10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE December 6, 1996

COMMUNITY FORUM

Friends welcome gays

To the Editors:

In your November 22 issue, you ran an article concerning a woman who was cast out and barred from the Medina Church of the Brethren for being a lesbian and marrying a transsexual. In the article, it is stated that the Brethren are "a pacifist congregation similar to the Quakers."

The Cleveland Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) would like your readers to know that while the Quakers and Brethren share a peace testimony and are pacifists, there are significant differences. One important difference is that we recognize the light of God in all people, including lesbians, bisexuals, gays, and transsexuals.

Our Meeting includes several openly lesbian and gay members and two years ago the Meeting recognized the committed relationship of a lesbian couple. We welcome everyone to worship with us, on Sundays at 11 am at 10916 Magnolia Drive, in the University Circle area.

The Cleveland Friends Meeting Tom Cooke, Recording Clerk

Among the best

To the Editors:

Since 9 March 1995, the day Scott Amedure was gunned down in the doorway of his Lake Orion, Michigan, home by Jon Schmitz, the Triangle Foundation, and our Anti-Violence Project, have been the leading gay advocates monitoring the progress of events in that case. We were in court for the killer's arraignment, preliminary hearing, and almost every pre-trial hearing. During the many long months between the arrest and jury selection, we waged a dogged campaign to keep the issue of anti-gay bias motivation alive and in the forefront of coverage and discussion of this tragic case.

We have spent hours and hours of time on television and radio, and we have written hundreds of articles, letters and speeches about Michigan v. Schmitz. Further, we have read and heard more articles and commentary on this case than is really very healthy for most normal people. We hope that decades will pass before we ever have to hear or read about Jenny Jones again.

All this is by way of getting to the point of this letter: The dual articles regarding this case that were carried in the 22 November edition of the Gay People's Chronicle were by far among the best ever written on the subject. Thank you for them.

First, Dawn Leach's news report of the verdict is one of the only examples we can

THE OPEN PRAIRIE by Joe Noover

OPEN SHARE & INDICATE

GAY ELDERS

effort to keep the focus where it belongs.

The second item that dealt with this case was the column by Mubarak Dahir. We can only hope that he published a similar opinion in the Philadelphia [daily] paper in which his opinions regularly appear. He is one of the few to realize, and state, that the defense was betting on their diversionary tactics to win over the jury and help them to avoid dealing with the homophobia that permeated this case from Day One. He hit the center of the target by exposing the "humiliation" defense for exactly what it was: A red herring waiting to be snagged by the jury and an unsuspecting public.

I wish that the media in general, but especially our own "gay" media could or would reach the level of understanding of this case that has obviously been achieved by the Gay People's Chronicle. With your coverage of the Schmitz case, you have done your readers a great service.

The final chapter of this miserable case will be written on 4 December, of course, when Schmitz will be sentenced. We must all watch this concluding scene carefully and criticially, because the real lessons of Scott's terrible death will be learned when we see how long the State will keep the murderer behind bars. If it's a slap on the little “humiliated" bastard's wrist, we will have all lost in this case.

Thanks once again for your care and understading in covering this issue.

Jeffrey Montgomery, President Triangle Foundation Detroit, Michigan

point to (in either gay or non-gay media, by Guilty by association

the way) that draws attention to the significant evidence and the underlying cause of the killing. It's also one of the only reports that helps underscore the studied avoidance of the gay elements of the case. Ms. Leach's article is one of the few, for example, that takes note of Schmitz's own statement, to wit, "He's gay . . . I'm not. That's why I killed him." Thanks to Ms. Leach for her

The following was sent to Gale Research, Inc. of Detroit, Michigan.

Dear Editor:

Recently, I consulted the 30th edition of your Encyclopedia of Associations for information on gay and lesbian associations (pp.1492-1497).

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I was appalled, indeed revolted, to see such "associations" as Evergreen International ("dedicated to helping people change their same-sex orientation"), the Homosexuals Anonymous Fellowship Services ("for individuals seeking freedom from homosexuality"), and Love in Action International ("for individuals wishing to change their sexuality to a heterosexual orientation ... believes that all homosexual conduct is wrong") included among respectable and legitimate gay-lesbian associations.

I do not think the aforementioned groups should be included in the rubric Gay and Lesbian Associations.

In the article "Homophobia is a Health Hazard" (USA Today, Vol. 128 #2618, November 1996), written by a group of doctors, the American Association of Pediatrics is quoted: "Therapy directed at changing sexual orientation is contraindicated since it can provoke guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving changes in orientation. Conversion therapy is ineffective, unethical, and harmful to the individual."

The doctors also cite the American Medical Association, which in 1994 published an updated policy statement which concluded that "therapy to change sexual orientation is no longer recommended, but psychotherapy may be necessary to help gays or lesbians become more comfortable with their sexuality and deal with society's prejudicial responses to them."

I also checked the 1990 edition and the above groups are not listed in the Gay and Lesbian section. Why the change? Why the addition?

On Friday, November 15, I spoke with an employee of Gale Research who assured me that she would have a committee re-examine the classification of the three groups in question. However, the damage has been done. As the next edition of your Encyclopedia of

Associations will not be issued until November of 1997, the present edition will sit on library shelves across the country, indeed around the world, where anyone can read these pages and, once again, deduce that gays and lesbians are "ill” and can “change” if they really want to.

The employee with whom I spoke also assured me that Gale Research has gay employees. Why were they not consulted? I am sure they could have helped avoid this blunder!

I have also noticed that Jeopardy uses your services to check facts. I think you have some fact-checking of your own to do! Richard Eubanks Toledo

New family members

The following was sent to the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland:

Dear Development Person,

We have not yet visited the Great Lakes Science Center. It was on our list for last summer but for various reasons, we did not get there. I'm not sure how often we will visit the Center. So why are we purchasing a family membership to the Science Center?

When we read the inclusive language in

GAK PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

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Martha J. Pontoni

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Photographers: Barbara Bodemer, LeeAnn McGuire, Eve Muzic Christine Hahn David A. Ebbert Rivendell Marketing 212-242-6863 David A. Ebbert 800-426-5947

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Next Chronicle comes out Friday, December 20

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your membership invitation to families, we agreed to join just because we had been asked to join as a family! As a lesbian couple, it is not often that our family is affirmed by main stream society. We appreciate it, and we are sending a copy of this letter to the Gay People's Chronicle so that others in our community are aware of your welcoming philosophy.

We are looking forward to our first visit to the Science Center as (family) members! Judy Montgomery and Sally Stohlman Wickliffe

A family membership to the Great Lake Science Center costs $65 and provides limited free admission for "two adults in same household.”

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