JUNE 10, 1994 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 3

Right says initiative on hold pending court outcome

by Rich Thomas

Two statewide, far right-wing organizations have circulated papers suggesting Ohio will not see anti-gay ballot initiatives in the immediate future.

Phil Burress, chairman of the Cincinnati anti-gay initiative group Equal Rights, Not Special Rights (ERNSR), recommended in a "confidential opinion paper" that the right wing shift from such ballot initiatives. Instead, he urged campaigning against gaysupportive candidates and running candidates for local offices to "win back" government to the pro-family stance.

State and local gay, lesbian and bisexual and supportive organizations question the reality of such a shift in the radical right's energy and stand ready for both arch-conservative options.

Burress specifically suggested a program called "Project Spotlight" to achieve the goal of taking control of city councils, school boards and other offices. He has engaged his companion group, the American Family Association (AFA) Political Action Committee (PAC) of Ohio, to conduct that media and propaganda campaign.

The non-profit ERNSR may not legally engage in political activities, which is one of the current challenges to Cincinnati's anti-gay Issue 3 passed by voters there last November with the organization's support.

Instead, a PAC such as AFA must be the one to administer political campaigns.

Project Spotlight's four-step plan is to "educate voters about the homosexual agenda," register right-wing voters, convince voters to sign a petition vowing not to vote for gay-supportive candidates, and distribute hit lists of such candidates to vote against.

The rhetoric in both Burress' opinion paper and the explanation of Project Spotlight written by AFA's director Scott Ross is both separatist and inflammatory. An ‘us vs. them' stance, an aggressive tone, a lumping of all homosexuals together and frequent expressions of partial truth characterize both.

"The tone, language and statements are consistent with what he (Burress) has said before," said Scott Greenwood of Ohioans

Against Discrimination (OAD), a statewide gay rights PAC.

OAD has warned that Burress' "confidential opinion paper" may only be a ploy to placate Ohioans and lull them away from preparations to fight an anti-gay ballot initiative.

As the leading mechanism to fight one, OAD would prefer no ballot initiative, Greenwood said, but does not want to bait the far right into one.

Phyllis Gorman, executive director of Columbus lesbian-gay rights organization Stonewall Union, said, "Not having an initiative now has to be good news-if you can believe it.'

Likewise, the Ohio Coalition for Equal Rights (OCER), a collective of gay-supportive organizations, is not confident an anti-gay ballot initiative in Ohio is off the radical right's agenda. Both OCER and OAD say the fight may only be delayed a year or two.

"It (Burress' paper) clearly stated they were not saying no to an initiative, only delaying until the court issues are resolved," OCER's Holly Featherstone said. "We can't forget about preparing for those initiatives."

The cost of current legal battles is one of the reasons Burress gave in his opinion paper for the suggested shift in tactics.

Featherstone noted, as did Gorman, not only gay, lesbian and bisexual candidates would be targeted by Project Spotlight. All progressive candidates are in danger from the right wing, they said.

Greenwood said he finds it startling the Burress' paper openly admitted efforts to polarize the African-American community, one of the many who suffer from neoconservatives in office.

"It's a sad day when a human rights candidate is a bad word," Stonewall Union President Karen Hamm said.

Stonewall Union is organizing for an initiative fight and will continue to do so, primarily through education and "getting out the truth about our community explicitly countering the propaganda pieces put out by the radical right," Gorman said.

"The efforts of the so-called God Squad

New Latino/Latina group forms in Cleveland

Cleveland now has a new Latino/Latina gay and lesbian support group. The group, which meets at the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center, is called ALA G.L. (Amiga/o Latinoamericana/o de Gays y Lesbianas).

In Latino/Latina culture, gays and lesbians have been connected with feathers and birds in general. In Spanish, ala means wing, as in that of a bird, so that is why it was adopted as part of the group name.

For now ALA G.L.'s primary goal is to create an information and support group in the Cleveland area, to discuss different social issues that concern us.

The group was started for Latino/Latina gays and lesbians primarily, but welcomes other gays and lesbians who have a legitimate interest in Latino/Latina culture.

The group is looking now to set up committees to plan events such as a Latino Dance Night and a picnic, open to all gays and lesbians. The first event will be a group presence at the Pride Festival. Other plans are for an information and educational pamphlet, and to provide more education around AIDS awareness as well as outreach to Latino/Latina youths.

ALA G.L. meets at the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center every first and third Saturday of the month, at 3:00 p.m. Let your friends know about the group, and feel free to contact Adan Chinchilla at 522-1999 about any concerns, ideas, donations or eventual sponsorship for the group. Hasta Luego.

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to bring its own members into elected positions is an on-going effort we've known about for some time," she said.

Stonewall Union's Fight the Right program includes a speakers bureau, gay and lesbian sensitivity training and monitoring of the opposition. In a manner similar to Project Spotlight's, the Stonewall Union's separate PAC seeks to register gay, lesbian and bisexual supportive yoters, educate the community about the issues and make endorsements of favorable candidates.

Being a "communication forum to urge others to act," Featherstone said of OCER, "we hope to identify [opposition] candidates so other organizations can act appropriately."

OCER's currently existing newsletter will likely grow to include a phone tree and electronic communication, she said.

Taking care of routine business and increasing productivity will help strengthen efforts, Gorman said. She is pleased with her organization's increases in membership, visibility and productivity, she said, and hopes for continued growth in those respects.

Volunteers for the opposition monitoring program and financial contributions are always welcome, she added.

Ross wrote that his Project Spotlight is unstoppable. However, civil rights attorney Jerry Bunge summarized, "All that is needed to stop it is to shine a spotlight on Operation Spotlight."

Emmanuel Church severs ties with MCC federation

by Charlton Harper

The on-again off-again relationship between Cleveland's Emmanuel Metropolitan Christian Church and the national parent church is off again, and this time it seems for good.

Members of the Cleveland congregation had voted in December of 1993 to sever ties with MCC and to re-form itself as an independent church under the name Emmanuel Christian Fellowship Church. Following several months of wrangling between Cleveland and Judy Dale, district coordinator of the Great Lakes Region of the United Federation of Metropolitan Community Churches, the district moved May 25 to seize all property and funds that, according to United Federation of MCC bylaws, were the property of the parent church.

At a meeting of the church board held later that same day, church members Donna, Myrna, Larry, Roger, Linda, Taylor, Sharay, Jan and Kitty (all of whom requested we not use their last names) voiced a concern that bureaucracy and an eye for the fiscal bottom line has led MCC away from the peopleoriented policies that founder Troy Perry brought to this refuge for lesbians, gay and transgendered people who had been locked out of traditional Christian churches. "This church is supposed to be Christian-centered, but it has become so political," said Myrna, Emmanuel board treasurer. "It's become more like a business."

Members say that in a full year without a pastor, little guidance has come from the district, but the obligation to send in their tithes to the parent church continues. "We are not a rich church," said Donna, a board member who is "still burning about the letter that says they're coming to take our stuff and it's signed, 'In Jesus' Name.' A lot of our people are giving up their lunch money, a dollar here, a dollar there. And it's going to this community. Now they [MCC] come in here and take our building fund, our food pantry, things that were donated to this church. It isn't right. We didn't give up our lunch money to buy ashtrays for MCC."

Great Lakes district coordinator Judy Dale says she's still baffled and hurt by the departure of Emmanuel from the MCC fold. "I still do not fully understand what has caused this to happen. They won't even talk to me," she said by telephone from Louisville. "We're not trying to be ugly about this. The written covenant says that if a church chooses to disassociate, then the money and property that belong to the church must revert to the successor organization. Whatever was in their possession the day they chose to withdraw becomes the property of the church."

Complaints about the lack of district guidance are mixed with a dislike for the regulations surrounding the qualifications and credentials necessary to become minister of an MCC church. Emmanuel says requirements are too rigid. Dale counters that the

congregation did not shoulder their responsibility in calling a minister.

Similar dissatisfaction with protocol and bylaws led to the severing of ties between Emmanuel and MCC in the late 1970s.

"They broke off from MCC without any dialog with me," says Dale. "I met with them at the past fall conference and I was coming up to Cleveland for workshops. I had given them a whole packet on pastoral search. I admit that there was a breakdown with the person who was supposed to help them with their search. That person has since gone on to another district. But a congregation has to call its minister. They were not doing their part."

Dale admits that though she tries to "make it to every church every year, sometimes I don't make it."

Cleveland is not the only area city to know mutiny within the MCC ranks. Rev. Joyce Spiegel of the Akron Metropolitan Christian Church has served as guest pastor with Emmanuel and is familiar with the situation in Cleveland. Though she was not pastor of her church at the time, she admits that similar concerns about structure and procedure lead to Akron's split with MCC 20 years ago. "I've read over church records and minutes of meetings and I'd say yes, there were similar complaints from the Akron church. Either you want to be under that umbrella or you say, 'Hey, we can do these things ourselves, on our own.' Our church has been happily independent for 16 years. We belong to the Advance Christian Ministries, which is a group of independent churches. It provides a bond that you can reach out to when you need help. But there is no tithe connection, no financial responsibility."

Spiegel worries that in the fallout from the split, the real issue will be lost: maintaining the congregation that has come to depend on this church and its special gayfriendly ministry. Dale agrees. "The most important thing is that those people still have a church. Would I like to see it an MCC? Sure. But I'd rather see them as independent than no church at all." Dale hesitates to guess about the future of an MCC presence in Cleveland. "Hopefully, somewhere in the future, yes. But we don't have any plans to do anything this year."

The Emmanuel board is resolved to continue despite the temporary setback. Already members are returning who had left over the years, dissatisfied with MCC. Though they are without pews, lectern, sound system, file cabinets, building fund, food pantry and "the last roll of toilet paper," ministers are still preaching Sundays at 10:45 am. and 6:30 pm. The board is reorganizing, by-laws are being written and the pastoral search continues. For Emmanuel it's business as usual.

"We're under new management," says Taylor. "Make that same proprietor, new management," corrects Myrna with a chuckle.