GPA
Gay People’s Alliance works to erase
loneliness from homosexual community
By DAGMAR OBEREIGNER
Of the Emerald
The isolation and loneliness of gays in
Eugene is a picture the Gay People s
Alliance on campus is trying to change,
says GPA director Carol Queen.
‘ Seventy percent of the work we do
with gay people is helping them get to
people they can relate to,' says Queen.
Finding a supportive peer group is a
major problem for gays, whom Queen
says must find their peer group, unlike
heterosexuals
Gay People s Alliance offers services
from counseling and legal referrals to a
housing board for gays wanting to room
with other homosexuals. The office is a
place where gays can find others to tafc
to, white a rap group held every Wed
nesday aids m the forming of a peer
group on campus," Queen says.
Staffer Anna Santucci emphasizes
GPA’s role of "helping gays help each
other.’
The larger society's not going to be
there for you when you need it," she
says. Gay People s Alliance is an outlet
for gay people—gays know that what
they need is there, especially escape
from the isolation they re in,” she adds.
Non-gays come in after finding out
that a friend or stoiing is gay to team
more about the gay lifestyle. Additionally
some gays are referred to GPA by non
gay fnends. which illustrates that "we re
a campus force people know about
says Queen, "we have credibility with at
least some of the non-gays on campus
About two-thirds of those who come
into the office are men, says Queen, be
cause gay women m the Eugene com
munity already have more outlets than
men—from karate workshops to a gay
women s bookstore—while men s only
outlet is GPA.
The GPA weekly rap group, however,
has about a 50-50 mate to female ratio,
she adds
About 30 persons visit the office regu
tarty, and another 20 come in occasion
ally, says Queen. Every term about 30
students come in to the office for re
search and to check out books from
GPA’s small library.
Queen is pleased with the turnout this
term. We ve seen three times as many
people aswedkt ail last year, she says.
The closest those isolated individuals
come to being reached, she continues,
is during Gay Pride Week, when gays
are in the forefront, ' at least in the news
paper pages. Gay Pride Week also
reaches those non-gays who don't
want to hear about ” the gay movement,
she adds.
The event is held to draw the attention
of new students and to involve them,
says Queen. Almost one-third of GPA s
$2,806 in Incidental Fee Committee
funding goes toward the week of events
usualy held fail term
This year. Pride Week will be held in
the spnng, by which time GPA will have
been at least "quasi-visiNe ’ for two
terms, says Queen.
A keynote speaker, films, panels on
being gay. and a dance are some erf the
activities planned. The week focuses on
"cultural and educational events, gives a
chance to interact with gay and non-gay
students and community, and tries to
bring some issues into the open a little
bit, " says Queen.
Gay People s Alliance has been ac
tive since 1969 One of the oldest gay
groups in the nation. GPA is also the
oldest organized gay group in Oregon,
says Queen.
Gay People s Alliance moved on
campus and obtained IFC funding in
1973. Its basic premise has never
charged, says CXioen
We are a service to the gay commun
ity and an educational service to the
non-gay community "
What kind of atmosphere for living
does Eugene offer to the gay person?
Queen says she loves it and says
other gays have moved here from larger
Caro/ Queen, director of the Gay Peopie s AHiance. says the organization is provid
ing counseling and other services to homosexuals to help alleviate the isolation
many gays experience About 30 people come into the office regularly and several
others drop in occasionally, she says
cities, and like its ctose-kmt atmosphere.
The Eugene gay community is di
verse. she adds but at the same time,
when something happens like Ballot
Measure 51 last spring, we can pretty
much pul together.
Measure 51. repealing Eugene s Gay
Rights Ordinance, passed, despite the
overall pro-gay stance of the university
community.
The gays are more integrated into
the city as a whole because of its size."
says Queen, who adds that she still finds
that Eugene is an alienating city how
ever, in which gays run into conflicts all
the time But. sne adds, they seem to
be resolved a little easier here
Does the GPA foresee any new legis
lation for its cause7
“It's more important to put energies in
other areas first" says Queen. There's
more we need to do before legislation
would be really vaM,jyiayt>e by toe time
we get that work done, that fond of legis
lation won t be recessary at all, she
says hopefuffy.
' As long as there are people who don t
know what it is to be a gay person, and
(Continued on Page 8)
Milk assassination leaves nation’s gays leaderless
The shooting of San Francisco s first
openly elected gay oty official has left
gay activists wondering who will emerge
as the movements leader
Police say the death of Harvey Milk,
assassinated Monday along with San
Francisco mayor George Muscone. is
not Inked to hts homosexuality But
many gay spokespersons aren t sure
• I would be surposed to find that it had
r»thing to do with his being gay,” says
Carole Queen, director of the
University s Gay People s Alliance
That would be too coincidental
Queen says Muscone was very sup
portive of gay rights and had been
elected with help from the city s large
and outspoken homosexual community,
an estimated one-sixth of the csty s popu
lation
She thinks the event might be an indi
cation that the gay movement is being
bom through a phase as serious as that
of the black civil rights struggle of the
sixties
“An assassination—no matter what
the cause—is going to bnng people up
short, she says Harvey was an exam
ple for aM of us we want to treat the
incident as toe kind of sooetal oppres
sion that we are up against. "
Mtfk. the first avowed homosexual
elected to the city's board of super
visors, led the opposition to an anti-gay
rights measure, which was defeated
Nov. 7 m the first statewide victory for
gay rights m the nation. He was consi
dered the movement s leader. Queen
says.
Dan White, a former supervisor who
was one of the most vocaJ opponents of
the homosexual community, has been
charged with the murders
Just prior to the shooting. White ap
parently was pleading with the mayor to
regain his job as supervisor, which he
had resigned.
White was the only supervisor to vote
against a homosexual rights ordinance
introduced by Milk this year, and the only
supervisor-to vote against dosing Mar
ket Street for the-Gay "Freedom Day
parade in June, wtiich drew 240 000
people.
The Eugene gay community wifi
gather to share their gnef over the shoot
ing at a memorial service in the Wesley
Center Sunday
David PeHttier. new pastor of the Met
ropolitan Community Church, will Oe one
of the speakers for the service Queen
says many gay activists are concerned
for their own safety since foe shooting
Whatever the cause behind the IdBing.
Queen says, one thing is certain The
gay community has lost a beloved and
respected leader
You are invited to the
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