10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

MARCH 11, 1994

EDITORIAL

Honor your mother

Many of us were at last year's historic March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation. Many more wished they could have been there. It was celebration, it was community, it was purpose. The March presented a unified front and the largest assembly ever of gay men, lesbians and bisexuals seeking our civil rights as individuals and citizens. Our message is now beginning to be heard and respected nationwide.

This year, there is an event of even greater importance: Stonewall 25. It is disheartening that so few in our community are planning to go to New York City for the June 26 march and other festivities. The reading we're getting is that not many understand what is going on, or there is no real interest.

Some are even resentful that the International March on the United Nations to Affirm the Human Rights of Lesbian and Gay People is happening in late June, because it is interfering with local Gay Pride activities. That sort of reasoning is distorted and a great insult to our history.

To put it simply, there would be no tradition of June as Gay Pride Month if the Stonewall Riots-the birth of the modern gay movement had not happened 25 years ago. Honor your mother.

The planners of Stonewall 25 have chosen to do more than simply have an expanded New York City Gay Pride parade (which is overwhelming in any year). They are using the occasion to make a strong stand an international stand-to put the

rights of sexual minorities on the world stage. Stonewall 25 is designed to be a more political, more serious march than the festive stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue last April. The goals for the next quarter-century have been set down (see the list on the preceding page). Maybe that's frightening people away. But do you really believe that more than one million queers will assemble in New York City without also having a good time?

Will you be one of them?

It's time to rise above the posturing, the politicizing, the infighting. Make your plans, your reservations, your donations! Maybe go to New York a week earlier and take in some of Gay Games IV. But on Sunday, June 26, your mother is expecting you.

COMMUNITY FORUM

The following letter was written by the newly-elected president of the Log Cabin Club, Donald Kendziora, on February 2, the day he died. It was recently forwarded to the Chronicle by his lover, partner and companion Ray W. Clarke, who wrote, “I realized how important it must have been that day, and I would appreciate it if you would accept it as a Letter to the Editor, even though he is no longer here.”

Log Cabin's job is to

stood up to Pat Buchanan at the GOP convention, has several of our community in important posts in his administration. Unlike many other politicians I could name, Weld does not believe in "tokenism."

Our objective within the Republican Party is to sensitize and educate the Republican Party to the talents and contributions that our community has made, is making and will continue to make as citizens of our communities, states and country. If we do not do this, then our cause will never succeed. We can not write off or ignore a major

sensitize Republicans portion of the citizens of our nation. Alco-

To the Editors:

I cannot let the letter of Eric Resnick [Jan. 28], which attacked the Log Cabin Club and one of our members, Jack Power, stand uncorrected.

I respect any gay, lesbian or bisexual who might disagree with our club and its stated principles and objectives if that opposition is based on fact and supported with logic. Unfortunately, Eric Resnick has neither the facts nor logic on his side.

His assertion that the Republican Party is the enemy of gays, lesbians and bisexuals is not correct and his undeclared conclusion that the Democrat Party is the friend of gays, lesbians and bisexuals is also incorrect.

In the 1992 presidential campaign our community raised millions of dollars for the campaign of Bill Clinton. Yes, Eric, much of that money came from gay Republicans. We were repaid by the Clinton promise to lift the gay ban in the military. We have a Democrat president, a Democrat majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Eric, tell me what Sam Nunn did to the Clinton plan. I seem to recall that Sam Nunn is a Democrat. Is he a friend of ours? I would rather have an enemy that I can see rather than one who stabs me in the back in the dark. Right here in Ohio, we can vote for Joel Hyatt for U.S. Senate. You know Joel, he was the subject of the movie Philadelphia. Now that he is a candidate his press releases state that he has apologized for his action and has made a few contributions to some AIDS charities. I think that Joel Hyatt has a character flaw that makes him unfit to succeed his father-in-law Howard Metzenbaum, who has been a true friend of ours. Howard Metzenbaum has been an eloquent voice on our behalf and more often than not has stood alone in our defense.

Yes, I am embarrassed by some Republicans and I detest Pat Buchanan. However, I am pleased that everywhere Pat Buchanan was on the ballot he got less than 5 percent of the Republican vote. I wonder how many votes he would have gotten if he ran as a Democrat. He might have carried Texas, Georgia, Indiana, and many other “family value" Democrat states.

At the same time I am very proud of a number of Republicans. William Weld, the Republican governor of Massachusetts, who

hol talk in a gay bar is no substitute for showing our friends, neighbors, co-workers and others with whom we come in contact that our community is responsible and worthy of the respect of all. We must show all that the stereotype promoted by the religious bigots (who hunger only for money and power) is false.

We will also fail if we start to battle them by dividing and destroying ourselves. Eric, please be my guest at a Log Cabin meeting to really learn who we are and what we are about.

Donald Kendziora, President Log Cabin Club of Northeast Ohio

It's a racist, sexist, homophobic world

To the Editors:

Barbara Smith's essay on healing the rift between gays and blacks [Feb. 11] was one

I read with a blend of keen interest and a sense of futility. From personal experience I'm convinced that the issue of homophobia is not viewed as a critical problem among most African Americans.

The racism that is directed towards blacks by white heterosexuals and homosexuals is of far greater concern than the anti-gay sentiments of blacks towards homosexuals. As a black heterosexual journalist I have written about black homophobia, gay figures in black history, reviewed the video Gay Rights-Special Rights, profiled lesbians and gays that have come out, interviewed gay activist and columnist Victoria Brownworth, and explored the androgynous appeal of The Crying Game's Jaye Davidson. In one year I've written extensively in the Columbus alternative papers, Columbus Alive, The Free Press and Columbus Guardian about gay issues and life from a heterosexual's perspective.

The result has been largely disappointing. I've made some friends among gays and none at all among blacks. "Why do you write about fags and dykes all the time?" "Are you gay?" "There's no such thing as black homophobia, but if there was it wouldn't be as bad as white homophobia." Those are some of the questions that I'm asked.

Who cares? Shut up. Go away.

Due to the relative invisibility of black lesbians and gays in both communities, there's a serious misconception that the problem of homosexuals is confined to only white gays. At the risk of whining, there are times that trying to convince my black sisters and brothers that homophobia is real and that we don't have a special waiver from experiencing and practicing it, is like trying to empty the ocean with a spoon.

Certainly the Religious Right has seized upon the issue and used it to their advantage. Gay Rights—Special Rights is quite effective in targeting African Americans with its virulent hatred. If this video were entitled Black Rights-Special Rights, Jesse Jackson and the NAACP would scream loud and long. But in personal belief and popular culture homophobia is the odd man out in arousing the ire of blacks.

There's a mistaken belief among progressives and liberals that there is this knot that binds gays, blacks, lesbians, Hispanics, Jews, Native Americans, Asians and others in a Grand Coalition of Oppressed Peoples. 'Fraid not. A black man without a job in Newark could care less about a Hispanic group's fight against "English-First" initiatives in California. A Mexican worker making pesos from a relocated American manufacturer doesn't have the time to worry about a crackhead shooting a Korean storeowner. A Native American with a drinking problem dying of cirrhosis of the liver isn't sweating about a refuge camp for lesbians in Mississippi under siege by small town rednecks. There is no tacit understanding among groups in this country or the world.

Gays and blacks are divided by misconceptions, prejudice and some severe differences in aims and goals. Whether or not the charge that gays, feminists and others have somehow misappropriated the tactics and spirit of the civil rights era is frankly irrelevant. It's of greater concern that gay activists have done such a poor job of developing national spokespersons and developing a clear message to Americans as to what their aspirations and aims are.

Who is the Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Huey Newton, Malcolm X, Angela Davis or Thurgood Marshall of gay life? Perhaps trying to draw such a comparison with gay leadership heros is spurious, but my point is that those individuals I listed are figures that invoke respect and admiration from African Americans. Where is the gay equivalent for gay Americans and why aren't those names part of the popular lexicon?

Smith's points about gay racism is a matter worth considering. I have not found gay whites to be any more or less racist than their heterosexual cousins. Indeed, there's a certain amount of elitist thinking among some gays that the bias they face due to their sexual orientation makes them more attuned

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Volume 9, Issue 18

Publisher: Martha J. Pontoni Business Manager: Patti Harris Managing Editor: Kevin Beaney Production Manager: Brian De Witt Reporters & Writers: Kevin Beaney, Doreen

Cudnik, Barry Daniels, John Graves, Charlton Harper, Joseph Morris, Martha J. Pontoni, Mike Radice, Timothy Robson

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to the bias blacks face due to skin color.

Anti-gay sentiments didn't begin among blacks and it won't stop there either. James Baldwin overtly explored both homosexuality and blackness, but he seemed most comfortable championing civil rights instead of gay liberation. The late poet Audre Lorde was passionate in her description of living in the two worlds and Essex Hemphill is another powerful voice. However the voices of African Americans have remained mute in the debate on the relationships between blacks and gays. Isn't it time they joined the debate?

It's a racist, sexist, homophobic world and it only serves those who benefit from the squabbling and back-biting that occurs between gays and blacks. I haven't been as successful as I hoped in getting this point across to my brothers and sisters. The fight isn't over. There's no way I'm going to let the right-wing turn blacks into the foot soldiers of their holy war without making it clear that these people are no friends of ours. I struggle every day to overcome the decades of homophobic and sexist indoctrination that have shaped my life. It's like being a recovering alcoholic; you're never cured, but you just stop engaging in the negative behavior. What I try to do through writing, raising my children and interacting with other people is to try not to place judgmental attitudes and false moral superiority upon the lives of people I don't even know.

This isn't about some misguided crusading spirit or whether the cause of lesbians and gays is one that will ever become a critical issue for black people. This is about trying to do the right thing.

Jeff Winbush Continued on facing page