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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

January, 1990

Bits & Pieces

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short films and video works by and about lesbians and gay men. This, the world's largest and most respected annual screening of its kind, is sponsored by Frameline, a nonprofit media arts organization, to develop and promote the production, exhibition and appreciation of lesbian and gay films and video tapes.

Awards will be presented to outstanding works in several categories. Formats accepted include 35mm, 16mm and super-8 films; NTSC 3/4" and 1/2" VHS video cassettes. The deadline for entries is March 31, 1990. For more information and entry forms contact Frameline, P.O. Box 14792, San Francisco, CA 94114 or call 415/861-5245.

"Discovering our yesterdays, dealing with today, (and) inventing our tomorrows" is the theme of the International Lesbian and Gay Archives (IG&LA), located in Hollywood, California.

Established in 1979, IG&LA holds the largest and oldest collection of 22,000 books; countless clippings; issues of over 3,000 periodicals; and thousands of posters, photographs, artwork, t-shirts, buttons, and memorabilia.

IG&LA needs support to fulfill the task of preserving the heritage of lesbians and gay. Please contact them at P.O. Box 38100, Hollywood, California 90038-0100.

Women's movement classic reprinted. Sister Gin, a witty experimental novel by June Arnold, is a classic of the women's movement. Originally published by Daughters, Inc., in 1973, and now being reissued by the Feminist Press at the City University of New York, the novel tackles, with humor and wisdom,

Letters

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it, only queers, drug addicts, and whores seem to be coming down with it. And most of the straight ones are black and Hispanic anyway, so who cares. I'd bet everything I own that if white, male, heterosexuals first contracted AIDS we would have a vaccine for it by now.

So being lesbian and gay is political because we are treated differently for it. We are denied our rights and we are victims of genocide because the government surly would have let more of our brothers die if we hadn't spoken up with a vengeance. It is a shame that citizens of the United States of America should be left to die through inadequate research funding simply because they are not heterosexual. I should remind you that we don't treat others differently because we are lesbian or gay, rather we are treated differently because we are lesbian and gay.

As to being "hetero-phobic” I have to chuckle. (Some of my best friends are straight-sorry, I couldn't resist it.) Being

a lesbian I am used to this argument. You see, supposedly, I hate men; I don't really love women. Or, in others words, most people can't understand that lesbians are women-oriented, not anti-men.

The same goes here. Because I speak up for lesbians and gays I must be heterophobic rather than pro-lesbian and gay. I am not afraid of straight people. I don't even dislike them but I will not allow them or any other people to malign, batter or victimize my people, through omission or any other means, without speaking out clearly and pointing out what I see. If there is an elephant in your living room, then you'd better say something or you are going to have to buy new carpets.

Finally I would like to thank Mr. Roach for his courage to write and tell me how our views differ. We are all part of this community, but it doesn't mean we all have to think the same. We never will.

Mr. Roach was unlike that member of DIFFA that called me Saturday after the review appeared and screamed his disapproval to me. The caller berated me for writing anything negative about something he gave so much money to. I quote: "It is

being female, lesbian, and middle-aged. Set in Wilmington, North Carolina, Sister Gin focuses on a middle-aged lesbian writer, Su McCulvey and the crisis in her relationship with her lover; with her career as a writer; with her mother; with a colorful older woman, and with her body-she's going through menopause.

Sister Gin combines keen comic wit and an equally keen appreciation for significant social issues racism ageism, alcoholism, and political action. At the same time it is also a poignant novel offering deep and lasting insights into relationships between women.

Mount Holyoke College Lesbian Alumnae Network. All lesbian and bisexual women with ties to MHC welcome. Over 300 nationwide! Send long SASE, ideas to D. Albino, 119 Dakota St., Dorchester, MA 02124.

National Network of Gay and Lesbian Alumni/ae Associations. Find your college's GALA, or get help starting one! Over 150 colleges active. Send long SASE, college to National GALA, P.O. Box 15141, Washington, DC 20003.

Pride organizers' conference. Wichita and St. Louis are calling on the Lesbian and Gay Pride promoters in the Heartland of Up North, Down South, Back East, and Out West, to be in Wichita, Kansas on March 9-11, 1990. Whether you are part of an existing Lesbian and Gay Pride organization, or an individual with the desire to promote lesbian and gay pride, we urge you to attend this conference.

The conference will address issues specifically relevant to the production of Pride events in the land-locked and gulf states.

people like you who are ruining our community..." When I asked the caller how much money he gave to our community since that seemed so important to him, he couldn't answer. When I suggested that he donate to our community through the Center, the Women's Building Project, Pride '90 and even the Chronicle, he replied that he didn't have that much money.

AIDS service organization are but a part of our community (WRAF not being of the lesbian-gay community) and if this caller was so concerned about our community why not support the Living Room or HIT?.

I'm glad to listen to anyone, but please don't scream. I'm just doing my job.

Protest went too far

To the Editor:

News of the recent abhorrent demonstration/protest by abortionrights activists, homosexuals, and AIDS activists at St. Patrick's Cathedral has brought shame and embarrassment on the gay community all across this nation.

Do the homosexuals and pro-choicers in America expect to gain any positive recognition and support by disrespectfully barging in on people who are simply exercising their own right of freedom of worship and halting the proceedings? The fact that they converged on the cathedral during mass is bad enough but to chain themselves to pews, lay in the aisles, and hurl condoms is blatantly disgusting and downright abominable. Surely some other form of protest or demonstration could have been organized to express their views without defaming the house of God.

Pro-choice activists and homosexuals maintain that their opinions and lifestyles are positive and natural but actions such as the St. Patrick's demonstration prove otherwise to closed-minded, hardheaded, homophobics and to mean out-of-the-closet, conservative, pro-life, homosexual.

All the work of all the taskforces, gaylesbian organizations, movement

For further information contact the Wichita Pride Committee at P.O. Box 21106, Wichita, KS 67208, or phone 316681-2766. You may also contact the St. Louis Lesbian and Gay Pride Celebration Committee at P.O. Box 23260, St. Louis, MO 63156, phone 314-776-7138.

Directors selected. The Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum has selected their Board of Directors for 1990. Serving as co-chairs are Ruth Waters, former board member of Connexus, and Phill Wilson, past co-chair of Black and White Men Together/Los Angeles. Also coming onto a the newly formed board are Leonard Simon, secretary; Juan Lombard, treasurer; Sheila Rice, director of development; Anita Barnes, outreach director; and Dennis Odumns, ad hoc board member.

On November 8, Waters was also named as chair of the Third Annual National Black Gay and Lesbian Conference, "Celebrating Our History, Creating Our Future," to be held in Atlanta, from February 16-19, 1990. The Forum will be presenting the Conference in cooperation with the African American Lesbian and Gay Alliance of Atlanta.

For more information contact the Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum, 3924 W. Sunset Blvd., Suite 1, Los Angeles, CA 90029, or phone 213666-5495.

Southeastern Conference to be held. The 15th annual Southeastern Conference for Lesbians and Gay Men will be held in Raleigh, N.C., March 22-25, 1990.

Registration fees for the full four-day conference will be $80 if paid before March 20, 1990; or $100 if paid at the Conference. There are anumber of other fee combinations including single day

groups, and support groups have been set back by the foolish overkill of the 4,500 radicals who disregarded the rights of the St. Patrick's parishioners and Cardinal O'Connor to rship God without being so crudely and irreverently interrupted.

Luther O. Beard, Jr.

Pentagon can change

To the Editor:

Following the October 18 release of "Nonconforming Sexual Orientations and Military Suitability," an internal Department of Defense (DoD) report which opening criticizes the DoD policy of excluding and discharging gay men and lesbians from the Armed Forces, the Pentagon is extremely vulnerable to political pressure to rescind its homophobic and dangerous policy.

Please help gay men and lesbians in the armed forces by contacting your congressional representatives today!

Your senators and representatives need to hear from constituents that the Pentagon must implement all recommendations of the PERSEREC report, authored by Theodore Sarbin and Kenneth Karols. The authors state, "Under prevailing social conditions, a public admission of homosexuality carries less stigma than in earlier times, and is no Our legal bar to most employment. studied conclusion is that the military services will soon be asked by the courts or the Congress to reexamine their policies and practices regarding recruitment and retention of men and women whose sexual interests deviate from the customary."

The PERSEREC report invites congressional intervention to drag the Pentagon kicking and screaming into the 1990's.

Urge your congressional representatives to work for rescission of the DoD policy of exclusion and discharge. This policy, which declares that "homosexuality is incompatible with military service," was established in 1943 and has accounted for the early dischar-

admissions, single entertainment tickets and exhibit area admission.

Final commitments for the Conference are being worked out with major speakers, four different entertainment productions, film showings and dozens of exhibitors and vendors. The largest portion of the conference will be the more than fifty workshop and seminar presentations with subject ranging from sports to community resources to business. Among the many workshop subjects covered will be two very important regional tracks. One track of ten related workshops will cover health and AIDS specific information. The second special track will include two panel discussions and ten workshops dealing with a Southeastern Regional strategy toward sodomy laws.

The Conference is especially pleased to be officially authorized by the Names Project to display a large portion of the AIDS Memorial Quilt during the entire four days of the Conference. Admission into the Quilt display will be free and open to the general public.

A brochure detailing complete information about the Conference and fees is available from SECLGM, Inc. '90, P.O. Box 28863, Raleigh, N.C. 27611-8863, or by calling 919-833-1209.

The Fight for Life Committee is planning "To Be Informed," a two-day conference focusing on AIDS treatments and AIDS-related discrimination.

The conference will be held at February 2 and 3 at the War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Registration is $50. Special airfares are available through Delta Airlines by contacting Travel Crafters at 1-800-4568030.

For more information contact the Fight for Life Committee at 305-5666753.

gesmany of them under less than honorable conditions-of 100,000 men and women. Additionally, a 1989 Gallup poll indicated that 60 percent of respondents believed that gay men and ians should be allowed to serve in the Armed Forces.

Write or call your senators and representatives today! Thanks!

Sue Hyde

Privacy Project Director National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

Supports arts restrictions

The following was recieved in response to an HRCF Speak Out mailgram:

for

Thank you your letter concerning funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and opposing Senator Jesse Helm's amendment concerning federal funding for obscene or indecent art.

As you know, the Helms amendment was adopted in the Senate as part of the fiscal year 1990 Interior Appropriations bill. The bill that was ultimately agreed to by Congress, signed by the President, and which I supported did not include the Helms amendment, but did, however, address the very real concerns embodied in the amendment and addressed those concerns in a constructive manner.

The compromise preserved the integrity of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and protects the tradition of freedom of artistic expression which is the basic premise upon which the Endowments are founded.

Specifically, the language included a prohibition on promoting, disseminating or producing materials which may be considered obscene, including, but not limited to, the depictions of sadomasochism, homo-eroticism, the sexual exploitation of children, or individuals engaged in sex acts and which, taken as a whole, do not have serious

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