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gay people's

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CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPT. PERIODICAL

Cleveland, Ohio

September 18, 1992

NAMES PROJECT

"Healing AIDS with Love"

Quilt returns to Washington

L E

Volume 8 Issue 3

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On Newsstands

An Independent Chronicle of the ap & Gay Community

Photo by Brian DeWitt

A group of Clevelanders walks in a candlight march during the 1988 Names Project Quilt display in Washington, D.C. The Quilt is returning to the capitol on the weekend of October 9 to 11. Story on page 15.

GOP convention

SEP 1992

sets anti-gay record

by Peter Freiberg

Houston--On the floor and in the platform, the Republican National Convention last month took the most explicitly anti-gay stance of any political party in American history.

With the religious right dominating the platform-drafting committee, delegates opened a week of political gay-bashing by adopting planks that condemn legislation protecting gays against discrimination, support the Pentagon's ban on gays, oppose legislation of same-sex marriages, attack laws allowing gays to adopt children or become foster parents, and back the Boy Scouts' policy of excluding gays.

On the convention's first night, Patrick Buchanan, the former columnist, television commentator, and failed 1992 GOP presidential hopeful, delivered what the Houston Chronicle characterized as a "slashing, gaybaiting" address.

Attacking Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton and vice presidential nominee Sen. Al Gore for representing "the most prolesbian and pro-gay ticket in history," Buchanan went on to say, "We stand with President Bush against the amoral idea that gay and lesbian couples should have the same standing in law as married men and women."

Buchanan called Clinton's agenda, which he said included "homosexual rights," "abortion on demand," and women in combat, "not the kind of change America wants."

"That's not the kind of change America needs," said Buchanan, "and it is not the kind of change we can abide in a nation that we still call God's country."

Gawker's van injures two at Michigan fest

by M.J. Hochberg

This year's "issue" at the 17th Michigan Womyn's Music Festival happened on the road outside of the festival, rather than on the land. Two women in their early 20's waiting to enter the front gates on opening day, August 10, were struck by a van estimated to be moving at 50 miles per hour, which was driving by the lined-up vehicles on County Road 156, the dirt road that marks the final three-mile stretch to the annual lesbian gathering.

The women, Ama Zenya from Tascadero, Calif., and Amy Gaston from Potomac, Md., were walking back across the road after picking flowers in the woods.

The critical situation narrowly escaped more tragic consequences due to the quick response of a number of onlookers who witnessed the incident. Six women immediately got out of their cars and, within 60

seconds of the impact, helped lift the van off of the woman on top of whom the van came to rest. The speed of their unplanned collective reaction is credited with saving the woman's life.

Fortuitously, the accident occurred in front of vehicles carrying two trauma-care nurses and a doctor, who immediately responded to the crisis. Both women were tended to instantly, and the professionals on the scene assisted the local, volunteer emergency crew who arrived shortly afterwards in ambulances.

Zenya and Gaston were airlifted to a trauma-care unit at a hospital in Grand Rapids later that afternoon. Doctors were concerned about the possibility of paralysis due to a broken pelvis in one case, and brain damage resulting from a severe concussion in the other. However, their conditions were stabilized several days later and, as of this writing, neither is expected to suffer any

Pride benefit breaks even

The "Stars in Your Eyes" Prom and Fashion Show made just enough money to cover its expenses, according to organizers. The event was put on by Cleveland Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Pride, Inc. as a fundraiser to pay outstanding bills from the Pride Festival last June.

The Prom was held August 21 at U4ia, and attracted about 60 people. Many were dressed in the requested formal wear, which gave the affair a distinguished look. A photographer was on hand to take commemorative portraits and a light buffet was served.

The entertainment portion of the evening enabled several models and many in the audience to step down the runway and show off their taste in clothing. The emcee was the ever-poised Jasmine Baker.

During the "thank-you" segment, Pride Day Committee co-chair Roger Parker presented U4ia with a plaque for the club's second place finish in the Pride March Float Contest. The award had been withheld on Pride Day due to a committee mixup and Parker offered his apology as part of the presentation. U4ia had donated the evening's cover charges to Pride as their contribution to the Prom fundraiser.

The enthusiasm of those who attended the Prom, especially among the women's community, encouraged the organization to consider making this an annual event, with more publicity to ensure a larger turnout next year. Meanwhile, Pride was able to pay off its remaining bills from donations made after the festival.

permanent damage from the accident. But, as several lesbian healthcare workers on the land noted, the physical and emotional recovery time necessary will be extensive.

The occupants of the van, four collegeage men, admitted to police that they were traveling down the hilly dirt road solely to stare at the women lined up to attend the festival.

Although the men had been drinking, the local prosecutor declined to press drunkdriving charges because police, who were absorbed with making sure the women were taken care of, failed to conduct breathalyzer tests on the men for several hours; none of the four were legally drunk by the time the tests were performed. They were fined, though, for having open containers of alcohol in the vehicle.

The men had been drinking at a tavern in the nearby town of Hart, Mich., for a couple of hours prior to the accident. In an ironic twist, three lesbians from Toronto stopped at the same bar that afternoon, entering just moments after the four men. The two groups were the bar's only patrons during that time. When the women arrived at the festival later that evening and heard about what had happened they contacted festival authorities, who notified the police. The women were able to identify the men as well as document the length of time they'd been at the bar and what they drank while they were there.

The mothers of the two injured women visited the land a couple of days after the accident, to gather eyewitness accounts and tour the festival grounds. According to Barbara Price, one of the two producers of the festival, they listened with pained expressions as each witness repeated seperately her initial impression that the two victims had been killed by the impact.

However, Price noted, by the end of the process, both mothers were struck by the Continued on Page 10

Other speakers, including Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma and far-right televangelist Pat Robertson, also included anti-gay statements in their speeches. According to the New York Times, Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, considered by some to be the most pro-gay governor in the nation, wanted to include an explicitly supportive reference to gay rights in his address but was ordered not to by top GOP officials.

The convention appeared to confirm what GOP leaders have signaled in recent months: that in the upcoming campaign, the Republicans will stress "traditional family values"--usually interpreted as code words for anti-gay rhetoric--and will attack the Democrats for supporting gay rights.

There were a few efforts at the convention that could be interpreted as softening the GOP's hard-line position on gays, as when First Lady Barbara Bush told the delegates, "However you define family, that's what we mean by family values."

But the only positive reference to gays in the Convention came on Wednesday, when Mary Fisher, a woman with AIDS and the daughter of a prominent GOP supporter, delivered a moving speech in which she called for compassion for gays and other people with AIDS, condemned intolerance and prejudice, and urged that the fight Continued on Page 4

Letters

CONTENTS

3 4

Log Cabin nixes Bush Gay hams seek right to advertise 5 5 Roll in the hay

March on the United Nations.... 6 "We'll buy your life insurance". 9 National Notes

Think about This Bits & Pieces. Entertainment Lesbian safer sex Charlie's Calendar. Personals Resource Directory

Living with AIDS, from a lesbian's point of view

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