gay people's

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RONI C L

Volume 5 Issue 6

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Heart Strings, a musical about AIDS made it debut in Cleveland. See page 7 for a review.

Center fires executive director

by Martha Pontoni

The board of trustees of the LesbianGay Community Services Center relieved David Cordova of his duties as the Center's executive director on November 7.

According to a statement released by the Center, Cordova and the board were not able to "establish a mutually satisfactory working relationship." Sources indicate the split was due to the lack of experience of Cordova in the areas needed to run the Center. Volunteers at the Center also cited lack of leadership on Cordova's part and general lack of satisfaction between Cordova and the staff, volunteers and the board.

Cordova served six weeks at his position. The board has not yet announced its plans regarding a new executive director. No other staff changes were made.

New officers of the Center's board were elected on November 20. They include Robert Laycock, president; Bruce Horn, first vice president; Dolores Noll, second vice president; Judy Rainbrook,

Robert Laycock

secretary; and Sue Miller, treasurer. All candidates ran unopposed except for Bruce Horn who defeated Nina Wimpie. Positions of first and second vicepresident are new this term. The first vice president will be in charge of financial development, the second vice president will be personnel and program director. Noll will also serve as a part-time unpaid

Photo by Drew Cari

December 1989

staff member taking up many of the duties vacated by the departure of Cordova.

The board also bid a fond farewell to Susan Weaver who has served for four years on the board and is leaving to pursue other duties.

The membership, at the annual meeting October 29, voted to expand the board to 19 members if necessary. Currently the board is looking to fill two empty seats and a third which will be vacated by Linda Malicki when she moves from Cleveland.

If you are interested in serving on the board of trustees contact the Center at 522-1999. ▼

Photo by Pat Young

Cleveland, Ohio

An Independent Chronicle Of The Lesbian/Gay Community

S.F.partners, Athens rights go down

by Lisa M. Keen

Gay rights supporters lost all five ballot measures at the polls on November 7, including a highly publicized battle to preserve a domestic partners ordinance in San Francisco.

While the measures lost by very small margins in each case, the result amounts to the loss of three recently passed laws protecting gays from discrimination, one prohibiting discrimination against people with AIDS, and one providing bereavement leave for gay spouses of city

employees.

The closet contest was in San Francisco, where conservative religious clergy put the domestic partners law on the ballot, after the board of supervisors gave unanimous approval to the measure in May. Called Proposition S, the domestic partners bill lost by only one percent of the vote 1,777 votes short out of a total of more than 165,000 votes cast. Another ballot initiative in San Francisco-one to construct a new baseball stadium-lost by the same margin, leading observers to speculate that, in both cases, voters were concerned about the city's fiscal health. The city's financial state has been stressed since October 17 when a serious earthquake did considerable damage to many city structures.

According to Rick Ruvolo, legislative aide to openly gay Board President Harry Britt, the earthquake hurt the gay community's financial health, too.

"When the earthquake hit, we stopped all campaign operations and diverted precinct workers to raise money for the Red Cross," said Ruvolo. He said the Yes on S campaign took in some $30,000 for the Red Cross, an amount that represented the equivalent of 25 percent of the campaign's coffer.

But another frustration, said Ruvolo, is that only about half the registered voters in predominantly gay precincts turned out to the polls.

"Fifty percent of gays did not vote," said Ruvolo. If just a small fraction of the nonvoting gays had gone to the polls, the domestic partners bill could have been easily saved."

The close vote presented an even starker picture in Athens, Ohio, where the ballot referendum to repeal the gay rights law there won by only 163 votes, three percent of the vote.

While gay rights supporters there might be expected to express some frustration at how close they came to winning, instead the prime organizer said he was glad they got as close as they did in losing.

"We got within 160 votes," said Athens City Council President Stephen

Kropf. "That is pretty much of an accomplishment."

Kropf and his wife served as co-chairs of the effort to preserve the ordinance, passed this year. He said that official opposition to the ordinance there amounted to no more than one man, a couple of students, and an attorney they hired to be their spokesperson. While Kropf's group enlisted the endorsements of many prominent people in the community and ran a series of advertisements in the local newspapers, the opposition mailed one flyer to every registered voter just before the election.

"We called it 'The Green Monster,' " said Kropf, referring to the green flyer. The message on the flyer tied AIDS to immorality and suggested by voting to repeal the gay rights ordinance, voters would help to keep AIDS out of Athens.

AIDS was more directly an issue in Concord, California, where the referendum sought to repeal the city's recently passed ordinance banning discrimination against people with AIDS. There the referendum succeeded by the largest margin of victory among the five referenda this year-six percent.

The primary opponent of the AIDS discrimination ordinance was a minister who was also running for City Council.

Gay rights ordinances were also repealed in Irvine, California, and Tacoma, Washington.▼

Reprinted with permission from the Washington Blade.

City Hall to help with police abuse, hate crimes

by Martha Pontoni

Responding to the September Chronicle article which told of harassment of gay men by City of Cleveland police officers, the City's Community Relations Board would like lesbians and gay men who have experienced trouble with the police department to report that trouble so investigations can be started. The Police/Community Relations District Program is set up to handle problems such as these and address them with the Police Department.

Pat Purdy, program director of the board, comments that the needs of lesbian and gay community of Cleveland are not being adequately addressed; a situation they hope to change. "We know people are being harassed because of who they are. I've been dismayed we have not seen evidence that the [lesbian-gay] community has been harassed and my feeling is that is has." Purdy states that the community must step forward and talk about the problems of being lesbian and gay in Cleveland so that the City may

respond. "The community needs to define the problem.” added Purdy.

The Community Relations Board was established after World War II, charged by ordinance to promote amicable relations between various ethic groups within the city. At the time the City was booming with many different types of ethic people from Europe and the South. The legislators felt that a board of this kind would help head off any problems that the various ethic groups might en-

counter.

The board programs include: Fair Housing, Youth and Education, Schools, and the Police/Community Relations District Program.

The board also performs sensitivity training for the Police Department and City Hall workers. They help police officers understand different ethic groups and their special needs. At present the board does not do sensitivity training about the lesbian and gay community but is planning to include it in their program. Not all perpetrators of hate crimes against lesbians and gays have been City

of Cleveland police. Any type of hate crime is reportable to the Community Relations Board. A hate crime is any physical, mental or emotional abuse by anyone against you because you are lesbian or gay. The abuser need not be the police or a city employee but if they are the Community Relations Board will intercede with the City. Continued on Page 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editorials Letters

Heart Strings Review

We Are Everywhere

Just Jocks

page 2

page 7

page 8

page 10

Cleveland's Men's Group page 11 Classifieds

Reach for the Stars Bits & Pieces Personals

Charlie's Calender

Resource Directory

page 16

page 15

page 20

page 22 page 23