GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE MAY 2, 1997

COMMUNITY FORUM

Debate in churches is

a waste of our time

To the Editors:

In 1988, while visiting relatives, I was informed that a childhood friend had died of AIDS. I was then told that the United Methodist church of which he was a member had refused to officiate at the interment. So did a second United Methodist church. A nondenominational church stepped in and conducted the funeral.

This childhood friend was not one of those people who only attended services twice a year at Easter and Christmas. He went to church regularly, served as an altar boy, sang in the youth choir and participated in the youth group. He also encouraged other adolescents to go to church.

In the early 1980s, his church helped pay his way to England where he worked as a youth missionary for a year. Upon his return, he presented a traditional English service for the two previously-mentioned congregations. A year later, he assisted at the marriage of his stepsister. He died several years later in a city on the east coast where he had gone to enroll in a seminary.

It is my opinion that the refusal to bury this human being speaks volumes about the base of the United Methodist Church.

On a similar note, I saw in the March 12, 1997 issue of Christian Century an article entitled "Drop Gay Issue, Urges Methodist Group" which was about a group of 20 United Methodist Church members, both clergy and lay, from about 20 states who are "calling for an end to needless debate over an issue settled centuries ago..."

Moreover, in the April 7, 1997 issue of Christianity Today, a short article dealt with the efforts of an evangelical Methodist group called Good News (?!) to work against the inclusion of gay men and women in the church.

On the heels of these two articles follows

THE OPEN PRAIRIE by Joe Hoover!

STONEWALL

SO UP

PART 1

A PRIDE DAY FAIRY TALE 47 BY JOE HOOVER

HOWEVER THERE WERE SOME

IN THEIR VILLAGE THAT WERE OFFENED BY THE LOVE

OLGA & LENA HAD FOR

EACH OTHER FOR A STONEWALL HAD BUILT UP AROUND THEIR HEARTS.

ONCE UPON A TIME WHEN WISHING STILL WORKED, THERE LIVED TWO WISE CRONES NAMED OLGA & LENA.

ONE DAY THERE WAS A FESTIVAL IN THEIR VILLAGE LENA SAID TO OLGA, "LETS MAKE SOME STONEWALL SOUP FOR THE FESTIVAL.

the Presbyterians' vote to bar gay men and lesbians from full membership in that denomination.

Even though the debate over inclusion continues in other churches, I think it is a waste of time to participate. Too many levelheaded people have stopped attending church, for one reason or another, leaving most denominations either in the hands of, or well on

Community Forum

OLGA & LENA LOVED EACH OTHER AS MUCH AS A TREE LOVES THE SUN.

So OLGA&LENA HEATED A BIG KETTLE OF WATER THEN FOUND A STONE AND DROPPED IT IN AND LEFT THE SOUP ALONE TO BOIL.

TO BE CONTINUED.

their way to being controlled by, extremists. While I applaud any effort to make change, we have bigger and more important goals to achieve.

GAN PEOPLES CHRONICLE

Volume 12, Issue 22

MY PEOPLE

KVIR

oprairie@visi.com

A BECADE

OF PUBLIS

It should not incumb on a Freethinker to remind the members of the United Methodist Church:

"Bury your dead" (Genesis 23:11).

Web Site:

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

Rick Bansh Fremont

The Chronicle encourages everyone to write and express your opinion about the community or the paper. Please, however, keep letters constructive, and avoid name-calling and personal attacks. Please be brief. We reserve the right to edit letters. We will print your name unless you specifically ask us not to.

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Gay parents gathered as the Quilt unfurled

Ten years ago in July, KWIR Publications took over the Gay People's Chronicle, which had ceased publication following the death of founder Charles Callendar. These are some of the stories appearing in May issues since then. May, 1988

The Gay and Lesbian Parenting Coalition International prepared to hold its annual meeting in Columbus June 3-5. Topics of 42 workshops included step-parenting, legal planning, and coming out to sons and daughters.

PUBLISHING

all parades.

A state appeals court ruled that Ohio's domestic violence law applies to gay and lesbian couples as well as heterosexual ones. A trial judge had thrown out the case of a Columbus lesbian seeking protection from her domestic partner, saying that the law's language of "those who live as spouses" or "otherwise cohabit" could not apply to two women. The appeals court said the law applies to people sharing a household regardless of their sex. May 14, 1993

THE GAY PEOPLE!

KWIR

A DECADE

Cleveland Names Project organizers got ready to unfurl the AIDS Memorial Quilt in its first visit to Ohio, at the Convention Center June 3-5. According to Charlie's Calendar, there were five lesbian and gay events in May 1988, along with 36 weekly or monthly meetings. Nine years later, this issue's calendar has 35 events in just the first two weeks of May, with over 250 weekly or monthly meetings.

May, 1990

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that state law allows single people, regardless of sexual orientation, to adopt children. The 6 to 1 decision reversed an Ohio Court of Appeals-Fifth

CHRONICLE

and 1987.

With the May 14, 1993 issue, the Chronicle began publishing every two weeks. Seven hundred thousand lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and supporters marched through Washington, D.Con April 25, in the third march

versed a lower court decision that the measure banning lesbian-gay civil rights laws was unconstitutional.

The Sixth Circuit is presently thinking again about Issue 3. It heard arguments for a second time on March 19, after the U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back to be reheard in light of a high court decision striking down Colorado's almost-identical Amendment 2. A new ruling is expected by summer.

♡

Published by

KWIR Publications, Inc.

ISSN 1070-177X

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Patti Harris Doreen Cudnik

Brian DeWitt

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Next Chronicle comes out Friday, May 16

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Correction

A byline was omitted from an article on Martha Boesing's one-woman show These Are My Sisters, in the April 18 issue. The article was written by Dawn Leach.

We now have a new E-mail

third march address and fax number

for gay and lesbian civil rights. The first two were in 1979

A group of lesbian and gay leaders met with President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office on April 16, the first time a sitting president had met with gay and lesbian representatives.

A busload of Akron marchers was threatened by a man who waved a gun at them as they passed his car on Interstate 70 in Maryland.

District ruling that adoptions by gays and May 20, 1994

lesbians were not in the best interest of the child. The ruling allowed Columbus psychologist M. Lee Balser to adopt Charlie B., a boy with leukemia.

May, 1991

The city of Cleveland agreed to paint a lavender road stripe on the Lesbian-Gay Pride March route through downtown, similar to a green one painted for the St. Patrick's Day parade. This was the only year the stripe was painted; in 1992 the city ended the practice for

Cincinnati authorities said they would not prosecute the Ensemble Theater for obscenity if it went ahead with a production of Poor Super Man. City council passed a resolution 7-2 urging prosecutor Joseph Deters to allow the play, which contains frontal male nudity and depicts a gay love affair.

May 19, 1995

The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 3 to 0 decision, upheld Cincinnati's Issue 3 city charter amendment. The ruling re-

The Gay People's Chronicle now has new E-mail addresses, with separate ones for different purposes. Our America Online address since 1994, ChronOhio@aol.com, will be discontinued in the upcoming weeks. Please note the new e-mail addresses below, AOL will not forward mail from our old address once it is closed.

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