10 GAY PEOPle's ChronICLE
JULY 5, 1996
Applause to Pride
To the Editors:
COMMUNITY FORUM
I've been attending Pride events for the last decade or so. This year far surpassed any previous years. As one of the emcees, I am keenly aware of the tremendous amount of planning that goes into such an event. Lining up the talent and speakers, and more importantly keeping things as close to schedule as possible, is no easy task. Brynna Fish and the [Cleveland] Pride committee must be commended. It was a pleasure working with her and the entire committee. I also wish to add my thanks to Fred Griffith of Channel 5's Morning Exchange for kicking off the parade.
My only complaint, and I've shared this with Brynna, is that I would like to make sure that Domino's Pizza, whose national office supports Jesse Helms, the Traditional Values Coalition, and many other anti-gay causes, not be invited back next year.
Buck Harris Cleveland
A very well-run day
To the Editors:
I write to personally and publically thank Ms. Brynna Fish, event coordinator of [Cleveland] Pride, Inc., for bringing off the most exciting, well-organized and impressive Pride Day that I have ever attended or been a part of. The measure of success for an undertaking as huge and complicated as Pride is "How much did you notice the seams showing?"
I have to say that the entire March, and the entire afternoon, with all the entertainment, commerce, speeches, and activity, was absolutely flawless to the average participant. No fights, no organizational chaos; just a very, very well-run day.
The segregating and explicit regulating of beer sales in a contained "outdoor bar" was inspired. Dancin' in the Streets could learn a great deal from just how well this format integrated into the overall event, without creating rancor or diminishing sales at the same time.
To gauge by the extensive ink given to Pride in the Community Forum section of the Chronicle, Brynna seems to have taken once again a lot of flak from discontented individuals who questioned whether or not a paid coordinator is the right management decision for Pride. I absolutely support the correctness of paying a professional to head up the Pride organization.
As a person who is volunteering to co-chair an equally complicated and risky undertaking (the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center's Garden Party '96), I appreciate the enormity of the responsibilities she's shouldered all these years for Pride. When one looks at every aspect of what comprises Pride as it has evolved over the last few years, only a paid professional should be allowed at its head. A paid professional can bear the full weight and responsibility of accountability to one's employers; they in turn can have appropriate expectations of their employee's performance. The old adage goes, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." Well, Cleveland's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered community had a feast!
Congratulations have to go out to the terrific and very hard working Pride committee, as well as all the dozens of volunteers who worked at the event in order to make Pride '96 a truly memorable success. All put together: it was a great day to be queer in Cleveland!
Can't see child
To the Editors:
Bill Tregoning
Lakewood
I am writing you this letter in hope for some help.
I am a gay 26-year-old female. I was married to another female. My partner had a one and a half year old daughter when we became involved.
I am on Social Security due to multiple sclerosis, therefore I did not work. I educated this child and raised her as my own. I took care of her 24 hours a day with no regrets, except
one.
The system in which I live is very unfair.
THE OPEN PRAIRIE by Joe Noover
ANIMAL TESTING
PETA!
IDS
CURE
My partner and I separated on September 4, 1995. We were together for close to four years. When she and I were involved, we both considered her daughter "our" little girl.
Since the breakup, I have not been able to see or speak to her daughter in over eight months. I struggle with this every day that passes by. I feel as if I lost my own child.
I understand a lot of people do not believe gays deserve the same rights. I did not choose to be gay. I would never choose a lifestyle so difficult.
I believe I deserve the same rights as the next person. I bleed the same blood, I cry the same tears. Therefore I am entitled to the same rights. I feel very strongly that everyone is entitled to equal rights regardless of sexual orientation.
I may not have given birth to this little girl, but I loved her like she was my own, and I always will.
Children do not have a voice, and I feel that in the end, a situation such as this may have a long-term effect on any child.
I am not sure what this letter will accomplish. I believe my rights as an honest human being have been violated and denied.
Rhonda Sedloc Toledo
How many die alone?
To the Editors:
On Thursday, June 13, Janice Ricks' (who may have been a pre-op transsexual) body was found near E. 105th St. and St. Luke's Hospital. She was shot twice, once in her neck and once in her abdomen. While there are reports that she was seen with someone earlier that morning, there are no suspects at this time. No motive for the shooting has been disclosed. Notably, the location where her body was found is not a safe area.
The real tragedy is that her death could have easily gone by unnoticed. I first heard of the shooting from my partner, who called me and said that she heard that a transgendered person was shot in Cleveland, but that was all the information she had at that time. I then turned on my local news, waiting for them to mention it again. I almost missed it. It came on very fast, but the report mentioned that Ricks (they used her first name) went about the neighborhood in women's clothing. It was at this point I noticed a trend. While her neighbors used feminine pronouns when talking about her, the news person used masculine pronouns.
I called the news station the next day to get more information. They really did not give me much more then what I already had, but they gave me enough to start asking around. The Anti-Violence Project at the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center had not heard of this event, but the person I spoke with mentioned speaking with someone from the Gay People's Chronicle. I spoke to Dawn Leach (a reporter who handles TG issues for the Chronicle) who also had not heard of Janice's death, but was able to get me more information (about the cause of death, the names of the detectives assigned to her case, and the fact that she was transgendered.)
I've tried to speak with the detectives but they haven't been around, nor have they re-
Groover
OPEN PRAIVE SYNDICATE
Web Site:
http://www.winternet.com/-oprairie
Email: oprairie@winternet.com
turned my calls. I also contacted friends who live in the Cleveland area and asked if they knew, or ever heard of Janice, they hadn't. If it wasn't for my partner, it's possible that no one would know about Janice's death. No one I spoke with had heard of her shooting, or even knew her personally. The only other. information I have of her is her obituary which gives her name as Dewayne Jan Ricks.
Janice's death should serve as a reminder to us all that there are people on the margins of our community. People for one reason or another do not participate or interact with the larger group and thus isolated from the people who can help them. How many others in our community die alone or suffer in silence? We must continue to reach out to those in need, and in doing so our community can only prosper.
Emilio/a Lombardi Secretary, Paradise Club Transexual Menace Transgender Violence Survey Coordinator
Gays in the Bible
To the Editors:
Akron
On the first day of the North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Pride 96 celebration, 42 local churches took out a full-page paid advertisement in the Winston-Salem newspaper citing scripture to condemn homosexuality.
They cited Genesis 1:27, which merely states that God created males and females. So, what else is new?
They cited the story of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 13:13, and 19). However, they failed to mention that in Matthew 10:14-15 and Luke 10:10-12, Jesus publicly stated that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of their inhospitality to strangers.
The people of Sodom wanted to know who the foreign strangers were, rather than desiring carnal knowledge of them. The Hebrew verb yada is very rarely used in a sexual sense.
Citation of 2 Peter 2:6-10, wherein Lot is called “just” and “righteous” is ludicrous in light of Lot's incest with his daughters in Genesis 19:32-38. The brouhaha over Sodom and Gomorrah was used as a ruse to cover this up.
In none of the Old Testament citations, not Leviticus 18:22, nor Deuteronomy 23:18; nor 1 Kings 15:22, nor 22:46; nor 2 Kings 23:7; is there a reference to homosexuality. The term is kedesh: cult prostitute. Cult prostitutes were seen as unclean, and were forbidden in the strict purity codes.
Leviticus's purpose was to elaborate a system of ritual cleanliness whereby Jews would be distinguished from neighboring people. The prohibition against cult prostitution is on par with its other prohibitions against the consumption of pork, shellfish, and rabbit, and its condemnations of hybridization, clothing of more than one type of fabric, and cutting of the beard or hair. There is an important distinction between intrinsic wrong and ritual impurity.
Furthermore, the discovery of the "book of law" (2 Kings 22:10-12) in the reign of Josiah in 621 B.C.E., 400 years after David and 600 years after its putative author, Moses, casts
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Volume 12, Issue 1
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serious doubt over the authenticity of the early books of the Bible. The laws were apparently framed after, and as a corrective to, the ungodly behavior of the early Kings. David had a homosexual affair with King Saul's son, Jonathan (1 Samuel 18:1-4, 20:41-42, and 2 Samuel 1:25-26) and King Solomon wrote homoerotic poetry in the Song of Solomon 5:4-8, 5:10-16, and 8:1-3.
The letters of apostle Paul are also cited. But Paul saw no necessity for any sexual relations (1 Corinthians 7:6-9) since he believed the world was coming to an end soon (7:29) and thought people ought to be preparing for that event.
Nor do they mention that Jesus Christ himself had a beloved disciple (John 11:36, 13:25, 19:26-27, 21:7, and 21:20) who was allowed to lay his head on Jesus' breast while they ate and talked.
Jim Senyszyn Charlotte, N.C.
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