HIGH GEAR/MAY 1978

ODDS 'N' ENDS

...Comedian Bob Hope has been asked by Texaco to stop making jokes about Anita Bryant and gay liberation. Hope said Texaco, which sponsors many of his television specials, urged him to "please, please lay off the Anita Bryant jokes" because "customers started tearing up their credit cards and sending them back."

A Texaco spokesman said Friday that the company has received a number of complaints from customers about Hope's Anita Bryant jokes "and we requested him to refrain from them and he agreed."

... Anita Bryant is quoted in a magazine article as saying homosexual activity should be prosecuted as a felony. And in remarks accompanying the article written by Ken Kelley in the May issue of Playboy magazine, the author says Miss Bryant has survived "numerous close calls with mayhem" and expects to be killed by homosexuals. In the interview Kelley asked Miss Bryant if she believes 20 years in jail would rehabilitate homosexuals. "Why make it easy for them?" she replied. "I think it only helps to condone it and to make it easier for kids who wouldn't be so concerned if it were just a misdemeanor, whereas a felony might make them think twice especially the younger ones." "During the past 12 months, she has weathered bomb threats, snuff letters and numerous close calls with mayhem," wrote Kelley. "But she has learned to take it in stride."

The all-Ohio Gay Picnic, sponsored by Metropolitan Community Church of Akron and many of the Akron-area bars will be held at the Shaker Day Camp just north of Hudson, Ohio on Tuesday, July 4th. The Day Camp (or perhaps, just for that one day, the Gay Camp), is a totally private location with streams, waterfalls, woods, foottrails, and great facilities. Did you catch the announcement in the papers just recently about the upcoming marriage of Bar bra Elizabeth Shargo to Ernest A. Verrill III? The ceremony is scheduled for May 13th at 5:30 P.M. at the Pilgrim Collegiate Church in Youngstown with two

open receptions immediately afterwards. The first from 7-9 PM at the Brandywine Club House and the other from 9-11 PM at the Phoenix Lounge in Warren. We sincerely wish Barbra and Ernest all the best in the years to come ...

... another quote from Del Martin, lesbian feminist activist: "Self acceptance is the big thing we all have to struggle with. Once we have that together, anything can come down on us. No matter what they dish out, we know who we are." Very well said, Del...

Monday, May 15th and Tuesday, May 16th are the days scheduled by the Department of English at the University of Akron for the Women's Film Festival in John S. Knight Auditorium. With free admission, the festival will focus on the positive portrayal of women in American society. It's about women, by women, but for everyone...

LAMBDA BAR PATRON cessful publications appealing to the gay male market, is now introducing a special publication: For Women Only, which will go on sale June 7. It seems that many straight women have found the pictures, etc., in Blueboy alluring also, so publisher Don Embinder will be

... and, in the just-in-time-forsummer-department, wait'll you hear this one: In a majority opinion written by Judge Robert Black, Jr. of the First District Ohio Court of Appeals, it was decided that proposals to engage in homosexual acts cannot be held to be criminal, even if the proposal is offensive to the second party! So, at this point, the Court has overturned Ohio's law that prohibits solicitation by homosexuals for sexual activity.. Uh-oh... "Her manager believes all currencies are suspect these days and wants to make sure she doesn't take a loss six months from now." And so Bette Midler, AKA the Divine Miss M, will be paid in gold bullion for her upcoming British concert tour. Stealing our hearts is one thing, but now this...

not be held to be criminal, even OUR ERROR

Small World Travel Agents, based in Palo Alto, California, is announcing a series of opera tours for gays. The first trip, scheduled for the Seattle Ring Cycle in July, will be for Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung, sung in English. The trip will include a special night-time viewing of the King Tut Exhibit. For further information, contact Bob Flynn at Small World (415) 494-1556... Blueboy Magazine, one of the nation's most suc-

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The entire staff of High Gear sincerly apologizes to The Body Politic for an error that appeared in High Gear, April/1978 In an incomplete lead-in news Item In our "Odds 'n' Ends" column concerning that Toronto newspaper.

Due to layout errors, we gave the very mistaken Impression that we alone were judge and jury In the pending legal decision regarding the January rald on TBP news offices. High Gear laments this most regrettable error.

would think it safe to say that if you want more of what you saw in Blueboy, try For Women Only...

...May 20th at the University of Cincinnati: The Second Annual Women's Rights Conferance. Wendy Winkler, of the Lesbian Activist Bureau, will be on a panel in the morning addressing the topic, "We Are Your Sisters." PM activities have Dee Graham and Edna Rawlings workshopping on their research on lesbian mother custody...

.. Moving ahead... Michigan State University's undergraduates elected openly gay Dan Jones as student body president. "Throughout the campaign, students got to know me as a person. I dealt with issues of concern to all students. They couldn't help but (sic) realize that gayness is only one of many adjectives to describe a person. It doesn't put me way out in left field," Jones said. Colonel Margaret Brewer will be the first woman general of the Marine Corps, if President Carter has

promoting his new magazine in a nation-wide tour this spring. I his way. Colonel Brewer will also be named the director of information for the Marine Corps Headquarters in Washington ...

... "Christian creativity for the present age must not depend on male leaders," Reverend Mary Michael Simpson said. "Woman's contribution from women properly trained and authorized--is essential." Elsewhere in her sermon, Reverend Simpson condemned the Christian Church for treating women as "second-class Christians," she being the first ordained woman to preach in Westminster Abbey in London...

.. the Multnomah County Com-` mission unanimously approved the appointment of Jerry Weller to the Metropolitan Human Relations Commission. Weller was the former executive director of the Portland Town Council, the coordinating gay rights organization in Oregon...

... The author of a book thắt was a contender last year for Spain's richest literary prize, the Planeta Prize, has been prevented from celebrating Mass recently, because he's gay. The Archbishop of Valencia ordered Carmelite Father Antonio Rolg Rosello to stop after the Archbishop learned Father Rosello "came out" in his book, "All the Parks Are Not a Paradise."....

.. Female impersonator Craig Russell suffered a nervous breakdown recently. You will recall that Craig starred in the film Outrageous, and received much critical acclaim for that role. He's recuperating in a Toronto hospital... Administration officials in

Wyoming, Michigan, Rogers High School have removed the book Saturday Night Fever from the library because of a comment that one of the characters makes in wondering whether God is homosexual. (The book was written from the film of the same name). According to GaysWeek, after the ban was placed, local bookstores sold out their stock of the novel. "It's too bad about censorship," said Mary Engen, manager of Walden Books in North Kent Mall. "All that does is improve our sales..." ... Cincinnati's Gay Pride

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Rally will be on Fountain Square on June 24th. Sandie Garsey of the Lesbian Activist Bureau is organizing the event and the fundraiser afterwards. Project workers are still needed. Call Sandie at (513) 751-0557...

...Tentative results of a study by Psychiatrist Richard Green and a team of researchers studying children being raised by lesbian mothers has been released. It reveals that so far, there is no indication that the lesbian mothers influence the child twoard a lesbian or gay life style. That's not surprising!! Apparently we will still have to continue to rely on heterosexual parents to do our recruiting for us....

...Everybody loves a parade, or so the saying goes. San Francisco gays will undoubtedly have reasons to love this year's gay pride parade more than previous one. They won't have to foot the entire bill. The city treasury is providing a grant of $10,000.00 from the Hotel and Tax Fund to help defray expenses....

...Try it, you might like it. At least that's what an Ellenville, New York teacher did. What makes his circumstances so different was the fact that he told his 10th grade class about his homosexual experience. Parents of one of the students sought to have the entire Education Commission for the State disbanded because it reprimanded the teacher for discussing such topics only on non-personal terms. The teacher didn't lose his job probably because he pleaded that he was basically heterosexual. We hope he does his homework and learns some lesson from this episode discrection, if nothing else!!!....

St. Paul, Minn, made gay news recently, this time good news. The Bay Area Reporter reveals that the Lesbian Resource Center and the Gay Community Center here are receiving $21,000 in CETA aid. CETA (Comprehensive Educational Training Act) is a federal program of job-training...The grant follows the approval in New York City of five new CETA employees with the National Gay Task Force......

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