New Age cont.

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reflection,

opportunities for explanation and connection as you realize your mission, or place on earth right now.

It is my belief that patriarchal programming enforces a supremacy of individual accomplishment in a culture where only the few truly succeed lavishly. Competition for the goods is the norm and winning /succeeding is based on your individual prowess at the game. To begin to see equality in all things and therefore our divine connection to all things requires a personal rigor and commitment to this idea. How can I see equality when my place in the patriarchal world requires that I be better than you? It appears easier to see God in you and even God in myself than to see you as you and whole, and me as me and whole and all of us inextricably linked as equal powers in the creation of an evolving universe.

Seeing God in myself and in you allows me to not only see you as "other," but myself as "other" too. Within oppressed groups, the concept

of horizontal hostility describes the phenomenon of admiring someone outside my group and in the dominant group while people within my group get my frustration, skepticism and distrust. It appears easier to like the "other" in this case rather than the one closest to me, and God certainly qualifies as one outside the human group. Seeing God in myself and in the other becomes a subtle discounting of equality as we are all elevated to a status not of our own group. Such a transition makes the connection between you and me difficult. Not only is the connection to you difficult, but having to relate to myself in an elevated group that is not in my experience obscures the connection to myself. The only way for me to be OK is to see me and all others in some equal but superior class of God-beings. I think that is a leap that is destructive at least and at best is not truly achieved.

The necessity for achieving a superior class or connecting with a higher power continues to confuse the equality desired along with the patriarchal preference for hierarchy. I see hierarchy as a system for valuing in plus and minus terms. In our culture,

Quilt heads to Smithsonian

The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History will acquire several panels collected by the NAMES Project for the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

The acquisition will take place over a period of time in an effort to document the diversity of those who have died of AIDS.

The panels will be added to the collections of the Division of Medical Sciences, which has an ongoing interest in issues related to the history of U.S. public health.

Museum Director Roger G. Kennedy said, "The AIDS Memorial Quilt is significant not only as a symbol

=IVING WITH AIDS

by Joseph Interrante

Director of Education Health Issues Taskforce

Have you noticed? Everyone seems to be talking about sex these days. In the face of AIDS, religious leaders, educational institutions, political officials and the media have decided that it's okay to talk specifically and graphically ab men's and women's bodies and sexual activities. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Alfred Kinsey shocked the nation by documenting how many men had homosexual experience and how extensively women enjoyed and talked about sex. But it has taken AIDS to force a cultural recognition of his findings.

At the same time, this new openness about sex remains locked within the double standard and saturated with conservative warnings about danger and death. No where is this conservative message clearer than in discussions about women and AIDS.

sex.

Safer sex educators face the task of educating a generation of men and women who never have had to deal with negotiating about For decades, current birth control technology has remained hidden within a woman's body, leaving responsibility for sex to her and freeing men from thinking about the risks and responsibilities of sex. Public education campaigns, directed almost exclusively toward women and narrowly focused on monogamy and condoms, reproduce the one-sided focus of birth control.

Indeed, the narrow emphasis on monogamy and condom use is fraught with danger for women. Feminist activists for reproductive rights pointed out years ago that decisions about sex occur in a context of unequal economic and cultural power. If the experience of birth control negotiation is any indication, heterosexual men in general resist taking responsibility for sex and/or fail to honor agreements about sex. Women have spoken eloquently about

of those who have died, but also as one aspect of the country's response to that loss."

The quilt currently consists of nearly 9000 panels, each commemorating a person who died from AIDS. Each three-by-six-foot panel many created by family and friends -is unique, reflecting the personality and interests of the person memorialized.

Since 1981, when the first cases of AIDS were reported, more than 40,000 Americans have died from the effects of the virus, according to the U.S. Surgeon General's report. By the end of 1991, as many as 270,000 AIDS cases will have been reported and 179,000 people will have died.▼

their partner's responses: emotional withdrawal, battering, abandonment. Locked as U.S. culture still is, in the "good girl/bad girl" dichotomy, a woman's assertion of sexual agency often leads to her being labeled promiscuous.

Lost in the public campaigns about safer sex are all the lessons of feminism and lesbian and gay liberation. Safer sex for women (and men) means more than a piece of latex. It requires reproductive freedom and freedom from sexual abuse and coercion. It requires an articulated sexual culture which offers community and support for personal decisionmaking. And it requires the imagination to conceive of sex as more than intercourse, to invent new sexual practices and value them as passionate forms of intimacy.

In spite of all the nasty things that tend to be said about gay male "promiscuity," it remains an historical fact that promiscuity was our sexual salvation. I'm not talking about those silly numbers of partners that unknowledgeable researchers use to titillate audiences. By promiscuity I mean the elaborateness of gay male sexual culture. Faced with the advice of doctors to stop having sex, gay men took that culture and fashioned a feast of lovemaking practices. A sexual culture which once contributed to the spread of HIV virus has been transformed into one which inhibits its spread and still promotes sexual liberation.

These are lessons safer sex education for the "general public" needs to learn. So long as advice speaks to women alone and fails to imagine sex beyond the penetrative/procreative model, women's battle for safer sex will take place in the privatized, isolated domain of relations with individual men. And women (as usual) will bear the costs of that isolation. ▼

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

December, 1988 responsibility means results and good results get praised (see individual success) and bad results get blamed (see individual failure). Plus points are given for good results and minus points are given for bad results. More plus points place you above others with fewer points.

Consider the rape victim, who, according to New Age principles, has to deal with the responsibility for her own life. With minus points for bad results and the guilt of not being able to see God in her rapist, there appears to be no recourse but to once again blame herself. Given the point system, the hierarchy of spiritual awareness and the inability of me to see me and you as me and you, what can modern thought offer?

Human beings are social animals, we're told. I believe that. I do not believe that some of us will make it and others will not. And I do not believe that my "safe" life is exempt Blood drive cont.

an

Continued from Page 1. party. The listening party is opportunity to hear some of the latest women's music and is hosted by Brynna Fish, who will act as disc jockey.

The idea behind Bloodsisters has been used in other major cities, including San Diego, New York, San Francisco, Columbus and Cincinnati.

Another Bloodsisters organizer, Kim Cook, explains that "lesbians have an extremely low rate of sexually-transmitted disease, and are a perfect group to provide this service to

Pride 89 cont.

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bers and believe in its potential power. And, we must do this through public display.

In August of this year the Lesbian-Gay Pride '89 Committee came into being. It began as a committee of two: Martha J. Pontoni of the Chronicle and Drew F. Cari of GayWaves. One telephoned the other and said "Let's do this." The response was, "We have to." It was that simple.

The first meeting was held in Drew's kitchen, where the basic format of the pride celebration was devised. The second meeting for which other participants were solicited, took place on the evening of September 15 at the Lesbian-Gay Community Service Center of Greater Cleveland. Interest was demonstrated by the attendance of six or seven people at that meeting, some of whom represented organizations and groups of individuals. And, interest continues to grow with the increase in attendance at the now

Bluefish cont.

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kind of performer Brynna looks for.

Ideally, Bluefish would like to have artists whose politics and art merge in order to make them an ambassador for "rights" on the stage. According to Brynna, "that doesn't diminish the empowerment."

Only some of Bluefish's energy is spent producing concerts. Bluefish also does freelance production and consultation production. About half of Brynna's time is consumed managing and booking her artists: Sue Fink, Adrianne Torf, Judith Sloane, and

Page 3 from reality of fear, justice and poverty that embraces people all over the world. For self responsibility to be a viable concept, we must rid ourselves of ideas like praise and blame and achieve an awareness of real equality. For self responsibility and equality to work, I must know I am not alone. I must know that I create the universe along with every other being. I must know that any positive thought form'I can achieve is a tremendous contribution. I must know that if rape or poverty appear anywhere on earth, my thought is connected to it.

I accept responsibility for influencing the direction of the universe. With this belief system comes an awareness of real power --not the power that controls things, but the power that comes from knowing that I make a difference, no matter what. Knowing I make a difference means I choose carefully what kind of difference I will make. ▼

the entire population in need of blood. "More importantly, the effect of AIDS bigotry extends to all of us as gay people, and we need to show some solidarity against it. We think this blood drive makes that statement."

The blood drive is being conducted in conjunction with the Red Cross, and with the support of the Women's Building Project and the Lesbian-Gay Community Center.

All women are encouraged to participate. For more information or to volunteer, call 371-9714. ▼

monthly meetings of the Lesbian-Gay Pride '89 Committee.

The Lesbian-Gay Pride '89 celebration has been scheduled for June 17 at the Community Center and will take the form of a block party with speakers, organization and business booths, and entertainments. The committee now has a solid agenda for the next few months of planning which will take it to the day of our Cleveland celebration.

However, there is still a need for the filling of several committee and sub-committee positions who in turn need volunteers to ensure that the goal is reached. And, quite naturally enough, there is a need of financial sponsorship. Interested members of our community may call the LesbianGay Community Service Center (5221999), Martha J. Pontoni (321-1129) or Drew F. Cari (229-8418). Your time, talents, and energies are needed to make Lesbian-Gay Pride '89 a success.

Nancy Vogl. Currently, Brynna is in negotiation with a "major" mainstream artist for a concert in June. It is her hope that eventually Bluefish will be able to produce major performers and use her artists as opening acts.

"My big plan is to have a staff that nationally handles artists both in the mainstream and in the lesbian community--just like the 'big boys'," she says with a slight smile.

In the same way the artists it represents struggle to be different and do what they do, so will Bluefish Productions strive for the same. ▼

Have you been evicted because of sexual preference? It will not happen with

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