GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE AUGUST 4, 1995

COMMUNITY FORUM

Be willing to listen

To the Editors:

This letter is in response to the letter to the editor [July 7] that supported not including coverage of the lesbian-feminist anti-abortion group as news. I understand the reader's feelings on this as I too see anti-abortion groups as imposing laws on women's bodies, which I do not agree with. However, I think we also need to keep a larger perspective in mind. If we just treat those who have

would be carried on WSYX channel 6 later this fall.

Anyone who has ever visited their Heritage USA complex would have to see that they employ more gay people than our City Center ever hoped.

If people only judged Miss Tammy as kindly as she does others--this world would be a lot better off.

Richard Boggs Columbus

offensive politics to us with hostility and A gaggle of cliques

ostracism, we cannot expect much in the way of a truly open, working community. As in a good relationship, we need to be willing to listen to each other and be honest. People cannot be honest or come to new ground if only certain beliefs or politics are acceptable.

Obviously I am not talking about hate politics. Those are excluded because their aim is destruction. But in spite of the tactics of some anti-abortion groups, most of these groups do not have destruction as their aim. They are concerned that we sacrifice one life for another, use abortion as birth control, and are hypocritical in our definition of life. Anti-abortionists who are feminists and/or lesbians have valid conflicts between their desire to support women's rights and their desire to also affirm the sacredness of newlyconceived life.

Don't be so quick to dismiss differing members of our community. It is hard enough to be gay or lesbian, and hard enough to deal with the prejudices of this society, whether or not you are out. We need everybody's contributions and viewpoints. Otherwise we are a small-minded family of people, turned in on ourselves instead of creating a generous home where there is open discussion, give and take. I'd like to see ours be a healthy family that grows.

Susanne Sande Richmond Heights

You will do better

To the Editors:

There's something I really need to know: Why, when I attended Dancin' in the Streets with a female friend of mine, as well as other women I have seen and knew as friends who were also present, on top of the fact that I have personally helped with the delivery of the Chronicle, have supported the Chronicle by placing personal and classified ads (as well as fellow lesbian friends of mine), and even had a previous letter published warning others of the homophobic atmosphere at the Broadway Diner ... that you had to slap a photo of a crowd of shirtless, gay white men on the front page when you knew this was an event for all to come out and have fun while supporting local HIV/AIDS organizations?

I'm very disappointed at your gross oversight of all the others—not just lesbians!— who were at this fundraiser. You will do

To the Editors:

This letter is in response to Eric Oswald's letter in the July 21 issue. ["Why is Cleveland Pride so small?"] First, I would like to say "Welcome to Cleveland!" I, too am an outsider, moved here from Connecticut nearly six years ago. This was the first time I had been involved in a city that actually had a large gay populace.

However, I was just as disappointed as you were, even more. I was really looking forward to becoming active and meeting new people. As an African-American I soon realized that racism was as extensive here as it is in the straight community. I was once asked "to please leave" a gay bar because my "kind" was not wanted by the patrons or employees.

I tried to get involved, but most of the groups were not interested in having any blacks who might "rock the boat." I attended the Pride Festival and Dancin' in the Streets the first two years that I lived here. They were major disappointments and I haven't been since. During the last few years, I have backed away from getting involved with anything to do with gays. It really pains me to say this, but it is the truth. The attitudes and behaviors are just too negative to endure any longer.

Recently, I have been working on a lowbudget film. My partner in this venture has lived in Cleveland nearly all of his life and is well known among the so-called "gay community." But he has tried for nearly 15 years to get this film made. He has been totally rejected by them. Why should it take 15 years to make a local film that has a gay man as the producer, director and creator? Because he is an African-American and is not a member of any influential cliques.

You were absolutely correct when you said that there is no "gay community," only a gaggle of cliques. The real powers in this city are the bar owners who feed on the misery of gays and lesbians and get rich. This is not the first time that I have written about this, but it will not change. The people who can make a difference don't read this paper and don't want to change anyway.

So, Eric, my advice is do not expect anything to happen. Maybe you will find a clique that you can join. God knows, this city is full of them! Once again, "Welcome to Cleveland!"

Ray Pratt Lakewood

better next time, speaking as a lesbian conMore than the Web

sumer/supporter of the Chronicle. I rest my

case.

Amy Hanna Concord Twp.

Pro-gay Tammy Faye

To the Editors:

I'm glad to hear someone say something nice about Tammy Faye Baker. The "On the Air" column in the July 21 issue said, "Not too many people know before the legal problems and divorce, Tammy Faye and ex-husband Jim Bakker began to preach tolerance, respect and love of gay people.

Jim said on Nightline, "How can we judge our gay people for loving? God is of love, not hatred."

Being an acquaintance of Tammy Faye, I know she's a loving, caring person, who believes we should love all people, and it is hatred that has run gay people from the church and God. Openly stating on TV of the wonderful letters and support she receives from gay people, she lives to love, and hopes everyone tunes in to her new (non-religious) talk show on Fox. She told me she thought it

To the Editors:

I found your recent article on the Internet puzzling. You described World Wide Web (WWW) facilities and some of the home pages that can be reached and examined. Missing from the article was information about how to access the WWW and the typical costs involved. It should also have been pointed out that WWW pages can also refer to full motion video and audio, and the WWW is best accessed with a high speed modem, faster than the 9600 Baud which has become the de facto standard. But these are quibbles about information that wasn't really useful in the first place.

I have been using Internet e-mail and newsgroups ever since their availability on the Cleveland Freenet System about 5 or 6 years ago. And using Freenet and Internet is available to anybody in the area for the cost of a local phone call to Freenet at 216-3683888.

With e-mail I've been able to exchange messages with friends and acquaintances all over the U.S. plus Australia, Canada, the U.K. and, probably, a few other countries all for the cost of a local phone call.

I've even made a sale to a customer in the U.K. from a retail store I used to own, receiving the order over the Internet.

Some Internet sites offer mailing list services. That is, the user sends an e-mail request to the appropriate site to subscribe to a list. Every subsequent message sent to the list is redistributed to the list subscribers. There are probably thousands of mailing lists available on the Internet. Some are regional in nature; others are more universal. I subscribe to lists for Queer Nation, tattoo and piercing fans, gay bear fans, gay cigar fans, gays and lesbians into SM, gays and lesbians in Ohio, the Grateful Dead, and police offi-

cers.

Another very useful Internet facility is Usenet newsgroups. Each newsgroup is like a conventional computer bulletin board with some interesting additional capabilities. Like a normal bulletin board the user can read messages and post follow up messages to the bulletin board. However, messages posted to a newsgroup locally are automatically propagated over the Internet to every other site, anywhere in the world, that carries that newsgroup.

Cleveland Freenet makes available to its users about 7,000 newsgroups.

Included in the list are many gay and lesbian oriented newsgroups as well as newsgroups dealing with recreation, computers, alternate lifestyles, social topics and much, much more.

While the WWW is an incredible facility, the cost of using it and the software required should be considered before calling it the next best thing to sliced bread.

Anybody with a computer, a simple telecommunications program, a modem, and a phone line can make use of Internet facilities for the asking.

Steve Schochet Cleveland

Support local groups

To the Editors:

Many lesbian and gay citizens have not adjusted their generous charitable giving to the new political climate in the area of “civil rights" (non-health issues). The changing political winds in the last election are more profound than many have realized.

Newt and his friends have successfully shifted the balance of power to the states. Whether you agree with this transfer of power or not, it is a current reality! I would argue that this means that the lesbian and gay community needs to shift the balance of their donating dollars from the national civil rights groups to home-grown organizations.

The national arena is still important, but as one past Chicago mayor once said, "All politics are local." Yes, I would like to see more liberal Republicans and Democrats take back the national government, but you can not do that without strong grassroots organizations!

National lesbian and gay rights groups have attempted to create local grassroots networks with limited success. They have drained states of thousands of dollars and have little to show for it. This money was not completely wasted—but gays and lesbians did not get the biggest bang for their buck.

I would recommend keeping your memberships with our national gay rights groups, but donating the majority of your charitable giving to local civil rights groups that have a full-time office in your state.

Eric Rodriguez Aurora, Illinois

Screen out 'phobes

To the Editors:

Terry Helvey, the homophobic killer serving a parolable life term at Leavenworth for the cold-blooded murder of fellow sailor Allen Schindler due to his homosexuality, was reported to have stated in his pre-sentencing apology that "... I regret this incident happened and I feel like it could have been averted-had homosexuals not been allowed in the military." Unfortunately, this is the depth of thinking behind the "don't ask, don't tell,"hide-and-seek policy regarding gays serv-

GAY PEOPLES CHRONICLE

Volume 11, Issue 3

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Reporters & Writers: Barry Daniels, John Graves, Jeff Hirst, Michael M. Lederman, Nancy Marcus, M.T. Martone, Michael Miller, Daniel R. Mullen, Timothy Robson, Paul Schwitzgebel, John Young Photographers: Barbara Bodemer, Beth Leonard Christine Hahn Gina Adkins David A. Ebbert Rivendell Marketing 212-242-6863 David A. Ebbert 800-426-5947

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ing their country in military uniform.

Had homophobes been screened out of our volunteer military services, or trained in diversity awareness and respect for individual human differences, perhaps Schindler would be enjoying a productive life today, and Helvey would not be seeking premature release under parole for his mercilessly vicious attack of a fellow servicemember.

Regardless of the specific military policy on military service for gays, sexuality diversity awareness training classes should be instituted military-wide within the newly implemented sexual harassment training programs where such training belongs by its nature and by the definition of sexual harassment to help prevent such tragic events from occurring in the future.

Unfortunately, unnecessary homophobic and sexual innuendo continue to be used in training new military recruits in all of the services.

Continued on facing page

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