Page 8 HIGH GEAR MAY 1981

HIGH

CEAR

OPINION

A Publication of the GEAR Foundation

VOLUME 7, ISSUE 6

1981 GEAR

HIGH GEAR is a publication of the Gay Educational and Awareness Resources (GEAR) Foundation of Cleveland, Ohio. It is distributed free of charge in any establishment and with any organization that will permit distribution. It is 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 or persons.

All contributions of written materials, art work or photography by members of the gay community are welcome. All materials submitted for publication are subject to editorilization. The return of materials submitted for publication, whether used by HIGH GEAR or not, cannot be guaranteed unless accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope.

All HIGH GEAR staff members are volunteers except the advertising manager. Anyone interested in working on the staff of HIGH GEAR should contact the paper at P.O. Box 6177 Cleveland, OH., 44101 or by calling the Hotline at 621-3380.

Business or organizations wishing to advertise in HIGH GEAR may obtain advertising rate cards 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 will not publish any material of a racist, sexist, ageist, or pornographic nature. HIGH GEAR reserves the right to apply the same standards to display advertising after notification is given the advertiser.

HIGH GEAR is copyrighted under Federal Law. Reproduction is granted to all other gay publications as long as credit is given to HIGH GEAR. Exception: Photographs copyrighted by Sally J. Mattson may not be reprinted nor reproduced in any way without the written consent and/or fee paid to the photographer. All HIGH GEAR work is original unless otherwise noted.

HIGH GEAR PICTURE POLICY

Recognizable faces will not be printed in HIGH GEAR without the consent of said faces. This is to enable the patrons and entertainers of Cleveland's fine bars, clubs, entertainments and organizations to remain relaxed without fear of their "images being stolen" when the HIGH GEAR staff photographers are at work.

EDITOR-INTERIM

MANAGING EDITOR

Sally J. Mattson Photographer/Photo Editor

JEFF WOBBECKE R. WOODWARD BOB ROEHM SALLY J. MATTSON MEL BORHAM

ASSOCIATE EDITOR-COLUMBUS PHOTO EDITOR

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER STAFF ARTIST WRITERS

DAVID Z. KIRSCHENBAUM PAUL ZIMMERMAN, JAY STUART, MARY STUART STEVE DEINERO

COLUMNISTS ALEX RUDEN, CHRIS GUARNIERI

LAYOUT STAFF

DISTRIBUTION MANAGER DISTRIBUTION STAFF

DAN KAHN

TRACEY RYAN

JEANNETTE

WIN WEIZER STEVE FRITCH GORDON HATHAWAY

DAVID KELLOGG PAUL ZIMMERMAN DIANNE FISHMAN BARBARA LEE GAIL BURLEE MARCIA PERRY

LORIE CECELICH

LESLIE FORTLAGE

JERRY BORES JODY GILBERT HOMAN

Printed by

THE CALL AND POST

Conspicuous

absences

Jerry Falwell's book Listen, America! is filled with his descriptions of people such as gays, feminists, and people who do not give their whole-hearted support to the American military establishment. One of the book's main themes is that such people are evil influences to be carefully avoided.

Since Falwell is posing as someone who is eager to see Americans protected from evil leadership, very conspicuous indeed is the absence from Listen, America! of any mention of Jesus's warning to beware of false prophets and the advice that went with it about how to distinguish a false prophet from a

true one.

Jesus's warning and advice, which appear in Chapter 8 of Matthew, and which are much too famous for any Protestant preacher like Falwell to not be aware of, read as follows:

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit...Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."

A suggestion unheard

Conspicuously absent from any of Falwell's usual rhetoric or chit-chat is the suggestion that a devastating blow could easily be Idealt to widespread scepticism about Christians like himself, by inviting a number of intelligent and very sharp-eyed Christians to investigate Falwell's various activities, especially his leadership of the Moral Majority, with all of his methods to be examined in detail and with much careful comparing to be done between his various results and stated intentions.

Perhaps Falwell simply fears that great damage might be done to the faith of many simple Christian souls if any doubt whatever is ever entertained about anything he does.

Some accountants, no doubt,, are entirely sincere when they worry out loud that the auditors sent by the investors might easily hurt their eyes by looking too hard at all of the tiny red. numbers.

Editor's Column

Involvement

By Jeff Wobbecke

As the interim editor of HIGH GEAR I am pleased to be able to share some thoughts and views with my brothers and sisters.

I have watched this world of ours change in the ten years since I came out and it is a real pleasure to follow in the footsteps of some real pioneers-those who came out belligerently looking for their rights.

Who were some of those first seekers? Drag queens, limp wristed fairies in New York who gave us Gay Pride on Christopher Street over a decade ago. It was not the people who dress 'well' but those who had a very definite style that was loud, offensive, and to a lot of people threatening-they were Gay and proud and flaunted that image.

I don't begin to pretend to have the wisdom to say this is right or this is wrong or to sit in judgement on others-I have a hard enough time taking care of what is right and wrong for me-but those forgotten people on that June evening got us moving, they gave us some direction and inspired a lot of us.

Since then the Anita Backlash affect has helped bring us together and it looks as though we may get some uniting influence from the powers that be in Washington.

It is a sad thing to note that we all want basically the same thingsour rights as Gay Americans-and yet are only united when the gauntlet is down; when we are pushed as those who are afraid try to take back what we have gained.

The GEAR Foundation

The GEAR Foundation was formed to help the efforts to lead the so called 'straight' world to a greater understanding of who and what we are-to provide some alternatives to the society that we knew and had available to us. I have been a part of the Foundation for all too little time but wish to publicly rededicate myself to this cause-and to urge each of you to stop and think and then act-are we to only get involved when the chips are down?

Join with the Foundation and the people who make it what it is. Get into your community-the rewards will please you.

Speaking of involvement, the volunteers of the Hotline are special people and we are dedicating a special fund raising event to them and to obtaining a new answering machine for the line.

There are certain expenses involved in any hotline and ours is no exception. Some of these expenses have been met thru donations. Major bills such as the answering machine need major efforts. Saturday, May 30, Henry Henderson's new bar, ANOTHER PLACE, which is the old WILDE OSCAR and across Payne from MIST-A-HENRY'S will host just such an effort.

Cleveland's own Ray & Company will entertain along with Ms. D and several others. Proceeds, of course, to the Hotline answering machine fund.

The GEAR Foundation's Lavender Elephant Sale will be the weekend of May 23 and 24th at the Community Center. This promises to be quite an interesting time-loads of goodies and otherwise castoffs are already in the center waiting to be snapped up. The help of those who contributed and those who have planned to make this event the success it will be, is appreciated.

Notable quote

Jonathan Swift, probably the greatest satirist who ever wrote in English, was a conservative clergyman. Still very relevant to all preachers and would-be preachers is an essay he wrote in 1720 entitled "A Letter to a Young Gentleman, lately entered into Holy Orders", in which he reminds the "young gentleman" that a preacher's chief duty is to clearly explain to his listeners what their duties are. This explaining, he points out, is often shamefuly neglected by those preachers who spend a great deal of time in manipulating their listeners emotions.

Swift advises the young clergyman to use as sparingly as possible "the moving manner of preaching" popular among "all the preachers and hearers of the fanatic or enthusiastic strain." Swift's essay concludes with this paragraph:

"I entreat you to make use of this faculty (if you ever be so unfortunate as to think you have it) as seldom, and with as much caution as you can, else I may probably have occasion to say of you as a great person said of another upon this very subject. A lady asked him coming out of church, whether it were not a very moving discourse? "Yes," he said, "I was extremely sorry for the man is my friend."

Opinions in HIGHGEAR

The opinions expressed in any piece of writing which appears in HIGH GEAR with a by-line are those of the writer. They are not necessarily those of the GEAR Foundation or HIGH GEAR, unless it is specifically stated that the writer is representing HIGH GEAR or the GEAR Foundation.

No matter where a piece of writing with a by-line appears in HIGH GEAR, it is not a HIGH GEAR editorial unless the word,

"Editorial" has been placed above it.

A HIGH GEAR editorial is not an official policy statement by the GEAR Foundation.

The GEAR Foundation (GEAR being short for Gay Education, Awareness, and Resources) is non-profit educational institution, of which HIGH GEAR is one division. Other divisions are the Gay Community Center and the Gay Hotline