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GAYLE'S CHRONICLE

An Independent Chronicle of the Ohio Lesbian and Gay Community

Volume 9, Issue 16 February 11, 1994

Interrante to leave HIT

Joseph Interrante, executive director of the Health Issues Taskforce, has notified HIT's board that he will resign effective April 22.

Interrante, who has held the post since May 1989, will be moving to Nashville for personal reasons and has already secured a similar position there. He will become executive director of Nashville CARES (Coalition of AIDS Resources, Education and Services), a community based AIDS agency.

Before holding the executive director spot Joseph Interrante at HIT, Interrante was the agency's director of education beginning in June 1988, and a board member.

The HIT board has formed a search committee and is actively encouraging applicants from diverse communities to apply. Interrante is participating in the process in

order to ensure a smooth transition.

Executive director candidates must possess a variety of skills and will go through a multi-stage evaluation process. See the job posting on page 2 for more information.

Giving more than a Nickel's worth

by Charlton Harper

Super Bow! Sunday might have been a bust for Buffalo fans, but it was a blast for friends and fans of Helen Hervey gathered at the 5¢ Decision.

Hervey, a self-dubbed “hillbilly" who divides her time between Cleveland and the solitude of West Virginia, suffered injuries to her spine following a fall from the porch of her hilltop West Virginia log cabin, a home she had built herself. The porch was missing a railing, and Hervey fell twenty feet.

Once past the front door, it seemed like I had wandered onto the set of Cheers. With more than 100 women roaring their support for the Bills, (it was tough to find one Dallas

fan in the crowd,) and the Helen Hervey anecdotes flying faster than Jim Kelly could move the ball, the "Nickel" seemed like any neighborhood pub "where everybody knows your name." It was only the dreamy, awed silence for Tanya Tucker and Wynona Judd at half-time that gave it away.

While there are a million corny clichés about adversity and triumph and friends sticking by you in a time of trouble, you

would need all of them and a million more to describe the warm support of the crowd that turned out to help a friend.

Char Clemson has known Hervey since “way back when she played for a softball team I coached in the Cleveland Heights women's league." Clemson approached co-

Straight-only marriage bill passes in Hawaii

Honolulu The state House passed a bill February 4 clarifying that Hawaii's marriage law was not intended to license marriages between two people of the same sex. The measure now goes to the Senate where it is expected to pass. It's intended to outmaneuver a state Supreme Court ruling last year that the state cannot deny marriage licenses to couples of the same sex without showing a compelling reason for discriminating on the basis of gender, said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Terrance Tom.

Civil rights groups and members of Hawaii's gay and lesbian community turned out in force to oppose the bill and a companion measure to amend the state Constitution for the same purpose. Representatives of a wide variety of churches and religious organizations supported them.

The committee deferred action on the proposed constitutional amendment.

Tom, who introduced the measure, argued that "this is not a benefits or civil rights bill." Continued on Page 4

Civil rights bill is in the hands of Council now

by Charlton Harper

Local lesbians and gays who have long dreamed of basic anti-discrimination protection in the city of Cleveland will wait another 8 to 10 weeks before that dream can be realized.

At least that's the "fair estimate” given by Council President Jay Westbrook.

Mayor Michael White had announced in his January 7 State of the City address that his omnibus legislative package would include such protection, saying discrimination based on sexual orientation was "wrong in Cleveland, it's wrong in Ohio and it's wrong in America." Now that legislative package must first work its way through the Legislation committee, (which addresses broad changes in statutes and laws), and

Helen Hervey

owners Connie Takach and Patti Harris with the idea of using the Super Bowl Sunday at the 5¢ Decision as a backdrop for raising money to help with Hervey's mounting

INSIDE

Continued on Page 2

then on to the Finance committee before final Council approval. Changes to that package can be made at any stage in committee.

Westbrook says he has heard no negative response to the legislation, though he notes, "The only thing I expect in this job is the unexpected. Though I certainly don't want to invite a negative response." While Westbrook's support for sexual orientation protection is well known, he would not attempt a guess at Council response. "I'm in full support, and most of the Council agree that there is a need for protection. But I don't want to speak for the Council. I always want the Council to make its own decisions."

Sexual orientation protection is not the only matter of interest to the gay community that Council and Mayor White must face. The recent protest by members of ACT UP at City Hall (where three members handcuffed themselves to the front doors in protest of Cleveland's spending on AIDS), underscores the urgency for more spending and action by city officials.

ACT UP's actions were motivated by two concerns: a proposed 1994 city budget that did not address more AIDS spending, and a deadline of January 31 for enactment of the budget. Westbrook says such fears should not be an issue yet. "The budget follows a two-step process. We are required by city charter to have the budget enacted by April 1. But the mayor must submit the budget by February 1, which starts the process. I think what was initially motivating the cause for alarm was the submission of the budget. But the process is much more fluid and open. It's only the beginning, not the end."

In order for the Council to make an educated proposal for more spending, they must first hear the findings from the Citizen's Committee on AIDS (CCA), whose 18Continued on Page 3

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