GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

AUGUST 16, 1996

Family restaurant

To the Editors:

COMMUNITY FORUM

For the past few years, PRYSM [the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Center's youth group] has been regularly going to the same restaurant after our weekly meetings Saturday after-

noon.

Recently, we have experienced some feelings of unwelcomeness from the management of that restaurant. We feel that there are three components to these feelings. 1) We are a large group of customers; we stay at least two hours; and we tend to get loud. 2) We are a group of young people between the ages of 14 and 22. and 3) We are sexual minorities.

We recognize and realize that sometimes it is difficult for a restaurant to deal with large groups of young people, but we are paying customers, and we try to tip well.

These recent attitudes have caused us to reconsider where and with whom we spend our time and money, so we are asking the help of the Cleveland gay community. PRYSM is looking for a gay-owned, gayoperated restaurant near the Center to spend our Saturday afternoons at. We are young queer people looking for a safe place. We want to support a queer establishment with our presence and our money. There are between five and 25 of us each week.

We cannot guarantee a definite number because each weekly meeting has a different attendance. PRYSM ends at 2 pm and we usually arrive at the restaurant around 3 pm. Typically we stay until 5.

For many of us, the meetings and the lunch afterwards are the only time and place during the week in which we feel completely safe to be out, to be young, and to be queer. Continuing the tradition of after-PRYSM lunch is not only important, it is vital; and it's time that we supported our community with our money.

If anyone is willing to welcome us, please contact Jen Kruger at the Center, 216522-1999. Thank you.

Mark E. Hricko Perez North Olmsted

It's my turn

To the Editors:

In the 15 months I have worked for the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland, I have dealt with several angry people who donated $5 two years ago to the Taskforce, and received two copies of the newsletter. They are appalled that I wasted 32 cents of the $2.50 they donated on duplicate mailings. While I agree that every penny is critical to our mission, an individual who donates an average of $2.50 every year is very low on my list of priorities. The newsletter is a fundraising tool used to encourage a renewed or increased donation. Obviously, they missed the point!

Someone who donated in-kind electrical services five years ago is equally low on my list, as are people who complain about Dancin' in the Streets, and trustees who haven't do-

THE OPEN PRAIRIE by Joe Noover!

FIND ANY EVIDENCE

OF LIFE ON MARS YET?

YEP

FIND ANY EVIDENCE OF ACCEPTANCE OF GAYS

& LESBIANS AT THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION YET?

NOPE

nated even $2.50, or never have anything good to say about the work we do here.

I have accepted the responsibility of finding resources and funding for an agency that provides over one million dollars worth of services per year to people living with AIDS and HIV. One million dollars is a lot of pennies. To sustain our services we need to generate $83,333.33 each month, or $3,846.15 each working day. Again, that's $480.77 per hour; $8.01 per minute that we must raise.

That means I can afford to spend about 19 seconds on the $2.50 complainer.

Shortly after I started here, an AIDSphobic member of the gay community called me screaming that he had told the Taskforce time and time again not to mail anything to his house that said AIDS on it. He had made a gift of $100 and I sent him an acknowledgement. I listened to him for his full 12.48 minutes ($100 divided by $8.01), and then I politely told him that we here at the AIDS Taskforce are proud of the work we do, and not one of our 5,000 donors had a problem with our envelopes. He said either send his in plain white envelopes or send nothing. He has received no further mailings from me. It is behavior like his that propagates the fear and ignorance surrounding AIDS, and I have little tolerance for it.

The choices I make about responding to complaints are not easy for me. I have to weigh the benefit of keeping a donor happy against the cost of wasting my time on someone who may have another agenda.

The retired drag queen who just called and inspired this letter is a perfect example. He or she (I'm so confused!) told me that he no longer does drag, but as long as Melissa Ross is permitted to arrange the drag show for Dancin' in the Streets, and put local people at the bottom of the show (I am not in the entertainment business, so I don't know what this slang means), he would prefer not to be solicited by the AIDS Issues Taskforce.

He claimed to have my direct mail soliciting letter in front of him, signed by me, and he more than once called us the "AIDS Issues

MARS METEORITH

Web Site:

http://www.visi.com/-oprairie

Email:

oprairie

Taskforce." He claimed to have made thousands of dollars in donations to the AIDS Issues Taskforce, so I was patient with him and listened to him for almost ten minutes. He insisted that if Dancin' was organized by the AIDS Issues Taskforce, then he wanted to be removed from our mailing list. I agreed to do so. After re-cradling the phone, I pulled up his account in the database and it said, "No $ history for this account."

Every gift is important to the mission of this agency, even small gifts. But I implore each of you that have complained to me over the past 15 months, or those of you about to complain to me, to revisit your agenda. If improving the quality of life for someone living with AIDS or HIV is the reason you give money to the AIDS Taskforce, then which drag queen appears first at Dancin' is of no consequence.

If it makes you mad that we focused on raising money at Dancin' and not on making you queen for a day; if you worry that saying the word AIDS will give it to you; then make your checks payable to a psychiatrist and let me be.

Tim Homan Director of Development

AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland

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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Volume 12, Issue 4

Publisher:

Business Manager: Managing Editor: Associate Editor:

Reporters & Writers:

Martha J. Pontoni Patti Harris Doreen Cudnik Brian DeWitt

John Graves,

Nels P. Highberg, Eric W. Hunter,

Jenny Lauro, Dawn Leach, Bruce Mann,

M.T. Martone, Daniel R. Mullen,

Cheryl Zupan Photographers:

Art Director: Production/Admin.:

Advertising Manager: National Advertising:

Barbara Bodemer,

LeeAnn McGuire, Eve Muzic Christine Hahn Gina Adkins David A. Ebbert Rivendell Marketing 212-242-6863 David A. Ebbert 800-426-5947

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