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December, 1990
Volume 6 Issue 6
Ann-Margret, from Return of the Soldier, drawn by Terry O'Connor.
New lesbian-gay gallery space opens
Announcing an art space for gay and lesbian artists: A. Shea A Gallery at the Chronicle.
Each month a different artist's work will be on dilan at the offices of the Gay People's Chronicle, 2206 Superior Viaduct, (off West 25th and Detroit) in Cleveland.
For the month of December, celebrity portrait artist and illustrator Terry O'Connor is showing his mixed media artwork. A variety of pastel portraits, pencil portraits, fantasy illustrations in pen and ink will be included. He is a graduate of Cooper
School of Art and has done freelance commissioned work for the past 15 years. O'Connor has drawn celebrity portraits for collectors and fans of the like all over the United States.
The illustrations go on display December 1 and the opening is Friday, December 7, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Call ahead, 621-5280, for gallery hours and directions. This gallery has been established to provide a free and uncensored space for displaying lesbian and gay art.
For information on showing work, contact Andrew Shea at 281-7415. ▼
Celluloid Closet author Vito Russo dies at 44
by Mark Sullivan
Vito Russo, an activist and an expert on how gays are portrayed in the media and in films, died on Wednesday November 7, at New York University Medical Center in New York City, from complications associated with AIDS. He was 44.
Russo is perhaps best known for his 1981 book The Celluloid Closet, an analysis of how gays have been portrayed in films. His thesis was simple: Up to that point in time there have been no positive portrayals of gays in the movies. At the time of his death, Russo was reportedly negotiating a deal to produce a television version of the book.
In 1970, Russo joined New York's Gay Activist Alliance, which proved to be the beginning of his career as an activist. Friends said he worked tirelessly over the years for many different gay organizations. He was also a member of ACT UP and spoke at a huge demonstration outside the Food and Drug Administration in Washington D.C., in November 1988.
In the fall of 1985, Russo was one of a dozen writers who founded the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a national organization dedicated to fighting biased representations of gay people in the media. Friends said it seemed natural for Russo to move his focus
slightly from gays in the movies to gays in the media.
Russo, who earned a master's degree in cinema from New York University, worked in the film department of the Museum of Modern Art. In 1985, he was national publicity director of Robert Epstein's Academy Award winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, about the slain gay rights leader.
Russo worked with Epstein four years later as one of four people feature in Common Threads, a documentary about the AIDS Quilt. In the deeply moving film, Russo spoke of making a panel for his lover, Jeffrey Sevcik, who died in 1986.
Russo is survived by his parents, Angelo and Angelina Russo of Lodi, N.J., and a brother, Charles Russo, of Hasbrouk Heights, N.J.
"Vito was really an amazing man." said GLAAD co-founder Marcia Pally. "He never lost sight of the big picture, never lost track of the goals, and never made the mistake of fighting each other instead of the oppressor. So many people in the gay community waste their energy with infighting, but not him. ▼
Reprinted with permission from the Washington Blade
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Cleveland, Ohio
An Independent Chronicle of the Lesbian & Gay Community
Kent student paper charged with anti-gay harassment
by Joan Rizzo
Students from the Kent Gay-Lesbian Foundation (KGLF) at Kent State University have charged an associate sports editor at the student newspaper with 14 counts of sexual harassment. Members of the registered student group have received death threats as a result of editorials by student reporters from the Daily Kent Stater.
In another incident at Kent this fall, the president of the KGLF was attacked offcampus after his picture appeared in an article in the Stater publicizing National Coming Out Day on October 11.
Traditionally, lesbian and gay student organizations sponsor "Blue Jeans Day" on Coming Out Day. They ask people who support sexual minorities to show solidarity by wearing jeans to class. KGLF posted flyers announcing the event, but their ads are often torn from bulletin boards on campus. As a result, when students saw the article about the event in the paper that morning, many rushed home to change into something other than jeans.
On October 17, the Stater published an editorial by student reporter Phil Trexler condemning Blue Jeans Day and pro-gay and lesbian demonstrations. Trexler proposed that "male homosexuals are the founders of the AIDS crisis," and the media has been reluctant to criticize them. According to Trexler, while the media circumvents the AIDS issue in response to gay political clout, "the unnatural behavior of
male homosexuals perpetuates the dying."
On October 19, associate sports editor Joe Cowley covered the Browns vs. New Orleans Saints game for the Stater. In his analysis of Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar's performance, Cowley wrote: "The way Kosar played against the Saints, I bet he wore blue jeans last Thursday."
The KGLF filed a petition to have Cowley removed from the paper. It was signed by students and other campus groups who have been targets of reactionary comments from reporters at the Stater. Managing editor Matt Kelley suspended Cowley for two weeks with pay.
When asked why he continued to pay Cowley, Kelley replied, "I decided that witholding his pay wasn't as drastic as the suspension... it would have amounted to something like twenty bucks. The suspension was unprecedented. I think it's the first time in the paper's history." The Stater earns 25 percent of its revenue from students' general fees and 75 percent from advertising.
Kelley published a column on October 24 explaining that both Trexler and Cowley are students who are learning their profession. Kelly and faculty advisor Timothy Smith told the Chronicle they wouldn't have published Cowley's remark about Bernie Kosar had they known about Continued on page 6
Wooster fair housing law loses 'Religious freedom is more important'
by Martha Pontoni
On Tuesday November 6, the citizens of Wooster voted down by a nearly two to one margin what would have been the first fair housing bill of its kind in Ohio.
Issue 4 would have prohibited discrimination by property owners, real estate agents, and lending institutions on the basis of race, color, sex, religious belief, national origin handicap, familial status, marital status, sexual orientation, age, or health.
In January, Wooster city council had approved an addendum to a previously existing fair housing statute which expanded the protected categories to include gay men, lesbians, unmarried couples, and other groups. The measure also created a system of checkers.
A "Committee to Support Family Values" was then formed which filed petitions to put the new measure on the November ballot, and began to campaign for its defeat.
The committee published a brochure implying that the statute's health clause meant that landlords would be forced to rent to "Current drug users or destructive alcoholics and pointing out that people with AIDS would also be protected under the measure. A representative of the Com mittee to Support Family Values said at a public hearing that "homosexuals have been known to have over 5,000 sexual liaisons in a lifetime."
The Daily Record. Wooster's only news paper, had previously supported the ordi nance However, the paper may have
cured the defeat of Issue 4 on November 1 when it reversed its position and ran an editorial opposing the measure "Proponents of the ordinance argue that
discriminating against homosexuals or against unmarried couple is no different than discrimination against a black or blind person," said the Record. "We disagree. We know of no scriptural reference which has been used to justify discrimination against people in the several categories already covered by local and federal law.
"But to some, and we realize this is subject to different, but sincere, interpretations, the teaching of the Bible related to homosexuality and to sex outside the bond of marriage are clear. It is our opinion that every American is entitled to his or her own moral and religious beliefs and that is not appropriate for the government to impinge upon those beliefs."
Daily Record publisher R. Victor Dix told the Chronicle that the Record was not "anti-homosexual," but believed that other Continued on page &
Editorials
Letters.
Service awards.
How gay candidates fared.. Creating change
CONTENTS
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Watkins wins
Do we have to say queer? Anti-gay violence.. National Notes. Alive & Well Resource Page. Charlie's Calendar