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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE DECEMBER 19, 1997

Catch The Spirit Of

LIBERATION

UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

SHARING OUR

TALENTS

OF LOVE

EXPRESSIONS

WELCOMING ALL

PRACTICING OUR FAITH

THE ONLY PIECE

MISSING

IS YOU!

BUILDING

FRIENDSHIPS

SHOWING OUR PRIDE

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

CELEBRATING FAMILIES AND RELATIONSHIPS

By visiting Liberation United Church of Christ during the holiday season, enjoy your favorite holiday traditions and create new ones with friends who share your family values. Come home and enjoy the spirit of Liberation – the only thing that is missing is you!

Christmas Eve Service Wednesday December 24th at 10:30 PM

Liberation worships at the Hillel Foundation located at the corner of Ford Drive and Euclid Avenue on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. For more information call the church office at 781 5822.

Owner nixes Village People show at Pride festival

Myrtle Beach, S.C.-A development company's move to prohibit the Village People from appearing in concert during a gay and lesbian pride festival has brought national attention to a deepening divide in this popular southern resort town.

Negotiations were in the works for a May 2 concert at the Broadway at the Beach complex by the colorful six-man '70s band, popular with gay audiences because of tongue-in-cheek disco hits such as "YMCA," "Macho Man," and "In the Navy."

But landowners Burroughs & Chapin, citing their image in promoting traditional family values, exercised its veto power over events in Celebrity Square.

"We have decided that it is in the best interest of Broadway at the Beach not to have any special events... which can be misinterpreted as an endorsement of the Gay and Lesbian Pride March," the developer said on December 4.

The ninth annual festival, coming to Myrtle Beach after last year's events in Greenville and previous festivals in Columbia, is scheduled for April 30-May 3.

Gay rights supporters denounced the company.

"They're not just homophobic, they're aggressively homophobic," said Cathy Renna of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in Washington.

Festival organizers called the decision a slap in the face and threatened to organize an economic boycott against Burroughs & Chapin. A lawsuit also is being considered.

"What's next?" said Tony Snell, co-chair of the Pride organizing group. "Will they attempt to set up barriers at Broadway at the Beach asking individuals their sexual orientation before entering to spend their money?"

Several Baptist ministers, most from outside the Myrtle Beach area, have said they would stage their own march to protest the gay and lesbian Pride march. They added that people claiming to be former homosexuals who have been converted to Christianity would be on hand throughout the weekend to do "some seminar, education type things."

Despite concerns from the ministers and from their landlord, restaurants and clubs like House of Blues, Official All-Star Cafe, Hard Rock Cafe, and Celebrations have all pledged participation in the festival. Official All-Star Cafe hosted a press conference for Pride organizers on November 25, and has agreed to serve as the registration and welcoming site during the festival weekend.

"[The developer] has strengthened our resolve to carry our message of acceptance and tolerance to Myrtle Beach," Snell said. "I am pleased the march has already accomplished one thing so far-drawing an enemy of human rights out into the open."

The Celebrity Square Street Association, composed of nightclub owners in the restaurant and entertainment complex, had put down a deposit to reserve the concert date.

But Burroughs & Chapin has the final say on any events in common areas of Broadway at the Beach, and a meeting between the two sides could not save the concert.

The development company took out a paid advertisment in the December 3 issue of the Myrtle Beach Sun News, which said, "Our company abides by the laws governing fair and equal treatment of all individuals. However, as a private company, we have not, nor do we intend to, be forced or intimidated into supporting organized activities that we believe endanger the historic values of our nation" Company representatives said that those "historic values" are not represented by people who attend a gay and lesbian pride festival.

"This is what we're up against," said festival organizer Linda Robertson. "This is why a festival is so important—to educate people who have these negative ideas."

The publicity that the story is generating has helped Pride organizers attract nationally-known speakers like Candace Gingrich and Betty DeGeneres. Robertson said the publicity will also increase the size of the crowd.

"We expect an even bigger turnout than the 15 to 20,000 people we originally expected," she said.

Athens passes rights ordinance

Continued from page 1

thing to do. The fact that all four sponsors are lame ducks does not negate its appropriate-

ness.

After the vote, Shostak told the Athens Messenger, "We are a progressive community, and this is what progressive communities do."

Republican Scott Hunter, also a lameduck council member, was the lone dissenter. He is leaving council at the end of this year after eight years of service. Hunter said he would prefer to have voters decide the issue.

People both for and against the measure seem to agree that a referendum campaign is imminent. When a similar law was passed by Athens City Council in 1988, a 1989 referendum vote narrowly reversed it by a vote of 1,626 to 1,463.

Athens attorney Scott Robe, whose father Ed Robe led the referendum drive eight years ago, said that council failed to demonstrate why the ordinance was needed. He also said he feared the ordinance could permit bestiality, pedophilia and other illegal forms of sexual behavior.

Shostak, who is also a lawyer, said that the ordinance would not do anything to change current laws regarding certain forms of illegal sexual behavior.

Bias pointed to an anti-gay flyer that was sent anonymously to city hall as one of the reasons the ordinance was needed. According to the Athens News, the pamphlet claimed that "gays have more sexually transmitted diseases than heterosexuals have the flu."

Bias said that the pamphlets, titled "What causes Homosexuality and Can It Be Changed?" and "Violence and Homosexual-

ity" were similar to the ones circulated back in 1988.

Joanna Pashdag, a new resident of Athens and a proponent of the measure, said, “If it does go to referendum, I'll be one of the people that is very active in fighting that battle."

Exceptions were carved out for churches and religious schools, and for owner-occupied rental housing with no more than three unrelated renters. The latter exception was made when one opponent of the ordinance argued at a public hearing that he should not be forced to rent to someone gay who would then live under his own roof.

The measure went through three public readings. On the evening that city council voted, it was standing room only in the council chambers.

Mayor Ric Abel has ten days in which he could veto the council's decision. A subsequent council could also vote to overturn any of this council's decisions.

Nine other Ohio cities include gay and lesbian residents in their civil rights ordinances: Columbus, Cleveland, Youngstown, Yellow Springs, Oberlin, North Olmsted, Cleveland Heights, Lakewood and Westlake.

Two Ohio towns have removed gay civil rights ordinances. Cincinnati city council deleted the "sexual orientation" language from its ordinance in 1995, a year after Issue 3, which outlawed it, was passed by voters. A months-old Wooster ordinance was voted out in 1990.

Nationwide, about 170 cities, including almost all major cities, have measures protecting gays and lesbians. However, some of these, like those in Dayton and Cuyahoga County, protect only municipal employees.