Page 2 HIGH GEAR

DEWS

news By Ruthanne Seaman

Dayton news

There is so much going on in Dayton that it's hard to find time for yourself. No matter where you are in your life Dayton has a place for you. Are you political? Ohio Gay Rights Coalition is an umbrella group for gay organizations throughout the state. Dayton's group is call Dayton Gay Rights Coalition. They meet the first Wednesday of the month at 23 Tecumseh, 7:00 p.m. For directions or more information,

cal! Dave at 222-8538

Need Support? Dayton has a gay center where you can meet with other men and women around the table at their potlucks (6:00 p.m. before meetings) or at their programs (7:30 p.m.). They meet the 2nd and 4th Wed. of each month at the Dayton Free Clinic, 10007 N. Main. On March 28 Carol will be talking about the

new Gay Dating Service. Eve-

ryone is welcome. Lets support our Gay Center. Call 228-4875.

For those of you who need to talk or need information, you can call the Gay Center Line at anytime, 228-4875.

Lesbians United is a women's support group that meets out of Dayton Women's Center (2763555). We meet every Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m. The Center is located at 1060 Salem Ave. in St. Andrews Episcopal Church. Our meetings range from structured programs to open rap nights. Every six weeks we meet in a member's home for a social/rap night. Some of the things coming up in March are programs on Total Coping and Aging; social events for March include a potluck and Cassano's Pizza feed after the meetings.

For older lesbians, we want to start a slightly older lesbian's group. S.O.L. originated in California, was copied in Cincinnati and now is being stolen by Daytonians. We will have an organizational meeting March 11 at the Lesbians United Meeting. We hope to have guests from the SOL/Cincinnati group that evening. The age limit has not been set yet so come and give your input.

-Lesbians United will be participating in the International Women's Day Celebration initiated by the Wornen's Caucus of N.A.M. (New American Movement). It will be March 9 at the Dayton Women's Center, 7:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. There will be workshops and entertainment as

well as booths for the different women's groups in Dayton. Everyone is welcome. For information on this and other Lesbian groups, call Ruthanne at 277-

3050.

Looking for a Religious Group? Dayton Interfaith meets regularly each month. This is the Protestant organization in Dayton. For information, call Earl at 223-6231. We hope to have an MCC here--for more information, call Dave at 222-8538 or Ruthanne at 277-3050 (see article). Dayton/Dignity now has clergy participation. At this writing we have scheduled a celebration of Mass on the 23rd of February and also one on the 25th of February for the Day of Recollection. Fr. Mike will celebrate the former and Fr. Edwin, the later. We will have regularly

scheduled celebrations from

now on. For more information on Dignity, call 298-8335 or 2773050.

The National Conference of Affirmation will be meeting here in Dayton on March 30-April 1. Affirmation is the United Methodist Gay Caucus. For more information, contact James at 2520977.

Looking For Entertainment? Dayton has something for everyone. For music lovers especially lesbians, Therese Edell and Betsy Lippett are playing each month at Sam's downtown. Call the Women's Center for more information, dates and times; 276-3555. Sam's is not a gay bar but it is a great place to go. It is

mostly blue-grass with good

mixed audience.

The gay bars are as follows: Studio One, "A disco happening": Mail Boxx, Martinique, Stagecoach, Three's Company and further south is the Che Joy. For addresses call the Gay Center Line, 228-4875.

Eucharist. So...On March 25 at 2:00 p.m. we will have the first organizational meeting of what we hope will be Metropolitan Community Church/Dayton. At that time we will have a short liturgy and then a meeting to determine if there are enough people interested to contact the district. We will meet at 15 Mary Ave. in Dayton. (for directions and more information call Ruthanne at 277-3050) We want to encourage all of you who are interested to come to the meetin g. Metropolitan Community Church is a Christian Church with a special ministry to the gay community. It is open to all people, straight or gay, male or female. Please support this effort to have a worship community in Dayton.

MEG CHRISTIAN IN OHIO

Columbus

OGRC seeks

info

Documenting Discrimination

The Ohio Gay Rights Coalition (OGRC) is collecting information from around Ohio which will document discrimination against Gay people in Ohio in housing, employment, public accommodations, credit, education, and insurance. It is being collected as support material for a comprehensive civil rights bill OGRC hopes to have introduced into the 114th General Assembly in 1981.

If you have any documentation or information about discriminatory practices, please send them to George Painter, Ohio Gay Rights Coalition, P.O. Box 8393, Columbus, Ohio 43201. All materials collected will be kept confidential by OGRC, except that they will also be sent to the Gay Rights National Lobby in Washington, D.C. who is collecting this information as support material for a national civil rights bill.

Discrimination

banned in Detroit

Shortly after 11:30 AM, Wednesday 24 January, the Detroit City Council took roll call votes on two mutually exclusive Human Rights Ordinances. The short form ordinance, put forward by the Law Department with Mayor Young's support, which has not power of enforcement except in the area of city contract compliance, was permanently postponed by a vote of nine to zero. There are nine seats on the Council.

The long-form ordinance, a 34 page comprehensive Omnibus Dateline: Cincinnati, Oberlin, Human Rights Ordinance with strong enforcement powers are put forth by the Human Rights Department with broad based community support including the gay community represented by the state-wide coalition organization, Michigan Organization for Human Rights (MOHR). This ordinance was passed by an eight to one vote with Council Member Jack Kelley voting against it.

For a long time now we have had to go out of state to hear Meg Christian, a feminist singer. We have gone to Michigan, Kentucky and points west. But...Friday, February 9, Meg appeared in Cincinnati, on Saturday, February 10, at Oberlin, and on Sunday, February 11 she appeared in Columbus. There were quite a few of us in Dayton who traveled to see her. We were well rewarded. In all three concerts she showed why she has been one of the most popular composer/singers within the Feminist Movement. She sang some old original stand-bys as well as some brand new songs she

wrote with Holly Near and played

some instrumentals, that confirmed what most of us have known: She is a talented woman. For her fans, she will be bringing out a new album next year that will be just instrumental. The majority of her audience were women but there were some

The Detroit ordinance makes America's fifth largest city the largest city to specifically outlaw discrimination against sexual minorities. It also gives Detroit one of the most comprehensive sets of protections with strong enforcement powers.

Don Mager, Project Facilitator of MOHR, was at the hearing almost seven years ago when the idea of sexual orientation protection was first incorporated into Chapter 10 of the City Charter, adopted by ballot vote in November 1973. "For five years," since the Charter went into

effect," Mager comments, "I have seen group after group make efforts to implement the Ordinance. When I got home from City Council today I dug out some 1974, 75 and 76 Gay Pride Week snapshots. In every year, among the placards in the Gay Pride March downtown were prominent slogans reading "IMPLEMENT THE CHARTER." It's a traditional chant around here when gays have demonstrations."

Speculating on why the measure passed now, Mager noted, "I think we have an unusually social-justice-minded City Council and they felt an urgency to dismantle the civil rights gains of the 60's. I think the Council showed one of its better hours, because they are in full knowledge that this Ordinance may take the City through a series of court litigations since State Attorney General Kelley ruled in September 1978 that cities have no valid role in anti-discrimination enforcements."

Commenting on the sexual orientation aspects of the Ordi-

nance, Mager said: "No one Council and the media have snuck anything through. The made it common knowledge that this Ordinance includes gay rights sections. Ever since the Charter was passed, Detroit seems to be content with protecting gay rights, since no major opposition has been mounted. Even the Archdiocese did notchoose to oppse any sections this time."

Lesbians United has coffeemale feminists present. Her conProp 6 group dissolved

houses every couple of months and the Gay Center has social events each month. Call the appropriate numbers for information.

? MCC IN DAYTON?

For a long time Dayton has been in need of a church that encourages gay people to participate. We have two really fine organizations, Dignity and Lutherans Concerned/Interfaith, but they are not churches and for many of us it's a necessity to meet regularly for liturgy and the

cert was a time of unity and solidarity for many of us. Her music is a mixture of ballads, love songs and miscellaneous but all other music is a political statement. She is a talent not to be missed.

THINK STRAIGHT

Be Gay

On December 15, 1978, the Board of Directors of A United Fund to Defeat the Briggs Initiative voted to formally dissolve the organization with a $500 surplus. That money will be used solely to defray the outstanding debts of various No on Six organizations. A complete financial statement will be provided upon request.

Although A United Fund to Defeat the Briggs Initiative is no longer in existence, the Boad of Directors urges you to continue your support of the ideals which that organization stood for, particularly the ideals the late Harvey Milk stood for. To that end, the Board of Directors hope you will contribute generously to The Harvey Milk United Fund, One United Nations Plaza San-Francisco, Calif., 94102.coro ni be so ad hon vari