GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE MARCH 21, 1997

XV.

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Cincinnati

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Margaret Cutler, R.N.:

Columbus Contact:

Jane Russell, R.N.:

1-216-368-AIDS | 1-614-293-8112

1-513-558-8373

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Black, gay choruses join to sing songs of freedom

Columbus-The Columbus Gay Men's Chorus is gearing up for a spring concert that artistic director David M. Price predicts will be a "foot-stomping, hand-clapping, soulstirring event that everyone will enjoy."

The concert, titled “Gospel and Spirit," will attempt to illustrate the parallels between formerly enslaved African Americans and today's gay and lesbian community. The 135-voice chorus will team up with the Sounds of Ebony, Opera Columbus' outreach group for African Americans. Besides accompanying the chorus on many songs, the Sounds of Ebony will also perform in duets and quartets.

"Gospel and Spirit is a concert full of traditional spirituals, contemporary gospel, and South African protest and freedom songs," Price said. The combined choruses will present such favorites as "Deep River,” "Every Time I Feel the Spirit," and "Amen," along with new arrangements of “Amazing Grace" "Kum Ba Ya" and "A River in Judea."

The chorus has received a fax from an area church outlining their plans to picket the concerts. Plan to support the concerts and show this group that efforts to build bridges of understanding between the gay and lesbian community and the African American community will not be deterred by a few closed-minded individuals.

The concerts will take place on Saturday, March 22 at 8:00 pm and Sunday, March 23 at 2:30 pm in Weigel Auditorium on the Ohio State campus. Tickets range in price from $8 to $20 and can be ordered by calling 614461-0022 or 614-431-3600.

Museum has AIDS conference

Cleveland The Health Museum of Cleveland is currently hosting What About AIDS?, the first national traveling exhibit on the disease. The display combines photo essays and personal stories with computers, video, and hands-on interactive devices to educate people of all ages about HIV and AIDS.

As well as a history of the illness, the exhibit teaches about AIDS transmission and prevention and outlines the measures scientists and communities worldwide are taking to stop the disease.

The exhibit, which runs through spring 1998, is included in the cost of museum admission.

The health museum will also host Becoming Visible, Becoming Vocal: A Conference on Women and HIV/AIDS on May 9 and 10. The conference kicks off that Friday with a 5:30 p.m. gallery lecture by photographer Ann Meredith. She will preside over the official public opening of her exhibit The Global Faces of AIDS: Photographs of Women.

Dr. Victoria Cargill, the director of community health for University Hospitals, will deliver the conference's keynote address on Saturday, May 10.

There will also be a staged reading of Imani Harrington's new play Love and Danger at 3:00 p.m.

For additional information on the AIDS conference or exhibit, call 216-231-5010. The Health Museum of Cleveland is located at East 89th and Euclid Ave.

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Cleveland Coming off a successful fall season which saw 16 teams competing in four divisions, DiVA volleyball kicks off its 1997 spring season on Sunday March 23 at Cleveland State University's Woodling Gym.

Because of university requirements, the spring season has been shortened to a fiveweek regular season followed by a single elimination playoff. The tentative schedule for the spring session is March 23, April 6, April 13, May 4, and May 11 with playoffs on the evening of Friday, May 16. Because of the abbreviated season, the entry fee for the spring session will be $100.

DIVA's 10-week fall season culminated with single-elimination league play-offs on January 12 at CSU. The champions were awarded trophies at the DiVA banquet held at Visions nightclub on Sunday, January 26. Also recognized were team sponsors, including Adams Street, U4ia, Visions, Interbelt, Associated Designs, D.L. Dunkle, The Gathering, The Grid, Flex Complex and Taxi Modeling.

In addition, a donation was given in memory of Jimmie Stallard, a long-time volleyball player and referee, to the AIDS Housing Council's Kamana House. The first annual Jimmie Stallard Memorial Award was presented to Alex Bruchac for his years of service to the volleyball league.

DiVA, the Diversified Volleyball Association, welcomes all levels of players. New teams are still being formed. For more information about the league, call Ken at 216251-1985.

Time to squelch those rumors

Congratulations to U.S. Rep. John Kasich (R-Westerville) on his marriage to Karen Waldbillig, a communications consultant for Grant Riverside hospitals. The 44-year-old chairman of the House Budget Committee will wed Waldbillig, 33, at a small ceremony in Columbus on Saturday, March 22. Waldbillig will continue to work at the hospital after the wedding.

In an article in the March 9 issue of the Canton Repository, Waldbillig said that the couple has been dating for eight years.

"My friends and family are glad that we're finally engaged," Waldbillig told Associated Press writer Amy Beth Graves. “They've been watching us for eight years and keep asking 'What is their deal?''

Prior to the November 5 election, Kasich's living arrangement with his male chief of staff got national attention when Democratic opponent Cynthia Ruccia went public with ethics concerns. Ruccia asked the Justice Department to look into the living, travel, and financial arrangements between Kasich and his employee, Douglas G. Thibaut. The two men have shared a residence in Alexandria, Virginia since Kasich was first elected to Congress 14 years ago.

Following the call for an inquiry, a representative of Kasich's office denied allegations that either of the men were gay, and an editorial in the Columbus Dispatch denounced Ruccia for seeming to imply that "there is something other than a professional relationship between the two."

Kasich went on to win re-election by a large margin.

Kasich and Waldbillig plan to build a house on a wooded ten-acre lot in southern Delaware County. Kasich will continue to live in Washington D.C., in the home he shares with Thibaut during the week, and in Ohio on the weekends. There is no word on whether or not Thibaut will be Kasich's best man at the wedding.

"I don't look at Washington as a home," Kasich said in the Repository. "It's just a place to work. Columbus is my home."

"We're real homebodies," Kasich said of himself and Waldbillig. “We do nor mal stuff."

Compiled by Doreen Cudnik and Bob

Boone.