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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE August, 1989

EDITORIAL

Where are the Old Queens?

According to my calculations the Stonewall generation is now somewhere between 40 and 60 years old. My not-soreliable mentor, who taught me the ropes when I came out almost a decade ago, told me, "In the gay world over 40 is considered old." In that vein I ask, where are you old queens?

You did many things in the '70s. I was in the closet watching your first gay pride march in Cleveland on the Channel 5 news. I remember the chant to me (about me) “ . . . five, six, seven, eight, is your husband really straight?" Later when I came out I was surprised to find there was a gay community. When I finally found my first gay bar, and was given that wonderful paper High Gear, it changed my life.

I found that I could be a part of a real, viable, organized community. I was surprised to find that there was a hotline, a gay radio program and a community center. This was made possible for me and countless others coming out during those years because that generation volunteered, and worked hard to establish the gay community.

Later when I went to the picnic I heard the then-popular song "We are Family"

and the song took new meaning to me. Yes, here was my family.

In working on this paper the past two years I am happy that the youth are taking such an interest in doing something for the community. It was good to see the young people on stage, and the volunteers working at Pride '89. The Friday rap group is alive and well at the community center. I would estimate that if you removed my advanced age from the calculations, the average age of the regular volunteer on the Chronicle is about 25-27 yr old. I would say that average age of people at Pride '89 was 30. This is great and perhaps as it should be.

But I keep wondering, am I the only Old Queen? Where have the people who established this community gone? Are you all in the suburbs walking the poodles and spraying for aphids? I agree with you that age should have some privilege, we should not have to stay up until 3 a.m. working on projects, as I know many of you have done in the past. However, do not abandon your family. Join the community center, volunteer for Pride '90. You have spent years developing some skills in business.

Now pass that skill down to the next

GUEST EDITORIAL Pro-gay and proud?

by Lenora B. Fulani

As an outspokenly pro-gay black leader I recognize the profound connection between the special oppression of African-Americans and the special oppression of lesbians and gays.

Black people know what it is to have every aspect of our lives from our personal habits to our collective historyregarded as inferior. Our sexuality, our passions and our preferences are labeled perverse, unnatural and immoral; we ourselves are perceived as dangerous to "normal" meaning straight, white and middle class -people. AIDS is used as a pretext for scapegoating us also.

We, too, are "filthy," despicable, not quite human and deserving of whatever punishment, from prison to skin cancer, befalls us. After all, they say, we “asked" for it. Like lesbians and gays, Black people get a constant message there is something wrong with us just because we are black; blackness is something shameful, to be kept hidden and disguised.

That's why pride has been a major focus both of the black liberation movement and the liberation movement, gay which it inspired.

What does gay pride mean? It doesn't have anything to do, in my opinion, with the fact that some gay people-most of them the middle-class white men who are the official leaders of the gay community have become "respectable" and "legitimate" in the eyes of the powers-that-be. By the mid-70s, these leaders were putting out the militant fire sparked by the Stonewall rebellion of 1969, when hundreds of people led by black and Puerto Rican transvestites and

ETTERS-

Gay pride in Reno

To the Editor:

The purpose of this letter is to introduce to you our organization, and to ask for your support.

We are the Silver State Gay and Lesbian Task Force of Reno, Nevada, dedicating ourselves to unifying our community. Our first priority was a local Gay Pride Day festival, to coincide with national Pride Day celebrations. Due to

drag queens fought back against a brutal anti-gay riot by New York City police.

In return for token jobs as the "executive directors" of this and that, "liaisons," "advisers" and "special assistants" to the straight white Democratic Party establishment, they took it upon themselves to see to it that the lesbian and gay community would go quietly back into the closetand stay there.

All over the country, the annual gay pride marches that had been organized in the wake of Stonewall got renamed "parades" to placate the politicians, who agreed to let lesbians and gays come out once a yearbut only to party, not to protect.

Gradually, gayness was transformed by way of the corporate media from a radical way of living one's life to just another lifestyle acceptable rather than threatening to the status quo. “Gay pride" became just another Madison Avenue-style slogan -like “Have a nice day." And the lesbian and gay community became just another Democratic Party constituency, forced to compete with other constituencies-blacks, Puerto Ricans, women, the elderly, organized labor-for pieces of a shrinking pie. Today, 20 years after Stonewall, lesbians and gays-like the AfricanAmerican community since the height of the civil rights movement has little to show for its forced marriage to the Democrats. In fact, that marriage has been convenient only for the leadership. They, like their counterparts in the black establishment, may have benefited from being in bed with the Democratic Party, but our brothers who are dying of AIDS haven't; our lesbian sisters seeking cus-

insurmountable delays, we were unable to celebrate in June. We have now scheduled our festival for August 19, 1989, albeit late.

Last year the Reno Gay Rodeo was cancelled, and the future of this very exciting event is in doubt. We do not intend to allow the Reno-Sparks Gay Pride Day Festival to become history.

In order to fulfill new regulations for a park permit, liability insurance, and required police protection, we have been informed that the cost will be $2400. This us a sizeable sume for a young organiza-

generation in the family. Help a new gay business. Have you gained experience in remodeling houses? Help or advise the community center. Use the talents you have developed over the years for the good of our family. There are many gay service organizations in the city that always need help. There are the many AIDS-related organizations that need your assistance.

Come back out. You will find the current gay community just as wonderful as it was in the "old days." You will find some changes but most for the better. The community is rapidly shedding the divisions between women and gay men, and strides have been made in solving racial divisions in the community.

Now, do your share to see that there is not age discrimination. You will certainly find you are kept younger by your associations. You may find your self listening to the Cowboy Junkies and liking it. You may even begin to read Spy or the Utne Reader and understand it. Please, don't let me be the only curmudgeon on the Chronicle staff.

Robert Downing

tody of their children haven't; Sharon Kowalski and Karen Thompson, denied social and legal recognition of their relationships, haven't.

But our oppression is not the only thing that African-Americans have in common with lesbians and gays. The capitulation of the official leadership, black and gay, to a party that has systematically taken our people for granted while ignoring our agendas, is not all that we share. Together we have been in the forefront of the struggle for liberationnot just our own, but the struggle for human liberation here and throughout the world. That is something to be very, very proud of.

Lesbians and gays have stood up and stepped out and fought back, as black people have done. We have done so in the absence of real leadership; in the face of epidemics like AIDS, alcohol and drug addiction, and police violence that are sweeping our communities; and in opposition to the "well-meaning" advice of our false liberal friends who don't want us to rock the boatat least not now. That is something to be very, very proud of.

On Election Day 1988, despite a wellorchestrated effort by the official gay leadership to discredit and disparage my independent presidential campaign, two percent of the gay electorate (in some key gay precincts, it was as high as seven percent) voted for an independent, controversial and militantly pro-gay black woman who proudly acknowledged the support of minister Louis Farrakhan. That is something to be very, very proud of. When I

say

that I am pro-gay, I mean I

tion. We are asking for your support. The damage to the community, if the festival is cancelled cannot be underestimated. We need this event to focus on our right to be who we are to be visible. The festival must become a reality. It will a major focus for the community -a celebration of unity.

The Task Force extends its sincerest thank you for your support. Our August celebration will not be for our community alone, but for the rights of Gays and Lesbians everywhere.

For additional information contact

gay people's HHRON

Founded by Charles Callender 1928-1986 Published by KWIR Publications Co-Owners:

Robert Downing Martha J. Pontoni

Editor-in-Chief:

Martha J. Pontoni Associate Editors:

Carlie Steen, Brian De Witt. Sports Editor:

K.D. Mahnal Reporters & Writers:

Martha J. Pontoni, K.D. Mahnal, Dora Forbes, Don S., Michele Smeller, Faith Klasek, Joan Valentine, Robert Laycock, Douglas Braun, Susan Tabell, Steven Hurt. Columnists:

John Robinson, Auntie Ray, Ed Santa Vicca, Patty M., Fern Levy, Joe Interrante.

Production Staff:

Ray Kempski, Michele Somerson, Denise King.

Art Director:

Christine Hahn

Artists:

Pat Hughes, Tom Zav, Dawn Fritz. Assistants to the Editor:

Dan Postotnik, Dave Volk, Jan LaRosa.

Distribution Chief:

Robert Downing Database Consultant: Lori Molesky

The Gay People's Chronicle is dedicated to providing a space in Cleveland's lesbian-gay community for all women and men to communicate and be involved with each other. This means that every Chronicle, to the best of our ability, will be equally dedicated to both men's and women's issues, as well as issues that affect all of us. Striving for this balance will not only provide the community with a forum to air grievances and express joys, but will also help all of us achieve this balance in our lives.

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that I am committed to the full inclusion of lesbians and gays as lesbians and gays in the economic, political and cultural leadership and life of this country, and that I am willing to do whatever needs to be done, by whatever means necessary, to see that they are. I am very privileged to be building the black-led, multiracial and pro-gay "people-instead-of-profits" New Alliance Party with lesbian and gay leaders who are proud to follow independent black leadership. And that is something to be very, very proud of.

Dr. Lenora Fulani is the national chairperson of the New Alliance Party and a practicing social therapist in Harlem.

me at 702-329-3626, or write to: Silver State Gay and Lesbian Task Force, P.O. Box 50472, Reno, Nevada 89513

Gerrie Kincaid Chairwoman, SSGLTF

Nice vacation spot

To the Editor:

I get so much info from this publication, that I decided I wanted to return a Continued on Page 4