GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 26, 1993

WORLD AIDS DAY

Cleveland events include AIDS stamp unveiling

World AIDS Awareness Day, which is also recognized around the world as A Day Without Art, takes place each year on December 1. In the Cleveland area, several activities are taking place.

ACT UP Cleveland has scheduled a Political Funeral which assembles at the Northwest Quadrant of Public Square at 10:30 am. The procession steps off at 11 am and moves to the Federal Building at E. 9th St. and Lakeside Ave., where a demonstration will take place. Permits have been secured, no arrests are planned, everyone is encouraged to participate. To volunteer call 621-2233.

Cleveland Play House

AIDS stamp. In line with the recent tradition of "A Day Without Art," the Play House will feature no scheduled performances on December 1. However, the theater will not be empty. Ohio State Attorney General Lee Fisher and the Cleveland Postmaster will be on hand with the Cleveland unveiling of the new AIDS stamp. Fisher will address those present, and then will

lead a ceremony in shutting off all lighting in the facility for the remainder of the evening.

Brochures. In an effort to extend its past World AIDS Day work beyond its theaters and into the front lines, more than forty volunteers will be located December 1 throughout downtown during the lunchtime hours, distributing fliers designed by Health Issues Taskforce, outlining "Things You Can Do To Show Support."

Quilt panels. During the Playhouse's November 29-December 5 run of The Lion in Winter, and its daytime student theater series production of Our Town, quilt panels from the Names Project will be on display in the theater, along with Names Project representatives who will answer questions and distribute information during intermissions.

Outdoor sign. Though not finalized as this calendar goes to print, the Play House is working hard at making a unique statement. Under plan is the installation of a permanent continuous-loop sign in front of the theaters on Carnegie Avenue. If installed in time, on

BIG OR SMALL, WE SHIP IT ALL.

現

This Season, spend your time searching for those special Holiday gifts, and leave the packaging and shipping to Mail Boxes Etc. We'll make sure they get home for the holidays safely and on time!

EMBE MAIL BOXES ETC.

19645 Detroit Road Rocky River, Ohio (216) 333-4810 Longer December Hours Now Also Open at Westgate Mall (216) 333-2328

IT'S NOT WHAT WE DO. IT'S HOW WE DO IT.TM

AKRON AREA PROFESSIONALS

421 Graham Rd., Suite D, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221 PAM MICHELSON, PH.D. AND ASSOCIATES Individual, Couples, and Group Therapy

Lesbian Issues Group

Wed. evenings

$15.00 per session

Call to reserve a seal.

(216) 929-1326

Flexible hours Most insurance accepted

Reserve

Psychological Consultants

December 1 the sign will run all day long with the names of people taken by AIDS. Names will include members of both the Northeast Ohio area and the arts community.

Center for Contemporary Art

Videos. CCCA will observe the day with a week long (December 1-7) series of short video programs that will play on a continuous loop during regular hours. "AIDS Video" was organized by David Rubin, CCCA Chief Curator. Many topics will be covered by the nine films. Included are:

Fear of Disclosure, 1989, by Phil Zwickler and David Wojnarowicz, an exploration about telling a potential lover that one is HIV-positive.

Unforgiven Fire, 1993, by Steven Grandell and John R. Killacky, combines the reading of names and poetry and "emotionally charged imagery of a shaved man's body."

Kissing Doesn't Kill, 1990, consists of four short public service announcements designed by Gran Fury, an artists' collective of AIDS activists, each set to different music, but all with the message: "Kissing Doesn't Kill; Greed and Indifference Do."

A Selection of Public Service Announcements and TV Spots on AIDS, in English, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, French, German, Italian and Dutch. Dobama Theater

Literature distribution. Events were not finalized by press time, but theater officials say that Cleveland Heights artists and volunteers will help canvass the Coventry Road neighborhood during the December 1 lunch hours, distributing information and raising awareness.

Great Lakes Theater Festival

Revue. Earlier plans to solicit donations from theater-goers during the run of GLTF's production of A Christmas Carol were nixed by Society Bank, major underwriters of the production, who did not want the show used for fundraising purposes of any kind. Instead, the cast of A Christmas Carol will present a cabaret-styled revue, to be produced later in December, probably the week of December 13-18. Details have not been finalized, so check with the people at GLTF for more information.

Sharkey shares tidbits at Log Cabin meeting

by R. Woodward

Mary Anne Sharkey, the Plain Dealer's political editor, was the guest speaker at the November 10 meeting of the Log Cabin Club of Northeast Ohio.

She described an automobile trip through the Cincinnati area on November 4, during which she happened to tune in to radio station WLW in Cincinnati as just-elected Major Roxanne Qualls was being grilled by callers about her sexual orientation. Sharkey said that Qualls had been set up by Bill Cunningham, the talk show host. To make the embarrassment of Qualls more complete, Cunningham had invited representatives of the local media to tune in.

Sharkey said that Qualls managed to make a dignified impression, remaining calm while steadfastly refusing to answer questions about her sex life. A less dignified impression was made by Cunningham who amused himself by urging Qualls "to make a clean breast of it." After she left the program at 10 pm, he encouraged callers to keep talking about her, and amused himself further by reading news items with a falsetto voice. When someone complained about the falsetto voice, he tried to excuse himself by saying that his "eastern-yuppie" voice has being misconstrued.

Sharkey said that the Qualls episode had impressed upon her that gays had become the last group that it is respectable to scapegoat.

Sharkey described attending a meeting of the Christian Coalition in Lakewood. Greg Cunningham, candidate for council person-at-large in Lakewood, was the speaker at this particular meeting. Sharkey said that she was rather startled by what Cunningham said about David Harbarger, the mild-mannered, quietly conservative Republican mayor of Lakewood. Cunningham assured his listeners that Harbarger was the Anti-Christ.

Sharkey said that the main issue in confronting the Christian Coalition was not disagreeing with its members on particular issues, but the dishonesty with which they present themselves. They try to avoid all candid public debate by not telling voters what their real opinions and intentions are. Deliberate deception is in fact the stated policy to be found in literature which they communicate with one another.

The Christian Coalition, she said, is out to violate the traditional conservative stan-

dards of someone like Barry Goldwater who argues that governments should interfere in people's lives as little as possible.

As anti-gay demagoguery was being discussed, the name of Gary Suhadolnik was mentioned, and Sharkey said that she didn't care who quoted her as saying that he was "the lowest of the low."

State-wide politics were discussed, and Sharkey said that the state legislature was not congenial to anti-gay initiatives. Asked what Governor George Voinovich would do if confronted by gay rights bills from the legislature, she said that this was a hard question to answer. Although conservative on social issues, she said, Voinovich does not cultivate anti-gay views in himself or in his supporters. She said that she imagined that Voinovich's response to gay rights legislation would depend on how convincingly such legislation was presented as a matter of basic fairness.

She said that it was not unlikely that the 1996 Republican presidential candidate would be Jack Kemp, someone with a conservative ideology who seems like a "caring type." And George Voinovich would make a very congenial running mate for him—as well as being a political plus as a governor of a large Midwestern state who is personally disliked by hardly anyone.

Relationships between gays and the Plain Dealer were discussed, and Sharkey said that it would be useful to remember that the Plain Dealer is "not a monolith." No one writer or one editor, she said, is the Plain Dealer. The editorial staff consists of different individuals with different personalities and different opinions who are seldom in complete agreement with each other. And this is how most large newspapers are, she said.

The best thing to do, she said, is to keep in touch with specific individuals, giving them specific information about what is happening in the gay community. Newspapers depend on a non-stop flow of new data, and being a regular and reliable news source is one of the surest ways of being noticed and heeded.

The Log Cabin Club of Northeast Ohio usually meets on the second Wednesday of each month, at Snickers restaurant, at 6:30 pm. The meeting of December 8 has no formal agenda, and has been set aside for holiday socializing. Anyone interested is invited.