Page 2 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE March, 1990

EDITORIAL

Where is the Cleveland black gay community?

Where is the black gay community? Through my eyes, through my ears and out of my mouth, we are nowhere. Why? Could it be we are scared? Not in my eyes. But then again, some of us are.

The same drag queens are still patrolling Prospect and Euclid nightly and some have even gotten bold enough to stroll in the daytime for that "rock or a hit" to keep them going. I see these 'girls' are still doing that stop, search, and run number that was ever so popular in the late '70s.

The lesbians are still having their house parties and they have gone somewhat uptown over black gay men by having women-only events. I can understand this. However, they seem to be the only ones progressing in the community, as a group.

Black gay men and only a few of us will ever claim this in public seem to be lost in the dust somewhere. We still haunt the few black gay bars and bookstores that we haven't been banned from in this city, but most of us run and hide when someone says, "Miss Thing, I saw your brother outside of the bar. Is he looking for you, or is he waiting for one of the 'girls'?" Or, would you prefer, "stealing pieces, getting full in the bars, and trying to weave deceit?"

And then there is the group I will call the bourgeois closet cases, with big jobs downtown and nice homes in the suburbs, and possibly wives and children. They wouldn't dare use the word gay in everyday language with friends or workmates. Is that why I've seen them in D.C. carrying on like serious yard dogs?

Don't all of us owe something to community? Some of you are screaming: "Hell no, bitch, we don't owe the community nothing!"

Sorry, I don't feel this way at all. Think of the last piece of trade you did. The $25 you gave him probably did more for the drug community than anywhere else.

Cleveland is now going in to the '90s and if we don't do something about it

now we are going to be stuck in the '80s, with some of you still reverting back to the '70s.

I have been away from this city since 1980. There has been no change. As I said before, I still see the same old faces playing the same old games. Those that aren't here have either moved away or have died. Start using those rubbers and leave that pipe alone! We should all be striving towards something in our future. Remember, we have youngsters following in our footpaths, and we are going to need them to continue our struggle forward, and not against each other in the

bars.

MARCH 1990'

the National Coalition of Black Lesbian and Gays to this city. It would help all of us say we did something to move the black gay community one step forward. I am hoping that you won't see this as another one of those "clique" things where the 'girls' say "They think they're grand." That doesn't work anymore; you'll be even further behind. The NCBLG, although it has had it share of problems what worthwhile organization doesn'tgives the black gay community something to hope for. These people have pride in what they've done and will do for the community.

Cleveland's BLACKing GAY COMMUNITY

THINK THEY'RE WORRIED ABOUT, "BLACKLASH"?

One thing we can do to brighten our future is support the Lesbian-Gay Community Center. They are always in need of help, especially with and in the black community. Role models are something they could use a hand with. Not too many young black gays have anyone to look up to. Think about it. But if you are still unable to deal with a helpful part of this society, send donations, even if it's just a dollar.

Also, we all should really get on the bandwagon and help Cheryl Brown, and the others involved, bring a chapter of

GUEST OPINION

Everybody should donate to the NCBLG. Miss a drink one night and donate that $2.25 toward the cause. Give them a hand, either by telling a friend or come out and do some volunteer work (bad word to our people, no money's involved).Or, you can give a little of your time, or a service (and not in the prone position, either).

NCBLG will start having fundraisers at Porky's on Thursday nights in March. So, come out and make some new friends and have some fun. ▼

Loyal Oaks arrests: Bigots in your back yard

by Dawn P. Fazzino

It is nearing midnight during the summer. You're at a place which you believe is secure, perhaps a party at a friend's home. The friend has a pool and around that pool sits a privacy fence. Someone suggests that it would be fun to go skinny dipping. You and a couple of others discreetly dare to do so. What you may not know is that your friend has neighbors whose homes are slightly elevated, so that from one small window, the neighbors can observe what is occurring at the pool.

Is any of this ringing familiar? It may not, which is unfortunate, because the outcome in the 1988 Loyal Oaks Swim Club case should be of great concern to gay and lesbian people in Northeastern Ohio. What really happened on August 6, 1988 is important. Four gay men were arrested at the Loyal Oaks Swim Club in the Akron suburb of Norton. These men were charged with public indecency and in November of 1988, all were tried, found guilty as charged, fined, and given suspended sentences.

During most of the summer of 1988, Loyal Oaks was advertised as an afterhours private club where nude swimming was permitted. Public nudity in itself is not illegal in Ohio, and "public indecency" requires not only exposure of one's body to someone likely to be offended,

but also recklessness. It is the recklessness that was never clearly established during the original trial in Barberton. The language of the Norton code re-

quires a person to have acted "recklessly," and that the conduct is "likely to be viewed by and affront others . . . not members of... his household." Both points are critical to the case, because neither was proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

All testimony given at the trial described only brief exposures of each man, limited to the time it took to get out of the water naked and reach for a towel. None of these men were familiar with surrounding property. They did not know that they could be seen from a window of one adjacent house, and the back yard of another.

Despite the encouragement of Thelma Furry, one of the defense lawyers, few gays were in the Barberton courtroom to hear the testimony that convicted these four men. I was present and the testimony I heard from both the police officers and the complaining neighbors was unconvincing. There was no doubt in my mind that the defendants would be found innocent. All subsequent appeals are judged on that testimony, by the way, so I didn't expect the convictions to be upheld. By the time it reached the Ohio Supreme Court, I was beginning to grasp the idea that relief would not come from Ohio judges.

Thelma Furry, representing three of the four men charged, appealed the decision of Judge John Judge to the Ninth District Court of Appeals, and all the errors were overruled. The case was then submitted to the Ohio Supreme Court, by Furry and attorney Nancy

-Ray P. Triggs

Grim of Ravenna. Their motion to the court was again overruled "for reason that no constitutional question exists therin."

It was only after exhausting all avenues of appeal at the state level that Furry and Grim have been able to proceed to the federal level. Now in February 1990, they are waiting to learn when the U.S. District Court will hold its hearing to examine the case on constitutional grounds.

What does this mean to gay and lesbian people in Ohio? Why should we care what happens to these individuals, or the lawyers who have waged this effort even as the community has turned its disinterested back on them?

The sad truth is that the city of Norton simply bent the law to serve its own ends, and though officially the sexual orientation of the defendants was never mentioned, it was reported in both the Barberton Herald and the Akron Beacon Journal that one woman and two men who were engaging in sexual activity while trespassing on the grounds of the swim club were allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge and escape the public scrutiny of a trial. This occurred the very night after the arrests of the four men who were later put on trial, and was because "they were not the targets of this investigation."

If these presumably heterosexual persons were not the target, then is it logical to deduce that homosexuals were? Most of us have better sense than to go to an after hours club which is advertised as a

gay people's

RONI

Vol. 5, Issue 9.

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

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Correction

The headline assigned to February's guest opinion by Shana Blessing did not actually reflect the content of the article. Blessing's intention was to express her feelings about the current state of feminism, and not a judgement against 12-step programs. We regret the error.

place to swim nude, don't we? But doesn't that suggest that these gentleman got what they deserved, and that somehow all of us smarter gays would never place ourselves in such a predicament?

As a community, we are lucky to have such steadfast friends like Thelma Furry, a wily warrior who has had a go round or two with the courts, unrelated to the issues of gay rights. To Furry, our rights are no different than those of the communists of African-Americans whom she has represented in the decades since graduating from the University of Akron Law School. Continued on Page 3