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GA PLE'S CHRONICLE

An Independent Chronicle o

Lesbian and Gay Community

Volume 9, Issue 6 September 17, 1993

Gay couples won't be in OSU student housing

The head of Ohio State University has changed his mind about allowing lesbian and gay couples to live in a family housing complex for students, but says he hopes gay rights issues will continue to be discussed.

OSU will not open Buckeye Village, a school-owned family housing complex, to gay and lesbian student couples, University President Gordon Gee said September 10.

"After discussions with many people, including individual conversations with members of our board of trustees, I have decided to remove from consideration any change in the family housing policy at Ohio State," Gee said in a news release.

In April, he announced that the apartments would accept gay and lesbian couples to conform to OSU's policy against discrimination. Buckeye Village currently is open only to heterosexual married students and single students with children.

William Hall, OSU's housing director, recommended the policy change to Gee.

Opposition from some tenants and two state lawmakers prompted the university to postpone any changes while it discussed the proposal. The Board of Regents was to take up the issue in October.

Gee said in a late afternoon news conference Sept. 10 that he was not influenced by groups within or outside the university.

Although his decision on the housing is final, Gee hopes that the issue of gay rights will continue to be discussed on campus, OSU spokesman Malcolm Baraway said. Ed Pfeiffer, president of Stonewall Union, said he was surprised at the decision.

"The result of the announcement is to treat gay and lesbian couples as second-class citizens. It implies there is something wrong with gay and lesbian couples," he said.

He said he did not know if Stonewall would file an objection with the university. Gee said that he still favors allowing same-sex couples in the complex but decided it was best for the university to withdraw the proposal.

He said the university will review its policies if it is found in violation of a Columbus city ordinance banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

In the last two years, the housing office has turned down at least six lesbian or gay couples who wanted to live at Buckeye Village. Hall said at least nine schools nationwide allow lesbian and gay couples in family housing complexes.

Columbia University in New York adopted its policy in the 1970s. The University of Wisconsin in Madison, after nine months of discussion, adopted a policy in 1991 allowing both gay and unmarried heterosexual couples access to student housing.

Transsexuals challenge the Michigan Festival's "womyn-born womyn" policy

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Summer's last splash

BRIAN DEWITT

Ann, who attended the Northern Ohio Coalition's "We Are Family" picnic last Sunday with three friends, splashes down from a ride on one of Wildwood Lake's slides. Although the weather that day started chilly, it was warm enough by midafternoon to enjoy the park's wetter attractions. The picnic, held annually since 1979, raises funds for gay and AIDS organizations in the Cleveland area.

Lesbian loses son to homophobic mother

"A lesbian is unfit to be a mother," according to a Richmond, Virginia judge's ruling. The decision awards custody of a two-year-old boy to his grandmother, who had sued to take the child away from her lesbian daughter because, she said, the boy would grow up "confused."

The case, watched closely by gay civil rights activists, pitted 23-year-old Sharon Bottoms against her own mother, Kay Bottoms, who had argued that her grandson would grow up unable to tell the difference between men and women if he were raised by a lesbian couple.

Circuit Judge Buford Parsons ruled SepContinued on Page 5

Black gays in 'fishbowl' tell of frustration

by Kevin Beaney

This reporter walks a fine line of objectivity while covering stories that often come too close for comfort emotionally. Friday evening, September 10, was a case in point. People of Colors, a group composed of minorities who have ties with Cleveland's Lesbian-Gay Community Service Center, and the feminist group SOAR (Stop Oppression and Racism) hosted a "Fishbowl" listening process at Cleveland State University for the benefit of Greater Cleveland's white gay and lesbian population.

This was a pro-active attempt by People of Colors to explain why minorities, prima-

rily African-Americans, avoid using the Center, and why the few that do consistently feel used, abused and insulted by the "wellintentioned" white folks.

The format for the meeting arranged four black speakers in the center well of a bowlshaped lecture room: Mistinguette Smith Malone, who also served as moderator, Center board member Peggi Cella, Sonoria Page, and former Living Room co-facilitator Jalal

Naeem.

The four speakers were "in the fishbowl" and would do all the talking, among themselves. They were surrounded by those who came to listen-more than 60 people concerned with the fate of the Center or interest-

ed in hearing about perpetuated racism. These people, about 90 percent white and about 80 percent women, were "outside the fishbowl," and were required to remain silent throughout the proceedings.

The ground rules were announced-with SOAR members ready to escort the unruly from the forum-and the program began. It was made clear that these speakers had already heard quite enough from and about the majority; in this safe space, white people were there to shut up and listen.

AIDS IN A 'SECOND-TIER' CITY

To this well-intentioned white male reporter, the glass wall isolating the "ins" from the "outs" came thundering down within the Continued on Page 8

Educating and providing options

by Charlton Harper

It would be difficult to prove that nothing is being done about AIDS education in Greater Cleveland. A vast, slightly unwieldy, system exists that covers a wide range of responses aimed at an equally diverse community.

What pulls it all together is tailoring materials and resources to the needs of specialized communities, collaboration between organizations in efforts to fill gaps, and volunteers. There is agreement among educators that a coordinating body would help both service providers and public. Volunteers are the life blood of any

Lesbians and gays worldwide now have a voice within the United

Nations

organization and are credited with much of the success of many education programs. There is agreement that the role of educator must be one of "options provider," offering people "levels of risk that they can live

with." But the bottom line is Second in a series educators still

fight a reinforced resistance to the issue of AIDS among the general public. And of course any educator will say that the gap between knowledge and behavior change is a difficult one to bridge, requiring patience and a willingness to keep repeating the message. What follows is a

INSIDE

The teacher's dilemma: How to deal with students who ask, "Are you gay?"

A gay couple learns about identity when one weds a woman in a green-card marriage

21A

look at three education providers and the unique audiences they serve. Stopping AIDS is My Mission

SAMM is the direct result of Dr. Victoria Cargill's own frustration with the lack of an educational focus aimed at teens and, especially, teens of color. Founded in 1987, SAMM grew from Cargill's attempts to make direct contact with teens in schools. Her initial efforts showed her that teens were attentive and concerned about health teachers and administration. "I was told issues, but little support was coming from

Editorial, Letters.. Entertainment Sports..... Charlie's Calendar Classified.. 28

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Personals..29 Resource..34