HIGH GEAR/JULY 1978

CINCINNATI GAY PRIDE

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FLASHBACK: Late June, Summer of '69. Greenwich Village Police raid one of Manhattan's oldest gay bars, but

several years ago, but CLGC is apparently Cincy's first gay political group.

Nothing quite as dramatic has

this time at the Stonewall Inn. happened before, but gay life. Gay+PROUD/Celebrate Yourse

the sudden spectre of "gay power" rears its head The forces of faggotry, raily in an unprecedented protest against the police bust, asserting their presence, possibility, and pride all night. Bars, back rooms, and bedrooms are emptied as people pour into the streets full of outrage and aware of their new power. Allen Ginsberg, the reincarnated Walt Whitman of the Beat era, eyes the militant, jubilant young men, noting that "they've lost that wounded look fags had 10 years ago. Gay Power! Isn't that great! It's about time we did something to assert ourselves."

Cincinnati for years has had the reputation of being somewhat behind Eas Coast times. Now, nine years after the Stonewall uprising, the Queen City of the Midwest is experienIcing its own dramatic struggle for gay liberation.

WEBN-FM

Prestigious jokingly reported a clash between local police and the "Cincinnati Gay Liberation Front" on April 1. The cops "beat off" gays protesting the Florida Citrus Commission float (by "sucking off the straw in an orange) during the annual Fools' Day Parade." read 'EBN's fantasy

Within two weeks of the broadcas: the Cincy cops cracked down on popular "cruising" areas in two city parks. arresting 67 men for public indecency sexual im position, and resisting arrest

One man arrested, a bisexual father of two, doctoral student. and Quaker told the press afterwards. "The reality is that we are no being charges with public indecency for any specific acts we've committed, but with public indecency for who we are. It is indecent in this society to be gay, and we will no longer stand for it

The result of the busts and citations for jaywalking and lottering outside a gay bar was the formation of a local gay lib front-the Cincinnat Lesbian and Gay Community (CLGC). At its first organized activity-a picnic affirming gays rights to use the parks-a leaflet warned non-gays that they too could be victimized by police entrapment or en ticement.

This new movement has some service and religious reats from

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has not been totally dormant in closets.

Gay people partying on a river

boat in 1973 were reportedly hassled by the Coast Guard, but released. A University of Cincinnati Homecoming Parade sported a float from a campus gay group one year. Gay churches. two peer counseling phone services are available, a strong Lesbian group has been working over the years. Cincinnati Gay Community buttons sold after the arrests had been saved from an earlier effort. A coalition of groups seeking a Human Rights Ordinance nere has been busy for 2 1/2 years. Nine groups in the Greater Cincinnati Gay Coalition publish a monthly calendar and raise money for the peer phone services. WAIF-FM has aired a weekly hour of gay-related news, music, and "sports" since November. Now, a new chapter will be added to Cincinnati s brief gay history/herstory.

Το commemorate the Stonewall anniversary and "celebrate ourselves," the Lesbian Activist Bureau. Inc.. and CLGC held a rally on Fountain Square Saturday, April 24. Live music speakers. and booths-plus awards to outstanding gay activists-were highlights of the day WAIF-FM scheduled a series of gayrelated programs all week from Monday, June 19 through Sunday June 25 from S-8 p.m. on 88.3 FM.

The rally's roots can be traced back to the arrests and medis coverage...

Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Frank Weikel predicted March 23 that the proposed Human Rights Ordinance would become "the hottest issue to bit town in months,' with "homosexuality bringing out the fireworks."

Gay leaders here charge that Cincinnati's 2 conservative elements-best represented by the police and Enquirer-are trying to discredit the ordinance and the Queen City's gay communty. They fear that focal groups

and individuals who sympathize with the national right wing offensive will negate the progress gays have made since Stonewall.

Dr. Powell Grant of the Coalition for a Cincinnati Human Rights Ordinance. criticized the Enquirer for linking the arrests with the or. dinance. "It is a dishonorable and dishonest act to condemn an entire class of people because of the errors or misbehaviors of a few, or on the basis of selective stereotypes. Every move toward social and economic reform has been met and is.still met with such distortions," he said. "Blacks are, even today, labeled society's chief perpetrators of crime, in-

NATIONAL GAY PRIDE WEEK

By John Zeh

Windy Winkler, president of Cincinnati's Lesbian Activist Bureau, addresses a Gay Rights Rally on Fountain Square in mid-town Cincinnati. Mayor Jerry Springer earlier proclaimed the day, June 24, as Gay Pride Day in the city.

dependen: women are accused of destroying the home and making men impotent, and now homosexuals are condemned as immoral and outrageous. With monotonous regularity the status 966 uses such stereotypes to inflame the public s fears and thus slow the elimination of past inequities."

Alien Brown, attorney for some of the men arrested, says police used their power to produce a "psychodrama to revive the old legend that dangerous homosexuals want to convert children. He said the police wanted to prove that the recent overturning of Ohio's sexual importuning statute did not make the police impotent in dealing with gays and that they tried to sabotage the Human Rights Ordinance The police said they were merely responding to complaints from people in the parks. Brown said. The only people who had been using the parks in the last few months had been overland ski teams.

in the wake of the arrests. some 50 people picketted outside City Hall, and then went inside Council chambers. They carried signs saying "We are your children," "We are everywhere," and "Lesbians pay taxes too."

CLGC organizer Lilli Sprintz of the Lesbian Activist Bureau, inc.. told council, What the Lesbian and gay communities are asking of you is simple. We are asking you to stand up against bigotry... There has to be a generation to say halt to all the nonsensical and destructive Wes ins are taught about people whether they be Black, female, old, Jewish, Appalachian, gay. handicapped,

poor,

noneducated. or whatever false standard is used to draw the line between fairness and discrimination.

"We would like to be a part of the generation that says enough to all that, and begin to glory in our diversity rather than fear and attack it. We would like to be part of the generation that decides we are all truly human,

Together we can make up a grea: kaleidoscope of humanity.

and that our best survival lies in

cooperation rather than competition

"We would also like to speak for the rights of heterosexuals, who have the right to grow up without being taught lies. without learning to live in false fear, and to grow up free of the poison of bigotry." Sprintz added.

What can people do to limit or end repression, foster liberation of gays and other oppressed minorities?

Heterosexuals can help keep alive and strengthen alliances with gays on progressive fronts Gays and feminists have added a new vitality to the syntheses of people struggling for human rights. Gays' contributions must be recognized, and our rights added to the agenda of all progressive people.

Gay people can come out, at whateve: level they canaccepting themselves, sharing their gay consciousness with others.

The National Gay Task Force says that of all the things a Lesbian or gay man might do to further the cause of gay equality and acceptance, probably nothing else has so much immediate and long-term impact as coming out to one's family. friends, neighbors, and coworkers It's easy to believe that homosexuals are freaks or monsters when you don't know any, but much harder to believe it of someone you already know. respect, and may even love. if every gay person in this country were to come out tomorrow, most overt discrimination would cease by the day after. and lingering. prejudice would be forgotten in a decade."

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