10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
NOVEMBER 26, 1993
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ing voices to contend with, and certainly with only six members board meetings can be conducted more informally. But whether six people can perform all the tasks required of the Center board is quite problematic.
In closing, I want to say that I do not question the motives or the dedication of the Center's board. In spite of jokes about the board not doing any work, board members actually work quite hard. They are responsible not only for setting policy for the Center but also for raising the funds needed to keep it running. They must serve on committees, often as chairs. As recent events demonstrate, they are subject to strident attacks from disaffected members of the community. They can be sued for actions they do or do not take as board members, or for actions taken by Center staff and volunteers.
For these and other reasons, it is difficult to obtain and keep board members. With my resignation and the earlier resignation of Bob Reynolds, together with Nick Palumbo's required leaving of the board after an amazing nine and a half years of service, there is only one person remaining who has served more than one year.
The result is that there is no depth of institutional memory on the Center's board. Added to this is the fact that most of the white male members are new to the gaylesbian movement and therefore to the issues which have separated the men's and women's communities for so long in Cleveland, as well as in the whole nation. Struggling with these attacks on both a personal and an institutional level has been very difficult for all, and I respect the willingness of all the present trustees to seek what they believe is best for the Center.
I am also seeking what I believe to be best for the Center. I acknowledge that Peggi Cella had some reason for dissatisfaction,
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though I believe that differences in priorities rather than intention were at the root of the problems. Perhaps that is racism. Regardless, I apologize for any insensitivity I displayed.
There is no question in my mind that the Center board, staff and volunteers should have diversity training. This fracas started last spring because I had placed an item on the board agenda to set the time and place for a diversity workshop. I had forgotten to bring this item up at the preceding Executive Committee meeting, as I had promised Cella and Palumbo I would do, so I put it on the agenda, anticipating no problems. All the recent board members had indicated on their questionnaires that they would be willing to work on internalized homophobia, racism, sexism, and other -isms.
I was taken aback, therefore, when a member of the board questioned whether this should be a board priority. Cella's anger was justified, though I thought it counterproductive.
I think that the conflict has ballooned all out of proportion to the initial problems. I do not agree with the SOAR process because I find it potentially abusive, divisive, and counter-productive. I believe in diversity training-but not this diversity training.
The Center is on the brink of either collapse or immense growth. Its financial situation is highly problematic even under the best of circumstances, particularly with the hiring of several new staff members.
I will continue to be a supporting member of the Center and urge others to be also. But the issues facing the gay and lesbian community must be faced squarely and honestly. They must not be papered over. Only that unity gained by working through the issues will give the Center the solid foundation it requires.
SPEAK OUT
and execute mandatory pairing of males and females by the institution of marriage. Marriage was instituted to keep those out who are not in "the norm." What is the norm? Who is this elusive majority? White male, heterosexual, financially fit, and college educated. How many African Americans fit the norm? There is no such animal as normal. By whose standards?
It is therefore acceptable and respectable for heterosexuals to be affectionate in public, to talk about their sex lives, family, etc. But gays are labeled "deviant" if they exercise the same right.
No one knows or understands why one group of people is darker than the other, or why one group of people is homoerotic and the other is not, because just like religion,
Brains
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"This indicates that there are genetic and biological differences in the brain that correlate to sexual orientation," Reite said.
It is unclear at what point during development the difference becomes apparent, whether prenatally or, for example, during puberty, he said.
Reite said he hopes to continue the research in Denver to include lesbians in the future.
Hamer's research found a common genetic pattern for homosexuality in a part of the X chromosome in 33 of 40 gay brothers.
Three other experiments in recent years have found possible biological explanations for sexual orientation.
In these studies, a California researcher found in 1991 that a specific brain structure was smaller in gay males than in straight males.
Dolores Noll Former Board President
the boundaries of race and sexuality are based in myth. We only have theories and slanted opinions. If the pillars of society were scanned by a witch hunt to out and discard every gay person and gay achievement, the very foundation of civilization would crumble. How many great poets, artists, writers, lawmakers, hidden mystics, religious idols, ministers, entertainers, musicians, inventors, playwrights, actors, architects, scientists, presidents, rappers, ad infinitum, would be hanged? It's all the same bigotry!
The author is a member of Silent No More, and wrote this article in response to a June 10 article by Rev. C. Jay Matthews, "The Black Church position statement on homosexuality, that appeared in the Cleveland Call and Post.
""
Studies in 1991 and 1993 at the Boston University School of Medicine of separated identical twins found a commonality of sexual orientation that suggested a genetic origin of homosexuality in both men and ♡
women.
Airline
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JoAnn Loulan. They traveled on the same planes as Holless coincidentally.
But on the final leg of the return trip, flight attendants asked Holless to get off the plane. When he refused, the airline called police, who dragged him screaming down the aisle, the witnesses said.
In April, American Airlines angered gay groups when flight attendants on a Washington to San Francisco flight ordered the linen changed after marchers returning from the lesbian-gay March on Washington left the plane.