GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE JUNE 11, 1993

EDITORIAL

Chronicle comes out as bi

Thanks to the support of the community and our growing number of advertisers, the Gay People's Chronicle has reached another goal. From now on we will be publishing every other Friday, except for the beginning of the new year, offering 25 issues a year.

This biweekly production schedule is a long way from February 1992, when the paper faced significant debt and suspended publication. The sincere concern of our readers, expressed in emotional, financial and professional assistance, convinced publisher Martha Pontoni that the paper was needed in Cleveland, and to try again.

An advisory board of friends helped plan the Chronicle's comeback, and also the benefit that was held a little more than a year ago. With re-dedicated enthusiasm, publication resumed with the 1992 Pride

Guide in June, followed by the July issue. Ever since then the paper has grown, and this spring we introduced a new look. We believe that over these past 12 months our efforts have produced a very respectable publication, covering a wide range of topics in our readership area.

We continue to strengthen and expand our operation, adding more full-time staff, and stories from the Associated Press. The paper is available in many more locations and that number continues to grow. Whatever yardstick you use circulation, number of pages, stories, advertisers, personals the Gay People's Chronicle is now the largest gay-lesbian newspaper in Ohio!

With the increased number of issues the subscription procedure has changed. If you currently subscribe to the Chronicle, check the date on the envelope. The expiration

date now reflects the number of issuesnot months-remaining.

Lesbian-Gay Community Service Center members no longer get the paper sent to them as part of their membership. However, we're offering attractive discount prices for you to subscribe directly. Look for the ad in this issue.

There is also a discount subscription for non-Center members. Take advantage of it and enjoy the convenience of having the paper sent to you in a plain envelope.

And finally, please keep our advertisers in mind. They have helped us more than anyone. The value of the gay dollar has been front-page news lately, and businesses are more aware of it. Use your buying power wisely by shopping with Chronicle advertisers and tell them where you saw the ad!

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Volume 8, Issue 12

Publisher: Martha J. Pontoni Business Manager: Patti Harris Managing Editor: Kevin Beaney Production Manager: Brian De Witt Reporters and Writers: Martha J. Pontoni,

Dora Forbes, Marne Harris, Kevin Beaney, Timothy Robson, Barry Daniels, Scott C. Hare, Joe Morris

Akron-Canton Bureau: Ted Wammes, Richard

Artist:

Simonton, Jerry Kaiser, Paul Schwitzgebel,

Heather Steenrod

Christine Hahn

Sales Manager: Patti Harris Account Executives: David A. Ebbert, Mark Walsh

Editorial Board: Martha J. Pontoni,

Patti Harris, Kevin Beaney, Brian De Witt, Christine Hahn

The Gay People's Chronicle is dedicated to providing a space In the northeast Ohio lesbian-gay community for all of its members to communicate and be involved with each other. This means that every Chronicle, to the best of its ability, will be equally dedicated to both men's and women's lesues, as well as lesues that affect the entire community. This balance will provide lesbians and gay men with a forum to air grievances and express Joys.

The Gay People's Chronicle is copyrighted under federal law. Any reproduction of its contents is prohibited unless permission is obtained.

Any material submitted for publication will be subject to editing. The Chronicle cannot guarantee retum of any such materials unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The Gay People's Chronicle is not responsible for claims made by adverteers. We reserve the right to reject advertising which is unsuitable for our publication.

COMMUNITY FORUM

Give ACT UP a chance appear July 9 on the Gay 90's. So there

To the Editors:

Recently, a chapter of ACT UP, AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, was very upset to realize that we as a group are looked upon as worse than criminals. Why is this? Do people know what ACT UP has done for the AIDS pandemic? Obviously not. Let me enlighten anyone who is confused about our mission. We are a group of caring individuals: straight, gay, lesbian, old, young, sick, healthy, colored, white, Christian, Jew, and many others with one thing in common: anger. Anger at a government who doesn't care that every seven minutes someday else dies of AIDS.

What have we done? We have fought the pharmaceutical companies for approval of drugs that can keep people with AIDS healthier, and we have fought to make those drugs affordable, a battle that continues still. We demand speedy availability of drugs. We need more research funding. We want our president to name an AIDS Czar. We are thirteen years into this pandemic and still we have nobody to speak for people with AIDS or HIV. We crusade for the government to stop the genocide and let the people in the "AIDS concentration camp" in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, live like any other human being deserves to live: "Free."

Yes, we are perhaps radical, but radical is exactly the attitude needed for war, and there is indeed a war being waged. Do not kid yourself! Enough have died-NO MORE! Our actions or civil disobedience acts do not always lead to arrests. Come to our meetings and give us a chance. Perhaps you will learn something useful or perhaps not. The only good opinion is an educated opinion.

Meetings are every other Sunday at the Community Center at 6 pm. Next meeting is June 13.

ACT UP Cleveland

Opening our hearts

To the Editors:

I had to write and thank you personally for allowing me to speak so openly in the May 14 issue of the Chronicle.

At the time, it was hard not to feel that the mainstream of the community had closed their hearts and minds to the problems of the disabled. And then, an incredible thing happened. Buck Harris got involved about three weeks ago, and has asked me to

really seems to be a momentum building up behind this issue, and it seems possible that we are actually on the threshold of change.

I've also decided to take part in Gay Pride on June 19, because it's important for the public to see that we're not a threat to them, and we're not as different as they had imagined. So, if you see a rather bent and strange looking guy in the front lines you'll know who it is.

It seems that you and your staff have proven the theory that responsible journalism can provide a conscience for the community. I can only say thank God for young people like you who are actively in our

midst. It would be rather desolate otherwise...

Thanks again for your great kindness.

Dave Kurtz

Hawaii gay marriage effort deserves help

To the Editors:

By now, I'm sure you've heard of the Hawaii Supreme Court ruling that the state cannot withhold the right to marry on the basis of a person's sex. This is fantastic news! The case will now be reviewed in a lower court where the State of Hawaii will try to show just cause for discrimination. Once this case is resolved, marriage will be legal in Hawaii for everyone! And, as I understand it, marriages are recognized across state lines, so we'll be legal in all 50 states!

This case will change our community overnight and it's something I feel we should show our support for wholeheartedly. If you would like to help the Hawaii Equal Rights Marriage Project financially or in some other way. Please contact them at H.E.R.M.P. c/o G&LCC, 1820 University Ave. #8, Honolulu, HI 96822.

Patrick McNamara

Are the best soldiers eunuchs?

To the Editors:

Currently the military is regaling us with the notion that serving in the armed forces is a privilege. Not a right. When I was growing up, during the era of the draft, serving our country was duty. All true redblooded American boys were expected to

serve a requisite number of years before they could proceed with their lives. Which may or may not involve a military career.

This change in protocol should not be surprising when one considers the events that led up to the 1971 ratification of the 26th Amendment to the Constitution granting 18-year-olds and over the right to vote. Why this sudden concern over the voting rights of minors? The argument was that minors should not be expected to serve in the military unless they were granted the same rights enjoyed by adults. One of those rights was the right to vote. Entitling minors the right to vote necessitated a change of their status from minors to adults. All this was not lost on the military. Now 18, 19 and 20-year-olds could legally serve, drink and, oh yes, vote.

Why does this example offer a correlation to gays and lesbians in the military? Simply put, the military has historically prided itself on how white and male it was. By not granting 18-year-olds and older the right to vote would have denied them the duty to serve. The military would have been hard pressed to make up those numbers with available white males. This would have meant relying heavily on men of color and women of anything. Besides, we had a war to fight. Vietnam.

So why is serving in the military suddenly a privilege? Is it meant to indicate that gays and lesbians are not deserving of this high honor? Why is that? Is it because they are not good citizens, or brave soldiers, or bright or physically fit? Apparently the only criteria that makes one more or less deserving is one's sexuality.

What makes ones sexual orientation more deserving than another? One serviceman put it this way. He used the example of a married officer who was discovered in an adulterous affair. As a result of this discovery he lost the respect and high regard of his fellow servicemen. Another soldier thought this was a good analogy. He said so more than once explaining that homosexuals always have the innate propensity to engage in sexual acts. The difference being that an adulterer has to be caught in the act while the homosexual needs only to reveal his sexual preference to lose face among his or her peers.

In other words sexuality is a behavior. Not a state of being. Isn't it true then, by the same token, that a married soldier may possibly commit an adulterous act? In fact, if the statistics are to be believed, most married men will or have committed adulterous acts with men or women. Therefore if gays and lesbians are to be excluded based on the possibility of engaging in sex

Next Chronicle comes out Friday, June 25

The Gay People's Chronicle is published every other Friday, except the first week in January. Items must be received by deadlines; mail takes several days. Call 621-5280 to inquire about hand delivery.

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Subscriptions are 13 issues for $25.00 and 25 issues (1 year) for $40.00, sent in a plain envelope. Mail check or money order with address to the Chronicle, P.O. Box 5426, Cleveland, 44101.

Correction

In the special Pride Guide issue, the vocalist singing at 12 noon at the Pride Festival was misidentified. He is Dino Sanchez.

then all prospective enlistees should be excluded based on the same premise. How can we be sure that every married or single man or woman in the armed services will not become involved in some unsavory sexual liaison? The fact is we can't be sure of anyone. Unless they're eunuchs.

What is even more intriguing is that notion that our brave men and women in the military need to be protected. It must be assumed that the youths the old brass are so concerned about are today's counterparts to those 18, 19, and 20 year olds the military was so eager to latch onto during the throes of the Vietnam War. The idea that these same men and women, who are expected to protect us from enemies foreign and domestic, cannot handle themselves against unwanted advances is perplexing. If they need so much protection from, if the statistics are again to be believed, a handful of homosexuals, then perhaps they shouldn't be in the military. Hell, they shouldn't even be in a civilian bar. That still leaves us with eunuchs, What a military!

Mary Gibson

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