked, "I don't understand why we don't make it easier for each oher instead of hurting each other." Touche.

College Student Caucus

By SEBASTIAN MELMOTH

The Caucus drew contingents from Oberlin, Wooster, and Ohio University, with individuals from Cleveland State, Cuyahoga Community College, Ohio State, Akron, and Northwestern: about 20 persons. Mike Smith and Bill Davis facilitated.

Comparing experiences, all agreed that while their student bodies include many closeted gay people, only a few will join or support a group. In fact, Wooster credited much of its support to nongay students who have gay friends or relatives. Only Oberlin has a gay alumni group.

Relations with administrations varied. Oberlin and most state universities have anti-discrimination clauses, which the Wooster and CWRU, administrations refused to adopt. The CWRU administration prefers to ignore its

JUDY GRAHN

By MARTHA PONTONI

The opening night speaker for the All-Ohio Lesbian/Gay/Feminist Conference was Judy Grahn, author of Another Mother Tonque and winner of the American Book Award in 1983.

Ms. Grahn_lives in the San Francisco Bay area, which she pointed out we should have known by how she dressed. (Presumably Clevelanders dress differently from Californians.)

Her political and literary background is quite extensive and she shared much of it with us Friday night.

The bulk of Ms. Grahn's talk was about the history of important words in the gay/lesbian community. For example, the color purple comes from the Greek god Hermes. The word "gay" comes from Gaia, the earth goddess.

Ms. Grahn traced our culture back to before the Roman Empire, to a people called Fairies. The Fairies

lesbian/gay group, but it receives adequate funding. The Oberlin group described their administration as hostile; it recently reduced their funds.

At universities located in small towns, a gay/lesbian student group draws local people who lack gay community institutions. This can create problems, straining the group's resources and sometimes endangering its status as a student organization, on which its funding depends.

Although the Conference coincided with the end of most school years, those attending the caucus agreed to set up an ongoing system of communication.

dressed in leather and drag and paraded through the streets on Wednesdays and Thursdays. So it is as we already know: The drag queens and leather people have maintained our culture through the centuries.

Ms. Grahn also talked about the history of crossdressing. She pointed out that it is often the crossdresser who first moved into a gender-linked occupation, making it safe for the nontraditional gender to enter that field of work.

She also reminded us that Joan of Arc (canonized by the Catholic Church) was cross-dresser and was burned for it.

a

Despite her initial shyness, Ms. Grahn was an amusing and enjoyable speaker. She seemed honored to be here in Cleveland for the Conference, and expressed regret about not being able to attend the rest of the weekend.

The Picture of Aging By SEBASTIAN MELMOTH

Although well-attended, this workshop never really came together. The problem seemed to be a preponderance of relatively young sociating it with poverty, people who feared aging, asloneliness, and idleness. They didn't notice that such qualities did not characterize the few older gays and lesbians at the workshop. Discussion tended to concentrate on the general problems of the elderly in American society.