COMMUNITY FORUM
JULY 21, 1995 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
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Service figures are: $6 billion for AIDS; $36.3 billion for heart disease; and $16.9 billion for cancer.
Dr. Helms has used vivid words to trigger strong emotionl response (“revolting, unnatural"), and he has made statements contrary to fact. What is most significant about this incident is that the overwhelming majority of his followers will never hear or read that he has totally altered facts in order to manipulate the voters.
And when Senator Helms talks about AIDS victims causing their own disease, he ignores the billions of dollars the U.S. taxpayer spends every year on creating and treating over
400,000 deaths of Americans per year from lung cancer. It may be just a coincidence that
people in his own state of North Carolina get a lot of taxpayer money to promote lung diseases.
First a man
To the Editors:
Mary Ellen Wobbecke
Cleveland Heights
I am first a man, second a Negro, third an American, fourth a homosexual. I'm tired of hearing the words "sorry" or "I apologize" from other Americans. I don't care if the American happens to be heterosexual, homosexual, white, black, church people or any other race or sex. We are adult Americans, if we can not handle the responsibilities we have been given then we must step down and let someone else do it. And since we can't do that we better compose ourselves and prepare to move on, without endangering the lives of other Americans.
Eric Cosper Cleveland
Bisexuals silenced
To the Editors:
I live in Columbus and was unable to attend the Columbus Pride march; however, I was in Toledo that weekend and decided to attend the march there. Being the first march for Toledo, I went into it expecting it to be very small and also expecting hostility from people outside of the march. There was a little bit of name-calling, but there was also support as people drove by beeping their horns and waving. Overall, it was a good experience, and I felt honored to be able to add another body to the march.
What is happening now in this community of sexual identity reminds me of the time in history when the slave owners consciously decided to pit slave against slave, based on difference. The men against the women, the darker-skinned against the lighter-skinned, the stronger against the weaker, the field I worker against the house worker, the old against the young, and so on. This prevents solidarity in a community that is trying to fight for change. When the community disempowers some of its own members, it weakens itself.
At the end of the march there were speakers. One of these was a woman who got up to read a few creeds, which people repeated after her. She read the lesbian creed and the gay man's creed, both of which were repeated by lesbians and gay men. After this, she started to read a bisexual creed. As I realized that she was going to read one for me to repeat after, I became anxious knowing I would probably be one voice of a very few— if any others at all. She began to read it and started to pause for us to repeat it.
Amy Jo Rist Columbus
Put transpeople back into ENDA
Just as my voice began to come up and reiterate her words, she silenced me by reading through the rest of it very quickly. My words, stuck in my throat, were jammed back into my stomach, and I felt ill. I know that bisexual people are not accepted by many within the lesbian and gay community. I have encountered that prejudice many times. Even though we are now included in many titles (of marches and organizations), we are not included in the language that people use in addressing the community, which was evident when most (not all) of the speakers spoke at the Toledo march.
To the Editors:
I'm very happy that the Employment NonDiscrimination Act (ENDA) is gaining support in Congress. Discrimination of any kind is despicable. However, I upset over the actions of the Human Rights Campaign Fund (HRCF) which led to the exclusion of gender identity/orientation from the same legislation. One of the legislation's drafters, Chai Feldblum, acknowledged to International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy officials that transpeople were purposely omitted from ENDA, saying that they couldn't afford inclusion because it might cost them votes. This is in light of the fact that many transpeople are involved in many of the same organizations and are fighting for the same things as are the people in the HRCF.
We are on your side; whether you choose to date us or not is a different matter. We face some of the same issues you face—not all— but some. we also face some issues that are different from yours. I will not pretend I am someone who I am not; I have in the past. I have tried to pretend I am a lesbian, and I have also tried to pretend I am heterosexual. I am neither, yet I am both. I am sexual. I am attracted to people and fall in love with people-sometimes one sex, and sometimes the other. I did not repeat the lesbian creed at the march, nor was I given a chance to repeat the bisexual creed.
Discrimination of this sort is uncalled for. Just recently we found out that the U.S. Justice Dept. would not file a brief opposing an anti-gay initiative that will be heard in the U.S. Supreme Court. And it wasn't that long ago that the Clinton administration failed to remove the regulations that ban homosexuals from service in the military.
Many people were outraged by these activities; gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender. Both of these activities were done in the name of political expediency. I'm sure that the people within the HRCF were themselves outraged by the actions of the Clinton administration, but they are now acting in a similar matter. They are willing to exclude a group of people for political reasons. This is very hypocritical.
Transgendered people are in need of employment protection just as much as any gays, lesbians, or bisexuals. There has been many cases in which a transsexual was fired because they began their transition. Further, people are at risk when they do not act or look in a manner that is consistent with the gender role society says they should have. To exclude us for political reasons is wrong. It lets in the possibility that others may become excluded in the name of political expediency.
I am not anti-ENDA, I am not asking for people to stop supporting such legislation. I just don't want me and my friends excluded from it. I do urge people to back ENDA and to get their political leaders behind it as well, but to get behind the version that includes gender identity/orientation. I would also want people to let the HRCF know that you are opposed to their actions that exclude transgendered people from anti-discrimination legislation. We must oppose discrimination of all kinds and at all times and not be for fairness only when it is politically convenient.
Emilio/a Lombardi Akron
chernobylr@aol.com
Community Forum
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