GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

JANUARY 28, 1994

EDITORIAL

In the best interest

For those of us who identified as other than heterosexual early on in our lives, the memory of being labeled as such is still easily recalled. The fear of being picked out of the crowd and harassed or ridiculed while sitting on a school bus or in a gymnasium may never be erased. How many times have we been the target of ignorance and bigotry in public places, and no one spoke out on our behalf. How many times have we seen the same violence turned on people of color, or women, or the disabled and we had not the courage to intervene.

All too familiar by now to the gay, lesbian and bisexual community should be the writing of Pastor Martin Niemoller that speaks to the terror of Nazi Germany: "First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew... Then they came for me-and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Could it be that the pain of our own

experiences coupled with the threat of history repeating itself in Cincinnati has motivated us to a different course of action. The recent formation of the Ohio Civil Rights Coalition suggests that a significant group of minorities in Ohio are ready and willing to work together in consideration of the best interests of all its members. The formation of this network indicates that many civil rights and advocacy groups in Ohio are willing to broaden their view beyond their own particular special interest. They have taken the stand that if any person or minority group is treated unfairly that the American dream of justice and equality is not a reality for anyone.

Collectively the coalition represents tens of thousands of Ohioans and might possibly become the voice of the majority. Gays and lesbians should be overjoyed that such organizations as Ohio NOW, the Ohio Council of Churches and the NAACP are dedicated to ensuring that our community has equal access to housing, employment and insurance.

In turn, we must understand that a partnership requires participation on our part also. No longer can we be silent to the racism that exists within the criminal justice system. No longer can we be complacent to the economic disparity that exists between white males and women or people of color. No longer can we pretend that the issue of affordable housing and homelessness does not exist. No longer can we assume that equal access is available to people with disabilities.

Make no mistake, the unified voices that are represented by the Coalition could be significant to our progress in securing equality under legislation. Therefore, it should be a priority of the gay, lesbian and bisexual community to vote for legislation and to elect legislators that have the best interest of all minorities in mind.

Experience and history have taught us that a self-centered agenda is doomed to failure. The Ohio Civil Rights Coalition has learned an important history lesson.

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David, your research is important but

Dialogue, differences, "the record" is seldom an accurate repre-

and courage

To the Editors:

Dialogue is not divisive, admitting you have made a mistake is not shameful, reality consists of more than the written record, and choosing to leave is no solution: A response to letters in the Gay People's Chronicle from Jim Flynn, Nina W., David Debick, and Tim Leiden.

Jim, a strong lesbian/gay/bisexual community is not created by making all its members think alike and does not require that we all like each other. That would not be community-it would be demagoguery. Even the closest family has disagreements and estrangements from each other. We who have nothing in common except our sexual orientation can hardly be expected to all think alike and always be happy with each other.

Building our community requires us to stop pretending there are no differences. We need open, honest dialogue about the differences that do exist-differences influenced by our ages, our family backgrounds, our race, class, and sex-or we will never learn what we need to do to bridge those differences. We need to stop taking every issue and statement made by other gays and lesbians as a personal assault. Joe Carroccio's way of attempting to change how the world responds to the AIDS crisis may not be the way I choose to fight the battle, but Joe is struggling for his life and the lives of all those threatened with AIDS. He has no time for people who are not as committed and angry as he is. He speaks sometimes in an angry fashion out of and frustration. His "gutless this urgency pansy" remark was a statement about Joe and how the world appears to him to not be doing enough. We need to support his sense of urgency, not waste time being defensive.

To have a strong community, we must have people who believe in something and who have the courage to speak out about what they believe. It requires people who respect each other as individuals and who can care for each other as individuals even when their philosophies differ.

Nina, building community also requires people who can admit when they have made a mistake or don't know what to do. There is no shame in saying “I didn't know,” or “I didn't understand." The shame is in pretending that you did know or that there was no mistake made.

sentation of truth, any more than the law always delivers justice. Peggy Cella's life is one that has consisted of constant small and large assaults, slights, and "not enoughs" because she is a person of color. She knows racism when she feels it. She has come to discover and understand racism in our society and how racism has trained her to devalue her own truths-just as so many gays, lesbians, and bisexuals have been trained to feel they are not as good as heterosexuals— and she has decided not to take it any more, just as the gays and lesbians of Stonewall finally decided they had had enough. Your indictment of the people of color community as suffering from "chronic apathy, lack of effective leadership, underdeveloped mobilization skills, rampant homophobia, and a failure to identify its own needs and to formulate and present practical measures to meet those needs" are accusations that can be leveled against the entire gay/lesbian/ bisexual community. These are characteristics of an oppressed people, of a people who feel powerless to change the world around them. It is hardly surprising that a people who suffer the double oppression of racism

and homophobia should also exhibit the

characteristics of the oppressed.

And it is surely evident that whatever

progress the white gay/lesbian/bisexual community has made on homophobia has failed to reach out to our people of color communities, else you would not be so unaware of the leadership and mobilization skills that do exist within these communities. Just because members of the people of color gay/lesbian communities are not active in the Center does not mean that these communities have not developed their own techniques and strategies for meeting and supporting each other.

And, Tim, building a strong gay/lesbian/ bisexual community requires people with the courage to stick it out-people who have faith that we, as a gay/lesbian/bisexual community, will be stronger if we can continue to work together. If our faith in our community is so fragile that each of us picks up our marbles and goes home every time the game doesn't go our way, then we will remain weak, a group of petty people, selfabsorbed in our own little grievances, able to do nothing when our children are torn from our homes, our friends abandoned by their families or employers, our traditions disparaged, our youth harassed in school, our work lives destroyed, and our lovers left to die. You do not have to live without the Center-you choose to live without the

Center, and you and the Center are weaker for it.

We must, as a community, learn to give up our self-hatred so that we can stop projecting it on to each other. We must learn to cherish and care for ourselves and each other, to understand that each of us speaks more often from our grief than our joy, more often from our isolation than our strong sense of family and community. We must learn to understand that our anger is an expression of our attempts to value ourselves and support that need to be valued rather than get lost in angry words.

Yes, let's fight, let's believe in something strongly enough to stand up for it. But let's fight about the issues, not each other's worth or each other's reality. And let's end those fights understanding each other's needs better, more strongly committed to our relationship, and loving each other more deeply because we have shared the risk of being who we are with each other. Then we will be a community.

Judy Rainbrook, Executive Director Lesbian-Gay Community Service Center of Greater Cleveland

"My Friends' owner welcomes gays

To the Editors:

I was disheartened to hear about Joe

Dubrovich's letter on December 24, 1993

and to read his complaint about My Friend's

Deli. I have owned and managed restaurants in this area for twelve years now. The strength of these restaurants has been the service we have given to all of our customers. I have always asked that our servers treat our customers with respect and give them excellent service as well. We have extended this treatment to all of our customers, including people of the gay community, and to say that My Friend's is "not gay friendly" is unfair. However, there are times when my employees may not treat people the way that I would like them to. I acknowledge that this may have happened to Joe Dubrovich and his party, and for that I apologize to him.

I would like to use this opportunity to thank the people of the gay community for their support all these years. We at My Friend's remain committed to serving the community with good food and excellent service.

I would also like to welcome any of our customers with any complaints or comments to contact me personally so that we at

Next Chronicle comes out Friday, February 11

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Correction

In the January 14 obituary of Michael Callen, the name of ACT UP Cleveland's Marcos Rivero, who provided a tribute, was misspelled.

My Friend's can correct any problem that exists and so that we may continue to serve our customers in the best possible way. George Voutsiotis

Owner

The Center and Stonewall 25 finances

An open letter to the Cleveland LesbianGay Community Service Center and its members:

Stonewall 25 Ohio began to organize in late October out of my home. It was suggested to me to seek assistance from our Community Service Center. This is when I approached Director Judith Rainbrook for assistance; she stated she would.

My disappointment arose when I returned to the Center on December 20, 1993. For a first-time seeker for services traveling from the East Side to the West Side the aftertaste in my mouth is merely bitter-sweet.

At the Ohio Statewide Organizing Assembly a brief confrontation arose with Peggy Cella and her supporters. They left and the proceedings continued. Cella is a board member of the Center. Then, as of December 20, the director appeared to be

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