GAYBOLE'S

An Independent Chronicle of the Northern Ohio Lesbian and Gay

CLEVmmunity PUBL

SOCIAL SCIERIS

CLEVELAND PUBLIC

SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPT. PERIODICAL

Where Sold 60¢ Higher outside Northern Ohio

Volume 9, Issue 1 July 9, 1993

on WHK

WELL OLD

und the show, a

Ithought radio reme

hired nauseating bottom of the barre euphemism for sacke

the sodomites. The

show is hosted by the "Uld Buckaroo" who asks the question, "DOES YOUR CONDON LUSE ITS FLAVOR ON TH REDPOST OVERMITE? SO IF YOU WANT TO KNOW EVERY TUMNIC ABOUT DEADLY GAY SEX, BUT WERE MAND 10 30 THEW TIME OR WITK FRIDAY BITES FOR A FEW LANGAS A Marne 700Y WANT TO PRAY FOR THICK SOULS

Another tasteful Sysack board

WHAT'S

Today's Special COOKIN

HOMO STEW JEFF

KEVIN BEANEY

Sign maker Russell Sysack once again sets his sights on the gay community. This "tribute" to Buck Harris' Friday night show, The Gay 90's on WHK, has been displayed on his street-level billboard at 4306 Pearl Rd., just south of State, for a couple of weeks. Local councilman Pat O'Malley expressed his outrage to the sign-maker and has asked the Community Relations Board to investigate. Sysack has twice before chosen June Gay Pride month-to display anti-gay billboards: in 1990 about gay parenting, and in 1991 about the Names Project. He continues to defend his actions as being protected by the First Amendment.

Anti-gay laws pass in six Oregon elections

by Brad Cain

Salem, Ore.-Anti-gay civil rights measures won approval from Oregon voters in both cities and all four counties voting on the initiatives June 29.

Voters in Canby and Junction City and in the largely rural Josephine, Douglas, Linn and Klamath counties approved measures barring local governments from passing laws to protect gays from discrimination.

The measures-which were endorsed by better than 2-to-1 in some places-also bar local governments from spending money to "promote" homosexuality.

Gay civil rights advocates said the measures, sponsored by the Oregon Citizens Alliance, would open the floodgates for discrimination against lesbians and gays in such areas as housing and employment.

"The OCA has decided to tear this state apart city by city and county by county," said Marilyn Wagener, who fought the measure in Linn County.

Anti-gay rights initiatives are expected to be on ballots in the coming months in at least

OSU gay housing survives challenge

by Charlton Harper Gay and lesbian students and supporters are breathing a sigh of relief in Columbus. The amendment barring housing for samesex couples at Ohio State University that had been introduced as a rider to the Ohio state budget by State Sen. Eugene Watts (R-

16, Galloway) failed to make it through with the final approved budget. The 30-billion dollar two-year budget passed June 30.

"We're feeling much better," said Phil Martin of the OSU Gay-Lesbian Student Union. "We're ecstatic that the Watts amendment was kicked out and seen for what it is." The amendment would have limited on-

Atlanta recognizes gay couples, but no benefits

Atlanta-The city government will officially recognize unmarried couples who live together, including those of the same sex. But a second measure extending benefits to city workers' partners was vetoed by Mayor Maynard Jackson.

The council on June 21 approved 14-2 a measure that allows domestic partners to register officially with the city. It also passed a second proposal 9-7 allowing city employees to enroll their partners in the city's health and dental benefits plan in a way similar to married spouses.

Mayor Jackson signed the partner registration bill, but on June 29 rejected the benefits proposal because, he said, it would cost the city too much money.

The city finance department had predicted it would cost the city more than $2 million a year to add domestic partners' benefits. Council member Carolyn Long-

The new rule on gays in the military is shaping up to be the same old closet

Banks said cost is not the issue.

"This is not a costly project," LongBanks said. "It is an equal rights project for the city. This is something we should have done a long time ago. This is something we need to do today."

Gays and lesbians protested Jackson's benefits veto in rallies downtown and at the mayor's home.

The partners registration, which carries no monetary benefits, becomes effective in August. Domestic partners who want to register with the city's Business License department will pay a $30 fee. The program is open to all couples.

Council member Dozier Smith called for a referendum, but Long-Banks said he faces an uphill battle in overturning the ordinance.

About 10 other U.S. cities now have similar couples' registration.

Republican gays say GOP officeholders can be supportive, despite party's anti-gay line

campus housing at Buckeye Village, the family housing facility, to legally married students or single students with children. The amendment was yanked from the budget in mid-June.

Said David Reim, a staffer for State Sen. Patrick Sweeney (D-19, Cleveland), "the budget was not an appropriate place for the amendment. If there is merit to this issue it should have been introduced in the proper forum." Sweeney chaired the House-Senate budget conference committee. Reim notes that efforts were made to keep the budget solely budget-oriented and that many nonappropriations issues were dropped.

Observers also note an implicit message. "It (the amendment) was seen as usurping the college's authority. The House is taking a stand of not micro-managing state colleges and universities," said Martin, a view echoed by Stonewall Union of Columbus director Phyllis Gorman. "You could say it was typical back room maneuvering at its finest," she added.

Sen. Watts has manipulated the state budget for political reasons before. Two years ago he introduced a rider to the budget that would bar state universities from removing on-campus ROTC programs because the military gay ban violated their policies. That amendment passed, and is now law.

Martin pointed out that Watts' tactics could be seen as a conflict of interest, as he is a member of the OSU faculty.

Because of the late introduction of the amendment, it left opponents scrambling to counter its effects. Stonewall Union orgaContinued on Page 4

INSIDE 22 Angels is a

The Men's Chorus dons sequins, high heels,

and heads for 1930s Hollywood

safe Broadway production of a dazzlingly daring gay play

24 other cities and counties. Oregon, roughly 11⁄2 times the size of Ohio, has only 36 counties.

"These six votes show that a vast majority of people do not want homosexuality presented as good and normal to their children," said OCA chairman Lon Mabon, adding that the victories would build momentum for a new statewide voter initiative next year.

Last November, Oregon voters rejected a statewide initiative, sponsored by the OCA, that would have declared homosexuality "unnatural" and "perverse" and would have required state and local governments to discourage it.

The alliance then reworked the measure to be similar to one which passed in Colorado, and began pushing the toned-down version in places where it was likely to succeed.

The measure won approval May 18 in the town of Cornelius, which had narrowly rejected the statewide measure.

The closest June 29 vote was in Junction City, population 3,670. The measure passed 631-628.

Voters in Canby, a farming community of 8,980 southeast of Portland, approved the measure 56 percent to 44 percent. Josephine County, in southern Oregon's timber country, approved it 60 percent to 40 percent; in Continued on Page 4

Akron bus

gunmen

head to trial

by Kevin Beaney

The trial process began June 30 for the two men charged with threatening a bus full of Akron-area gay men and lesbians who were on their way to the March on Washington in April.

Joseph Anthony Collins and Eric Arviel Valainis were each formally charged with two counts of assault, resulting from an incident on April 25 near Hagerstown. That morning, two buses chartered to bring marchers from northeast Ohio to Washington had just left a rest stop. Passengers on the lead bus noticed a Ford Bronco coming up alongside. The car's passenger was shouting antigay curses and waving a large handgun in a threatening manner at the bus windows. The Bronco then sped past the bus and at the next exit, Jim DeLong of the Akron March Committee reported the incident to the police.

The two suspects, both from Rockville, Maryland, were located and charged on May 24. Maryland State Police were able to Continued on Page 4

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