2 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE JUNE 24, 1994

Names Project Quilt has new panel intake

It's not too late to get a quilt panel for the Names Project into the show "What About AIDS?," the first national traveling exhibit on the science of AIDS and HIV. The show runs through August 31 at the Cleveland Health Museum.

The well-known Names Project AIDS Quilt began as a small way to memorialize those lost to AIDS. The Quilt has now grown to over 26,000 individual panels. Quilt display coordinator Dale Melsness says that only panels from northeast Ohio

WCF has gala benefit

The Women's Community Foundation will mount a production of Joyce Carol Oates' I Stand Before You Naked, at the Factory Theatre of Cleveland State University, July 8 at 8:00 pm. The play brings together ten women struggling to come to terms with the circumstances of their lives. Oates is one of this country's major writers, excelling in the novel, short story and essay forms.

The production stars Joanne Arledge, Juliette Johnson, Tandaylaya Hatten, Vir-

ginia Drda, Deborah Edwards, Mary Jane Nottage and Ksenia Roshchakovsky. Set design is by Eugene Hare.

A gourmet dessert reception will follow the show. Tickets are $25.00. All proceeds will benefit the Women's Community Foundation. The Foundation provides grants and support to programs that invest in the dreams of girls and the power of women through philanthropy, grantmaking and education. For tickets call the Women's Community Foundation at 216-229-5001.

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will be featured in the show. After the show all panels will then become part of the Names Project for future worldwide displays.

Melsness, who has been involved with the Names Project since 1987, says he's seen interest in the Quilt wax and wane over the years. "Interest has dropped off. Unless there's a display, the urgency is not there." But Melsness says the Quilt is still a powerful tool for bringing people together and sending out the message that real human lives have been lost. "I think the Quilt is still important. It's a way for families and friends to do some closure on grieving. Panels remember those we've lost, but they're a great educational tool too. They show us the little things in our lives that are important."

Melsness says his own life has been touched by the many stories each panel tells. "After all the bad stories you hear about AIDS-the people who've been cut off from their families or their lovers, or who lost their jobs and their homes-it's great to see the parents of people remembered in the panels, watching them come together around this little part of their sons and daughters. It's something good for a change."

Melsness will hold a free all-day quilt making workshop at the Cleveland Health Museum, at East 89th and Euclid, on July 12. He will offer assistance in getting started and brainstorm with panel makers for panel ideas. For more information about panel making contact Dale Melsness at 281-1610.

Issue 3 trial begins

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ticipation in the community," said lawyer Alphonse Gerhardstein.

But Michael Carvin, a lawyer for Equal Rights, Not Special Rights, the right-wing coalition that backed the amendment, said it does not subject gays to discrimination. Also opposing repeal of the amendment are city lawyers, who must by law defend voterapproved initiatives.

Carvin said the amendment promotes tolerance because it allows residents to decide for themselves whether gays and lesbians are entitled to the same rights as others. But Scott Greenwood, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said the amendment "renders the political rights of gay people useless within the city of Cincinnati."

He said if violence against gays were to increase, for example, the amendment would prevent gays from lobbying the City Council for a police task force on such crimes.

John Burlew, an attorney and a black civil rights activist, testified that television advertisements for the amendment were designed to make blacks think their civil rights would be taken away if they supported equal rights protection for gays.

Gerhardstein played two of the ads in court. They featured a black woman saying that blacks had fought for civil rights, “not

for someone's bed partner."

Cincinnati is no stranger to civil rights disputes. In 1990, the city brought obscenity charges against an art gallery and its director for a display of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs that included images of gay sex acts. The gallery and director were acquitted.

The same year, police arrested two men for holding hands in a parked car in a city park. Disorderly conduct charges were dropped.

In May of this year, the sheriff called for an obscenity indictment against a theater for a play involving nudity and gay themes. The prosecutor refused to press charges.

Also in May, Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott caused an uproar when she said "only fruits wear earrings." She later apologized.

The amendment, which passed 62 percent to 38 percent, repealed part of the city's human rights ordinance, which bans discrimination in jobs and housing on the basis of race, sex, national origin, physical disability or sexual orientation. The council approved the ordinance in 1992.

Spiegel has barred the amendment from taking effect pending the outcome of the trial.

The trial is expected to last about a week. About 12 witnesses were subpoenaed to testify.

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Fremont hospital must pay

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"I'm thrilled with the verdict," said Howe, who now lives in Deerfield Beach, Fla. "The case was about sending a message. The message is hospitals and doctors are not allowed to discriminate against people who are ill." Potter will rule on the allegation that the hospital and Hull violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, which took effect in

January 1992. The law prohibits hospitals and other public places from discriminating against disabled people, including people with AIDS.

The $512,000 would be distributed among the beneficiaries of Charon's will, including Howe, other friends, and family members, said Marc Elovitz, an ACLU attorney.

Committee releases final report

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tem that could be accessed by all AIDS service organizations and would streamline client intake while still maintaining client anonymity; and the establishment of a comprehensive guide to AIDS services. A key player for many of these recommendations will be the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland (the Health Issues Taskforce's new name).

The biggest questions that await answers come with the Committee's recommendations for leadership and policy-making. In addition to making condoms available to teens, the Committee endorses the use of a needle exchange program, a step that won't come easily.

Leadership on all AIDS/HIV issues is viewed by the report as the responsibility of the Cleveland Board of Public Health and

Welfare. The Committee also advises the formation of a professionally staffed advocacy-based coalition that would, says Stewart, "set the goals and needs of all these different organizations and their clients and would dictate to officials how to respond to need. This coalition would be out there fighting for AIDS, keeping it at the front of government attention."

Though the Committee recommends almost half a million dollars in City of Cleveland spending for community-based organizations, the short-fall in the 1993 city budget for AIDS spending points to a fracture between commitment and action.

The leadership void also leaves some, like AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland director Chrisse France, asking, "Who will this leadership fall on? That's my biggest question. Who is going to take charge?”✔