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HIGH GEAR/SEPTEMBER 1978

GAY LUTHERANS MEET IN MILWAUKEE

MILWAUKEE, Wis. The gay ghetto is no less confining than the yoke of slavery found in Old Testament law, a San Francisco pastor told the first, national meeting of Lutherans Concerned July 8 since the gay caucus was founded in 1974.

He is the Rev. Charles H. Lewis, a Lutheran Church in America pastor who serves as night minister for the San Francisco Council of Churches in the Tenderloin District and on Polk Street. In 1964 he helped found, and was later president of, the nationally-known Council for Religion and the Homosexual Inc.

Delivering the major sermon before an audience of close to 60 at Lake Park Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, Mr. Lewis said:

fit to be adequate role models for our youth, even for those who already know they are gay."

In reaction, Mr. Lewis said, "I have watched the increasing ghettoization of gay people, and gay people have bought it, pretending that if they go into the ghetto, at last they will be free. Not so.

"The ghetto sucks. Its very existence depends upon a symbiotic relationship with the very oppressive powers that have created it -but not without the consent of the oppressed, who submitted again to the yoke of slavery."

In contrast, Mr. Lewis cited the 18-member Lutherans Concerned entry in San Francisco's Gay Freedom Day parade June 26-8 straights, 9 gay people and 1 bisexual; 3 clergy, 3 seminarians and 12 lay people, 1 of whom was an exseminarian; 9 married people and 9 singles. "And we had a good time," he added.

"Gay people for years have bought the big lie about themselves that they were heretics, lunatics, criminals, sinners and finally the misfits who are unfit unfit to teach in the schools, unfit to preach in our pulpits, unfit to serve in our armed forces, unthe oppression, but it sure

"You see what living your freedom does? It doesn't stop

makes it a lot more manageable, and besides it sets many of the captive free," Mr. Lewis said.

"Live as becomes the children of God," Mr. Lewis said, drawing his text from Galatians 5:1: "For freedom Christ has set us_all free."

Earlier, in the major address of Assembly '78 on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, a New York City Lutheran official declared;

"The heterosexual majority in the Luthern churches must be compelled to read scripture the way we Lutherans have always

insisted on--not with literalism and legalism, but with disciplined scholarship and hard facts,"

Dr. Elizabeth Ann Bettenhausen, a secretary for social concerns at Luthern Church in America headquarters, also said the gay and non-gay members of Lutherans Concerned have a prophetic role to fulfill in witnessing to the church in behalf of "an undistorted view of human sexuality--that it's part of God's good creation, and not

something that the Devil and do something constructive created. in response," he said.

"This misconception is at the heart of the issue of homosexuality which our church is facing today," Dr. Bettenhausen declared.

The Rev. June Nilssen delivered a brief sermon at opening-night worship services July 7, tracing the similarities between the women's movement and the gay drive for justice and understanding.

The Milwaukee Assembly was attended, by gay and non-gay members from 15 states, including most of the group's 20 chapters from Boston to San Diego, according to Coordinators Diane Fraser, 35, who farms at Kasota, Minn.; and Howard Erickson, 40, a Los Angeles journalist.

Erickson said membership has risen 36% in the past year, due in part, he said, to anti-gay crusader Anita Bryant. "She has made a lot of people, gay and non-gay, mad as the dickens, and they've decided they want to get out of their easy chairs

ERA MARCHERS THRONG

WASHINGTON

By JEANNE DUFORT

One hundred thousand people thronged Constitution Avenue and the US Capitol lawn recently to rally in support of the Equal Rights Amendment, creating the largest feminist gathering in history.

The July 9 march, called by the National Organization for Women, repudiated suggestions that the women's movement has run

its course. An uncharacteristic militancy permeated most speeches, indicating perhaps a growing feminist sentiment that the time has come to stop asking for and begin demanding civil and human rights. Actress Marlo Thomas termed the rally. "a reunion of war buddies," declaring that now is the time for American women to win the

war.

Led by Eleanor Smeal, NOW president, and a host of feminist, political, and entertainment celebrities, the march stepped off at 12:30 pm (EST) The last marchers reached the capital lawn almost four hours later. NOW had predicted a 35,000 turnout, and plans to use only half of Constitution Avenue were scuttled when the head count grew towards 100,000. Despite the rally's size, Washington police termed the gathering one of the most orderly ever seen in the capitol city.

More than 325 national organizations, from all fifty states and Puerto Rico, carried purple, gold, and white banners down the march route. The banners presented stark contrast to the white garb of most marchers. The clothing and banners

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rekindled visions of early suffrage parades through the streets of Washington. A handful of former suffragists marched for this most recent feminist cause, and more than one group was seen proudly bearing a sign identifying themselves as third or fourth generation feminists.

Ms magazine publisher Gloria Steinem echoed crowd sentiment with vehement declarations that many women cannot wait for conservative legislators to leisurely recognize women's rights. Can a woman with small children wait through daily beatings from her husband, she asked. "No" resounded the crowd. Can the women in Louisiana whose property was mortgaged away

"We're tired of asking and we're tired of waiting. No more rhetoric just make the ERA part of the United States Constitution."

The Illinois NOW contingent, some 700 strong, marched at the head of the parade and Illinois Iwas quite obviously a target when Marjorie Bell Chambers, president of the American Association of University Women decried "those who trade the rights of women for political advantage," In two recent attemps to ratify in the Illinois house, ERA failed once when members of the black political caucus abstained in a dispute over caucus leadership and once when a representative refused to consider the amendment again until the Senate ratified it.

by ford to wait, she posited. "No" answered one hundred thousand voices. Can any women who, in law casebooks, are grouped in the general category of "women, children, and idiots" afford to wait, she cried. "No" replied the indignant audience. "Then we will take our rights now," the long-time feminist declared, "in any way we can."

her ne'er-do-well spouse afMIDGE

Bella Abzug, co-chair of the National Advisory Committee on Women, urged President Carter to address the nation in support of the ERA, enlarging his much publicized human rights campaign to include American women. Presidential assistant Midge Constanza, who incurred White House wrath when she publicly chastized the President for his stand on public aid for abortions, delivered Carter's official message and added a postscript of her own saying.

Much of the three-day assem. bly was devoted to workshops on developing chapter programs and witnessing to the church, and to a variety of structured and informal opportunities for the exchange of ideas among the people attending, both those from chapters and those from isolated areas. Daily devotions and daily communion were part of the program.

A 90-minute experience aimed at building understanding and better working relationships beiween women and men was led by Libby and Keith Olstad of Minneaplis, assisted by Cathy Spooner of Kasota, Minn., and Todd VanLaningham, Topeka, Kan.

Lutherans Concerned, which was founded June 17, 1974, in Minneapolis with the help of a $2,000 grant from a division of the American Lutheran Church, can be reached by writing it at Box 19114A, Los Angeles CA 90019

courtesy of GAYLIFE, 7/21/78

At least 5,000 marchers stayed in the capitol city through Monday to lobby in Congress for an extension of the deadline for ratification of the amendment The deadline, March 22, 1979, comes seven years after the amendment first passed Congress. Legal scholars believe that granting another seven year period for consideration of the amendment would be consistent with the terms under which deadlines were originally attached to constitutional amendments. The first seventeen amendments had no time limits, with the first deadline being added to the Prohibition amendment to prevent the issue from staying alive after discussion had died away. The Equal Rights amend. ment has never been subject to

more public debate than it is today, and the extension would grant more time for consideration of the real consequences of the amendment, according to feminist leaders. The suffrage amendment had no seven year time limit for ratification.

Three more states must ratify before the March 22 deadline if the extension is not granted, or proponents of the amendment must start all over by introducing the bill in Congress and attempting to win ratification in 38 states. Several speakers declared their intention to reintroduce on March 23, should the amendment not be ratified by the deadline.

"We won't go away." announced Congresswoman Barbara Mikulski from Maryland. "We're fighting mad, and we're not going to take it any more."

MIDGE COSTANZA HONORED

Margaret "Midge" Costanza, Assistant to President Carter, was honored at a $100-a-plate dinner sponsored by the National Gay Task Force at the New York City discoteque, Les Mouches, on June 15.

Honorary Co-chairpersons participating in the dinner were Gloria Steinem, feminist leader and editor of Ms. magazine; Arthur Laurents, writer and producer of the highly acclaimed film, "The Turning oint;" Bella Abzug, former Congresswoman and original sponsor of the federal gay-rights bill; Lois Gould, feminist writer; Aryeh Neier, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union; and Robert Lipsyte, former Sports Editor of the New York Times.

Ms. Costanza was presented with a plaque honoring her outstanding contribution to human

rights on behalf of the lesbian and gay community. The award, the first in NGTF history, was presented by NGTF CoExecutive Directors Jean O'Leary and Bruce Voeller; it was inscribed as follows:

"Midge Costanza Assistant to the President of the United States Presented in tribute for her outstanding and courageous contributions to human rights efforts throughout the country; for opening the White House to all Americans including lesbians and gay men; for being a voice of hope and wisdom and humor for all of us.

National Gay Task Force June 15, 1978 New York, New York" In March 1977, Costanza hosted a meeting of national gay representatives at the White House--the first such meeting in history--to discuss areas of

discrimination against gay citizens and remedies which might be effected through federal agencies. Since then, she has arranged meetings for the National Gay Task Force with top officials of the Justice Department, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the U.S. Public Health Service, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Some of these meetings have resulted in concrete policy changes and additional changes will be forthcoming as meetings with federal agencies continue.

Ms. Costanza, obviously deeply moved by the occasion, accepted the award and pledged to continue her efforts to provide all citizens, including gays, with access to the government that represents them.