Gay activism: Our first 10 years (cont'd)

Internal Revenue Service reversea a long-standing policy and began granting tax-exempt status to qualifying Gay or Lesbian groups. The United States Civil Rights Commission decided to assume jurisdiction over "affectional or sexual preference" in areas relating to the administration of justice, such as federal courts and prisons and the federal bureaucracy. Although the Commission has no powers of enforcement, it is highly respected and its recommendations are usually enacted into law by Congress. To date it has held some interesting hearings on police practices, in which NGTF testified. The Bureau of Prisons has agreed to stop referring to sexual assaults in federal prisons as "homosexual rapes" and to provide training for prison employees on the needs of Gay or Lesbian prisoners. In addition, the National Gay Task Force has a court suit pending against the Bureau of Prisons for its refusal to permit legitimate publications by Gay or Lesbian groups to be received by prisoners. The U.S. Public Health Service joined the 1973 American Psychiatric Association ruling that homosexuality is not a mental illness.

The military has been slower in dealing with civil rights. The armed forces were also excluded from the 1975 Civil Service Commission ruling and have done little to keep up with the other federal government changes. However, even thought the policy of all branches of the armed forces continues to be automatic discharge of Gay or Lesbian members, now all branches take into account the member's individual record in the service, and many are now receiving honorable discharges, rather than general or less-than-honorable, as was common before. Also, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of former Air Force Sgt. Leonard Matlovich and Navy Ensign Vernon Berg's petitions

in 1978 and ordered the Air Force and Navy to reconsider their actions in automatically discharging the two without specifically stating how their continued presence was harmful to the military.

Private employers are slowly becoming cognizant of civil rights for sexual minorities. In 1975 a survey conducted by NGTF revealed only a handful of corporations had specific policies on affectional or sexual preference. A 1978 survey showed that number increased to more than 100, with the overwhelming majority stating non-discriminatio n policies. Some major Ohio employers with written nondiscrimination policies are: Ohio Bell Telephone, Procter & Gamble, the University of Cincinnati and the Ohio State University Undergraduate Teaching Associate Program.

The most important change of all, perhaps, has been that of personal attitudes. In the past decade, we have seen people become more aware of the real issues of discrimination and more knowledgeable of Gay men and Lesbians as individuals. The issue is discussed openly now-quite a change from 1969. With the simultaneous rise of the feminist movement, people throughout tome more aware of the real issues of discrimination and more knowledgeable of Gay men and Lesbians as individuals. The issue is discussed openly now-quite a change from 1969. With the simultaneous rise of the feminist movement, people throughout the nation can see how destructive roles of any kind can be on people and how everyone must be considered as individuals rather than as members of a class or group. Feminism is also helping to make us as Lesbians and Gay menunderstand how we treat each other. The blatont sexism of the early movement (women serving refreshments, for example) is giving way to a more human approach.

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Although ther is still considerable improvement needed, much has happened to make sexism less common.

Ten years is not a long time. But the changes we have won in those years are incredible, when compared with any other civil rights movement in our history In ten years we have travelled from a cold silence with laws stacked heavily against us, to a

period of frank discussion, with legal inequalities crumbing. The movement will not be complete in another ten years--it's simply not possible. All laws will not change that fast, we still haven't gotten a statewide law passed in our first ten years, for example, let alone such things as child custody, marriage or other highly controversial issues. But the initiative has been taken, by the people at the Stonewall Inn in

1969 and by the handful of those pioneers-Henry Hay, Del Martin, Phyllis Lyon, Barbara Gittings, Frank Kameny-who set in motion our movement. Our five "founding parents" are still going strong with the movement, serving as inspirations to those of who just got started in the last few years. We've come a long way in ten years, and we've got a long way to go, but let's get goingtogether-so that we end up where we want to go.

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