GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE JUNE 10, 1994

EDITORIAL

It's time to get to know each other

On June 11, downtown Cleveland will play host simultaneously to large gatherings of both Christians and queers.

The Christians are coming to see their evangelist, Billy Graham, and the queers are coming to celebrate one more year of survival as gay, lesbian, and bisexual people against the onslaught of the Radical Right, many of whom, Bible in hand, are bent on the genocide of the lesbian and gay culture.

But not all Christians are part of the Radical Right, hell-bent to eradicate the "homosexual plague," and not all lesbians and gay men distrust or are offended by the Christians. In fact, many gays and lesbians are Christians, and vice-versa. There is a middle ground. And a middle ground is what we must find if we are to avoid an allout holy war between these two cultures.

It has long been the stance of the lesbian and gay community that if people just knew us on a one-to-one basis then all prejudice would stop. After all, how can you blindly hate someone you know well? June 11 is a good opportunity to expand on that theory, and see each other as individuals, so hatred on both sides can be eradicated.

This does not mean that lesbians and gay men should just give up and acquiesce to the Christians, sort of a global "don't ask, don't tell." As people, we have rights and we demand to be respected as the people we are, not the people they want us to be. On the other hand, we cannot force the Christians to be people they are not. Each of us needs to live with respect of each other, without being abused or compromised.

Therein lies the middle ground that we must achieve.

It is probably safe to assume that neither side in this "battle" is too keen on giving any ground. Lesbians and gays have had too much abuse to give any ground. The Christians are being fed so much disinformation

by some of their leaders that they don't know that there is any ground to give.

But give both sides must do, before this fight-like the abortion battle-becomes so institutionalized that it won't ever end. Everyone must be committed to a middle ground, or that ground will disappear for-

ever.

How do we want this situation to continue? Do we want to live with threats of physical, mental and spiritual violence for the rest of our lives?

As people, we have rights and we demand to be respected as the people we are, not the people they want us to be.

Most Americans believe in the right to privacy and the exclusion of the government and the church from people's private lives. It is also generally believed that Christians follow the ethic of Jesus Christ, who said to love everyone and treat others as you would yourself. These two premises being true, why can't the Christian community and the lesbian and gay community live side by side in peace, understanding, and tolerance? Come together through the people who embrace both communities to find the common ground, and work toward what is good and right?

Is this really too much to ask? Is it okay to ask those who believe the Bible condemns homosexuality to leave the lesbian and gay community alone? Is okay to ask the more angry members of the lesbian and gay community to work toward tolerance of the fundamentalists?

SPEAK OUT

If you are a member of either or both of these communities and you agree with this position, then the first step is up to you. If you are a Christian and think you don't know any gay people and really believe those awful videos you are being shown, then come down to Public Square on the 11th. Don't come to preach or to sway, but to learn and to understand. Understand that lesbians and gay people are very much like yourself. Learn to treat them as you yourself would like to be treated. Understand that many of your ministers are using your lack of knowledge to raise money for something that can never happen. Lesbians and gay men cannot be "cured," just like you cannot be "cured." Come and enjoy the music, the food, and the celebrating. Join in with people who celebrate their very existence over tremendous odds.

And come to teach. Teach the lesbians and gay men there that Christians can be tolerant and accepting. Teach the love you learn from your God, not by force, but by good example. Teach your children that not everyone is like them, but all are created by God in God's image, and are loved.

If you are a lesbian or gay man who has had it up to here with the Radical Right and believe that anyone who professes a belief in Christianity hates you, then you need to learn too. You need to leave space in your heart for those Christians who believe deeply in their faith but also respect your right to privacy. They do exist. This can be done without subjecting yourself to abuse, such as "witnessing" or endless insulting questions about your life. It really is possible, and it really is necessary.

As a community we cannot afford a holy war, and we must do everything we can to stop it now, without giving up our sense of self, and without going back into the closet.

Advice in the fight against the right

by Kimberly Taylor

A great deal of discussion and work has been going on within Cleveland's lesbiangay community around issues of race. A great deal more will need to be said and done now that it seems certain the radical right will be pursuing its agenda in Ohio, either by fielding anti-gay candidates, or by the initiative originally planned.

We will need to listen to each other, and recognize that each of us have different perspectives. Following is a perspective I hope will be helpful.

During the 1800s a young woman of about 14 was given as a servant to newlyweds traveling from Ireland to America. Her name is remembered as Molly, but all young women of her class were called Molly then. This particular Molly had heard she was going to the land of freedom and opportunity, so when the boat docked, she walked off and kept right on walking. Away from servitude and into her future.

Sometime in the mid-1800s, Molly had a daughter named Carolyn Stills. Carolyn married a black man and moved to Yorkstown, Pa. She had a daughter by him named Mary and helped to raise his son by a previous marriage.

She raised these two children alone. Perhaps her husband worked on the railroad, or it may have been that he was killed. Little was known about him. In order to keep her family together she worked six days a week, in either a factory or cleaning a homesome job that required her to live where she worked while her children were kept by an Amish farm couple.

On the farm, the boy was taught to read and write and "figure". The girl was taught to clean house and memorize passages of the Bible. So, on the one day a week she had to spend with her children, Carolyn taught her daughter Mary to read.

Mary married a man who took her to Allegheny County. They had four children. One daughter was named Mame. Mame had a daughter named Margaret, who is the mother of Jacqueline who is the mother of Kimberly, who is relating this story to you as it was related to her by Margaret.

I had occasion to draw on these stories

incontrovertible proof that these stories belong to black history is my black face. When black and white mix what you get is me, or some variation thereof various shades of brown skin, various degrees of curly hair.

The vote of brown-skinned, curly haired people, and all people of color, is crucial to turning back the incursion of right-wing

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Volume 9, Issue 24

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

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

Radice, Timothy Robson

Akron-Canton: Paul Schwitzgebel,

Jerry Kaiser

Art Director: Christine Hahn Sales Manager: Patti Harris Account Executives: David A. Ebbert, Doreen Cudnik

The Gay People's Chronicle is dedicated to providing a space in the Ohio lesbian-gay community for all of its members to communicate and be involved with each other. This means that every Chronicle, to the best of its ability, will be equally dedicated to both men's and women's issues, as well as issues that affect the entire community. This balance will provide lesbians and gay men with a forum to air grievances and express joys.

The Gay People's Chronicle is copyrighted under federal law. Any reproduction of its contents is prohibited unless permission is obtained.

Any material submitted for publication will be subject to editing. The Chronicle cannot guarantee return of any such materials unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

The Gay People's Chronicle is not responsible for claims made by advertisers. We reserve the right to reject advertising which is unsuitable for our publication.

P.O. Box 5426

Cleveland, Ohio 44101 216-621-5280 Fax 216-621-5282

Next Chronicle comes out

Friday, June 24

The Gay People's Chronicle is published every other Friday, except the first January issue. Display ad and article deadlines are 10 to 12 days before an issue comes out. Call for specific dates and times. Calendar, Classified, and Personal deadlines are earlier, and are shown in each of those sections. Advertisers:

Call 216-621-5280 (fax 216-621-5282) for rate sheets and information. Or, write the Chronicle at P.O. Box 5426, Cleveland, Ohio 44101.

Addendum

In his May 20 review "The Grid: Clean bathrooms and a whole lot more," Chronicle writer Tony Murdoch failed

to mention the work of Ken Szoka, the real mastermind behind many of the space-age effects enjoyed by Grid patrons. Our apologies.

extremists in Ohio. And though the African American community may seem like a natural ally in any fight against discrimination, our patience has been sorely tested as we wait for these political alliances to pay off.

There has been some concern over the decidedly unchristian remarks of a few black Continued on page 12

What legal protections do

again because of the training I went through Pride marchers have?

in May to fight the initiative. Knowing where I come from helps me to go on, and we are heading for difficult times. And we must start by acknowledging and overcoming difficulties in our own communities if we are to defeat this hatred.

Illustrative of one challenge we will face is the response I get when telling Molly's or Carolyn's story. When I tell it to black women, they nod. We all have these stories. When I tell it to white women, nearly all believe it is about the "white side" of my family. I have always been troubled by this response, but until lately I was not able to articulate why.

It is natural that people relate what they see and hear to themselves, but I have a need for my history, my stories to be understood as mine. It is important to me that these stories are understood as uniquely a part of Black American history. Whether the people in the stories are white or not, they are about what happened in black lives. And the most

by Raymond Vasvari, Jr.

If you were planning to march in the Pride Parade on June 10 but were concerned about how your employer might react, you might want to consider what protection the law affords to gay men and lesbians with respect to free expression and job discrimination.

Most Americans take comfort in the reassuring generalization that this is a free country. Those who have personally confronted discrimination and injustice know that freedom can sometimes be strictly circumscribed. Of course, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution absolutely protects your freedom to march and prohibits the police or anyone else from interfering with the parade, so long as it remains peaceful and orderly. Indeed, the law imposes a positive obligation upon the

police to ensure that the parade itself is not disrupted. But the First Amendment does nothing to protect those in the private sector workforce from the hostility of employers and coworkers who may disagree with your lifestyle.

Job discrimination is prohibited by federal law. Discrimination, however, is narrowly defined in the law as including bias against certain protected groups: racially and ethnic minorities, women, Native Americans, the disabled, and the elderly, among others. Nothing prohibits a private employer from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. In Ohio, anyone not protected by anti-discrimination laws is subject to the doctrine of employment at will. In a nutshell, you can be fired for any reason, or for no reason at all, but not for an illegal reason. These are hard realities, and

Continued on page 12