FEBRUARY 20, 1998 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

9

IN BOX

A medical view: Homophobia can be a health hazard

by Doreen Cudnik Cleveland-Dr. Kate O'Hanlan, lesbian and gay rights activist and nationally known gynecologic oncologist from Stanford University will be the featured speaker at the annual meeting of the Northern Ohio Physicians for Human Rights, a group of gay and lesbian physicians.

The topic of O'Hanlan's talk is "Homophobia as a Health Hazard.” Normally, the physicians' group meetings are open to members only, but the group is inviting the entire community to attend.

O'Hanlan has been an active and outspoken lesbian and gay rights activist both in the medical and political arenas. She founded, and remains honorary chair, of the Lesbian Health Fund. In 1993, she served as president of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association. It was during her tenure that the organization changed its name from the "American Association of Physicians for Human Rights.”

O'Hanlan worked to develop domestic partner benefit policies at the two medical centers where she has been employed since completing her training in 1986, New York's Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Stanford. At Stanford, she helped write a benefit parity rule, making the university the first to offer the same benefits to all employees, regardless of sexual orientation.

She has been actively engaged in promoting gay and lesbian health concerns through advocacy, research, and numerous publications. Just this past year, after four years of effort, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology published its first patient education pamphlet about lesbian health, coauthored by O'Hanlan, and distributed to 180,000 doctors nationwide.

O'Hanlan is in private practice at Stanford Medical Center. She lives in California with her partner of eleven years, Leónie Walker.

The event will be held on Monday, March 2 at the Hilton South at 1-77 and Rockside Rd. The evening will start with a cash bar at 6:00 p.m., followed by a chicken or pasta dinner at 7:00p.m. O'Hanlan will deliver her lecture after dinner. Admission to both dinner and the lecture is $25 per person. Call 216-281-7418 for more information.

Swim team gets coach

Columbus--Only six months after its inception, the Ohio Splash swim team has appointed Matthew Hamparian as coach of the team. With a roster of over fifty members, and attendance at swim workouts averaging around twenty-five per session, the Splash steering committee decided that a permanent coach was needed to assist in growing and guiding Ohio's s gay and lesbian United States Masters swim team.

"We are growing so fast, it was time to make the commitment to hiring a dedicated and experienced coach to help make our team one of the premier gay and lesbian swim teams in the country," said group president Grant Wilson. "We have great plans to establish an identity for the team that will proudly reflect on all Columbus lesbian and gay athletes everywhere we go."

Hamparian is an accomplished athlete and coach in swimming, diving and volleyball. He led NCAA Division I teams at the University of Evansville. Previously, he coached at Wittenburg University and at the Florida State University where he is completing his doctoral degree in athletic administration. He also plays with the Columbus lesbian and gay volleyball league.

"I missed coaching after being out of it for a year," Hamparian said. “This was a good opportunity for me to give back to the community and help develop a nationally recognized presence in gay and lesbian athletics."

The Ohio Splash provides gay men and lesbians with an open, fun and supportive environment in which to improve their swimming skills and fitness, compete, and enjoy the camaraderie of participating in athletics with other lesbians and gays. The team works out on Thursday, Friday and Sunday evenings at several locations around Columbus. For more information, call Grant Wilson at 614-299-0302, or 614-470-0070.

Recorder concert at Harkness

Cleveland-As part of Case Western Reserve University's "Chapel, Court and Countryside" concert series at Harkness Chapel, Dutch recorder virtuoso Marion Verbruggen will perform a solo concert on Saturday, February 28 at 8:00 p.m. Verbruggen's program, titled "Potpourri" will

Marion Verbruggen

CATRIEN ARIENS

include a selection of her favorite works from the Renaissance and Baroque eras.

An out, proud lesbian, Verbruggen is considered one of the world's best-known recorder virtuosos, and is legendary for her dynamic on-stage energy. One critic commented, "Verbruggen does not seem to breathe," and Dr. Ross Duffin, chair of CWRU's music department called her simply "the best recorder player in the world." Duffin, an accomplished recorder player himself, will speak about the instrument that Verbruggen will play prior to her performance, at 7:15 the same evening.

Verbruggen has recorded and performed with the world's most prestigious musicians and ensembles, and has received prizes for her interpretations of early music. This season she has performed in Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Nigeria, and on both U.S. coasts. The Harkness Chapel event will be her first appearance in Cleveland.

While in town, Verbruggen will also give a master class and teach a workshop for amateur recorder players of all levels. The day-long workshop, also on February 28, will be held from 9:30a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Middleburg Heights branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library, 15600 E. Bagley Rd. Call Carolyn Peskin at 216-561-4665 for more information about the workshop. Harkness Chapel is located at 11200 Bell-

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flower Road, behind the Church of the Covenant. Tickets are $15 regular admission, $10 for seniors and students. Call 216-368-2402.

New Lesbian partner abuse program starts

Dayton-Every day, lesbians struggle with a variety of oppressions from the outside world-homophobia, racism, sexism, sexual harassment, to name just a few. Because of these ongoing battles to justify their very existence to the straight world, when problems arise within the community, they often are kept secret.

CMA

Secrets like domestic violence in lesbian relationships are difficult to discuss, but like heterosexual victims, lesbians in abusive relationships face the same threats of danger, and even death. That is why the Artemis Center for Alternatives to Domestic Violence and the Ellis Institute of the Wright State School of Professional Psychology has created a project to help lesbians involved in Michaelangelo's study for the Nude Youth relationships where domestic vioover the Prophet Daniel, circa 1510. lence is present.

Artemis Center was able to begin a group for battered lesbians through a Violence Against Women Act grant. Lesbian abusers are served through the PATH (Preventing Abuse in the Home) program at Ellis Institute, an established and well respected batterer intervention program.

For more information about the Survivors' Project, call 937-222-7233 and ask for Reach Out when you reach the Domestic Violence Hotline. TTY 937-461-7910.

Michaelangelo in exhibit

Cleveland-Lovers of sacred art have an opportunity to view some of the most sacred and artistically important works from the Vatican museums in the exhibition Vatican Treasures: Early Christian, Renaissance, and Baroque Art from the Papal Collections, at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The exhibition, which opened on February 8 and remains on view through April 12, focuses on thirty-nine masterpieces-works by the greatest artists of the time-commissioned by and for popes who were great patrons of the arts.

The exhibit includes manuscripts, liturgical objects, intricately woven vestments, paintings, and sculpture from the 6th through the 18th centuries. The 1,400-year-old, gemencrusted, gilt silver Cross of Justin II, commissioned by the Byzantine emperor as a gift to the pope in the 6th century, is the centerpiece of the Treasury of St. Peter's in Rome. This extraordinary object, which is a reliquary for what is believed to be a piece of the cross on which Christ was crucified, crossed the Atlantic for the first time for this show.

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Of special interest to gay art lovers is the work of and items attributed to Michelangelo in this exhibit. One of them is a study for the Nude Youth over the Prophet Daniel, done in black and red chalk. The completed work is part of the famed fresco that decorates the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The other item is a letter written by Michelangelo around 1550-53 concerning the work on St. Peter's Basilica, for which he designed the architectural plans.

While no one can say for sure whether or not Michelangelo acted on what he called his "wicked and depraved desires,” history does record that Michelangelo's grandnephew extensively revised his great-uncle's poetry, changing the gender of pronouns in many of the love poems to suggest they were written to women instead of men. Michelangelo's art and written work demonstrates a powerful physical and emotional attraction to other men, and the homoeroticism in his work has had a lasting impact on artists up to the present.

To help make your visit to the exhibit feel like you're really in Rome, plan to have lunch or dinner at the Ristorante Roma, loIcated inside the museum. The Ristorante Roma, presented by the gay-owned Heck's Catering, replicates the relaxed atmosphere of a traditional Italian restaurant. Call 216421-7340, ext. 184 to make a reservation.

Ticket prices for Vatican Treasures are $7 Tuesdays-Fridays and $10 Saturdays and Sundays. Discounts are available for students, seniors and groups. For more information, call 216-421-7350 or toll free 888262-0033.

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