gay people's
ROT NI
September, 1990
Volume 6 Issue 3
Kowalski benefit hits goal Organizers pleased at turn out
by Martha Pontoni
"Give a Damn Sunday A Benefit for Sharon Kowalski," held at the Black Swan on August 12, was pronounced successful by its organizers. At press time, the $2500 goal had been raised with more money coming in. Proceeds from this benefit are going for direct care of Sharon Kowalski, making this the first fundraiser of its kind. Organizers are planning to buy a motorized wheelchair and other equipment Sharon needs to be mobile.
Over 200 people attended the lecture by Karen Thompson, Sharon Kowalski's lover. Organizers estimate that 20 percent of the crowd were men, a fact that astonished Thompson who is used to all female crowds. Seventy-four rib dinner tickets were also sold.
Kowalski and Thompson's relationship gained national attention after Kowalski was seriously injured in a car accident. Her parents refused visitation rights to Thompson because they did not believe that Kowalski and Thompson
CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPT. PERIODICAL
were lovers. These women's stories have been chronicled in the lesbian and gay press as well as national news magazines such as 20/20. While in Cleveland, Thompson appeared on The Morning Exchange.
Thompson has since gained custody and visitation rights of Sharon and has seen her condition improve greatly. Last week they went fishing, "Everything is good about Sharon, I've never seen her more peaceful then when we were fishing.". Thompson characterized her custody fight as one of human rights, not necessarily of gay rights.
Thompson recalls what bad shape Sharon was in when Thompson finally got custody, "She had to have major surgery on her toes because of the care she was given under her parents." According to Thompson, Sharon's parents have deserted her, never visiting or communicating with her. Thompson sees Sharon every other weekend.▼
Wooster Fair Housing Law threatened by referendum
by Karen R. Schneiderman
On January 2, 1990, the City Council of Wooster, Ohio made history by expanding its local fair housing ordinance protection to include gay men and lesbians. This landmark is being threatened by a referendum movement that places the ordinance on the ballot for voter approval on November 6.
Wooster, a small Ohio community southwest of Cleveland, values its rural image and Amish roots. According to some local residents, Wooster does not have a history of embracing its minorities.
Like most Ohio cities, Wooster has a local fair housing ordinance protecting racial minorities from housing discrimination. The local fair housing board, reflecting national experience, receives very few complaints.
However public demands for reform, prompted by a series of racist incidents, resulted in changes to the fair housing ordinance. In early 1989, a black College of Wooster student was allegedly racially defamed by a campus security guard. other students reported racial incidents in the town of Wooster, and the image of a cross was burned into a campus lawn. The students organized, protested and occupied the administration building. In April 1989, Mayor J. Clyde Breneman held a town meeting at Wooster High School to address the allegations.
Over 150 Wooster residents attended the meeting. Minority residents related their own experiences with discrimination which mirrored the charges of the students. The resounding concern of those present was housing discrimina tion. Mayor Breneman appointed a ninemember Housing Task Force to examine the existing fair housing law and make recommendations addressing the residents' concerns.
On December 5, 1989, the Wooster Housing Task Force presented its recommendations to Wooster City Council. The task force proposed expanding the protection of the Fair Hous-
ing Ordinance to include familial status, sexual preference, age, and health. The task force recommendations also included expanding the enforcement powers of the board by increasing membership; and establishing a monitoring system to spot-check realtors and landlords.
According to task force chair Jean Baird, the recommendations were an attempt to bring the Fair Housing Law in line with state and federal laws and with recent trends in civil rights litigation. City Council Representative and task force member Linda Houston noted that
L E
Cleveland, Ohio
An Independent Chronicle of the Lesbian Gay Community
DEP
Melanie Kaye/K trowitz will be appearing at Gifts of Athen ber 16.
Author-activist at Gifts of Athena
by Martha Pontoni
Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, author and political activist will be reading from her new book, My Jewish Face and Other Stories at Gifts of Athena Bookstore in Cleveland Heights on September 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Besides being an accomplished author of three books, Kaye/Kantrowitz is also a member of the Board of the New Jewish Agenda, an organization of progressive Jews who advocate, among other things a Palestine homeland and, according to their bylaws, have to have two "out" lesbians or gay men on their board of directors.
Kaye/Kantrowitz has worked for social change for nearly three decades,
beginning with the Civil Rights movement in Harlem, and carrying its vision into women's liberation, lesbian and progressive Jewish politics. These concerns are reflected in her work on Jewish identity, anti-semitism, racism and class, Black-Jewish relations, lesbian culture, women and violence and the IsraeliPalestinian future.
My Jewish Face and Other Stories chronicles the coming of age and coming out of a daughter of the Jewish left.
Gifts of Athena is located at 2199 Lee Road in Cleveland Hts.
Kaye/Kantrowitz will also be speaking at Oberlin College. Please call the college for details.▾
sexual preference was included for ethi Ohio issues SACGLI report
cal and moral reasons, rather than as a result of testimony of actual discrimination at either the town meeting or the task force hearings.
The local Wooster newspaper, the Daily Record, realizing state and federal trends in expanding protection for a variety of people including gays and lesbians, took an enlightened and affirming position in their December 6, 1989 editorial: "We urge council to approve the legislation with all of the protected classes as recommended by the task force." On January 3, 1990, Wooster City Council in a landmark session approved the recommendations with a 4 to 2 bipartisan vote.
The ensuing backlash was recorded in Daily Record letters to the editor: "The ordinance states that you would have to rent to people regardless of sexual preference (gay couples, lesbian couples, other perversions), and to those who live in open fornication and adultery." Other letters noted the irony of Wooster's recent raid on a local park and the arrest of "homosexuals for their alleged activities" in light of the city's about-face "to make them a protected class." The letters also contained an ample dose of homophobia: “Wake up, America, the homosexual community Continued on Page 3
After some delay, the State Advisory Committee on Gay and Lesbian Issues (SACGLI) has issued a report to Governor Celeste along with recommendations toward eliminating many forms of anti-lesbian and gay discrimination in Ohio.
SACGLI was formed in 1983 when, by executive order, Celeste protected lesbians and gay men from discriminatory acts in state employment. Members of the gay and lesbian community were named to SACGLI. The purpose of the committee was to monitor the effectiveness of the executive order and to combat sexual orientation harassment within the state bureaucracy.
SACGLI members conducted various workshops on sexual orientation discrimination for state agencies and began to collect documentation on personal experiences of discrimination suffered by lesbians and gay men around the state. It became clear that the scope the original executive order was too limited to address many acts of discrimination towards lesbians and gay men involved in state contract work, public employee union, state universities, and even outside state government.
In 1988, to document the extent of discrimination, SACGLI conducted
public hearings in Columbus, Cleveland, Toledo, and Cincinnati. They collected a wide range of data on discrimination in housing, private employment, parental disputes and child custody, police protection and harassment, health care, state employment. They also studied the legal inability of agencies like the Ohio Civil Rights commission to act to protect victims of sexual orientation harassment. Some examples of the testimony follow.
SACGLI collected testimony from men with AIDS and HIV infection, one in education in a Cleveland suburb:
"It's not so bad to have AIDS. What's bad is to be perceived as a gay person and Continued on Page 3
CONTENTS Editorials and Letters Pentagon prejudice Polish denial
'I hate straights' The latex alternative Judge Souter Alive & Well Soviet gay paper
Charlie's Calendar
.
page 2 page 4
page 4
page 5
page 7
page 10
page 14 page 15 page 13