GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE JUNE 24, 1994

EDITORIAL

Let's get the signals right

The call to arms has been sounded and our community has responded. Our seasoned leaders, as well as the inexperienced, have organized in ways never before seen in the Ohio lesbian and gay community. From Stonewall Union and its recently awarded grant from the Colorado-based Needmor Fund (to monitor and counter Radical Right activities in Ohio), to the Ohio Coalition for Equal Rights (OCER) and its strides in building and bridging community; from Ohioans Against Discrimination (OAD) and its efforts to wage a professional, statewide political campaign, to Out Voice and its firmly rooted foundation in grassroots organizing, the opportunities and outlets for activism are ripe and plentiful in Ohio.

These organizations are important not only for the crucial work they are performing, but also for the legitimacy they bring to our community. The diversity of responses

to the threat posed by the Radical Right reflects a coming of age of the Ohio gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. It is a significant sign of maturity when a group of people can come to terms with following different paths that lead to the same destination. We have come to that realization in Ohio and we will never be the same.

Everywhere, gay people are proclaiming their individuality and their uniqueness, demanding that the differences within our own community be recognized and respected. It only follows that we ourselves should expect a variety of ideologies to surface in our struggle for equality.

But variety of response does not mean the sending of contradictory signals to our elected officials. While it is ridiculous and improbable to expect the gay community to be represented by a solitary entity, it is nothing less than futile to march our troops

Trading Lake Erie for Lake Michigan

With this issue we say goodbye to good friend Kevin Beaney, managing editor of

the Gay People's Chronicle. Kevin is leaving Cleveland for Chicago. We will miss him, and want to thank him for all the hard work he has done to help the Chronicle become the successful paper it is today. Kevin has worked for the Chronicle for over five years, from starting as a volunteer writer to becoming the first managing editor. Kevin's contribution to the Chronicle's reorganization was paramount to its recovery. Not only can he write a mean news story, but he is a wizard at installing telephone lines.

Beaney

Kevin's committment to Cleveland's lesbian and gay community was not limited to the Chronicle. Along with involvement in other community groups, Kevin was chair of the Pride '92 committee, and the first

board president of Cleveland Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Pride, Inc. He wrote the Pride, Inc. by-laws and was instrumental in getting the organization's IRS non-profit status.

We, the staff of the Gay People's Chronicle, want to thank Kevin for his sense of humor, his calmness, and his vision of what a community newspaper should be. We also want to thank him for his friendship and wish him and his partner Eric good luck in their new home.

With the departure of Kevin Beaney, we would like to announce the appointment of our interim managing editor, Charlton Harper. Chuck first came to the Chronicle in June 1993 as a volunteer writer. He was hired full time in September as our first full-time reporter. We look forward to working with Chuck in his new capacity.

Harper

and allies into battle with conflicting plans for attack. When a supportive member of the Ohio House of Representatives tells the Chronicle she is receiving mixed messages from several sources about the desire and timing for a state civil rights bill, it's a clear indication that something is terribly wrong.

The current scattered activity concerning gay civil rights legislation in Ohio, and the suggestion that now is the time to seek its introduction, raise questions that demand to be answered. Is an isolated petition drive by private citizens, like the one currently being circulated by Columbus attorney Jerry Bunge, the best approach? On the other hand, if it's only a matter of time before a gay rights bill becomes law in Ohio, why not get the ball rolling now? What are the chances that such a bill will pass? Is the wording of the bill exactly as it should be? Can the Ohio gay community support a civil rights bill and oppose a ballot initiative at the same time?

In the meanwhile, those elected officials who have been the most supportive of us in

the past are now receiving crossed signals. The image of maturity we have worked so hard to achieve is undermined when legislators who are asked to support a civil rights bill consult with their gay liaisons only to hear that full support from the community is not there.

Timing is critical for introducing, and winning, supportive legislation. Can we afford the risk of unsupported petition drives that do not reflect the feeling of the community as a whole? A road littered with failed, mis-timed petitions is not an easy path to victory. But how much longer can we afford to wait? Or will we allow 'divide and conquer' to do the work of the Radical Right before the battle has begun?

And divide and conquer they will. Already the extreme Right has begun its Project Spotlight, the specific targeting and removal

office of gay-friendly elected officials in Ohio. Those hard-won anti-discrimination ordinances now enjoyed in five Ohio cities, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Youngstown, and Yellow Springs, did not appear from thin air. These friends of the community now risk losing their very seats in office because of their support of us, and we risk losing the advances we've made.

Let us celebrate the diversity within our comunity, but not let difference of opinion hold us back from our stated goals. If there

SPEAK OUT

My mother's move to acceptance

by Leslea Newman

When my girlfriend Flash and I were evicted last summer, I immediately called my mother. I don't know why. I wanted sympathy, I suppose. After all, we hadn't done anything wrong; our building got sold and we had to move. And having our apartment, funky as it was, yanked out from under us was more traumatic than I thought it would be. "It's our home," I wailed in a voice not unlike a five-year-old's. "I want my mommy."

The trouble is, I don't have a mommy. I have a mother. A mommy gives you milk and cookies, kisses it where it hurts and makes you feel all better. A mother means well, but misses the mark. A mother says things like, "Your room is always here if you need it," as if the twenty years since I've inhabited that room can be dismissed with the wave of a hand.

My mother likes the fact that Flash and I have to move. This is a normal thing that happens to people other than lesbians. This is

something we can talk about. Better yet, this is something my mother feels qualified to give me advice about. Never mind the fact that mother hasn't moved in thirty-four years, ever since my family migrated from Brooklyn to Long Island, and I, in typical dyke fashion, have lived in twenty-three different apartments since 1985. She is the expert.

"Have you looked in the paper?” she asks, as if I am an idiot.

"Yes, I've looked in the paper,' I answer in my most condescending voice, as if she is an idiot.

"What about calling a realtor?" she asks. "Ma, we have to come up with first and last month's rent, a security deposit and money to pay the movers. We can't afford a realtor."

This is the opening my mother has been waiting for. All of a sudden she is certain that no one with nice apartments lists in the papers anymore; anyone with something halfway decent is sure to list with a realtor. Why oh why did I bother to call?

Weeks pass. Finally Flash and I find an

apartment. Not just any apartment. A fabulous apartment. A dream of an apartment with six rooms, wood floors, oak window frames, French doors, two porches. I call my mother, feeling smug. All this and without a realtor, too.

"How did you find it?" is the first question she asks.

How do I explain the dyke grapevine to my mother? Flash took a walk after supper one night and bumped into the shortstop on her softball team who had heard from her chiropractor who had heard from one of her clients that her ex-lover's hairdresser had an apartment for rent. Would my mother ever understand this?

"Word of mouth," I translate, and of course she has to have the final say, "I told you not to bother looking in the paper."

Moving day approaches, and my mother is full of advice. "Pack the dishes first," she tells me. "Why?" I ask. "Because it's easier" she says, and I let it go at that, since I don't have the time to argue. Moving is a full-time job: packing, unpacking, turning on the

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Volume 9, Issue 25

Publisher: Martha J. Pontoni Business Manager: Patti Harris Managing Editor: Kevin Beaney Associate Editor: Brian DeWitt

Reporters & Writers: Kevin Beaney, Doreen

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

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is debate on the issue of an Ohio lesbian and gay civil rights bill, then let's do the debating within our own community now. Then we can go to our elected officals as a united front, and together we will navigate the choppy waters ahead.

electricity and the gas, forwarding the mail, reconnecting the phone. And who is our very first caller? Why, my mother, of course.

What she's calling about surprises me. "What should I get you and Flash for a housewarming present?"

"Ma, you don't have to get us anything." "I know I don't have to get you something,' she says. "I want to get you something."

"But it's not like we've bought a house or anything," I say, wondering why I am arguing with her. "It's just another apartment."

"It's your first apartment together," she says, and I'm amazed that she knows this. Our last apartment had been Flash's place until I moved in with her, and before that we had both lived alone. This is the first home we've created together and it does feel different.

"All right," I say, and make a joke. "How about a washing machine?" "Okay," she says, and I almost fall over. "It was a joke, Ma."

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