10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE DECEMBER 24, 1993

COMMUNITY FORUM

Continued frm Page 9

contact ALA/SRRT/GLTF, Office of Library Outreach Services, 50 E. Huron Street, Chicago, Illinois 60611.

Also this year's Gay-Lesbian Book Award went to, Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry by Essex Hemphill and Making History: the Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights, 1945-1990 by Eric Marcus. Susan Ballard

Overlooking bisexuals

To the Editors:

My name is Dave Cunningham. My partner, Diane Runner, and I picked up the Gay People's Chronicle because we are a bisexual couple and like to keep up with what is happening in the homosexual community. To us, a homosexual community is one which embraces gay, bisexual and lesbian lifestyles equally.

We fully understand that the paperis“An Independent Chronicle of the Ohio Lesbian and Gay Community." Indeed, you have proven this in a variety of articles. One is a review of the movie Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. This movie is based on a book of the same title which was also reviewed in Rolling Stone. Your review depicted the female characters as being lesbians, when, in fact, the female characters are bisexual, as mentioned in the Rolling Stone review. Additionally, a news brief in the November 26 issue mentioned a group of Rocky Mountain Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Veterans of America who were not allowed to carry a banner in the Denver parade. This group of people were mentioned in your article as "gay and lesbian veterans."

In fact, it is written in your Editorial section: "[the Chronicle will] provide lesbians and gay men with a forum to air grievances and express joys." It is our wonder if we are allowed to ask this to be printed in this section.

We are not implying that you are bisexual-unfriendly. What we are implying is that we are confused. You include a Bisexuals section in your Personals section, yet, all too often the word "bisexual" is omitted, for whatever reason, from other sections of the paper. We merely ask that you take a

do not know the man if your criticism is any indication. Here is a guy who can afford to do whatever he wants and he chooses to spend 5 and 6 days a week in a cramped office above the Community Center fighting for people living with AIDS. For no pay and very little thanks.

I have personally watched Joe literally give away the shirt off his back. He's the first person to stop and offer help to strangers. I've watched him stop and give assistance at accident scenes that most people couldn't even look at. I have never watched him walk by a homeless person without reaching in his pocket, he is generous to a fault. I have watched him give and give and give his time and money to this community. He may piss people off with his methods but he knows what he is doing, and you should be thankful that groups like ACT UP are there for all of us.

How would you like it if Joe and the rest of ACT UP Cleveland folds up its tents and heads to New York, or wherever? Where would AIDS activism be in Cleveland?

100 plus friends, but I don't dwell on it. I'm fighting for them and you. We in ACT UP only expect people to be public if they want to be, but we want fighters, even if they work behind the scenes. It's very sad that you think Joe embarrasses the quasi gay community in this town. I also think that you should count your blessings that the Chronicle would publish your gibberish. You should also know that Joe's money and time has kept us going so we can do what we do best "fight for our lives and yours." You should be so selfish.

As for the question of breast cancer, read the New York Times magazine, August, 1993, and you will see how ACT UP has effected the fight against breast cancer. Those women got their activist tactics from ACT UP, and they are proud of it. I ask what

people and is in there rubbing shoulders with its membership and volunteers. When will it die down?

When the right wingers can't stir up as much confusion because we will be a unified people. So, let's get to it! Enough rhetoric!

4. It's time for each of us to stop talking about it and do something. Let's build ourselves an open, responsible, warm and caring family of friends with our lips carrying gentle expressions of love and understanding, with eyes wide open to expose the destructive, divisive tactics of the right wing, and our hands busily united in community activities promoting peace. Enough said!

Fred Smith

are you doing about AIDS or are you just AIDS Day story buried

waiting for us to die so you can go on with your own agenda? What about AIDS? Marcos Rivero

This letter was sent to the Plain Dealer:

I would like to let you know how angry I am about your treatment of World AIDS

Who would be watching out for all of us? When will it die down? Day in your Dec. 1, 1993 issue.

Would we all be better off? In a city like this where all the best talent leaves as soon as possible we are lucky to have someone who has decided to stay in Cleveland and fight for ungrateful people like you. Only God knows why. Brian, I think you owe Joe an apology, he never attacked any one person and does not deserve to be personally attacked. I would also be somewhat nervous about attacking someone so personally. I suggest you keep one eye open for a rich psychotic fag with a shaved head and tat-

toos.

I am not an active member of ACT UP. I do not attend the weekly meetings, however I do attend their actions, and understand how vital this component is to the struggle against AIDS. You might consider educating yourself about what this group is and what they have accomplished in a very short time. I have lost more friends to AIDS than breast cancer, and if you feel you need to attack someone personally, write them at home, a public forum is no place for personal grievances.

James Patrick Campbell

Don't tell PWAS

stance and be consistent: are you or are you what to do

not a newspaper which supports a bisexual lifestyle?

Dave Cunningham Diane L. Runner

Yes we are, and we welcome input from the bisexual community. Thank you for pointing out the apparent inconsistencies in our style, and in the mission statement. It has only been a few years since lesbians and gays came to accept bisexuals as part of our community. At the time the issue was debated, we carried articles favoring a lesbiangay-bisexual community, but we may need to work on reflecting this in the paper.—Eds.

Personal attack on Carroccio is unfair

To the Editors:

I would like to set the record straight and respond to Brian Haluska's letter [Dec. 10] attacking ACT UP and Joe Carroccio. You obviously know what Joe looks like but you

FREE

LESBIAN MAIL ORDER BOOK CATALOG

• Over 1000 books, videos, CDs Fast, personal service Charge it on Visa/MC

CALL FOR YOUR FREE CATALOG TODAY

WOMANKIND BOOKS 1-800-648-5333

To the Editors:

I would like to answer Brian Haluska's letter [Dec. 10] and attack on ACT UP and one of our members, Joe Carroccio. First of all, yes, this town is full of gutless pansies and that is a fact, not criticism. Before I go on, I'd like to tell Mr. Haluska that if you want to attack Joe Carroccio personally you should have done that and leave ACT UP out of it. Now you have attacked me, a person with AIDS, and others in our organization.

ACT UP has a good number of PWAS and HIV-and as a person living with AIDS I expect you to fight for your life no matter how sick you are. One example of a person living with AIDS who has guts is a member who showed up to go to a demonstration in Washington with a 102 degree temperature, and pneumonia. Naturally we sent him to the hospital where he had to stay for a week or so, but he was there, ready to fight for his life. Unless you're dead, you shouldn't be silent. We don't think that being quiet is the solution, silence equals death, as this genocide continues. I am very angry that you would tell me or other PWAS what we should or should not do, we're not dead yet. I don't expect you to come to our meetings and I don't expect you to ACT UP. You are not brave enough (gutless pansy).

If there is so much going on in this city for AIDS support, why are people coming to ACT UP for food and money. Learn first and talk later. I say that you and others are not doing enough and yes, we do have to ram AIDS down people's throats. It's not psychotic, it's truth. There won't be a cure if we wait silently. I lost my lover too, and

To the Editors:

A good friend of mine, the other day, verbalized the sentiments which I have heard about the events in our community here lately, in different words, from others many lately...

"When will it die down?" Which has moved me to respond in this way...

When we all begin to realize the right wingers love and encourage destructive divisiveness that separatism, racism, homophobia and all the other isms and phobias cause!

1. We, as individuals and as a community need to wake up to the need to be open, not excluding anyone!

2. We need to realize the realities. Although our African American friends may have been verbal about their perceptions sooner in regards to the atmosphere, it wasn't only African American persons who did not feel welcome at the Center. I, as a white male and many of my friends (white and persons of color, male and female) felt the same way. I tried to figure out why, so I got involved, I volunteered. It's amazing how my eyes opened!

Being a volunteer for over two years, I came to realize that the work load that these dedicated staff members have is tremendous, even overwhelming at times! Which results in stress! Translation: cool receptions, cold shoulders and short fuses. What is the solution?

3. We need to recognize our own personal responsibilities.

It's my responsibility to be firm in my resolve to be open yet understanding in my relations with others, no matter what racial heritage we do or do not share, whether they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, friendly or ignorant right wingers who don't know what open, unconditional love and community are about. Poor people, they don't know what they are missing!

The Center is our Community Service Center, for many, one of the first links to self-acceptance! If we want a warmer, more welcoming Center, we need to support the Center better financially. (You can't buy a Cadillac or even a Mercury for the price of a Yugo!) Additional staff could then be hired to handle the increasing work load. You can also volunteer on the Administrative Assistants' A-Team, so the doors can be open more often and the staff could have more uninterrupted work time. There are ten four-hour scheduled shifts and one floating shift per week of which only four are filled. Volunteering at the Center is an enjoyable and rewarding experience and a great opportunity to meet people and make new friends. Oh, Yea!

And please, a short note to the board. I have volunteered for over two years, I feel I know one of you well, only two others by name. Where are you, and why don't I know you better? A good board represents the

Every other media in Cleveland treated this as an important issue; Channel 43 TV news used World AIDS Day as its lead story on the 10 O'Clock News. They devoted 25 minutes to this special cause.

I expected that the Plain Dealer would treat this cause with equal importance. I was wrong!

You obviously decided that other important issues deserved a higher priority. Space on your front page was at such a premium that you could not even print a referral to the excellent story you had buried on page B2. Let me list what you thought were more important issues than World AIDS Day that I consider unworthy of priority.

1. A referral to Dick Feagler's article on page A2.

2. A referral to the sports section about the Cav's winning (above the headline).

3. A referral to the food section about Christmas cookies (above the headline).

4. A series story #4 about unwed mothers. A rather shallow story that doesn't even ask the question. . . If this woman is in an "on again, off again" relationship with her boyfriend, are they both being tested for HIV when they are "on again,” before they have unprotected sex? ...

5. A short lead-in to a story about the Parma school strike.

6. A second story about what the Mayor is doing to the police force.

I think most of these items should have been either on an inside page or deleted completely. I looked through the rest of section A thinking that surely you would have something about World AIDS Day in that section. I was wrong!

I finally found an article and list of events on page B2. Let me list what you consider more important on page B1 that I don't consider very important at all.

1. A story about parka weather in Palm Springs.

2. A story about a woman who was in the March 22, 1992 USAir crash at LaGuardia Airport.

3. A large picture of a "Linemen's Training Camp.'

4. A story about a pregnant bank robber who fainted in court. Have she and her boyfriend been tested for HIV?

5. A referral to the future of "Baby Mary Beth."

I find your treatment of World AIDS Day both apathetic and offensive. I want you to know that I read that paper from my hospital bed at Fairview General Hospital where I was recovering from a severe respiratory problem that was a complication of my having AIDS. A week before, when I was admitted, almost no one, including myself, really thought I would be leaving the hospital alive.

I will probably not be able to read this letter even if it is printed, because I do not intend to read your newspaper ever again. You have just turned me into a new Sun newspaper reader.

John Palmstrom