October, 1991

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Page 3

Letters

Missing in action

To the Editor:

Lost: approximately 3,000 lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals. Last seen at Dancin' in the Streets. If found, please return them to their brothers and sisters at the Pride '92 March and Festival.

Thank you,

Dean Griffith

HRCF

To the Editor:

Tim Campbell's guest editorial entitled "National organizations are out of step on outing" charges that during the recent "outing" of Wisconsin Rep. Steve Gunderson, "the Human Rights Campaign Fund put itself in a particularly dishonorable position". Among several untrue charges in Mr. Campbell's article is the statement that the campaign fund staff "custom designed a report card for Gunderson on which they gave hima 100 percent rating."

The Human Rights Campaign Fund issued a voting record for members of Congress using ten selected votes on lesbian and gay issues cast during the 101st Congress. All ten votes were used for all members of the House of Representatives. Mr. Campbell was faxed a complete copy of the voting record for all members on July 2, 1991.

While anyone is entitled to disagree with the votes selected by the campaign fund, the statement that the votes were "custom designed" to give Congressman Gunderson a

100 percent score is simply untrue.

Mr. Campbell also charges that by excluding many important votes on topics ranging from feminist issues to civil rights, the campaign fund's voting record artificially inflates Gunderson's record. While these issues are important to many lesbian and gay Americans and our allies, they are not necessarily issues where the lesbian and gay community has a consensus one way or the other. The campaign fund's chosen votes are limited to issues where there is general agreement that the votes are of vital interest to our community and our concerns.

Mr. Campbell further states that the Campaign Fund "overlooked votes for both Bork and Souter" by Rep. Gunderson. Mr. Campbell "overlooks" the fact that the Senate, and not the House, is given power over confirmation of Supreme Court nominees. Mr. Gunderson did not cast the votes Mr. Campbell asserts he cast.

The campaign fund has a good working relationship with many Queer Nation members in the Washington, D.C. area and throughout the country. Mr. Campbell's assertion that the opposite is true is unfounded.

The campaign fund disagrees with him on the issue of outing and we are sorry that he finds it necessary to make false and damaging claims in order to advance his point of view. While we recognize that members of our community may on occasion disagree on issues, is it too much to hope that we would make an effort to respect the right to disagree without having one's motives attacked unfairly?

Sincerely,

Tim McFeeley

Executive Director

What's in a name?

To the Editor:

Why is it that over the last few months, when we open the latest edition of the Chronicle, are we subjected to ongoing 'etters of dispute over whether or not one

single word is used in the identification of organizations who are actively involved in this community, that word being "gay"?

If we are striving to be a community united and at certain times of the year able to work, play, live, and march together, then the time has come for us to stop downing one another.

The fact is, the word "gay" in front of the name of any organization does not and will not make that group active nor make it a healthy, viable part of this community. This one word, in fact, will not make a factual or viable difference in this city.

The facts and measures that constitute a group of any sort are the people involved, their individual and joint commitment, and most of all, their actions and visibility.

When we start attacking each other because of religious, political, gender, or individual preferences, then are we not doing to each other the same thing that society as a whole has been doing to us for years?

It's time that we all took a look at ourselves, grew up, and went on together to be proud of who we are and the goals and victories we have already achieved.

Mr. Cari's attack on the "gay and lesbian churchgoers" [August issue] to me was very uncalled for, vindictive, and annoying. There are those of us in this community who each have our individual and religious needs and beliefs. What right does anyone have to question or dispute our rights and purposes? We have been here to support this community, financially, physically, and emotionally with time and talent, and I must say with healthy attitudes and respect for our sisters and brothers, whoever they are.

Those groups who have been attacked-North Coast Men's Chorus, Monotones, Oven Productions, North Coast Athletic Association--all have made viable and meaningful contributions to this city and community as a whole.

Stonewall-Cleveland and Emmanuel MCC are both parts of nationwide and universal organizations who have for many, many years fought for our rights, not only on local levels, but on national levels, as well as, international. These groups have been there for years and have both proven who they are and what they stand for, doing works that will go on forever!

It's not the name or the tag in front of the name; it's the love, the dedication, hopes, and dreams all rolled together that will make any group come alive in this city!

Let's get real, people. The word "gay" isn't the problem here; the problem is the fact that we as a whole cannot accept and respect each other for who we are and what we stand for as individuals.

Each year we band together and we march. Then as soon as the march is over, as soon as the booths are taken down, there are those people who cannot continue this feeling of unity, who must lash out at each other, because we don't wear the right outfit, nor do we fit into their little social group.

If the energy used by these members of our community had been used in a productive way instead of being vindictive to each other over a word or subtitle not being there, and these people would have spent that time researching and trying to "Bridge the Gaps" in our community as a whole, maybe by now, or even a few years back, many of our dreams and rights could have been here to enjoy already.

Grow up, my friends--unity is the only word that will ever do this, and that comes through love, not hateful attacks on each other.

Larry E. Williams

Bonjour homophobia

To the Editor:

I have just recently returned to the United States after spending most of my summer

studying abroad in Avignon, France. Before leaving, I felt completely drained of all my activist energies. I saw sexism, racism, and homophobia written on all of the walls of the "liberal" academic institution where I had spent my previous four years (Clark University). I wanted to escape into another world where such social intolerance would not be so blatantly evident.

So, I went off to France, expecting to experience a more tolerant culture and society. I had read a few feminist pieces written by French women and believed that for a few weeks my mind might be free from constantly thinking about how sex, gender, and sexuality have been used and manipu-

that I tend to take for granted as "givens". I realize more than ever before how much work and how much hatred against us remains to be confronted, and how urgent the situation is. I also realize that it is not one voice alone that makes change happen, it is all of our voices together in solidarity that makes liberation possible. I would like to thank the Chronicle and all those who have worked hard to create such a "community", a safe space to raise our voices to demand change be made. Thank you.

Heather McNeely

lated to maintain an oppressive system of The MAJIC touch

domination.

Unfortunately, what I spend most of my time learning about, confronting, and resisting was sexism and homophobia. However, I didn't experience this on the part of the French but from the other American students. I was studying with a group of 25 other American women and men. After the first few days, I became horrified at just how fascist their viewpoints were. I have never met such a group of blatantly oppressive individuals in all my years in Massachusetts as an undergraduate.

For instance, while there I never heard the word "woman" used to describe the female students; we were merely "girls". Many of the women even told me that they did not understand why there are women's centers on university campuses. . . "What do those women talk about, tampons?"

Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of a long line of appallingly ignorant statements I was about to be bombarded with. I constantly witnessed the male and female students needing to affirm their heterosexuality by bashing gays and lesbians verbally. One afternoon, some of the women were talking about rape and one of the women said, "Wouldn't it be the worst to be raped by a fag?" After hearing this, I nearly fainted. I could not believe that some of my peers were really thinking like this. I don't think I have ever found myself in such a hostile environment.

I stood up for myself as best as I could, but it was clearly a losing battle. It did not help that all of the professors were completely male-identified and quite misogynistic. In fact, I took a contemporary history course where women, one-half of the population, were only mentioned once. I realized what it was like, I think for the first time in my life, to be "alone," not to have a women's or a gay and lesbian network to fall back on.

I never before had so many individuals tell me that structural discrimination based on race, class, gender, sexuality... did not exist. I began to believe for an instant that maybe the world I had emerged from was only in my imagination. I experienced what it was like to be alone while trying to raise questions that would expose the oppressive nature of my peers' thinking.

France may not have been an empowering experience, but for several reasons it has revitalized me to take action. It is this experience that makes me realize how much strength and determination it took on the part of those who first began to ask questions about sex, gender, race, class, and sexuality

To the Editor:

On Aug. 29th I decided to participate in the telephone protest of John Lannigan at radio station WMJI. The following is the letter I sent to the Cleveland Better Business Bureau concerning the response I received from WMJI when I called:

The Better Business Bureau of Cleveland: This letter was suggested by one of your people whom I spoke with today by phone. The conversation was in regard to the totally hostile and insulting response I received over the phone by a female employee (I was unable to get her name) at radio station WMJI (that's W-M-J-I, here in Cleveland). My call to said station was in order to add my voice in protest to the condescending, smug, and contemptuous remarks and attitudes regularly expressed by their on-air personality, Mr. John Lannigan, and his airwave cohorts. The offensive behavior is aimed specifically toward gay people, but also includes anyone else they feel they can get a cheap shot and a laugh off of at the involved group's expense.

The woman at WMJI who took my call was, upon answering, very congenial. When I stated, in very calm and civilized language, the purpose of my call, i.e., "I want to add my voice to the protest over John Lannigan," I was abruptly cut off by her and asked in a disgusted tone of voice if my comments were going to be positive and formative.

My reply, not knowing quite how to continue in the face of her deteriorated tone, was to calmly repeat the above said purpose of my call and that I certainly did not intend to be nasty, at which point I was again cut off in mid-sentence and attacked verbally with, "Well, I do! Get a f-u-c-k-i-n-g life!" She then hung up before I was able to recover at her response.

I can't believe that a public radio station, or any other business in the business of supposedly serving the public, should be allowed to show this level of insensitivity and aggressive disregard for the concerns of that public. It is an outrage, that needs to be corrected. Since station WMJI seems unwilling to listen to the expressions of concern by its consumer and public audience, it is my hope that perhaps your agency will be able to curb their behavior. Thank you.

A concerned Cleveland citizen and insulted consumer.

Name withheld by request

Report Anti-Gay Violence

This includes verbal abuse, threats, vandalism, and police abuse, as well as physical assault. If hate crimes aren't reported, authorities don't know they're happening.

Call the police at 911, if they aren't already involved. Let them know this is a hate crime.

Call the Center at 781-6736 or 522-1999. Their Maryann Finegan Project will help you with police, prosecutors, and courts, and give counseling and support.

Call the U.S. Justice Dept.'s Hate Crimes Hotline, at 800-347-4283. Federal law requires them to keep statistics on anti-gay crimes--numbers which can be used to prove the need for legislation.