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HIGH

CEAR

1978 GEAR

A Publication of the Gear Foundation

VOLUME 5 ISSUE 2

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 a non-profit, federally tax-exempt publication.

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 envelope.

All HIGH GEAR staff are volunteers. Anyone interested in working on the staff of HIGH GEAR should inquire by calling (216) 621-3380 or by writing to HIGH GEAR, 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.

The deadline for HIGH GEAR publication is the 15th of the month -for advertising and written material. News items accepted until the date of publication.

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

Dan Miecznikowski, Editor

Terrence McCormick, Associate Editor

Steve Jobe, Akron Associate Editor

Rob Davis, Columbus Associate Editor

Feature Writers: George Brown, Dennis Highland, Brian McNaught, Mitchell Menegu, Leon Stevens, Tim Connelly

Distribution and Subscriptions: Mark Kinsley

Layout Staff: Michael Prunty, Carl Howard, Robbie Robinson, Tony Scafaro

Circulation: 11,000 throughout the United States

“...it's really a matter of accentuating the positive aspects of being gay and rejecting all of society's negative attitudes which have caused us to live in shame and hiding. We have a magnificent history with many great people who have made enormous contributions to humanity and I think we should make more use of that history in providing our people with positive role models. We gays are by and large a very individualistic people and we should be proud of that uniqueness..."

---Rob Jurina

BRIGGS' FORGER GUILTY

William Crosby, who pleaded guilty to charges of hiring citizens to falsify petitions used to qualify Senator John Briggs' initiative to bar gay school employees, has been sentenced to 60 days in jail. Crosby has admitted he hired people by means of college employment boards for purposes of copying the names of registered voters on to Briggs' petition, now Proposition 6 on the California ballot. The question at issue, though, ****

CLOSING BRIEF FILED AN

AGAINST ANITA

Pride Foundation attorneys filed the closing brief in the Hillsborough five million dollar lawsuit against Anita Bryant and her Florida co-defendants.

The suit, filed in federal court in June 1977, charged Anita Bryant and her Florida corporation, along with California Senator John Briggs and four other San Francisco defendants, with a conspiracy to deprive slain gay gardener Robert Hillsborough and his friend Jerry Taylor of their civil rights.

A federal judge dismissed the suit against the Florida defendants because he claimed they lacked sufficient contact with California to give the court jurisdiction.

The appeal brief charges that affidavits filed by Bryant and the other Florida defendants under penalty of perjury failed to disclose and falsely denied contracts with California and specifically that Bryant and the corporation made numerous fund-raising appeals to San Francisco residents.

and California

The brief stated that Anita

Bryant is represented by one of the wealthiest, largest, and most powerful law firms in California and the United States, and added that Bryant's lawyers unfairly hindered discovery of these facts.

The brief also indicated Bryant's motives were for profit, since income from her speaking tours is almost a half million dollars. The brief pointed out the unfairness of a 76-year-old mother and a part-time worker as plaintiffs represented by an attorney donating his time. Discovery of the facts in the lawsuit has been severely hampered by lack of funds, the brief stated.

The brief cited the example of the ambitious lawyer in Holocaust, recent documentary about Nazi Germany, who wrote regulations which ultimately resulted in the death of 6,000,000 people.

Bryant also came under attack from the Bishop of California, C. Kilmer Myers, who, in his sermon Sunday from the pulpit of prestigious Grace Cathedral in

San Francisco, called Anita Bryant:

"a self-appointed, fundamentalist, evangelist," and that the "Hitler program of extermination began with homosexuals."

The Bishop also stated that Jesus nowhere said anything about homosexuality, and it was because of his championing of all oppressed de-humanized, people that he was murdered by the state.

Because of his understanding of Jesus, the Bishop said, he was compelled to oppose any law or any initiative which dehumanizes mankind or men or women or imperils their responsible freedom. Bishop Myers criticized the initiative, an initiative proposed by California State Senator John Briggs, which could result in the firing of all teachers who even discuss homosexuality.

Brigs. is also a defendant in, the Hillsborough lawsuit and actively campaigned with Bryant in Florida and set up a similar organization in California patterned and named after Bryant's.

PRENT'S SEXUALITY MAY

NOT AFFECT CHILD

---courtesy of GAY COMMUNITY NEWS, 7/29/78

NEW YORK -A report in last week's issue of Science News reveals that gays and transsexuals do not neccessarily affect their own children's sexual identity.:

A study of 37 children being reared by either lesbians or by parents who have changed sex shows that 36 of the youngsters are heterosexually oriented with behavioral patterns indicating attraction to the opposite sex.

Richard Green of the State University of New York at Stony Brook reports that the study does have some social significance and challenges the basic psychoanalytic theory. He said, "Both psychoanalysis and social reinforcement or rolemodeling views would predict that having a transsexual or

homosexual parent would have a striking effect on child's sexual identity development."

Green studied the children including 18 males and 19 females ages 3 to 20 years over a twoyear period. Twenty-one were being raised by homosexual parents and 16 by transsexual parents. Several of the children of transsexuals remembered their parents in their original sexual state before the change. The younger children were evaluated on their toy and game preferences, peer group composition, clothing preference and roles played in fantasy games. For adolescents, information was obtained on romantic crushes, erotic fantasies and sexual behavior.

With one exception, the children's responses indicated that they were heterosexual in

MEXICO GAYS MARCH

The Frente Homosexual de Accion Revolucionari (FHAR), the Homosexual Front for Revolutionary Action marched recently in Mexico City in a demonstration "against police repression" and for a general amnesty. The demonstration' was called by the Committee to Defend Political Prisoners, the university workers union, the Communist Party and the Partido Revolucionario de los

is where Crosby obtained the money to hire these people. The situation surfaced when a student answered the ad and was informed her duty was to duplicate signatures from voter registration roles onto Briggs' petitions. "After quitting her position, she reported her experience to gay activists after hearing their pleas on television.olutionary Worners Party) With the finger of suspicion pointing at him, Briggs' comment was "Of course they (gay activists) are going to say that I paid for this."...

Trabajadores (PRT), Rev-

About ten members of FHAR marched in front of the PRT contingent with a banner and leaflets. About 30 feminists and members of the PRT joined in

the contingent along the march route.

The FHAR leaflet called for a fight against police repression, a linking of the gay, women's and workers movements and the building of "class consciousness" among gay people. The leaflet also noted that the group joined the march knowing that "anti-homosexual attitudes are not solely the province of the dominant class."

O Cristina Rivas, a member of the PRT, said the public response "was impressive. people would clap they couldn't believe it."

While the demonstration as a whole involved 30,000 people,

origin. None exhibited homosexual or transsexual fantasies. Adolescents had romantic inclinations toward the opposite sex and young children preferred to play with same sex playmates.

Green suggests outside influences may be critical. "Children do not live in a universe composed entirely of their home environment. School, peer group members and their families and even muchmaligned television programming expose the child to "conventional family styles and conventional patterns of development."

The psychiatrist is currently studying matched control groups of heterosexual and homosexual divorced mothers and their children, which he says will give more data.

courtesy Gay Community News

media coverage was light and the FHAR contingent was only briefly mentioned in one daily newspaper, according to Rivas. The PRT newspaper, Bandera Socialista, carried a large article on the FHAR and its contingent in the issue following the demonstration.

Asked why this first gay group in Mexico would be openly socialist as well as gay, Rivas said that in Mexico "any organization that fights for it own rights becomes socialist."

Rivas said that a lesbian group has formed within the last few months and it is involved with the National Coalition of Feminist Women.