Page 8 HIGH GEAR-APRIL 1981

In Virginia

Local yokel ire at gay book display

At a special session held March 12, Fairfax County (Va.) Library Board members voted to allow the Thomas Jefferson branch in Falls Church to keep a controversial display, "The Lavender Life: Lesbians and Gay Men in History." But Board members, calling the words "Gay" and "Lesbian" loaded terms, forced a change in the exhibit's name and required it be "balanced with"books by antiGay rights advocates. On Friday the 13th the pink and lavender triangular sign came down, and was replaced by a discreet notice: "Books by and about Homosexuals."

The March 12 meeting was in response to protests from a number of Northern Virginia citizens and pressure from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. The Washington Post quoted Board of Supervisors chairman Jack Herrity as saying, "The county government should not be in the position of encouraging people to read that type of material." Herrity also recommended "discipling whoever, did it."

The display, assembled by library aide Charles Keener, featured over 100 works; novels by

authors ranging from James Baldwin, Mary Renault, Ronald Firbank and Nobel-prize winner Andre Gide, to poetry and plays by Walt Whitman, Garcia Lorca and others, and biographies of artists such as Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima and Virginia Woolf.

The controversy began with a chart taped to the staff refrigerator at the Thomas Jefferson branch by head librarian Helen Maulsby. The idea was to encourage staff members to contribute ideas for the library's regular monthly displays. Library staff aide Charles Keener signed his name and display topic, and set about compiling a biblio'graphy.

"had been in charge of buying books for the system for nine years" she "didn't think there would be any problem there."

Keener recalls things differently. He described a series of petty harassments. Two weeks after signing up for the March exhibit, he was called into Maulsby's office. After first expressing doubt whether the library had sufficient books for the exhibit, she suggested "broadening" the display, calling it "Alternative Lifestyles." Keener cited California precedent, American Library Association policy, and other library minority group displays. He also suggested calling the library administration.

Later, the assistant librarian objected to the pink triangle sign as "too large and too obvious." The head librarian also registered doubts. But after Keener offered to use the same format as the Library's fall election display-

According to Maulsby, everything proceeded normally. Keener began collecting the books, which came from branches throughout the library system. She conferred with the County library administration, who found nothing objectiona--a ble in the project.

Her account is confirmed by administration spokeswoman Nancy C. Woodall. Woodall said she knew beforehand--and passed on to the Executive Council--the subject, format, and title of the display. No list of books was submitted for approval. But, she stated, since she

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poster on an easel in the library foyer--the display went up as originally planned.

Interpretations differ on the impact of the Library Board's March 12 decision. Library officials see it as a victory for free speech. Woodall stresses that no books were removed from the shelves. "Once you give in to the bigots on one issue," Mrs. Woodall stated, "they then attack you on another; they want all books on abortion to be anti-abortion, then all books on Blacks to represent the views of the Klan, and so on until you have nothing left in your library."

She was unconcerned with the "balancing" books--"one can live with two Anita Bryant books" The new sign, which she liked less than the original, was, she felt, "innocuous."

Keener, along with representatives of the Gay Activists

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Alliance, took a different stand. A GAA meeting March 17 saw in the board's decision "a very important issue of power and self-determination." They particularly objected to the sign change which, they claim, "denies a minority group the right to call itself by the name of their own choosing. Would the board insist that Black History Week be retitled Negro History Week because Black was a loaded term?"

The Alliance also objected to the inclusion of anti-Gay books in the exhibit. No exhibit of Jewish history, they asserted, would include Nazi books advocating the annihilation of Jews.

The Alliance organized a telephone call-in to the Library Board and administration on March 18 to protest the board's decision. Also, GAA sent a delegation, consisting of president Mel Boozer and members Frank Kameny, and Elinor Crocker, to speak at the March 18 Library Board meeting. All three speak-

ers argued forcefully against the decision. Kameny noted that "while the Board's intentions were not malevolent, their action was unconscionable and unacceptable."

Keener, meanwhile, reported continuing harassment. Since the emergency Library Board meeting, he has been hassled about wearing political buttons. Branch staff, he added, have also complained about time spent on the telephone. And, he claims, Woodall suggested that he not use his dinner hour to speak with reporters from a radio station investigating the story.

And the books--how have they fared? Librarian Maulsby, who read several of the books on the shelves, said the display seems to be serving its purpose of promoting interest in the library's collection. And, she commented, "several members of the clergy have come in, expressed approval of the display and checked out books for use in pastoral counseling."

National gay Democratic group formed

By Rick Berg

Cleveland's gay Democratic Tom Chorlton, president of club will affiliate with a new Washington's Gertrude Stein national organization of gay Democratic Club, set up the panDemocratic Party clubs and el's meeting to begin forming other gay political groups. The such an organization after connew organization, which has not sultation with other gay Demoyet been named, was formed by cratic groups, including ERDC. an ad hoc panel of gays involved "We expect to participate fully in in the 1980 Democratic National the mainstream of the party, playConvention. ing a major role in the candidate selection and policy-making process," Chorlton said.

The Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club, the local gay Democratic organization, will send secretary David Batz to Washington this month to confer with members of the ad hoc panel about ERDC's affiliation with the new national organization. The organization is expected to take the form of a confederation of gay political groups willing to affiliate with the Democratic Party.

The panel, which met in Washington in February, consisted of members of the Lesbian and Gay Caucus of the 1980 Democratic National Convention. The Caucus, which boasted over 80 members, wished to continue the advances which gays had made in the 1980 presidential primaries by forming a permanent national gay political organization.

Bill Kraus, co-chair of the Lesbian and Gay Caucus, and USED CARS

The new organization plans to work within the Democratic Party nationally to insure that gays maintain the status that they achieved last year as a legitimate constituency within the party.

The 1980 Democratic Party Platform called for actions by the government to protect all groups from discrimination based on sexual orientation. It was the first time that a major national political party called, in its platform, for an end to discrimination against gays.

The nomination of Melvin Boozer, president of the Washington chapter of the Gay Activists' Alliance, as a candidate for nomination as vice president of the United States was further evidence of the acceptance of gays as a legitimate constituency within the party."

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