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HIGH

CEAR

1978 GEAR

Vol 4 A Publication of the GEAR Foundation Issue 8

Staff

HIGH GEAR journal is a publication of the Gay Educational and Awareness Resources (G.E.A.R.) Foundation of Cleveland, Ohio. It is distributed free of charge in any establishment and with any organization that will permit distribution. We are non-profit publication, and all proceeds not used to pay printing costs and service fees are set aside for the Gay HotlineSwitchboard (216)-321-6632, the G.E.A.R. Foundation which sponsors the Cleveland Gay Community Center and other Ohio gay organizations.

The presence of the name or picture or other representation of an organization, place of business or person(s) in HIGH GEAR is not necessarily indicative of the sexual orientation of such organizations, businesses or persons.

We welcome all contributions of written materials, art work, or photography by members of the gay community. All materials submitted for publication are subject to editorialization. We cannot guarantee the return of materials submitted for publication, whether used by HIGH GEAR or not, unless they are accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envolope.

All HIGH GEAR staff are volunteers. Anyone Interested in working on the staff of HIGH GEAR should Inquire by calling (216) 321-6632 or by writing to HIGH GEAR STAFF, P.O. Box 6177, Cleveland, Ohio 44101.

Businesses or organizations wishing to advertise in HIGH GEAR may obtain advertising rate sheets and other information by writing to the above address.

Ine deadline for HIGH GEAR publication dates is as follows:

Advertising by the 30th of every month, camera ready and composition ade. Written material by the 5th of every month. News Hems until pubication.

High Gear will not publish material'in which graphic or verbal representations of an ideal or idealized human body appear, except in the case of a performer or work of art which is the subject of the material. We also will not publish material of a racist, sexist, or pornographic nature. We reserve the right to. alter and/or edit material to conform to the above standards; in the case of display advertising, after notifying the advertiser.

HIGH CHAR is printed the second Thursday of every month and available at bars, baths, universities, businesses and elsewhere thereafter.

HIGH GEAR is copyrighted under federal law. Reproduction is granted to all other gay publications so long as credit is given to HIGH GEAR, A HIGH GEAR work is original unless otherwise noted.

Michael Prunty Leon Stevens

Tony Scafaro

Ed Rawlings

Robbie Robinson

Terry McCormick

Aaron Ross

Circulation Distribution

.......... Mark Kinsley

HIGH GEAR/APRIL 1978

APPEALS BLASPHEMY CHARGE

...Courtesy of Gay Community Here the public displays and News, 3/11/78 noisy, angry arguments over the poem were given over to the two central legal questions. Did it matter whether or not Gay News and editor Lemon intended to blaspheme? Was it necessary that the poem should attack Christianity?

LONDON, England-The Gay News blasphemy appeal is over, following four days of hearings and the largest gay rights demonstration ever held here. The newspaper, and its editor Denis Lemon, expect to hear the judgment in the case within the month.

Gay News was found guilty of "unlawfully and wickedly" publishing a blasphemous libel on the Christian religion by publishing a poem which depicted Christ as a homosexual. The poem was written by James Kirkup, who has contributed to Fag Rug and Gay Sunshine.

Beginning on Feb. 13, and for four days after that, the paper's appeal was heard in two separate hearings. The appeal opened at the Royal Courts of Justice, where anti-gay crusader Mary Whitehouse appeared to speak against the paper and homosexuality. The suit against the paper was brought by Whitehouse as part of her antipornography campaign.

The public show of the hearing at the Old Bailey ended, however, when the case moved to the Court of Criminal Appeal.

Counsel for both sides argued from historical points of view during the four full days of hearings. Darwin's Origin of the Species, and Thomas Paine's Age of Reason were central to the defense arguments.

Defense attorney John Mortimor stated that all the cases heard under the 17th Century Blasphemy Act required that the defendant should "intend to blaspheme." Mortimor argued that to say that the editor's intention did not matter--that he could be guilty even if he had not meant to cause offense--was to make the law even stricter than it had been at the end of the 19th Century.

Appearing on behalf of Mary Whitehouse, attorney John Smyth countered that the law was not that clear. The poem was so "clearly obscene," he charged, that it was "up to your lordships to make the crime of blasphemy fit the requirements

COURT DECLINES REVIEW

The Supreme Court again declined to review a lower court's ruling regarding a matter involving homosexual discrimination. But for the first time two of the justices voiced objection to the majority decision.

The case involved the University of Missouri refusal to recognize Gay Lib, a student homosexual group, as an official campus organization.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit had over-ruled a Federal district court decision not to recognize the group because the lower court felt recognition would promote violation of the state's sodomy laws.

The Appellate Court ruled that

the university's refusal to recognize Gay Lib deprived its members their constitutional rights to associate with each other and "smacks of penalizing persons for their status rather than their conduct, which is constitutionally impermissible."

The Supreme Courts' decision to review Rotchford vs Gay Lib leaves the appeals court ruling as the law of the circuit, which covers seven middle western states. The appellate court's decision can be cited elsewhere by lawyers in support of their gay clients.

The dissenting justices, William H. Rehnquist and Harry Blackman, recognize the right of the high court to choose the cases it reviews, but the de-

of the times." Smyth contended that the feelings of the majority should be protected.

Lord Justice Roskill, one of the three judges hearing the case, questioned Smyth's insistence. "The law tends nowadays rather to protect the interests of the minorities," the judge said. "It is the minorities who are most often in need of protection. If the law does protect the majority, it must be very careful that it does not at the same time oppress minorities."

Some 5,000 people marched through the streets of London on the first day of the Gay News appeals hearing. Marchers came from all parts of Britain and converged on Trafalgar Square. They were brought together by the National Gay News Defense Committee.

Organizers, who said this was the biggest demonstration for gay rights in Britain's history, centered their protests on the Gay News case, but also brought up other issues at the rally. The police raid on Canada's Body Politic, attacks on gay pubs in Britain and the campaign of Anita Bryant in the United States protested during the London demon. stration.

were

Issues

cision indicates that this discretion should not become "a sort of judicial storm cellar to which we may flee to escape from controversial or sensitive cases."

Late last year the Supreme Court refused to consider separate appeals filed by two. gay school teachers, James Gaylord of Tacoma, Washington, and John Gish of Paramus, New Jersey. In these cases, Justices Thurgood Marshall and William J. Brennan, Jr., voted to hear both cases but the consent of four justices is required to conduct a review.

The court has not considered any gay rights case since 1967 when it ruled that gay aliens could be deported as persons "afflicted with psychopathic personality."

Steve Jobe TIDEWATER LESBIAN/GAY CONFERENCE

Dan Miecznikowski Mitchell Menigu Jean O'Leary and Bruce VoPat Henderson eller, Co-Executive Directors of BI Smith the National Gay Task Force, Dennis Highland will be keynote speakers at the 2nd Tidewater Lesbian/Gay Conference, to be held at Old Dominion University (O.D.U.) in Norfolk, Virginia, May 26-28, 1978.

... 10,000

Akron, Athens, Barberton, Berea, Bowling Green, Brooklyn Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Cleveland Hts., Columbus, Dayton, Fairview Park, Lakewood, Lima, Lorain, Mansfield, Middleburgh Hts., Oberlin, Painesville, Parma, Parma Hts., Piqua, Rockbridge, Rocky River, Sandusky, Toledo, Warren, Youngstown and points beyond.

Gay means not homosexual but sexually free....sexual freedom is not some kind of groovy lifestyle with lots of sex...it is sexual freedom premised upon the notion of pleasure through equality. ---Allen Young

Our Own Doors." Although we This year's theme is "Opening are very aware of the doors we must open in dealing with the rest of society, conference sessions will also explore the many ways we remain closed to each other within the lesbian and gay male community.

As Betty Powell, a Brooklyn College educator and NGTF Joard member, said last fall, "The oppressive laws and institutions which exist are certainly a part of what we're fighting against but, as horrible as that is, probably the worst experiences of Lesbians and gay men are as a result of loneliness, lack of community, or is-

olation." At this conference we will help each other find ways to open up our own internal doors.

Other workshops and play shops will focus on specific topics such as politics, intimacy, religion, health, separatism, music, and many others. Keynote speakers will open and close the conference, and there will also be an entertainment night followed by a

dance.

The conference will close Sunday afternoon, May 28. Free housing will be available Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings for those people sending in their registration early.

To register for the conference send your check for $5, payable to ODU-GA, along with your name, address, phone, arrival day and time, request for free housing if you want it, and requests for child care or special arrangements for the handicapped to Tidewater Lesbian/Gay Conference, P.O. Box

11123, Norfolk, Virginia 23517. The deadline for the $5 pre-registration is May 1. Afterwards it is $8.

For more information, write the Old Dominio University Gay Alliance or call the Tidewater Gay Information Line, 804-6251130, any evening from 6 to 10 p.m.

This year the conference is being sponsored by the O.D.U. Gay Alliance in cooperation with the Unitarian Universalist Gay Community, the Norfolk Coalition for Human Rights, Metropolitan Community Church of Tidewater, The House of Camelot, Tidewater Dignity/Integrity, and the Militia Motorcycle Club. It will be the first time all the gay groups in Tidewater have cooperated on a major community project.

Last year 150 women and men from across the Mid-Atlantic region attended the conference. This year planners expect to welcome 300 people,

31.