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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE July, 1989

LETTERS

Well balanced

To the Editor:

Just received your current issue of the Gay People's Chronicle and I must say that I was truly impressed. In the two I years since you resurrected the paper, have seen more improvement and growth than a lot of other papers nationwide could claim. The balance you manage to keep between lesbian and gay men's issues is one of the most commendable aspects of your paper.

Even here in the lesbian-gay Oz of San Francisco, there is only one paper that manages that (thank Goddess I work there!), even though there are currently three supposedly serving all the community. Keep up all the good work because through your type of leadership, lesbians and gay men all over can be inspired to work together against the Phyllis Schlaflys and Jesse Helmses of the world. I am very proud when I see each issue of the Chronicle to be reminded that I am from Cleveland, Ohio, -greatest-kept secret in the world.

P.S. Welcome back, Patty M. Your unique quality as a columnist is irreplaceable, and don't forget some gay men are truly feminist and do remember to put down the toilet seat!

Proud

Waiyde Palmer Administrative Assistant The San Francisco Bay Times

To the Editor:

Charlie would be proud.

Love, Zak

P.S. The May '89 issue was the best ever. I'm so excited about Pride Day, Dancin'. So much to anticipate: Joe Interrante as the new director of HIT, a new executive director at the Community Center, the opening of the Living Room, Spring into Summer!

I am so excited! Keep up the good work.

Postmark: Stonewall Station, N.Y.

P.P.S. (to Martha) Many people say you're "difficult," but remember that Bette Davis said, "Until they say you're difficult, you haven't made it.”

Love, your friend Zak

Ritz was wrong place

To the Editor:

It is hard to believe that NOCI has held this year's Spring into Summer Dance at the Ritz Nite Club. Could it be that their memories are short? Or is it that they don't give a damn about the black and lesbian members of our community?

There are some of us in the community whose memories are not that short. We have not forgotten that the Ritz refused entrance to black men and to lesbians. The DRS [Discrimination Response System] still has in its files the complaints made about discrimination at the Ritz back in 1984 and in 1985.

I still remember; it will be long before I can forget the events of that summer that culminated in the beating of Carter Dodge, who was the attorney for the Discrimination Response System.

Their stated purpose for the dance, to help establish and fund an AIDS hospice, is truly a noble one and is one that I certainly support in spirit. But in fact I could not in good conscience support their fund-raiser. I will not go where some of my brothers and sisters cannot go. In good conscience, I could not go to the Ritz and I must say that I hope that there were many others who could not in good conscience go to the Spring into Summer Dance at the Ritz.

The first three Spring into Summer Dances ended with all there singing, "We Are Family." If we are truly a family, should there not be some concern for the sensibilities of other members of our community?

To have scheduled the Spring into Summer Dance at the Ritz is either a monumental exercise in ignorance or a deliberate disregard for the feelings of many of us in the community. Frankly, to

have proposed to fund the AIDS hospice from the Spring into Summer Dance and then to have scheduled it at the Ritz smells of a form of psychological blackmail. It is certainly an exercise in moral stupidity. The rightness of their intentions does not make their actions right. John K. Pugh

Come a long way

To the Editor:

You've come a long way!

I look forward with anticipation to each issue of the Chronicle. The maturity of the publication speaks well for the staff-writers, reporters, editors, layout people, etc.

As a former ad manager and editor of the late and I don't doubt mostly unlamented-High Gear, I am very aware of the trials and tribulations of putting out a paper on a regular basis-deadlines to be met, egos to be massaged, tempers flaring, backbiting, and all of the other wonderful rewards heaped so gratefully on the chief.

You do an excellent job of covering a lot of territory-not in a geographic sense but in terms of the diversity of our community. Your reporting is fair and accurate, your articles and columns cover a broad range of tastes and an even broader political spectrum.

I applaud your ability to steer your charted course consistently.

Too often the labors put forth on behalf of our community go unnoticed or generate more brickbats than thankyous.

Allow methank you for a job well done. Keep up the good work!

Jeff Wobbecke

Closet works for me

To the Editor:

I strongly objected to your editorial in June entitled, “Expect the Best," where you criticized us for not being completely out of the closet.

First, I am not sure what the quote from Ahad Ha'Am stating he would rather be an oppressed Jew in Russia than an assimilated one in America means for us. He was not a saint, but a martyr. I wonder if any of his descendants who perished in the Holocaust or during the Russian Stalinist Jewish persecution felt as strongly as he did?

More important, what right have you to tell me how to live my life? We do not like pro-lifers telling pregnant women what they can or cannot do with their bodiesso why are you doing the same? If it is none of pro-lifers' business, it is none of your business how I live my life.

Homosexuality is a part of my life. So is working for a living. My company would not fire me because I am gay, but it could find another reason if my lifestyle were objectionable. So, I live two lives. From 9 to 5, I am a straight executive. From 5 to 9, I am a gay man enjoying myself. It works for most of us. If it doesn't work for you, don't make it my problem or my guilt.

If the writer of this editorial is so upfront with their homosexuality, how come he or she did not sign their name? So much for the validity of this article.

Paul Adams

Editor's Note: Editorials are the collective opinion of the editors of the Chronicle. Our names appear in the masthead next to the editorial.

Support your Center

To the Editor:

The Board of Trustees of the LesbianGay Community Services Center wish to thank the Chronicle for its support of the difficult personnel decisions we have had to make.

We would like to take this opportunity to point out that the Center's ability to keep any staff members is very much in the hands of the lesbian-gay community. The Center has received strong support from the Ohio Department of Health, the City of Cleveland, and numerous local and out-of-town foundations for Continued on Page 5

National lesbian and gay museum founded

The history of the gay and lesbian movements in the San Francisco Bay Area will be made available to scholars worldwide and preserved in a major

N.Y. microfilming project now under way at

On June 25, 1989, the U.S. Post Office was to become the first federal agency to officially acknowledge lesbian and gay pride when it observed the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising by offering a special lesbian and gay pride stamp cancellation.

The uprising, a riot by patrons of a gay bar in Greenwich Village, signalled the birth of the modern lesbian and gay liberation movement.

The special cancellation, which was requested by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. was available at "Stonewall Station," a mobile postal unit to be located in New York's Sheridan Square June 25, the day of New York's Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade.

The cancellation reads "Stonewall Sta./20 years 1969-1989/Lesbian & Gay Pride" and features the Heritage of Pride logo designed by prominent New York artist Keith Haring.

It was to be affixed to first-class stamped mail dropped at the mobile unit June 25.

Founded in 1985, GLAAD discourages stereotypes and misinformation about lesbians and gay men by sponsoring "visibility" projects, such as the Stonewall stamp cancellation, and organizing grassroots response to public anti-gay bigotry, particularly in the media.▼

the University of California at Berkeley.

The "straight" community's reaction to gay and lesbian movements is included in this unique project, a cooperative venture between a private archive, the San Francisco Bay Area Gay & Lesbian Historical Society and the university's libraries.

The project will be of interest to scholars in political science, history, sociology, literature and philosophy.

Funded by the nine-campus University of California Libraries Shared Purchase Program, this project will create preservation-quality microfilm of three decades of Bay Area gay and lesbian journals and newsletters.

The microfilming project is a major achievement for the historical society, whose members have been painstakingly collecting intact runs of these historically

important Bay Area publications for many years.

The society is lending the most important titles to the book and paper conservators at the Berkeley campus library. The often-brittle and deteriorating journals are carefully ironed flat, treated for damage and microfilmed.

The project is expected to be completed in late 1990. Sets of microfilm and an accompanying descriptive guide will be available for purchase at cost from the University of California.

Among the titles being microfilmed are Bay Area Reporter (1971-1988), Sentinel (1974-1988) and Coming Up! (19791980). Earlier publications include L.C.E. News (later called Citizens News, 1961-1967). Cruise News and World Report (1965-1967), Gayzette (19701972), Kalendar (1972-1978), Amazon Quarterly (1972-1975) and Lesbian Voices (1974-1981).

Also included are a number of local periodicals from the early gay liberation movement, such as San Francisco Mat-

tachine Newsletter, Daughters of BilitisSan Francisco Newsletter, Town Talk, Committee for Homosexual Freedom Newsletter, Maverick, Mother, Vanguard and others.

The society continues to seek donations of missing issues and obscure titles.

In addition to journals and newsletters, the historical society is interested in preserving records of gay and lesbian organizations, personal papers of individuals and photographic images of all sorts. Anyone who might consider donating such items is urged to write the SFBAGLH Archives at Box 42126, San Francisco, CA 94142 or call 415-6486814.

For more information, call or write Bill Walker, SFBAGLHS archivist, at the above address and phone number, or Pat Kreitz, Head, General Reference Services, 208 Main Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, 415-6427600.▼

Gay Crisisline expands service

The National Gay and Lesbian Crisisline has adopted a new, easy-to-remember, nationwide calling number: 1-800-SOS-GAYS (or 1-800-767-4297).

At the same time, the Crisisline increased its call capacity by 25 per cent by adding another phone line, which was made possible through the gifts of private donors.

The Crisisline, which has been in operation for more than six years, is a

program of the New York-based Fund for Human Dignity, the national, nonprofit organization that provides information about gay and lesbian lives.

Volunteers who staff the Crisisline receive intensive training in crisis intervention and general counseling.

About one-third of the 30,000 calls fielded in 1988 were from people, especially teen-agers, who wanted to discuss their sexual orientation and knew of no

other source of information. A computer database of more than 6,000 entries, developed especially for the Crisisline, provides local referrals to the caller for social support and information about AIDS, health care, legal, psychological and other services.

"A growing number of callers are not gay," said Julien Maurice, Crisisline Continued on Page 8

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