November, 1990

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Page 11

We Are Everywhere

by John Hubert

The Gay & Lesbian Arabic Society (GLAS) has just published their third newsletter and established their third affiliated group in Los Angeles. The other two groups are in San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

"GLAS provides Arab men and women with a support network and a vehicle for gay Arab visibility," says Ramzi Zakharia, GLAS founder and co-leader. "We reach out to lesbian and gay Arabs and build a group identity that, for the most part, does not exist."

GLAS participated in the second annual "Arab AIDS Conference" in Cairo, Egypt last March. GLAS also works with Al Jadwal, the newsletter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, to publish information about fighting AIDS in the Arab community.

The Los Angeles group has attracted Lebanese, Palestinians, Egyptians and Kuwaitis, by placing flyers on local campuses and sending a press release to the local media. Their address in GLAS-LA; 6019 Sunset Blvd. #221; Los Angeles, California 90028.

The San Francisco group has added the term Bisexual to their name in order to appeal to more members. Their full name is the Arab Lesbian Gay and Bisexual Network and they can be contacted at A.L.G.B.N.; P.O. Box 460526; San Francisco, California 94114.

GLAS welcomes subscriptions to their newsletter at $10 a year and is encouraging more groups to start in the USA and around the world. To become a member of GLAS, open to Arabs and friends, send your $10 subscription/membership fee to GLAS-DC; P.O. Box 4971; Washington, D.C. 20008.

Poland-Lambda of Warsaw was legally registered in February, 1990 as the national organization of Polish lesbians and gay men.

Lambda has a clubhouse where members and friends can meet every day. Every Friday is women's d day and the women, mostly students, have made a wall newspaper which can only be read at the club. They hope to publish a real newspaper

soon.

Lambda advertises in the city's newspapers to help encourage gays and lesbians to contact them and come out of their closets. They also have a telephone service.

The members of Lambda organize meetings with psychologists, sexologists, offer film shows and have a small library of foreign magazines and newsletters.

They also have discos for men and women. For more information or to offer support, write to Stowarzyszenie Grup Lambda; Al. Jerozolimskie 27 (II Pietro); Warszawa 00-508; Poland. They would appreciate receiving printed materials for their library

Bits & Pieces

Local

Theater and Center offer lesbian and gay artists' workshop. In the past 20 years, America has witnessed an explosion of gay and lesbian creativity unlike any era before. In the visual and performing arts, literature and mixed media, artists are venturing into bold, unexplored territories, illuminating our lives and ideas like never before.

Cleveland Public Theater and the Lesbian-Gay Community Center proudly offer Coming Out Creatively: A Workshop for Gay & Lesbian Artists, given by Andrew Mellen, on Sunday, November 11, from 12:00 noon to 6:00 p.m.

Coming Out Creatively is a workshop to explore the many aspects of creating gay and lesbian culture. Is it a liability? Are certain art forms more open than others? Can one simultaneously produce mainstream and lesbian-gay work? What does the current conservative cultural climate bode for us as artists and for the uncloseted work we're creating?

Andrew Mellen, a New York-based actor and writer was last seen in Cleveland in Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and will be appearing the weekend of the workshop in his new performance piece, My Life as Kim Novak. Mr. Mellen has worked with the Geese Theatre Company, The Shuttle Theatre and currently directs the "In Our Own Write" program at the Lesbian-Gay Community Service Center in New York, a project that showcases the work of lesbian and gay writers.

We foster partnerships between alumni and students. We maintain an active presence at Oberlin. We offer Obie fun and fellowship, and every project is specifically focused on lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons and concerns.

Membership is open to all interested Oberlin alumni who pay annual dues to support our programs. An amount of $20 is suggested. Because we're actively involved on campus, these funds directly support current projects.

Please make out your check to: Oberlin Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Alumni (or simply to Oberlin LGBA) and mail it to Oberlin College Alumni Office, 105 Bosworth Hall, Oberlin, OH 44074. All dues and contributions are tax-deductible gifts to Oberlin College. Our mailing list is completely confidential.

* * *

Social workers: Come discuss educational outreach programming, on Monday, November 19, at 7:00 p.m., at the Ohio Chapter Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues of NASW/Ohio. We will meet at CWRU Mandel-SASS, Beaumont Hall, 2035 Abington Rd. in University Circle. Snacks and drinks will be provided; call Debra Dunkle or Jane Miller at 229-2100 for more info.

Scarves and Mittens, a differently-pleasured lesbian support group, is having a field trip to Body Language on November 10. Any lesbian interested may call for futher information, 231-0001 or 321-6570.

The workshop is limited to 35 particiNational pants so early registration is suggested.

For more information, call the Center at 522-1999 during business hours.

Obie alumni group forms. The Oberlin Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Alumni is an affiliate of the Oberlin College Alumni Association. We are the first gay alumni group to be officially chartered by a U.S. college.

Our purposes are to facilitate the relationship between Oberlin College and its lesbian, gay, and bisexual alumni and to increase the visibility of lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons and concerns in the life of the college.

East German gay politician to speak-—— The Sixth Annual "International Openly Lesbian and Gay Elected and Appointed Officials" conference to be held in Boston in November will feature as its keynote speaker East German activist and politician Eduard Stapel. Stapel, a candidate for the East German parliament last March, will speak on the changing face of lesbian and gay Eastern Europe and in an ever more unified European community.

The conference allows lesbian and gay elected and appointed officials and persons who are active in politics to come together and discuss issues of concern to the gav

such as group newsletters and gay newspapers.

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico has been chosen to host the Third "Latin American and Caribbean Lesbian Encuentro" in 1992. The last "Encuentro" was attended by over 70 delegates. For more information, write to ILIS, c/o COC, Rozenstraat 8, 1016 NX Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

The Summer 1990 ILIS Newsletter, produced by the International Lesbian Information Service, features news on the December, 1990 “Asian Lesbian Conference" to be held in Thailand, and on Lesbians in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

The 24 page issue in English and Spanish, is available for a yearly $15 fee (4 issues) which includes full membership in the ILIS. Send an international money order to the Amsterdam address.

India-New Delhi is the home of a new gay group which meets monthly at a centrally-located coffee shop. Both men and women gather for coffee and conversation. They particularly encourage the shy to join them.

They meet the first Saturday of each month at 6:15 p.m. at the Coffee House, 2nd Floor, Mohan Singh Place, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, Connaught Place. New participants find the group by looking for their

community and to their positions as officials, Stapel's appearance reflects an attempt to create a diverse and rich environment for conference-oners to learn and network.

Officials interested in attending the conference should contact the office of David Scondras, One City Hall Plaza, Boston, MA 02201.

* * *

Movement leaders to meet at NGLTF conference-Noted speakers, leaders and activists in the national lesbian and gay movement are slated to make presentations and spark debate at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's third annual "Creating Change" conference in Minneapolis, November 10-12. The conference will feature more than 40 skill-building workshops, provocative speakers, parties and an unprecedented opportunity for networking.within the gay and lesbian

movement.

Plenary speakers at the conference are Dr. C.T. Vivian, chairman of the Center for Democratic Renewal and leader in the black civil rights movement; Barbara Smith, renowned writer, speaker, activist and cofounder of the "Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press"; and Kate Clinton, popular feminist humorist and articulate, insightful lesbian and gay movement spokesperson.

A special "Midwest Activists Panel" will present a dramatic and stimulating discussion of gay men and women building a liberation movement in the heartland.

For information on "Creating Change" registration and the reception, contact NGLTF at 1517 U St. NW, Washington, D.C., 20009, 202-332-6483, Attention: Creating Change.

Campus anti-ROTC organizers to meet. The Lesbian and Gay Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union will host a one-day nationwide conference for campus organizers fighting ROTC's antigay policy. The conference will by held on Friday, November 9, 1990, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in conjunction with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's annual Creating Change conference.

The Lesbian and Gay Rights project is organizing the conference along with the Gay and Lesbian Military Freedom Proj-

identifying red rose!

They also welcome corresp around the world. Write to them at Box 7032, Sriniwas Puri, New Delhi 065, India.

Guatemala

Comunidad

name of a new gay publication in Gur mala City. The 8-page June 1990 ass includes articles on homophobia, jos information about AIDS and how to vent it, plus a good number of ads supportive local businesses. For a send a donation to Comunidad “G”, Avenida 327, Zona 1. Guatemala, Gue mala, C.A.

Soviet Union-The International Les bian Information Service (ILIS) Summer Newsletter reports that Tema, the Russian newsletter for gay men and lesbians, prints 10,000 copies of each issue which are sold to street venders in Moscow, Leningrad and Riga and are gone within a few day.

Tema, in Russian slang, means “being i the theme"; being involved with gay lite

Tema is produced by the Moscow Union of Lesbians & Gay Men (MULGM) which can be contacted c/o Kalinin Roman .. Do Vostrebovania. SU-103009 Moscow K-9, USSR. ▼

ect, a coalition of groups united to fight the military's discriminatory policy.

Persons interested in attending the con ference or further information should co

tact: Sofia Gruskin, ACLU Lesbian Gay Rights Project, 132 W. 43rd Stree New York, New York 10036, (212) 944. 9800, Ext. 706.

U. of Kansas alums form group. group of University of Kansas alumne alumnae have begun organizing the Umversity of Kansas Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association as a means of assisung under graduate students, maintaining a comm nication network among members. expressing lesbian and gay concerns

"Over two dozen Lawrence area gra ates have already expressed an intere said Henry Schwaller, one of the foundia members. Anyone who has attended th University of Kansas for at least one se mester is welcome and encouraged to join. For further information, contact Henry Schwaller, IV, c/o GLSOK, 400 Kansas Union, Box 13, Lawrence, Kansas 66645

Jewish Lesbian Daughters of Holocaust Survivors to meet. The Holocausi continues to have an impact on the second and third generation of those who survived. On the weekend of November 16 18, in New Hampshire, Jewish Lesbian Daughters of Holocaust Survivors will meet for discussion, support, and networking around issues faced by children of survivors. JLDHS has become an international organization, with people from Australia and Nicaragua in addition to its members from the United States and Canada. The membership grows cach year as more les bian daughters of survivors learn of the existence of this unique support group.

JLDHS is for lesbians whose parent or parents survived the Holocaust. This in cludes parents who were in Nazi Europe or North Africa in 1933 or later and who survived death camps or in hiding, by passing as non-Jews, or by managing to leave for safer territories. Jewish and non-Jewish lesbian partners of daughters are welcomed, and may attend workshops specifically for partners. For further information write Box 6194, Boston, MA 02114.▼