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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

SCHEWALL

This space has been donated to StonewallCleveland by the Chronicle, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Chronicle staff or management.

by Mike Radice President, Stonewall-Cleveland

Stonewall-Cleveland, Greater Cleveland's lesbian and gay civil rights organization, has been engaged in several activities that have national, state and local implications for our community. These activities are outlined below.

Stonewall-Cleveland Political Action Campaign: StonewallCleveland has established a clearly “political arm.” In December, we filed with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to operate a PAC. The purposes of the PAC will be to make campaign contributions to lesbianand gay-sensitive candidates, to endorse candidates who support our purposes and positions and to lobby politicians. The PAC was established as it was necessary to set up a separate arm of the organization to do heavy political work; the federal government will not allow us to maintain our charitable organization status if we engage in partisan politics.

To enable us to operate our PAC effectively, our sibling Stonewall organizations in Columbus and Cincinnati volunteered to train us. They invited us to a meeting in Columbus to share their experiences with their own PACS; which have been highly successful in raising money and in influencing local politics. The information gathered at the meeting will help us to develop a more powerful political entity as we ready ourselves for the fall elections.

Progress on the Cleveland Civil Rights Legislation: By the first of January we will have completed the collection of information documenting

January 10, 1992

discrimination against members of our community. The documentation is critical in order for us to present a well-reasoned case to Cleveland City Council when requesting the inclusion of affectional/sexual orientation as a protected class in its civil rights legislation.

On January 13 at 7:30 p.m. at the Lesbian-Gay Community Service Center we will hold a membership meeting, open to the Greater Cleveland lesbian and gay community, to present the discrimination data collected and to finalize the wording of the legislation. We urge all of you at attend to provide input into the legislation, and to be a part of this historic moment.

Human Rights Campaign Fund Guest Appearance: On Monday, February 3, Marcie Wasserman, Midwest coordinator and Mark Paul, lobbyist from the Human Rights Campaign Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based lesbian and gay political action campaign organiza tion. It is one of the largest PACs in the country. They will come to Cleveland, at our invitation, to help us to develop the skills necessary to work effectively with politicians on issues facing lesbian and gays.

Mary Rose Oakar Fails to Appear: In November we received a call from Wasserman. The message was that Oakar, the only representative from Greater Cleveland who had not signed-on as a co-sponsor to the lesbian and gay civil rights bill, had told the president of the National Organization for Women that she would sign onto the bill. Knowing how reluctant Oakar has been in the past to sign onto the bill, she had once signed on, and then pulled her name off, Marcie encouraged us to act quickly in order to get Oakar on the bill before she changed her mind again.

As a response to that we could present our case to her on the bill, and also convince her to co-sponsor legislation that would prohibit discrimination against

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lesbians and gays in the military. We tried to get a confirmation of attendance from her office for several weeks, but they would not commit one way or the other. Our meeting time rolled around and she did not show (she could have sent an aide, but did not).

In disappointment, we decided on a course of action to convince her to sign the bill as a co-sponsor. We drafted a letter, signed by everyone at the meeting, outlining our concerns with her non-appearance and her negligence of the plight of our community. We also decided to encourage lesbian and gay organizations, and individuals, to write to her expressing their opinions on this issue. A lobbying visit was also planned to her local office by several of our board members.

We encourage you to write Oakar to request that she sign onto the lesbian and gay civil rights bill (HR 1430), and that she co-sponsor legislation forbidding discrimination against lesbian and gay people in the military. Her address is 2231 Rayburn House Office Bldg., Washington, D.C. 20515.

Voter Registration: It is the plan of this organization to find every single lesbian and gay person in Greater Cleveland and register her or him to vote, as well as to empower him or her to vote

intelligently. Torealize this goal we are in the process of registering our 14 board. members as Deputy Registrars and will make them available at lesbian and gay events to register you to vote, as well as being available for home visits.

We are also in the process of seeking the funding necessary to establish a call-in system where you could phone us to get voter registration information, as well as a listing of lesbian-and gay-sensitive candidates and issues in your area.

Membership Renewal: January 1992 is membership renewal time. All members should be receiving their renewal notices right about now, and we ask that you renew promptly. Our being able to tell politicians that we have hundreds of paid members gives us the clout and financial strength needed to reclaim our civil rights as lesbian and gay people. Membership Meeting: Our January membership meeting will be held Monday, January 13 at the Lesbian-Gay Community Service Center, 1418 W.29th St., Cleveland. As mentioned earlier, we will be taking the final steps toward the presentation of the amended civil rights legislation to Cleveland City Council. We hope to see all 280,000 Greater Cleveland lesbian and gay people at the meeting.▼

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