Page 4 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Community Service Awards to be presented in January

by Marne Harris

The Gay People's Chronicle will present its Third Annual Community Service Awards on January 12, 1991.

Although traditionally only two awards have been given each year, one to a lesbian and one to a gay man, this year seven different awards will be given to groups and individuals who have made the lesbian and gay community of Cleveland a better place in which to live.

This year the Chronicle will honor two individuals, two organizations representative of lesbians and gay men, as well as a mixed group. In addition, a “Friend to the Community" award will be given to a nonlesbian or gay man who has demonstrated a commitment to the lesbian and gay community of Cleveland. One other special award will be given this year as well to commemorate an event which was deemed

December, 1990

special by the editorial board of the Chronicle.

When asked about the changes, Chron-Hand-holding men cleared of

icle publisher Martha Pontoni replied,

"We had so many to choose from this year.

It was impossible just to pick two. And why should we? This community has grown so much there is always room for more recognition. I don't think we will ever run out of people to commend." The awards are given by the editorial board of the Chronicle and are reflective of the Chronicle's views and opinions.

Past winners have included: Judy Rainbrook, the Center; Dale Melsness, the Names Project; Aubrey Wertheim, PRYSM youth group; and the Women's Coffeehouse Collective.

The names of the winners will be announced in the January issue of the Chronicle and the award ceremony will be held at the offices of the Chronicle on January 12 from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Coffee and special desserts will be served. The entire community is invited to participate and celebrate with the winners. There will be a $5.00 requested donation at the door.

The Chronicle is located at 2206 Superior Viaduct, first floor. The Viaduct runs northeast from the intersection of West 25th and Detroit. Call 621-5280 for more information.

ch charges in Cincinnati

Two Cincinnati gay men who were charged with disorderly conduct for holding hands were cleared in late October, when the judge hearing the case dismissed the charges.

Commedore C. Canyon and John K. Harden were charged Sept. 21 with "disorderly conduct for creating a physically offensive condition" when a Cincinnati police officer found them holding hands in a parked car Canyon had been consoling Harden, a friend for six years, over a death in his family.

The police officer, Marty Polk, testified that the fact that both were men was not what made the hand-holding offensive. He said it would also have been offensive with a man and a woman.

The men were charged with violating a 1974 Ohio law prohibiting the creation of a "physically offensive condition." Defense attorney Catherine Adams ar-

gued that the law was unconstitutionally vague, since it does not define "physically offensive." Adams said she had found no record of any other prosecutions under the law.

"I really believe that this happened because of the atmosphere created by the Mapplethorpe case and the Mapplethorpe demonstration," she told the Associated Press.

The Gay and Lesbian March Activists and ACT UP/Cincinnati organized a protest of the Mapplethorpe trial on Sept. 24. At the time, protest organizers said there was already an anti-gay atmosphere in Cincinnati that had existed before the trial, and they feared it would get worse, possibly in the form of police harrassment.

Cincinnati police chief Ed Ammann said police were not harrassing gays, but merely enforcing the law.

Fund for Human Dignity shuts down after months of turmoil

by Robin Kane

The Fund for Human Dignity, a national gay educational organization based in New York, closed its doors forever in early October following the resignation of its executive director in mid-September.

The Fund's closing follows months of internal turmoil during which a heterosexual man with no prior experience in the gay community was hired as the group's executive director, most volunteers walked off the job, nearly all staff members resigned or were fired and all programs collapsed.

Although the Fund folded, former Fund staff members and volunteers announced that they have incorporated a new organization which will provided one of the Fund's major services-a national tollfree gay hotline.

The Fund was founded in 1974 as the educational arm of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and became an independent organization in 1986. The Fund's 1989 projected budget was $600,000, the fifth largest budget of all gay organizations. The Fund's stated mission was to educate the general public about gay issues, which it did through three programs: a national tollfree gay crisis line; a national gay resource center; and a "Positive Images" campaign designed to educate the media about gay issues.

Ed Mickens, who was the public relations consultant for the Fund until leaving the organization last week, and board member Ann Wilson confirmed that Robert Brading, the Fund's executive director, resigned on Sept. 18 and the board

omputer

of directors then decided to fold the organization. Brading did not return a reporter's

calls.

While the Fund had many staff turnovers beginning last year, it began to unravel quickly in March when the board decided to hire Brading as executive director. The decision set off a wave of protest by staff and volunteers, who sent out a statement to the new media in which they condemned the decision. That public condemnation, in turn, created a backlash by the board, who fired the interim executive director and changed the locks on the offices without giving any employees the keys.

Staff and volunteers protested the decision to hire a heterosexual man with no experience in the gay community and also complained that the decision was made without the staff and volunteer involvement. Board members said that Brading was the most qualified candidate, that staff members were invited but declined to be involved in the process, and said staff and volunteers were insubordinate in publicly condemning the organization.

Several weeks before the Fund's decision to shut down, part-time receptionist Dave Stickle and other former Fund em-

ployees and volunteers incorporated a new organization and rented office space to provide a tollfree gay crisis line. The hotline, called Life Line, will probably begin operation later this month, Stickle said. Even if the Fund continued to function, Stickle said he did not view the new hotline as duplication of services because even at

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full operation, the Fund's crisis line was closed at night, on weekends and holidays, missing thousands of calls a month.

While Stickle said "people might be more willing to contribute financially" to the new hotline now that there is no other, similar crisis line, the Life Line board members still face a major hurdle.

"We need to make it really clear that we are not the Fund under a new name, [we're] not a new, recycled version," Sticle said "We were the people who left months ago over the very actions that caused the Fund to fold."

Reprinted with permission from the Washington Blade.▼

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