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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE January, 1990
White
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sons living or working in Cleveland from discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on sexual or affectional preference.
• Issue an executive order protecting all city employees, and employees of city contractors, if possible, from discrimination based on sexual or affectional preference.
• End acts of violence and discrimination being committed against the lesbian-gay community by the Vice Squad and Cleveland Police Department.
Support and encourage sensitivity training on lesbian-gay issues now being proposed for city employees and the police by the city's Community Relations Board.
• Maintain and expand city Department of Health initiatives and programs benefiting the lesbian-gay community. Maintain the city staff consultant funded
O'Leary
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Other reports soon followed that indicated that the national gay litigation group, which has a budget of some $1.6 million for gay community contributions this year, was spending only about 20 percent of its money for legal work. O'Leary and the board provided financial documents that attributed about 57 percent of expenditures to the legal program.
The conflicting reports about how NGRA was spending its budget was coupled with further criticism directed at O'Leary. In addition to spending NGRA resources on Democratic Party political activity, O'Leary was accused of charging expensive hotel suites and limousines to NGRA while on business trips. She was also accused of making a sexually abusive comment about another female employee.
for the Lesbian-Gay Community Service Quilt
Center and add AIDS funding to the city budget.
Issue a proclamation supporting the Lesbian-Gay Pride Week (June 1624 1990) and the Pride '90 street festival (Saturday, June 16, 1990)
⚫ Mayor White is urged to personally address the lesbian-gay community at Pride '90, a festival celebrating LesbianGay Pride Day in Cleveland on Saturday, June 16, 1990.
Other statements and demonstrations of support are encouraged for organizations of or providing service to Cleveland's lesbian-gay community, such as the Living Room. the Heath Issues Taskforce (HIT), the Gay People's Chronicle, and many others.
• Work towards the adoption of a domestic partners law in Cleveland, whereby lesbians and gays would be permitted to legally register their domestic partners. Such registration would then afford these couples many of the usual right permitted married couples, including spousal benefits through employment, hospital visitation rights, etc.▼
1990 calendar benefits hospice fund
M.J. Giovanetti had an idea.
As a bartender at various gay clubs in Cleveland over the year, Giovanetti knew a lot of people, and had found a lot of friends.
But she was tired of going to funerals. "I just thought, 'What can I do?' " Giovanetti said. "I always wanted to give something back."
Giovanetti's idea was the Cleveland Cares Calendar, featuring a different bar each month. Her 16-page, 4-color project has already raised over $1,600 for the Northern Ohio Coalition, Inc. (NOCI) Hospice Fund.
The calendar includes a photos of area bars or their staff, and a biography about the club. The calendar also includes dates of major parties at the bars, along with other events or days special to the gay and lesbian community.
The calendar is available at all area bars, including Over the Rainbow, 5 Cent Decision, the Ritz, and Legends.▼
SUPPORT CHRONICLE ADVERTISERS
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then be sewn together for forwarding to the NAMES Project Foundation workshop.
The Cleveland chapter is seeking funds to support this display. NAMES Project Foundation display fees and shipping for this small display (36 sections-288 panels, many of them local names) will cost over $4,000. Additional expenses such as printing, postage and advertising, plus the cost of bringing in a
Resolutions
Continued from Page 2 Nature Lover
I, ________, resolve to spend less time, nature lover that I am, going for midnight walks in the local park in search of wildlife.
I, resolve to stop being so sexually selfish, wearing my "ribbed-forpleasure" condoms inside-out.
I, resolve to cut down drastically on my 976 and 1-900 phone sex line usage, and try calling a person and actually making a date to go out somewhere and relate.
I,
resolve to no longer engage in the post-coital phone-numberexchange mating ritual, when I really have no intentions of calling the poor soul again ever ever, ever.
I,.
resolve to curtail the number of times I circle the block cruising in my car at the local trysting spot after bar curfew, thereby helping out tremendously in doing my part ot lower the national consumption of imported Arabian gasoline and staving off imminent OPEC crisis.
I,
resolve to search my "files" of trick numbers the ones scrawled on bar napkins, matchbook covers, and that endless pile of dogeared business cardsand, in an effort to restore the lines of communication, actually call at least (insert integer your are most comfortable with) phone numbers.
I,
resolve to at least make an attempt to read the articles in the gay newspapers first, and then pore over the "Personals" section in the back for the latest hot-and-hairy-daddy or tofu lesbian momma ad. Well, at least I'll make an attempt to read the headlines of the articles first.
I, _, resolve to stop telling visitors to my apartment that I am an official birdwatching member of the Audubon Society, and admit that the binoculars are for watching the members across the apartment complex.
I,
resolve to improve my cultural exposure by making sure at least one of the videos of the stack that I rent each time for my weekend viewing pleasure is a classic cinematic work of art, and does not contain the words "hot," "hung," or "horny" in the title.
O'Leary acknowledged using NGRA funds to attend one Democratic Party meeting; but she said her attendance was to benefit NGRA and that when she and the board learned that the organization's tax-exempt status might be jeopardized by such expenditures, she immediately ceased charging any political party expenses to the organization. She denied using any NGRA funds for "frivolous" expenses.
In a press release the NGRA board announced that it has appointed Leonard Graff, who was set to leave the staff on December 19, to serve as interim director. Graff has also been given a seat on the board.
Board Chairman White said, in the press release, that he accepted O'Leary's resignation "with reluctance" and lauded O'Leary's accomplishments while executive director.
In 1985, before O'Leary came onboard as NGRA's full-time excessive director, the organization's yearly
NAMES Project display coordinator from St. Louis will bring final display expenses close to $6,000. Grants from NOCI and WRAF will help underwrite some of the costs, but funds are still needed from individuals in the community to make possible this second and perhaps final display on our area for some time. Make checks payable to NAMES Project-Cleveland, and mail to: 2032 West Blvd. Cleveland, OH 44102.
Donations at the Quilt will remain locally for direct services to people living with AIDS. The June 1988 display at the Cleveland Convention Center raised $21,900 for nine area AIDS service or-
Although two exceptions come to mend: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Some Like it Hot.
Personal Proclivities
I, resolve to pay off at least half my Higbee's bill (substitute or include Saks, Neimans, American Express, the Sex Connection, etc.) by May, 1990, or when my outstanding balance is just under the natinoal defense budget, whichever comes first.
I, _________________, resolve to climb out of my rut and try a new bar, instead of hanging out at the same old saloon in the same old drag. Example: if you're a dyed-in-thewool (or should I sayh, dyed-in-thehide?) leatherman, experiment with not wearing the Cricso-encrusted chaps for just one weekend, and venture out into one of the chi-chi bars for a change. A variation on this theme is to go to your usual hang-out, but change out of your usual costume into something that's more of a stretch for you. Take a fashion risk: don't wear the Joan Crawford padded shoulders to your genderbender bar. Women will want to be truly daring and leave the plaid shirt at home for once.
I,
resolve to do something about my hair. Get a new "do,” dye it, bleach it, or send it out to the cleaners. I, resolve to finally get my
ear pierced and wear an earring to work (get real, Wanda, they all knew you were gay the first day you came into the office and hung the "Hunky Firemen" calendar above your desk). Women will come out by hanging a lambda insignia from their earrings.
I, resolve to stop hiding the Honchos under the Architectural Digests whenever Aunt Susie comes to visit. Let's face it, no straight man, other than an actual, bona fide architect, keeps Architectural Digests around the house. You blew your cover long ago, honey. (Lesbians, substitue On Our Backs and Family Circle here.
(insert (insert personal
And while we're at it, I, resolve to come out to name) as a proclivity).
Oh yes, as long as we're in the closet, resolve to clean out my
budget was $312,474. By 1986, it had more than doubled and this year, at $1.6 million, makes NGRA the wealthiest of the four gay legal groups and the second wealthiest of the national gay groups.
Graff said he still plans to leave the organization to go into private practice. He said he will, however, devote as much time as necessary to "make sure NGRA gets back on its feet and running."
Board Chairman White could not be reached. O'Leary said she would not be speaking with reporters "who have really helped do me in."
"I'm not very anxious to speak right now," said O'Leary, who said she was on another call. Asked whether she would care to speak to this reporter about recent events at NGRA, O'Leary responded simply, "I'll think about it."▼
Reprinted with permission from the Washington Blade.
ganizations.
Other area locations to view the Quilt are Lorain Community College (Jan. 2930), Youngstown State University (Feb. 5), St. Sebastian Church, Akron (Feb. 17-18), and Canton Civic Cultural Center (Feb. 24-25).
To volunteer or for more information about these displays call Dale Melsness at 281-1610. Volunteer training will be at either, but not both, of two locations and times: St. Malachi's Center (around behind church) at W. 25th and Detroit, at 6 p.m. on Jan. 21, or at the JCC in Cleveland Hts. at Taylor and Mayfield, at 6 p.m. on Jan. 28. ▼
closet, or at least arrange the drag into readily identifiable groups (this section for cowboy, this one for cowgirl, that one for financial district drag, etc.). I,. resolve to spruce up muy apartment. Those oh-so-utilitarian milk crates and cinder blocks with wooden boards stretched across them made fabulous little bookshelves in the Sixties Summer of Love; but here we are in the Nineties Winter of Our Discontent and it's time to upgrade. And please, please break down and buy Levolorsthe tiedyed Indian bedspreads draped over your windows have hot to go!
Sic Transit Gloria. I,.
resolve to present a more tasteful appearance of my car. This means I must throw out the "My Husband (Wife) is in the Trunk" yellow diamond-shaped stick-on sign, and "Boys (Girls) Wanted: No Experience Necessary" license plate frame.
I, resolve to control my temper on the bus every day on the way home from work, when several rude old Chinese ladies (carrying pink plastic seethrough bags of heretofore unknown vegetables) manage to poke me with their umbrellas, and I sustain minor flesh wounds.
Well, there you have them. Readymade resolutions that you most likely have not made before and therefore have not yet broken. Use 'em or lose 'em. Personally, I have only one resolution this year: "I resolve to be the best I can, since nobody else does me as good as I do me."
Happy (and safe and gay) 1990, everyone.
McMillan is a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of gay, bisexual and straight nuns-men and women of various religious backgrounds who are dedicated to social service, social activism and perpetual indulgence. The order originated in Iowa during the mid 1970's and migrated to San Francisco, where it formally settled on Easter Sunday, 1979.