June 1986

Gay Peoples Chronicle

LESBIANS AND GAY MEN

desire that a more comprehensive Community Service Center may someday be a reality in order to provide a base for mutual resource sharing and a home for support groups, as integral in the community as is HUGS, which can focus on such topics as research, internalized homophobia, and politicalization. As is evidenced in cities less conservative than Cleveland, the possibilities in the area of lesbian and gay social services are endless.

Hopefully, an educated homophilic public will share more on the social level than one wonderful night with Deidre, Romanovsky and Phillips, and Teresa and

Bonnie.

The workshop participants expressed a strong need for social spaces which are alternatives to the bar scene.

One idea which received much support was for the development of a politically aware coffeehouse which would not only cater to les-

bian and gay clients, but provide the community a forum to share our talents. Again, the possibilities are endless.

Many people at the workshop expressed the desire to get involved in community activities, but didn't know where to offer their energy.

Shana Blessing at the Lesbian/Gay Community Service Center, 651-1999, will be taking calls from those interested in contributing their talents to social services, such as hotlines and rap groups. Not only is volunteering a terrific way to give to our community, but one also has the opportunity to meet other great folks.

Kenny, who can be reached at 861-4975 after 8 p.m., is interestied in coordinating a group to help build alternative social space. This new group will begin meeting in July.

There is much power and positivism in our community. Pick up the phone! Get involved!

DECLARATION OF SELF ESTEEM

BY JOHN PIERRE

I am me. In all the world there is no one else exactly

ho have arte pe

but no one adds up exactly like me. Therefore everything that comes out of me is authentically mine because I alone chose it.

I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own all my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes.

Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By doing so I can love me and be friendly with me in all my parts. L can then make it possible for all of me to work in my best interest.

I know there are aspects of myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know. But as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for the

8日

KEYS

solutions for ways about me.

to the puzzle and to find out more

However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is me. This is authentic and represents where I am at that moment in time.

When I review later how I looked and sounded, what I said and did, and how I thought and felt, some parts may turn out to be unfitting. I can discard that which is unfitting, and keep that which proved fitting, and invent something new for that which I discarded.

I can see, hear, feel, think, say and do. I have tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me. I own me, and therefore I can engineer me. I AM ME AND I AM OKAY1

COCKTAILS & COMPANY

1028 PROSPECT AVE. CLEVELAND, OHIO 44115 PHONE: (216) 566-0060

page 11

FACE THE FACTS

FACT: About one out of four gay and bisexual men tested at The Cleveland Alternative Test Site for HTLV-3 antibody are positive.

FACT: The best estimates are that there are about 13,000 gay men in Cuyahoga County who are infected with the AIDS virus.

FACT: There are 70 reported cases of AIDS in Cleveland (4/31/86). Of all the cities across the United States, Cleveland ranks 22nd in the number of cases.

FACT: The number of new cases in Cleveland doubles approximately every 12 months. At the present rate, by 1990, we will have 640 newly diagnosed cases of AIDS in Cleveland.

FACT: The only AIDS "vaccine" we now have is

PREVENTION.

SAFE SEX IS A MATTER OF LIFE

PRACTICE IT

Ohio Department of Health AIDS Hotline 1 (800) 332-AIDS (4-11pm).

A Public Service Message from the Gay Peoples Chronicle.