GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

JULY 23, 1993

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August deadline nears for Cincinnati petitions

The battle lines have been drawn in the fight to avoid a referendum on Cincinnati's gay civil rights ordinance. Opponents of the measure have until August 6 to gather 9,905 signatures to put a repeal initiative on the November ballot.

Take Back Cincinnati, a religious-right coalition, is circulating petitions to repeal the ordinance, passed 7-2 by City Council last fall, that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Gay and lesbian groups are recruiting volunteers to campaign against the move and have set up a "Bigot Buster" hot line. "Never another Colorado, not even in Cincinnati," says a handbill circulated by Stonewall Cincinnati. "Come to a Bigot Buster training session and learn how you can help." The hotline is Stonewall Cincinnati's number, 513-541-8778.

Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values, which says it represents 16,000 families, is one of 20 organizations that form Take Back Cincinnati.

"That ordinance gives groups special rights," said CCV chairman Phil Burress. "This has nothing to do with special rights or protected class status," said Shirley Lesser, executive director of Stonewall Cincinnati. "It is about insuring equality and guaranteeing every citizen equal protection under the law. I believe when individuals are presented with the truth, they will oppose codified discrimination."

To get its referendum on the November ballot, Take Back Cincinnati must get signatures of registered Cincinnati voters equaling 10 percent of the vote in the last city council election.

Lesser said that calls to the Stonewall hotline indicated that Take Back Cincinnati was collecting signatures at locations outside the city. Although the Board of Elections is required to certify that signers are bona fide Cincinnati voters, Lesser said that Stonewall will also request to check the petitions.

"I have high hopes we can quell this here," said Lesser. "Maybe then, we won't need to face it on the state level."

Citizens for Community Values has indicated that their ultimate goal is an amendment to the Ohio constitution, similar to Colorado's, prohibiting gay civil rights laws. Groups are circulating ballot petitions for such amendments in Missouri, Florida, Idaho, and Washington state, and plan another attempt in Oregon.

About 130 cities nationwide have gay civil rights ordinances, according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Eight states also have such laws.

In Ohio, Columbus and Yellow Springs have also passed human rights ordinances that include gay rights provisions, Lesser said. She knew of no challenge to those ordinances. An Athens rights ordinance was repealed by a vote in 1990.

ACT UP Cleveland takes to the streets

ACT UP Cleveland has increased its visibility in the past weeks, claiming responsibility for vandalism of a homophobic sign and protesting President Clinton's choice of a federal AIDS coordinator.

During the night of July 12-13, the Sysack Sign Co. billboard at 4306 Pearl Rd. was smeared with paint and the phrase "ACT UP." The sign, reported in the July 9 Chronicle, complains about The Gay 90's radio show on WHK, and slurs gays with phrases such as "sachaying [sic] with the sodomites" and a cartoon of Jeffrey Dahmer as the "Gay Gourmet." The sign, which has been displayed for several weeks, has outraged members of the gay community and the ward's councilman, Pat O'Malley.

Joe Carroccio of ACT UP Cleveland said that the group claimed responsibility for the vandalism. Even though ACT UP concentrates on AIDS issues, "the references on the billboard to 'deadly gay sex' prompted the action... we oppose all types of bigotry," he announced.

The group said the action was taken to "stop the hate... We firmly believe that this kind of hateful bigotry stigmatizes the AIDS community and the gay community alike and causes hate crimes and discrimination to proliferate in Cleveland."

Sign owner Russell Sysack has defended the sign's contents as his right to free speech under the First Amendment.

ACT UP Cleveland members also picketed July 15 outside the Federal Building at East 9th St. and Lakeside Ave. The protest was over President Clinton's decision to appoint a scaled-down AIDS policy coordinator instead of a federal AIDS czar, and the choice of Kristine Gebbie to fill that post.

Blowing whistles, carrying signs and distributing pamphlets to arriving office workers at 7:45 am, about 15 ACT UP Cleveland members called attention to what they see as the president's broken promises and bad choice to coordinate a federal assault against AIDS. Instead of a cabinet level position reporting to the president with full government support, the pamphlets say, Clinton has established a White House policy coordinator position and that has a staff of five to coordinate AIDS programs across all federal agencies.

The choice of Kristine Gebbie for the post also doesn't sit well with the activist group. ACT UP cited her record with the Washington State Department of Health where she recommended recording names of those with CD4 counts less than 200; suggested internment for HIV infected persons thought to be "casually irresponsible;" and what it terms her mismanagement of federal funds for AIDS prescription drugs. ACT UP called on the president to replace Gebbie with Connecticut governor Lowell Weicker.

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