May, 1989 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE Page 3

Letters

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gay or straight, both must maintain vigilant supervision of their children's behavior. What are Mr. Suhadolnik's concepts of homosexual habits, anyways? Wanton and lavish interior decorating, boys in the ballet, girls with construction sets and BB guns? Get your mind out the gutter, Senator.

Furthermore, I do not see Senator Suhadolnik or many of those who subscribe to his views adopting the unwanted, the seriously ill, or retarded children who are passed endlessly form orphanages to foster families like pets

gone

bad. Who else but those with the strongest compassion, dedication and tenacity are willing to take these difficult children? Mr. Suhadolnik's bill will further limit the number of these courageous few individuals and couples willing to take them into their homes and provide for them in ways the state cannot. Lesbian Gertrude Stein's famous quote "A rose is a rose" remains true even if it is a gay one. Anyone willing to make the time and sacrifice to care for those children are gems to society.

Public servants duly elected by the people they represent must be thoroughly informed about a subject before creating legislation; in particular, legislation which denies certain individual's rights. Public servants should also be able to communicate with the media without regressing to usage of children's expressions. "Sticks and stones may break your bones, Senator, but flaunting your ignorance won't get you re-elected."

Dianna T. Robinson

The Chronicle encourages everyone to write and express their opinion about the paper or life in general. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity. We will print your name unless you specifically ask us

not to.

Address letters to the Chronicle, P.O. Box 5426, Cleveland, Ohio, 44101.

CSU has AIDS database

by Ed Santa Vicca

As part of its AIDS Resource Collection, the Cleveland State University library now has available a computer database of information on AIDS, designed especially for Cleveland State students, and customized to include information on local agencies, organizations, and other resources on AIDS.

The database includes 20 text files and 11 bibliographic files, giving students as much general or specific information as they might want on the topic of AIDS.

Text files include explanations of the symptoms of ARC and AIDS, the HIVantibody test, location of testing sites, the proper way to use condoms, the global impact of AIDS, the hazards of using IV drugs, basic AIDS facts and other topics of interest to collage students.

Bibliographic files provide citations to articles, books, videotapes, audiocassettes, government publications, reference materials and curriculum materials which are part of the AIDS Resource Collection-one of the most comprehensive in the State of Ohio.

The AIDS INFO database is available at the Reserve Desk of the Cleveland State library. Anyone who brings in a pre-formatted IBM 5 1/4" diskette may copy the database from disk to disk for educational purposes.

AIDS INFO is based on a model developed by the AIDS Education Project of California State University, Long Beach. The database is planned to be updated on a bi-monthly or quarterly basis.▼

Youth project

Continued from Page 1

"This is not going to be about a group of 'experts only' getting together and theorizing about policy and methods and then telling gay male, bi and lesbian youth what's good for them," Adams as-

serts.

The early phases of the project will consist of creating a "participatory research curriculum for the youth" that will, according to Adams, "facilitate a critical literacy about their own lives, their situation, where they're going, what they want, what's in the way and how to overcome it, with a named struggle and identified alliances."

Adams intends to carry out this curriculum in key areas throughout the country, spawning new trainers who will do likewise.

GLEAN will also maintain open lines of dialogue between current leaders of the gay movement, current educational equity workers and youth themselves. Adams sees it as a way to strengthen inter-generational stewardship of new leaders, which he believes the movement is lacking, and to give more credence to

the policy recommendations and analyses of professionals and groups.

"No movement, when under siege can depend on the development of 'natural leadership' and hope to move forward," said Stefan Wade, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League, "Whatever we can do," agreed Dr. Virginia Uribe, Director of Project 10 in Los Angeles, "to put our heads together on this issue on a national level, we have to do."

Adams is excited about the coalitionbuilding potential in GLEAN's work. He feels issues of educational equity and access for under-represented and at-risk youth are going to be at the forefront of national debate in the next few years. Activists and scholars at the United States Student Association, the Institute for Policy Studies, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and several other groups have begun talks on how similar projects among various at-risk youth groups could work in concert.

"If we are to re-deploy youth in this

Anti-lesbian witchhunt

by Lisa M. Keen

Several members of Congress, including Rep. Connie Morella, R-Md., have begun pressuring the Department of Defense to look into allegations that military investigators are using unfair and illegal tactics to rout women out of the armed services by using charges relating to homosexuality.

At a meeting with Gay activists, Morella agreed to contact the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS), and urge it to specifically address sexual harassment of women through the accusation of homosexuality.

Peri Jude, a lobbyist with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, asked Morella for the meeting, which included representatives of the newly formed Gay and Lesbian Military Freedom Project. In addition to NGLTF, the project is sponsored by the Women's Equity Action League, the National Organization for Women, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Joining the group at the meeting was a female army nurse on inactive reserve status. The nurse told Morella that, as an Army reserve nurse, she is in "constant fear of being found out" as a lesbian. She

Lejeune, and other bases has instead been the result of a homophobic attitude on the part of the DACOWITS board.

Noting that the board was scheduled to meet in Washington, D.C. later this month under the guidance of a new chair, Jude asked Morella to pressure the board to address the issue.

Morella agreed to help "in any way that would be effective" and promised to contact the new chairwoman of DACOWITS, Dr. Connie Lee, right

away.

While Jude said Morella's help is particularly important because she is a Republican, a number of Democrats have also begun pressuring the Department of Defense to address the issue. Rep. Röbert Matsui, D-Calif., sent a letter to the Parris Island base commander, General Jarvis Lynch Jr., last month asking him to release Sgt. Cheryl Jameson from confinement at the Quantico brig and upgrade her discharge. Jameson, a nátive of California, was court-martialed

society," Adams said, “with a sense of individual responsibility and social justice that combats the kind of gross materialism or hopeless marginality that has been growing rapidly in the past decade, we have to start where the need is most desperate and acute."

The landscape of attempted suicide, drug and alcohol addiction, dropout rates and economic instability among gay youth and other at-risk and under-represented youth could be traced to the existence of concrete impediments to educational access, equity and leadership development, Adams said. “That's what we intend to identify and address.”

Adams, from Santa Cruz, California, has been a youth activist for a decade and most recently worked at the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive Washington, D.C. think tank. He is soliciting input for the network and is seeking ideas for fund raising. The network is currently receiving tax-deductible donations through the National. Student Educational Fund in Washington, D.C. ▼

last July on charges that she engaged in "indecent acts" with other female Marines. She was sentenced to one year in a military prison and dishonorable discharge. Lynch granted clemency and a discharge upgrade to another female Marine who provided names of suspected lesbians to military investigators after having been court-martialed on similar charges.

Jameson told the California gay newspaper Coming Up! that she refused to cooperate with investigators.

Lynch, in response to Matsui's letter, contended that Jameson's punishment had nothing to do with her sexual orientation and added that he would not change her sentence.

Jude said the Military Freedom Project has also met with and enlisted support from a number of other members of Congress, including Reps. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Tom Foglietta, D-Penna.

said that "lots of women" in the military AIDS play at CPT

face sexual harassment "of being labeled

a lesbian if they don't succumb to the sexual advances" of their male colleagues.

"It doesn't sound believable,” interjected Morella. "How can they get away with it?"

The nurse said most women do not report the instances of sexual harassment because they fear that rather than receiving help they will receive reprisals.

Jude and others attending the meeting said that in addition to the easy use of rumors of homosexuality to harass women in the military, they are distressed over the use by military investigators of unfair and sometimes illegal tactics to investigate such rumors.

Nancy Buermeyer, lesbian coordinator for NOW's national office, said she has received a number of reports of military investigators following women off base, opening private mail, threatening to tell family members that a woman is gay, and making false promises to provide leniency in exchange for cooperation in investigations of other women.

Morella labeled such methods "Gestapo tactics" and asked whether DACOWITS had been any help in addressing some of these concerns.

Jude told Morella that the DACOWITS board "tends to be homophobic" and that military members of the board are "scared" to raise the lesbian issue. Jude said she believes the recent "witch hunts" against female service members at Parris Island, Camp

John: A Passion Play in 14 Fits, written by local writer Ed SantaVicca, will be included in this year's Festival of New Plays at Cleveland Public Theatre.

Unlike either The Normal Heart or As Is, John is a focused character study that profiles the growth and bonding, nature and passion of human relationships. It is a play of restrained tension, sorrow, denial and escape; and captures the various emotional, psychological and personality changes that occur between two men coping with the effects of AIDS in their life.

The play is a fictionalized memoir based on the author's own experiences with AIDS.

The play will be presented twice during the festival-on Saturday May 13 at 8 p.m., and Monday May 15 at 8 p.m. All proceeds from the evening will go to the Living Room project of the LesbianGay Community Service Center.

For further information, or reservations, contact Cleveland Public Theatre at 631-2727. The theatre is located at 6415 Detroit Avenue, with parking in rear off W 65. ▼

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