October, 1991

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Page 7

Entire NAMES Project Quilt to return to Washington D.C. in '92 Over 20,000 Panels Expected For October 9th-11th Display

The NAMES Project has announced plans to mount a nationwide campaign to bring the entire quilt back to Washington, D.C. in October of 1992.

The announcement follows a lengthy feasibility analysis, including a survey of over 100,000 supporters, panel makcrs, and volunteers to assess the breadth of support for such an effort. In an overwhelming response to the survey, over 95 percent of those responding gave a resounding "yes" vote to the plans for another D.C. display.

"We have rarely seen such enthusiasm for our efforts," observed Executive Director David Lemos. "People are tired of empty rhetoric from our government. The growth of the Quilt is a vivid reminder of the costs of inaction. Our panel makers, volunteers, and supporters want us to act. They want us to bring AIDS back to the front pages of the nation's newspapers.”

"We have spent a lot of time studying what this display will require, and frankly, it's overwhelming," says Debra Resnik, Director of Displays. "There is tremendous support for this display, and we have a long lead time to make it work."

The October 9th-11th weekend will mark five years since the inaugural display of 1,920 panels of the Quilt at the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

"In 1987, we had 26,000 Americans to remember," notes Lemos. "It's hard to imagine, but we are likely to have surpassed 200,000 dead when we unfold the quilt next year."

"Ten years into this epidemic and our government still has no national AIDS strategy. The debate about AIDS is limited to HIV immigration policy and prison sentences for HIV+ health workers, when the real debate should be about finding the resources to end this epidemic, to care for the sick, to combat HIV discrimination, and the

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underlying homophobia."

"AIDS issues are slipping from the front pages of newspapers. Too often we hear the 'AIDS is an old story' or even more amazingly 'it's been done'. When stories about AIDS do appear, they tend to promote hysteria and blame rather than compassion and action."

Specific plans for the 1992 display will be

Quilt, and You", this joint production of the NAMES Project and the Design Industries Foundation for AIDS (DIFFA) follows a 1990 Heart Strings tour, which raised over $4 million for AIDS groups across the country. Plans are beginning for the local appearance of Heart Strings and the Quilt during the weekend of May 29-30, 1992.

For information about the NAMES Project, panel making, upcoming displays, or to turn in a new panel, please contact the NAMES Project-Cleveland, 216-281-1610▼

announced in coming months, including ACLU seeks review of anti-gay

details on volunteering, travel, and accommodations as well as other activities planned for the weekend.

Local Quilt activities

"In the Northeast Ohio area, it's going to be a year of panel making-quilt building in preparation for the return to D.C." states Dale Melsness, Ohio Quilt Display Coordinator. New panels continue to be turned in for sewing into local sections of the quilt. These are being kept in this area temporarily, for local displays before being sent on to San Francisco. The strategy is to sew Northeast Ohio panels together before including them in the national quilt, so we can more easily identify and track locations of the local panel for area displays."

Upcoming displays include College of Wooster, October 12th 15th, where there will be 15 sections of the quilt, and Kent State, Nov. 6th.

For World AIDS Day, Dec. 1st, the Quilt is again returning to the Cleveland Playhouse for a program on a variety of AIDS issues.

Heart Strings/Quilt Tour

A joint tour of the Quilt and the musical production "Heart Strings" will tour 35 cities (including Cleveland) beginning February 25, 1992. Dubbed "An Event In Three ActsHeart Strings, the AIDS Memorial

Columbus ordinance

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio has petitioned for review by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Stonewall Union v. City of Columbus. The matter concerns a requirement by the city of Columbus that Stonewall Union, a gay and lesbian organization, pay heavy permit fees for its annual Gay Pride Parade, including the cost of police assigned to the parade.

Loretta Mikolaj, director of the Lesbiangay Rights Project of the ACLU of Ohio, said that this requirement "does not seem to be equally enforced--all groups don't have to abide by this."

Police services are ordinarily provided free to all members of the community. The costs for such services are very high, and

could result in the inability of Stonewall and other organizations to hold parades.

Lower courts have upheld the permit ordinance, although the Court of Appeals raised questions about equal enforcement.

ACLU Executive Director Christine Link said that "the city's policy has the effect of preventing unpopular groups from freely expressing their ideas. The ACLU finds such regulations on speech to be unacceptable."

The case is being handled by David Goldberger, general counsel for the ACLU of Ohio.

The court has received the ACLU's petition for certiorari, and is in the process of deciding whether or not to hear the case. The court could take several months to make that decision.▼

Conference to mark National Coming Out Day

On Oct. 11th, thousands of lesbians and gay men will take their next step out of the closet in coming-out events all over the United States and abroad. Many will affirm their gay or lesbian identities by talking with their relatives, friends, colleagues, employers, or legislators.

"Telling the truth about yourself is a fundamental step in creating better relationships with your family and friends," according to Rob Eichberg, co-founder of National Coming Out Day and author of ComingOut: An Act of Love.

In Cleveland, the Lesbian and Gay Community Service Center will shed a little more light on the problems of gay and lesbian youth in a day-long conference for health and education professionals.

"The Invisible Minority: Addressing the Isolation of Lesbian, Gay and

Bisexual Youth" will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

In Columbus, the Stonewall Union Community Center will hold its grand opening at 7:30 p.m.

Worldwide events include lesbian and gay Peace Corps volunteers wearing National Coming Out Day shirts in Bangkok, Thailand, and a coming-out handbook that is being created by the community in Zurich, Switzerland.

"There are more than 30 million gay and lesbian Americans, yet most people don't think they know anybody gay. That is mathematically impossible," said Lynn Sheppodd, exectuive director of the National Coming Out Campaign.

And it can be made a little more impossible with every step that is taken.

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