Page4 THE GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE October, 1990

'We Are Family' picnic survives rain Rocky and M.J. named Emperor and Empress by Marne Harris

The 1990 "We Are Family" Picnic was a success despite an early morning storm which threatened to rain out the event.

Over 2,000 people joined the traditional end-of-the-summer party held each year at Wildwood Lake Park by Northern Ohio Coalition, Inc.

Proceeds from the picnic go to the NOCI general fund, which is then apportioned to various lesbian and gay organizations for special projects.

The Emperor and Empress contest benefits the NOCI Hospice Fund. Lesbian and gay organizations are asked to nominate contestants for Emperor and Empress. Supporters may buy votes for one dollar a piece. This year a war broke out between Rocky at the Leather Stallion Saloon and Scarlett at the Ohio City Oasis. Within two weeks, people voting for

their favorites had raised $6,968. Supporters of Scarlett went so far as to make up and distribute bumper stickers. Despite tremendous support for Scarlett, Rocky eventually triumphed.

M.J. from Over the Rainbow won the title of Empress. M.J. is active in the community and the founder of the Community Cares Calendar which benefitted the NOCI Hospice Fund.

NOCI board president Gene Witts reports that to date the Hospice Fund contains $51,483.98. Plans are being formed now to disperse the monies in the best possible way. Witts also promised that full financial disclosure of the monies raised and spent at the picnic will be published in both the Chronicle and Valentine News.

'Bluefish Cove' at CPT

Oven Productions ventures into theater production for the first time with its presentation of Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, a play by Jane Chambers. The play will be presented on October 12 and 13 at Cleveland Public Theater, 6415 Detroit Ave. at 8:00 p.m. The production will be performed by the Oberlin Students Theater Association and marks the professional directing debut of Jane Latman, an Oberlin College graduate.

Last Summer at Bluefish Cove is set at a lesbian beach resort in 1975, where a group of friends share their summers. In the midst of the sexual revolution of the sixties, these women have suffered rejection from their families and society; they have become

the August issue of the Chronicle, I agreed with a few points that he made. First, I agree that NAMBLA does create tension in the gay community. Secondly, I also believe that when a situation exists and creates tension, those affected by the situation may misdirect blame, especially when so much emotion is involved.

The NAMBLA issue is an emotionally charged issue which Mr. Lansaw has attempted to diffuse under the argument that we all have the right to freedom of speech. I, too, believe that we have the right to express ourselves; however, we as individuals also have a right to choose those persons whom we want to be a part of our lives. It seems that most people have chosen not to have NAMBLA in their lives. The result of these individual, personal choices has resulted in the exclusion of NAMBLA from gay events and most recently from advertising in the Chron-

family to each other. This particular summer is filled with new love, failed relationships, and eight women coping with the fact that one of them has cancer.

Author Jane Cambers was an actress, playwright and political activist. Her plays have been produced offBroadway, in regional theaters, community theaters and on television. She has won numerous awards for her work. Cambers died of cancer in 1983.

Tickets are $8.00 in advance and $10 at the door and can be purchased at Gifts of Athena, 2199 Lee Rd., or the Bookstore on West 25th, 1921 West 25th St. Sliding scale is available at the door. ▼

icle.

Furthermore, I do not see NAMBLA picketing heterosexual organizations and accusing these organizations of discrimination. I wonder why? It seems as if NAMBLA is attempting to equate being gay with having sex with children.

If NAMBLA would like to exercise their freedom of speech they will have to publish and circulate their own periodicals at their own events. To my knowledge, NAMBLA does at this time publish material. Among the material published is a pamphlet which instructs an adult how to insert his penis into the rectum of a three year old child without causing physical pain to the child.

Taking the aforementioned into consideration, there are a few items in Mr. Lansaw's letter that made me angry. First of all, he equated the discrimination and censorship of the homosexual community

with the discrimination and censorship of NAMBLA. Homosexuality involves two consenting adults the members of NAMBLA advocate adults having sex with children. These folks are known as pedophiles.

Let's not confuse homosexuals and pedophiles. It can be argued that discrimination against homosexuals is unfair because two consenting adults have the right to decide what they wish to do with their bodies. In pedophilia, the interaction is between a consenting adult and a child who does not have the ability to make healthy decisions regarding sex. In other words, the child does not have the ability to discriminate what is healthy and what is not; so we, as adults, must help them do that. As adults, we have the responsibility to protect our children. This protection begins by educating ourselves about child abuse, and then making individual decisions based on the information given us by experts. Mr. Lansaw, I could be wrong, but it does not sound like this is what you have done.

Mr. Lansaw, and perhaps others, need to recognize the seriousness of adults having sex with children, as well as the trauma caused to the child. As a therapist for those who have been sexually abused as well as for sex offenders, I believe he greatly oversimplied the issue by stating that we just need to learn to respect differing opinions. Tell that to someone who has been manipulated into intercourse from the age of three to twelve and now must spend hours in therapy. Their anger is too insurmountable to allow respect for a group like NAMBLA.

Finally, I felt a lack of seriousness about this issue in his statement, "I tend to agree with arguments that they [NAMBLA] engage in child molestation." What does this mean? What this leads me to believe is that sometimes the act is molestation and other times it is the child's fault? In case you have any doubts, it is never the child's fault. In an adult-to-child relationship, the adult holds all the powerthe adult is smarter and more powerful. If you doubt what I am saying, please read any standard college text about child development.

Jim Flynn

Thanks for the Ozzie

The following was sent to Northern Ohio Coalition, Inc. board president Gene Witts by Pride '90 co-chair and Chronicle publisher Martha Pontoni.

Dear Gene;

I want to take this opportunity to thank you and the board of NOCI for awarding me the 1990 Ozzie Award.

This award is special to me for many reasons. First, the Lesbian/Gay Pride Committee worked very hard this year to bring Cleveland a Pride Celebration and Parade. This event could never have been as successful as it was but for the support of the entire lesbian and gay community and the many volunteers who worked so tirelessly in planning and staging it. I especially want to mention parade chairperson Susan Schnur; and also Oven Productions, which works under extreme conditions to bring the community some of the best entertainment of the year.

Second, for an organization such as yours which has been synonymous with the men's community to give your award to a lesbian who describes herself as "radical" (although I've been called much worse), is such a giant step forward toward our community working together. Now more than ever it is important to work together, while at the same time

honoring and protecting our separate spaces. The lesbian and gay community of Cleveland is becoming whole and complete, thanks to the work of organizations such as yours and occasions as these.

For these reasons I am very proud to accept the Ozzie Award on behalf of the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Pride Committee and I salute the work you and your organization have done in this community.

Together in Pride,

Martha J. Pontoni Co-Chairperson, Pride '90

Defending support of Helms

Following is a letter recieved by community supporter Olga Long after she called Philip Morris' toll-free number to add her name to a list of people who would no longer smoke cigarettes of a company which supports Sen. Jesse Helms.

Dear Olga:

Thank you for giving us an opportunity to respond to your inquiry regarding Philip Morris' support of Senator Jesse Helms.

The tobacco industry directly employs 90,000 people in North Carolina, and Philip Morris employs 3,900. We feel a responsibility not only to protect our own business interest in the state but also to the thousands of people in North Carolina who depend upon the tobacco industry for their livelihood.

Senator Helms is a leader on issues vital to the American tobacco industry. As does every other cigarette company, we support the Senator with political action committee contributions to his political campaigns. Over his 18 years in the Senate, we made political contributions to Jesse Helms of $18,500 a little more than a thousand a year.

Our contribution to the Jesse Helms Center Foundation in Wingate, North Carolina, on the other hand, is in support of scholarly work, not Senator Helms. The purpose of the Foundation is not political, nor could it be under the rules of its charter. Contributions will be used to establish at Wingate College a collection of great value to scholars interested in agricultural policy and legislation relating to tobacco in North Carolina. This grant represents less than five percent of our total annual contributions in the state.

We hope you will look at the full spectrum of Philip Morris' contributions and activities. We are among the first American corporations to assist in AIDS research efforts. We continue to be a corporate leader in he fight to find treatments, and ultimately a cure, for AIDS. Our company-wide contributions to this cause have exceeded $600,000 to date.

We have supported many candidates for public office whose outlook on many issues is diametrically opposed to that of Senator Helms, and will no doubt continue to do so.

We are one of the nation's leading corporate supporters of the arts and are currently sponsoring a campaign to increase public awareness of the Bill of Rights, a document which enshrined the principles of individual freedom and free expression.

We were one of the first corporations to denounce discrimination and to support equal opportunity regardless of race, creed, color or choice of life-style. Even today, we support legislation to make it illegal for a.. employer to discriminate against current or prospective employees because of any legal avocational activities.

We see no contradiction in our support for Senator Helms and our support for other candidates and causes. All these

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