GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE FEBRUARY 7, 1997

COMMUNITY FORUM

Civil law, not church's

To the Editors:

It's a wonderful life! Just when I think the insanity has slowed, someone comes along to push the envelope further.

State Representative Jay Hottinger (RNewark), in his zeal to protect the interest of the state, plans to introduce legislation to make same-sex marriage--already illegal in Ohio—doubly illegal, if that is possible.

It was bad enough that the national leaders raced to pass a unique piece of discriminatory legislation called the Defense of Marriage Act. Now state and local legislators, looking for a quick spurt of fame, are pushing various pieces of legislation to prevent samesex marriages from happening or being recognized from state to state. These legislative acts are blatant attempts to deny civil rights to the gay and lesbian community.

In all civil actions there is complete separation of church and state. Yet when matters regarding the gay and lesbian community are under discussion the church and religion is immediately brought into the fray. This is done in an attempt to once again tell the gay and lesbian community that we must always be less than equal.

Elected officials have to be made aware that this treatment will no longer be tolerated. It is illegal and will ultimately, through the judicial process, prove to be unconstitutional.

As I have said before, the whole idea of same-sex marriage is an exercise in equal justice. To do less is discrimination, pure and simple.

I have never liked the term "domestic partnership" because it sounds like I'm starting a home cleaning business. I have no desire to have a "wedding" with religious trappings. But, within my lifetime, I fully expect to enjoy a ceremony of equality with my partner that will be recognized by the government, embracing the spousal benefits extended to all under civil law.

Eric L. Floyd Akron

Privatize marriage

To the Editors:

When government is permitted to make decisions about people's lives, it also gets to choose the winners and losers. Then we get the standard Left-Right quibbling over who deserves what share, if any, of the illegiti-

THE OPEN PRAIRIE by Joe Noover!

ALFIE'S HOME

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

ALFIE! OPEN THE DOOR! ITS TIME TO GO TO YOUR REPARATIVE

THERAPY SESSION!

THE LUES OF LUST

mate pie. Thus, if the State of Ohio asserts the privilege of issuing marriage licenses, it also gets to decide who can and cannot marry.

The alternative is to let individuals decide how they want to live. Let private marriage contracts be formed between people; support and seek employment with firms and insurance carriers which recognize such contracts.

So long as we act peacefully and honestly, we should be free to do as we wish with our lives. And, every time the power to make decisions about people's lives is transferred from the civil society (i.e., people) to the political society (i.e., government) we gradually lose our liberty. Let's not let this continue.

Aaron J. O'Brien Lakewood

Call his sponsors

To the Editors:

In a recent issue [Jan. 10] you printed a letter from Eric Resnick regarding the despicable WTAM 1100 AM air personality Rich Michaels. I spent the longest hour of my radio career on his show a few weeks ago. I have met many people in this industry who espouse and promote hatred and bigotry on the air, yet have a completely different personality off air. Rich Michaels is no phony. He is as contemptible off-air as he is on.

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If Bobby Hatfield, program director at WTAM, extends a courtesy to you by taking your call of protest, don't feel you've done your civic duty. He will chalk up that call in the plus column. Why? Because Rich has gotten another listener to react.

Rich Michaels is a commercial success. The sales staff have filled all their commercial time during his show. Bottom line is cash register receipts. Rich sells cars, J.C. Penney products, air filters and more. If you want to protest in a way that has an impact, call his sponsors. Enough calls from potential consumers will make advertisers nervous; maybe nervous enough to cancel their ad contracts. And then, as was the case in Buffalo, the program director will ask Mr. Michaels to hit the road.

While I'm on the subject of advertisers; the same principle applies to my show, The Gay '90s on WERE 1300 AM, which airs on Sunday nights from 7 to 9. If you appreciate what you hear, let the advertisers know. Even if, at the time, you have no need to buy a home, for example, call the advertiser and let them know that you will call upon them when you are ready for such a service. Talk radio is a business, and a tough one at that. I need your support.

Buck Harris Cleveland

20 years of invective

The following was sent to the Cleveland Plain Dealer about their story marking the anniversary of the first anti-gay initiative.

To the Editors:

Your front page feature, Monday, January 27, of the 20th anniversary of Anita Bryant's "Save Our Children" campaign was astonishing because of its prominent location, for such an old story, and because of its incompleteness.

The mean-spirited invective employed by Anita Bryant became the model for anti-gay rhetoric employed by political radicals ever since.

Bryant, during her right-wing-funded campaign to overturn legislated protections against discrimination in housing and employment, charged that homosexuals were predatory monsters undeserving of civil rights and unsafe to serve as teachers. Indeed, over the course of a year of media focus, her invective became bizarre as she stated, "They would just as soon kill you as look at you." Bryant's campaign fed upon the willingness of uninformed folks to believe such distortion and stereotyping. It was exactly the same tool used by the Nazis as Hitler's power was being born in post-World War I Germany.

Traditional Values Coalition leader Rev. Louis Sheldon, who unsuccessfully tried to create a program against homosexuals this past summer during House hearings initiated by Speaker Newt Gingrich, once worked for Bryant's campaign and adopted its title for a similar Califórnia anti-gay campaign which culminated in the Briggs Initiative to eliminate homosexuals as teachers. Fortunately, Californians defeated it.

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Unfortunately, Sheldon and his close associates Dr. James Dobson and Rev. Pat Robertson (also his former employer) are still trying to make the same hatemongering work. That is the actual 20-year milestone started by Anita Bryant, 20 years of bigotry invective.

Northern Ohio leaders and officials have clearly taken note of all this and work steadily to see that neighbors' sexual orientation is no longer an excuse for building right-wing political power here in our communities. A toast to the sanity here at home! (Champagne and orange juice, of course.)

Bill Henderson Cleveland

Henderson is a board member of Ohioans Against Discrimination.

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