GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE JUNE 25, 1993

EDITORIALS

Gay rights fight begins at the clinic door

In the dark night behind a poorly lit lesbian bar, a man is raping a young woman, holding a knife to her throat, all the time muttering "Dyke, I'll show you what a real man is like."

The woman manages to get home, hurt, demoralized, anguished, her life totally changed by one man who hates lesbians even more than he hates women in general.

She doesn't report the incident, being unable to explain what she was doing at "that kind" of a bar. She isn't out; not to her parents, her boss, nor really even to herself.

A few weeks later she realizes she is pregnant. What can she do?

This scenario is based on a true story. It happens to lesbians more often then we as a community know. What can she do? She has neither the financial means nor the desire to raise a child. She can't even appear pregnant or someone is going to ask questions. What she wants is an abortion.

Thanks to the efforts of many pro-choice activists, she can go to a clinic or her private doctor and get a first-trimester abortion. This, provided she is over 18; otherwise she would have to get her parents' permission. What a coming out story! "Mom, I'm pregnant because I was raped, because I'm a lesbian."

But if the Religious Right has its way, this woman would be subject to even more pain and grief. She could feel raped all over again. She could be forced to wait 24 hours

Spokespersons should not shock

To the Editors:

and be shown pictures of aborted fetuses to help her decide if she really wants to abort this product of rape.

To keep her life private, she might even have to get an illegal abortion. What if the only way you could get a legal abortion was if you were a victim of rape or incest? To prove rape, she would once again have to come out against her will.

Without the protection of Roe v. Wade this woman, and countless others who are faced with the very real choice of whether or not to have an abortion, could have that choice taken away from them.

The right to govern your own body is a fundamental right. The question of whether or not a woman has a right to make her own choice about her own body goes beyond just being pregnant. It also addresses who she sleeps with and who she falls in love with.

Operation Rescue will be in town this July to try to block abortion clinics. They will harass the women who are trying to get an abortion, the clinic workers, and the clinic doctors. They will do whatever they can to impose their beliefs on the rest of the population.

Operation Rescue's efforts do not stop with just harassing women and outlawing abortion. They are hell-bent on outlawing anything that might stop a sperm and egg from meeting. This includes condoms. Are you prepared to buy your condoms underground?

Operation Rescue participants are the

same people who picket our marches. They are the same people who passed the antigay bill in Colorado, and who write letters to newspapers denouncing our right to exist. They are simply not our friends. Their attempts to impose their beliefs on the general public start with denouncing a woman's right to an abortion, and continue on to oppose equal rights for lesbians and gay men.

If we really want to stop these people before they start their anti-gay referendum in Ohio, we must stop them on the abortion front first.

Now, you may be an anti-choice gay man or lesbian. That is your decision, but please remember you are helping a group of people who don't acknowledge your right to exist. If you believe that abortion is wrong (as many pro-choice supporters also do), then work to show women other alternatives don't work to take their choices away. That will only lead to more choices being taken away, starting with our right to live and love as lesbians and gay men.

Even if you can't get pregnant, this is your fight too. Just as AIDS affects everyone, so does the loss of making fundamental decisions about one's body.

Call Planned Parenthood at 881-7742 and ask how you can help. Tell them you want to stop the fundamentalist rightwingers in their tracks. Let's send them back to their self-righteous churches and out of our lives.

COMMUNITY FORUM

Your May 14 editorial "Better Blatant than Latent" demonstrates that there are many theories on how the gay civil rights battle would best be waged.

The viewpoint of your editorial, which certainly a segment of the gay and lesbian community agrees with, is that visibility is imperative regardless of manner. Get out there, say and do whatever you want, so long as you are gay, proud and hopefully loud.

Some feel the key issue is how we make ourselves visible, in the belief that it is through greater societal acceptance that we will make the most headway. According to

this viewpoint, it is important that our spokespersons be representative of the community and not just unusual or shocking.

Often socio-political change is brought about by minimizing resistance and emphasizing commonalities. Outrageous language and acts do not at all serve these purposes, but instead detract from gains that are made, and reinforce the alienation of the community as a whole.

Unfortunately, many still see us as them, not as individuals. What is true for one of us is assumed to be true for all. Therefore each of us bears a responsibility to the gay rights movement to conduct ourselves in ways which demonstrate that we are part of society, not an attack on it.

Some of us believed this was the central purpose of the March on Washington, and therefore we were angered when Lea

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DeLaria talked about fucking the First Lady. Some of us wish to break through stereotypes that lesbians lust after and wish to recruit straight women, and that we are primarily sexual beings. These beliefs are obviously still held by too large a segment of dominant society, as is evidenced by the great resistance to lifting the ban on gays in the military.

The Chronicle seemed to imply that anyone who took issue with DeLaria was "latent." However, there were some very out lesbians who were offended by her remarks.

Classiness and dignity should not be dirty words to us. They have their time and place, as does raunchiness. The issue is which approach should be used to enhance our full participation within society.

Nora J. Vetarius Christine E. Wolf

Gay postal workers form group

To the Editors:

Gay and lesbian employees of the United States Postal Service in the Northland District, which includes large areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin, are pleased to inform your readers of the existence of the GayLesbian Postal Employees Network (G-L PEN).

In February 1992, interested gay and lesbian postal employees formed a "steering committee" to discuss guidelines for an organization that would serve the needs of those in the local work force who identify as sexual orientation minorities. Our first general meeting was in March 1992. Since then, we have been meeting monthly.

Membership in the G-L PEN is open to any gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Volume 8, lesue 13

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, Mike Radice, John DuAne, John Chaich, Charlton Harper, Joe Morris

Akron-Canton Bureau: Ted Wammes, Richard

Simonton, Jerry Kaiser, Paul Schwitzgebel, Heather Steenrod

Artist: 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 le 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.

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gay-lesbian sensitive employee. Our mission is: "to serve as an advocate for all sexual minority employees and advance their recognition and legitimacy within the United States Postal Service."

While the G-L PEN functions as a support group for those who attend meetings, we are focusing the majority of our effort on effecting change in the work place. To achieve our agenda, we've formed "action teams" to work on various objectives.

The G-L PEN is encouraged by the Postal Service's recent creation of a Vice President for Cultural Diversity. We believe the time has come for us to receive the recognition and benefits due us. It is our hope that postal employees among your readers will also wish to organize networks. To that end, we offer assistance to those who inquire. We can be reached through P.O. Box 580397, Minneapolis,

MN 55458-0397.

Richard E. Evans

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