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CHIAVNICEE

Editorial

We're getting somewhere-vote!

This [the OSU Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Student Office] will give an immoral group of people minority status and legitimacy.

-C. Dennis McNulty, of the Christian Civil Liberties Union in a letter to State Sen. Suhadolnik

I believe there are certain moral standards not protected by law, but which have been established throughout the ages that all of us are required to adhere to. Homosexuality is one of the immoral acts.

-Sheriff Simon Leis Hamilton County (Cincinnati)

We believe the whole [Mapplethorpe] prosecution was wrong in the first place and was motivated by anti-sexual attitudes in general and by homophobia specifically. We believe homophobia was a major motivation for the prosecution.

---Scott MacLarty, of the Cincinnati Gay and Lesbian March Activists

HI... I'M STATE SENATOR

RENOUNED

GARY SUHADOLNIK, GAY-HATER FROM CAUCASIAN,

HETEROSEXUAL

PARMA

HEIGHTS,

OHIO!

...WHO WILL NOT

ately, saying that the first thing he will do is continue the Celeste executive order protecting discrimination in state employment for gays and lesbians. Elsewhere in the debate, Celebrezze repeats his commitment to women, while Voinovich never even uses the word women.

State Senator Gary Suhadolnik has threatened to introduce legislation barring Ohio State University from establishing a Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Student Services Office. He has compared us to Nazis and punks in his explanations of his opposition.

Loren Loving Vail, state senate candidate from the 25th District, has again used the Chronicle for fundraising purposes and to fire pot shots at her opponent, Eric Fingerhut.

The Plain Dealer, for two weeks in a

ever, the producers did not have to cut these scenes to avoid the deadly X rating.

Walking by the Liz Claiborne store in Tower City one gets the distinct impression that the "lesbian look" is in this year. In fact, overheard from two heteros in front of the store is an argument about whether Liz Claiborne is just a women's clothing store or if they sell men's clothing too. Androgyny can be confusing to the uninformed.

ABC decides not to rerun the thirtysomething "gay episode" because of pressure from fundamentalist groups.

Doctor, Doctor, the only TV show with a positive gay character, is brought

row, prints stories and opinions blasting back from the dead and is seen as one of the

I'M REALLY APPAULLED THAT QS.U. WOULD DIGNIFY AND CONDONE THE PERVERSE LIFESTYLE OF THIS PARTICULAR GROUP BY CREATING A NEW 'SERVICES

OFFICE FOR

...AND

I AM NOT GOING AWAY

THEM

CONFORM

TO THE MAINSTREAM BELIEFS HELD DEAR BY THE GOD FEARING FAMILY LOVING MASSES OF THIS GREAT

LAND OURS!

AS THE SUPERIOR RACE..AN, ER... MORAL MAJORITY, WE NEED NOT BE TOLERANT OF IDEAS R IDEOLOGIES THAT DIVERGE FROM

OUR

NORMAL. LIFE STYLES!

Suhadolnik said he does not accept the premise that gays are a legitimate minority. "If someone chooses a lifestyle, why should we as taxpayers be called upon to provide money endorsing such a lifestyle?" he said.

-from an October 6 Plain Dealer story on the OSU office

Some recent events:

During the gubernatorial debates on October 17, George Voinovich, when asked about lesbian and gay rights, stumbles and needs to have the question repeated to him. He does not have a prepared answer and doesn't reply with anything that makes sense. Tony Celebrezze answers immedi-

I MEAN... HOMO SEXUALS AND BISEXUALS ARE NOT A TRUE MINORITY, JUST A GROUP OF SPECIAL RIGHTS-SEEKING, WRONG THINKING SINNERS

WHY, WE NO MORE NEED THIS OFFICE THAN WE NEED ONE FOR. MOONIES OR NAZIS!

LET'S JUST SLAP PINK TRIANGLES ON THEM ALL AND PUT THEM CAMPSI

Vail and Suhadolnik-proving once again that these two are an offense to everyone.

Jurors in Cincinnati acquit the Conemporary Arts Center and director Dennis Barrie on charges of obscenity for showing photos by gay artist Robert Mapplethorpe. Gay activists there say that the whole trial was conducted because of the anti-gay and lesbian feelings of Sheriff Simon Leis.

The movie Henry and June is the first one given the new NC-17 rating (not porn, but not R, either) because of explicit lesbian love scenes, making one ponder on how society decided that men killing and maiming women is less harmful to children than women loving each other. How-

Guest Opinion

A diamond in the stuff

by Robert A. Bernstein

In the wake of National Coming Out Day, I'd like to admit that I'm prejudiced. I have a bias toward gay and lesbian persons. I think they tend, on the whole, to be better than other folks.

Like most who are opinionated, I am convinced that my particular prejudice has a basis in reality. In this instance, it's a psychological reality, and it relates to what Coming Out Day is all about.

More precisely, the full force of my bias is reserved for a special class of lesbians and gay men those who are out of the closet and have discovered the far-reaching significance of the simple phrase, "I am what I am."

Often, these are people who are more creative and talented, more warm and generous, more joyous and more caring in short, more truly alive-than we run-ofthe-mill heterosexual types. And the explanation, I have concluded, is contained in the rationale behind Coming Out Day.

When my daughter came out to me, I was spared much of the trauma that parents ordinarily experience under these circumstances, by virtue of the fact that I had already long suspected she was a lesbian. So I was able to tell her sincerely that I was pleased by her revelation, because it eliminated an important barrier between us and allowed me to feel closer to her.

funniest shows on television.

We "win" some and we "lose" some. Positive and negative can sometimes be relative terms. What seems awful and frightening one minute can often turn out to be a wonderful victory for our side.

When Gary Suhadolnik started raging against an office for lesbian, gay and bisexual students at Ohio State University, one could just hear the collective “oh, no, here we go again" sigh rise from the community. But then OSU Board Chairperson Shirley D. Bower and President Gordon Gee stood up to Suhadolnik and told him they would not tolerate violence or discrimination against gays and lesbians on campus and are going ahead with plans for the office.

The Plain Dealer, which alternates between being a supporter and being a burden to our community, also took a stand against Suhadolnik and his harebrained scheme. PD columnist Joe Dirck wrote, in a column that also skewered Vail, "He's such an outspoken and vitriolic gay-hater, you wonder what a psychiatrist would have to say about it." Yeah, Joe! So, what started as another bashing has ended in a lesson of how our persistence in educating society about us, and our refusal to bashed without bashing back, has paid off.

One cannot help but notice that the controversy surrounding the Mapplethorpe exhibit and the movie Henry and June was homophobic and heterosexist-based. Again, fear set in that we as a community would be forced back in the closet. But what really happened? Our community and our supporters fought back. We organized and wrote letters, we protested and that called attention to what was happening and we won in both cases. Henry and June will shown in its entirety and Cincinnati offiContinued on page 6

But it was only later, as I watched my daughter bloom and mature, and as I met scores of other fine young gay people, that I gradually came to realize the fuller spiritual significance of the coming out process itself. The qualities I so admired in these young people, I came to believe, were a result of hard-wrought self-honesty, of their willingness to take the risk, in a hostile society, of being wholly and openly themselves.

Psychologists have a concept called selfactualization, which they sometimes describe in terms of the "true self" and the "false self." Psychological health, they say, is the inner peace that derives from shuck-

gay people's

HRONICL

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ing conditioned notions of who we are or "should" be (the "false self"), and accepting ourselves as we actually are. To the extent we distance ourselves from that inner reality, we stunt our spirits and hobble our souls.

At best, the process of self-acceptance is difficult and never-ending. And it becomes frightfully complicated when society viciously condemns some important aspect of who we are. So, virtually by definition, the gay person who is comfortable with his or her gayness has already overcome some of the more daunting obstacles on the path to maturity and fulfillment.

A dramatic illustration of all this—a sort of ultimate Coming Out Day allegorywas recently described to me by a young Seattle man, Geoffrey McGrath. Geoff was Continued on page 6