This Way Out; 118

The right wing's campaign against gay and lesbian rights in Tacoma was every bit as ugly as you might imagine. In the 10 years that we have known about a we have made remarkable progress. I needed to cover up my identity so that I could walk down the streets of Boise and not be afraid. It was an officer saying, I'm at the door and I asked him what he was doing there to see my friends meet in the question. Welcome to This Way Out, the International Lesbian and Gay Radio Magazine. I'm Greg Gordon and I'm Luccia Chappelle. Now into the Valley of Boise rode the 300. Long time companion makes short -term enemies. And for supreme privacy, lock your bedroom door. All that and more because you've discovered This Way Out. I'm Sandy Dwyer and I'm Richard Cisneros. With

newswrap, a summary of some of the news in or affecting the lesbian and gay community for the weekend in July 1, 1990. The coroner of Sydney, Australia, has recommended that a gang of 17 -agers who beat a gay man to death be charged with manslaughter rather than first -degree murder. According to a story in the Sydney star observer, the youths found the phone number of the gay man on the wall of a public toilet and allegedly ranged to meet him outside a restroom in Alexandra Park. When he arrived, the 17s allegedly waited until he came out of the restroom and then beat and kicked him to death. Outraged gays and lesbians have written to the director of public prosecutions in Sydney demanding that the youths be charged with murder. A new direct action group of gays and lesbians is forming in London. Calling itself outrage, the broad -based organization is committed to non -violent direct action and civil disobedience to draw attention to increasing homophobia in Britain. According to a spokesperson for the group, outrage intends to assert pride and the human rights of lesbians and gays to fight homophobia and

violence and to affirm the right to sexual freedom, choice, and self -determination. In the US, a 17 -year veteran FBI agent who filed a lawsuit on June 8th to prevent the agency from firing him because he is gay was informed on June 20th that he was, in fact, fired. According to his attorney, Richard Gayer, the agent is known only as John Doe because he works undercover. After the bureau learned in 1988 that he is gay, the agent acknowledged his homosexuality and provided extensive details about his sex life. To eliminate any concern that he might be the victim of extortion, Gayer said. The FBI placed the agent on administrative leave in September 1989 and revoked his security clearance this year on May 29th. The agent is five years away from qualifying for a full government pension and because he was not given written notice, he can't even collect unemployment benefits the attorney said. The FBI gave no

explanation for revoking the agent's security clearance or for firing him the attorney said. Suddenly, they don't trust him anymore, he said. Congressional negotiators, working on the US Americans with Disabilities Act, have agreed to drop the controversial clause that would allow employers to transfer food handlers with HIV to other jobs. Mary Van Clay reports. The action allows final approval of the bill by Congress and it's signing into law by President Bush. Though the provision originated in the House, it still has strong support from North Carolina's Republican Senator, Jesse Helms, he's expected to fight hard to restore it. What's not clear is whether Bush will then take a stand, so far he's made no statement on the amendment. The provision's author, Republican Representative Jim Chapman of Texas, argues that restaurant owners could face bankruptcy if customers are afraid they could get AIDS from infected employees. But opponents of the Chapman amendment say it works at cross purposes to the rest of the bill's anti -discrimination message by allowing bias that's based on perception, not

reality. In San Francisco, I'm Mary Van Clay. Sweden may become the world's second nation to formally recognize lesbian and gay relationships. Late last month, the country's social welfare board proposed that gay and lesbian couples who are living together be able to register their partnership and be entitled to almost the same rights as heterosexual married couples. Last year, Denmark became the first country in the world to allow lesbian and gay couples to legally marry in civil ceremonies. Like the Danish law, however, the Swedish proposal would specifically prohibit gay or lesbian couples from adopting children. According to the Reuters news agency, their proposed registry in Sweden could become law by July 1st, 1992. The San Francisco Board of Education has unanimously approved a controversial program to provide counseling and support services for gay and lesbian public school students. The program is modeled after the successful Project 10 in Los Angeles. Opponents of the program who claim that it's a recruitment tactic for gays have vowed to

circulate petitions which would place the issue on the ballot. Paul O 'Grady, a member of the new South Wales Australia Legislative Council, came out as an openly gay man during a nationally broadcast radio interview last month. Voters are looking for integrity in their politicians, O 'Grady said. I don't think voters are worried about the sexual preference of politicians. Fred Nile, one of Australia's leading homophobic politicians, immediately introduced legislation in parliament which would ban any material which intentionally promotes homosexuality from all new South Wales public schools and public libraries. Nile's claims that the law is needed to stop the spread of the AIDS virus. In Tacoma, Washington, lesbians and gay men are working on regaining civil rights protections that were approved by the Tacoma City Council a year ago, but overturned by the voters in November of last year after opponents put the issue on the ballot. We welcomed Judith Samuels to the ranks of this way out, news correspondence. She filed this update from K -A -O -S -F

-M in Olympia. Carla Rudy from the Tacoma Committee to protect human rights talked about the issue at this year's gay and lesbian pride parade in Seattle. Rudy says the opponents of gay and lesbian civil rights are mostly religious fundamentalists. The right wing's campaign against gay and lesbian rights in Tacoma was every bit as ugly as you might imagine. They used AIDS hysteria, narrow fundamentalist morality, lies and myths surrounding homosexuality against us. They used everything but the truth. Rudy says that although the gay and lesbian civil protections were repealed last fall, in another way, the gay community came out ahead. Tacoma's gay and lesbians community came out of the closet fighting. The right wing, that's right we did. The right wing stirred up their own enemy. They forced us to organize and we did. We have rededicated ourselves to going back to the Tacoma citizens not hat in hand and not asking but demanding our rights back. In February of this year, we kicked

off our signature drive campaign. And for the last four months, we've been busy out on the streets of Tacoma. We've endured harassment from bigots. We've been run off and have the police called on us by homophobic storm managers. We've been threatened but it was all worth the risk for us to hear the overwhelming response of the citizens of Tacoma. At least 80 % of the people want this back, not just on the November ballot. They want it back on the books. If the signature campaign is successful, the proposal to include lesbians engaged in Tacoma's anti -discrimination laws will be up for a vote again this November. For this way out, I'm Judith Samuels. The Madison, Wisconsin City Council has passed an ordinance which prohibits private non -profit groups from discriminating against non -traditional families such as lesbian and gay couples. The ordinance requires groups such as the YMCA or private health clubs to include lesbian or gay couples or unmarried heterosexual couples in their family membership offers. The ordinance was passed as a result of a discrimination complaint

five years ago when a lesbian couple and their two children were denied family membership at the local YMCA. At that time, the Madison Equal Opportunities Commission ruled that Madison's existing non -discrimination laws did not cover non -traditional families. The new ordinance now covers lesbian and gay couples and applies to private non -profit groups. Lesbians and gay men tried to liven up a street march in Sydney, Australia in support of World Environment Week last month. Anola Gay, a group of gays and lesbians for nuclear disarmament, joined in the street march carrying a large red, black and yellow banner showing a pink triangle breaking a nuclear missile in half. Lesbian and gay marchers complained that the chance of other participants in the street march lacked the spontaneity and humor of those usually heard in gay and lesbian marches, calling some of the other environmental chance a bit dergy at times. And finally, a resident of a small West Virginia town has petitioned his county commission to have the name

of the town changed. Chuck Reigns of Gay, a small town near the Ohio border, said that when the community was first named, the word gay meant merry joyous and lively. But as times have changed, so has the meaning of the word. Reigns hasn't suggested a new name, he said all he knows is that he hates the name gay. Gay Postmaster, Rue Skinner, that is Postmaster for the town of Gay, said that the town was named in the 1850s. I'm satisfied with the way things are, she said. This place was named gay a long time before this other stuff got started. There is also a gay Georgia, a gayville South Dakota, and in some people's opinion, the best of all, gay head Massachusetts, none of which have ever contemplated changing their town's names. Interestingly enough, there are no straights in any of the 50 states, despite claims to the contrary. That's NewsRap for the Weekending, July 1st, 1990, written by Greg Gordon with stories from the gay radio information news

service, RJ Curry of Vanguard, AIDS and Focus, and other publications and broadcasts throughout the world. Remember, an informed community is a strong community. Find out what's happening in your area by monitoring your local gay and lesbian media. For this way out, I'm Sandy Dwyer, and I'm Richard Cisneros. Rebecca and I went camping in Pine Grove furnace state park, which is in Pennsylvania. We made camp, we spent some time eating, we were laying down by a stream, and all of a sudden there were shocks. My arm exploded. Rebecca was hit twice and started to bleed to death. My name is Claudia Brenner. Ignorance and hatred produce such a poor and violence. We were identified as lesbians by a stranger with whom we had no connection. He will spend the rest of his life in prison, but Rebecca, who was 28 years old, is gone. Homophobia can kill. Education is the only lasting weapon against

bigotry, which is why the lesbian and gay public awareness project wanted you to hear and think about this message. For more information, write us at Post Office box 6 -5 -603 Los Angeles, California 9 -0 -0 -65 .

And now, with the wrap -up of last week's six international conference on AIDS in San Francisco, we have this report from Mike Alkale. More than 12 ,000 people converged on San Francisco's Moscone Center, many of them scientists presenting their latest findings on the details of HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, and the various new drug therapies and vaccine developments. There were no major breakthroughs announced, and what therapies already available were proudly shown by the pharmaceutical corporations at their luxurious booths in the exhibition hall. If there was any action at all, it was taking place outside the convention site, as act up, the AIDS coalition to unleash power held daily demonstrations, each focusing on a different aspect of the epidemic. The INS, the lack of women and clinical trials, the crumbling of the once prestigious San Francisco model based on pure volunteerism. Paul Bohnberg is head of a San Francisco base group called mobilization against AIDS. In the early 80s, organized themselves, they began a movement which one stop was going to change the

social agenda of this nation. For they said, the most important people in dealing with AIDS is not what the doctors think. It's not what the government thinks. It's not what the pharmaceutical companies think. It's what the people fighting the disease themselves think. It's their need which are most important. The climax to the AIDS summit came as it should. On the last day, with a final speech by Lewis Sullivan, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, he faced a jeering audience led by act -up supporters who turned their backs on him, but the official representative of the Bush administration continued with his speech anyway. Next year, the 7th International AIDS

Conference will take place in Florence, Italy, a nation of 57 million people with an estimated 300 ,000 already infected with HIV. In San Francisco, this is Mike some movie critics seem to think that the emotional impact of the AIDS epidemic on the gay community itself isn't worth making a movie about. You were listening to naming names, a regular broadcast of the gay and lesbian alliance against defamation that alerts listeners to public defamation of lesbians and gay men. You may want to have pen and paper

handy, as in a moment I'll tell you where to write to respond to the matters described here. Long time companion, the new movie about AIDS and how it has affected a group of mostly gay New Yorkers during the 1980s has received generally excellent reviews in the non -gay press. On the other hand, some gay people have criticized it for things ranging from its tone, too much like a documentary, to there not being enough physical intimacy among the characters. The important point may be that the reviews are not divided along gay straight lines. It is always a touchy issue to review reviews because aesthetic judgments are so subjective, but we are compelled to object to two of the negative reviews of longtime companion that have appeared in the non -gay press because they seem to turn less on aesthetics than on homophobia. These are the reviews by Ralph Novak in People magazine and Vincent Canby in The New York Times. Novak complains that the movie is too insular. He's upset that we are not introduced to the parents of any of the characters. He accuses the movie of sexual ethnocentrism.

Canby, too, thinks it's a fault that the movie deals only with white gay males who he finds somewhat indistinguishable. As to Novak's review, longtime companion is about the effect of AIDS among gay people on gay people. Until now, AIDS movies like an early frost and Andrei's mother, which were both good in their own way, have been almost solely about how the biological family of the person with AIDS is affected. It's as if AIDS is important only for the grief it causes mothers and fathers. As to Canby's review, when was the last time he criticized, say, a Woody Allen movie for dealing only with intellectual Jewish New Yorkers? He loved Kramer versus Kramer, which focused only on yuppie wasps. In short, he recognizes that there is nothing invalid per say about a movie focusing on a precise social media. He is simply uncomfortable with this particular media, the community of gay people who have taken care of each other during the epidemic. Long time companion is not perfect, its writers could surely have done better at including lesbians and gay people of color, but to

criticize it for being too gay is heterosexist and objectionable. To make that point, write to Ralph Novak, People Magazine, 1211, 6th Avenue, New York, New York, 10020. That's Ralph Novak, People Magazine, 1211, 6th Avenue, New York, New York, 120. Also Vincent Canby, The New York Times, 229 West 43rd Street, New York, New York, 136. That's Vincent Canby, The New York Times, 229 West 43rd Street, New York, New York, 136. Naming names is a project of the gay and lesbian alliance against defamation. If you see or hear instances of anti -lesbian or anti -gay bigotry, please let us know. Write to us at 80 Varick Street, number 3e, New York, New York, 10013, or call us at 212 -966

-1700. This is Kirk Evans Billet for Naming Names. This is Charles Pierce as Talula, Taluna Dawling. He's oh, here to remind you that you're listening to this way out, the International Gay and Lesbian Radio Magazine. When daylight hits your eye, balloons and banners fly, anticipation fills the air. Don't magical together, we'll sum in lace and sum in leather, we're proud, proud as we can be every day,

sharing the magic, feeling the pride, sharing the magic, all of our lives, sharing the magic, feeling the pride. A little bit of history was made on June 23, when 300 brave souls came out for the first lesbian and gay pride march ever held in Boise, Idaho. This way out Linda Shirley told us that before the march began, participants had to be taught some of the standard lesbian and gay pride chance. She filed this report. On June 23, 1990, Boise, Idaho celebrated their first annual gay and lesbian freedom day. Over 300 gay men, lesbians, and their supporters marched from the state capital building to the Julia Davis Park for a rally featuring local and national speakers and performers. For many, this was the first time they had publicly

come out as gay men and lesbians, and for the 300 who marched, there are hundreds more who were not ready to take that step. There's a lot of people that wanted to be here, a lot of my friends said, hey, go with me, go for me, and think of me, I can't be there though, I don't want to lose my job, I don't want to be harassed, whatever, but I do. I'm with you in spirit, so I said, okay, great. Some marches, fearing reprisal, were full disguises. No, I'm not a clown, it's a very serious matter, but I needed to cover up my identity so that I could walk down the streets of Boise and not be afraid. Boise's two female impersonators rode in the parade waving at all the bystanders. It was really fun. Yeah, there was a few people that were very harassing, but you just ignore them, because we have just as many rights as they do. I don't think Boise has ever seen drag queens in the public in the daylight. Perry Jude Radisick, the legislative director for the national gay and lesbian task force, was a keynote speaker at Boise's first gay and lesbian freedom day. She spoke about the historic impact this march will have. I really don't think Boise Idaho is ever going to be the same again. It took a

lot of guests for these 320 people to come out here today and march down the street. Most of these people live in Idaho, they live in Boise, and there's a lot of fear, which is different when you move from a small town to go to New York City or you move to San Francisco and you don't have roots in that community. And so these people have a lot of courage and a lot of pride to be here today. And you know, when Montana hears that Boise has done this, when Fargo, North Dakota hears that Boise has done this, when Cheyenne Wyoming hears that Boise has done this, I think that'll spur them to really get their act together and follow the lead of Boise Idaho up in the upper great plain states. Radisick also spoke of the political impact that this march would have. We're doing all right in Congress, but we're not going to progress any further unless people in cities like Boise, Idaho come together as a political movement and try to create change through their legislature. When we're asking Phillips and Teresa Trial and to tame the crowd, Lena

Teresa had this comment. It was amazing. It was exhilarating. You know, the funny thing is is that I was surprised at my own ignorance. I even coming from San Francisco, I knew that Boise was going to be a real different kind of place, but I was sort of expecting 1500 people or something like that. And I was on the way driving over and talking to the woman in the car and I said, well, how many people you got here today? And she says, oh 300, we're so proud and I went 300, but that's 300 really brave people. Del Richards, author of Lesbian List was one of the organizers of this event. I think it's been a great success. The people worked very hard for the last year and there's over 300 people here and I'm shocked and exhilarated. Considering the hostility and the fear that existed here to get 300 people is just great. Little wake Boise out to the fact that there are gays and lesbians in this town. People don't think there are. People think they don't exist that all the gays and lesbians are in California and that's just not so. And as the Reverend Carolyn Mobley led the crowd in the final song, the ones who aren't here, 300 proud gay men and lesbians stood hand in hand and sang along.

Congratulations, Speed -Up Master Of the shoes. Can Boise Idaho, this is Linda Carly. Idaho is one of over 20 U .S. states where lesbian and gay sex is still a crime. This way out notes that just passed fourth anniversary of the infamous Bowers vs. Hardwick Supreme Court decision handed down on June 30, 1986. The decision upheld the constitutionality of state -sotomy laws and is still the law of the land. Michael Hardwick described how it all started in what he

thought was the privacy of his bedroom in Atlanta, Georgia. I noticefully I saw the door. It was like partially cracked and the door opened a bit. I looked up and everybody was here and I didn't think anything of it. And I went back to the neutral overall sex with this man for about 45 seconds and then also I looked up the gentleman who was his officer saying I'd let him door and I asked him what he was doing there and seemed like a pretty reasonable question. Hardwick filed a civil suit at the Federal District Court to challenge the Georgia Sotomy statute so that the curings of intrusion into his bedroom would cease. Unfortunately he lost. Hardwick is a decision that relegates gay men and lesbians to the status of criminals in 25 states in the District of Columbia because of who we love. Oklahoma crime against nature. Ten years, Rhode Island crime against nature. Seven years minimum. We want the

Supreme Court out of our bedrooms to want the government and police out of our bedrooms. We want the rights that all Americans want, including the most fundamental and basic of all rights, which is the right to be left alone. Thanks for choosing this way out.

This week Sandy Dwyer, Richard Cisneros, Mary Van Clay, Judith Samuels, Mike Alcalae, Kirk Evan Billet, Linda Shirley, Alan Ross, and John Zay contributed program material. Thanks also to RJ Curry, Graham Underhill, and Gary Taylor. Lilian Allen, Joanna Cazden and Lauren Sclamberg, and the cast of Tom Wilson Weinberg's 10 % review performed some of the music you heard and Kim Wilson composed and performed our theme music. Satellite distribution of this way out is made possible through a grant from the Paul Rappaport Foundation. Audio cassettes of this way out programs are available by mail, individually or by subscription. Write to us for more information. We'd also like to hear from you with any comments, suggestions, or questions you might have, or just to let us know your listening. Write to this way out, post office box 38327 Los Angeles, California 90038. This way out is produced by Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon, and we thank you for listening on WYEP Pittsburgh to SER Sydney and KPFK Los Angeles among others and for supporting this local

community radio station. Continue staying tuned with pride.