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1983— The year in retrospect
G ay gains in
electoral politics
From coast to coast openly identified gays
have been successful in gaining a voice in
electoral political campaigns despite sexual
intolerance which, as leaders of the gay rights
movement adm it remains strong in most of
the nation.
The cities of Key West Florida, and Santa
Cruz and Laguna Beach, California are the
constituencies of gay mayors. Richard Hey-
man was elected in a city-wide campaign in
Key West The mayors of Santa Cruz and
Laguna Beach were appointed by the city
councils and/or governments of their
respective cities.
David Scondras was a successful candi
date for a seat on the Boston, Massachusetts
City Council. Scondras credited his victory to
a coalition of lesbians and gay men, people of
color, women and renters. “There’s an ack
nowledgement an understanding among
blacks and women, that an openly gay
person has a whole history of experience in
what it’s like to be left o u t to feel hostility, to
be devalued because you’re different”
Scondras said. “The age of bigotry is eclips
ing, and the age of coalition is beginning.”
Virginia Apuzzo, executive director of the
National Gay Task Force, said that her con
cern is that the coalition hold together out of
mutual understanding, not just a passing
sense of political expediency.
"The veracity of the rainbow coalition for
us is the consistency with which lavender is a
part of it We are no longer the stepchild of the
movement that shapes and inspires our
own," Apuzzo said.
According to gay activist and political
strategist James Foster, Senator Edward
Kennedy’s northern California campaign
manager in 1980, “It’s been evident for a long
tim e while that what politicans want is money
and armies. In the late 1960s and early 70s,
we began the process of putting together the
army. In the late 70s, we began the process
of putting together the money."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
honored with holiday
After more than a decade of struggle
against right-wing resistance, both the
Senate and House of Representatives passed
and sent to President Reagan a bill designat
ing the third Monday in January a national
holiday commemorating the birth of Martin
Luther King, Jr. Reagan signed the bill, which
takes effect in 1986, before an audience of
several hundreds.
Coretta Scott King, widow of the assassi
nated civil rights leader, called the holiday the
highest recognition the nation could bestow
on King, who, she said, ‘‘symbolized what
was right about America, what was noblest
and best"
‘ America is a more democratic nation, a
more just nation, because Martin Luther
King, Jr., became her pre-eminent non
violent commander," she said.
ations bill ended ten years of debate on de
ployment of the MX missile system and was
the last step before full-scale production on
21 MX missiles begins with the new year.
The bill also included money for 95 Per
shing 2 missiles which will be deployed in
West Germany, a Trident submarine and 52
Trident missiles, and 10 B -l bombers.
In addition, the bill allots $24,000,000 (m il
lions) in military aid to the CIA-backed
Nicaraguan anti-government forces.
Congressman forced
out of the closet
An appropriations bill, allotting
$250,000,000,000 (billions) for 1984 to the
(J.S. m ilitary was signed on December 8,
1983. Reagan asked for and got every major
weapons program with this bill, except an
okay for nerve gas production.
The president’s signature on the appropri
Representative Gerry Studds, a Democrat
from Provincetown, Massachusetts, became
the first member of the Congress of the
United States to openly declare he is gay on
the floor of the House of Representatives.
In a statement in response to charges that
he had sex with a House page, Rep. Studds
has stated, “All members of Congress must
cope with the challenge of initiating and
maintaining a career in public office without
destroying entirely the ability to lead a mean
ingful and emotionally fulfilling private life. It
is not a simple task for any of us to meet
adequately the obligations of either public or
private life, let alone both. But these
challenges are made substantially more
complex when one is, as am I, both an elected
public official and gay.”
Studds’ censure and that of Republican
Congressman Daniel B. Crane of Illinois were
the results of an investigation costing more
than $1,000,000 (million) into alleged drug
dealing and sexual activity involving
congressmen and congressional pages.
Both Studds and Crane waived their right
to a public hearing on the charges in order to
protect the pages involved. Studds was ac
cused of having a relationship with a 17 year
TWENTY-THIRD AVENUE
RIGGS PHOTOGRAPHY
Reagan signs
biggest defense
bill in history
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old male page in 1973. Studds made a state
ment on the House floor, saying (in part) “ I
will not contest procedurally the course of
action recommended by the Committee on
Standards of Official Conduct In so doing,
however, I repeat that in my judgement the
mutually voluntary, private relationship be
tween adults which occurred ten years ago
should not by any conceivable standard of
fairness, rationality, rule or law, warrant the
attention or action of the House of Represen
tatives of the United States.”
Studds later said that he “was just damned
if I was going to indicate in my words, tone or
demeanor that I was apologizing for or
ashamed of my personal orientation."
Topic AIDS
O f intense concern to many, many people
in the gay com m unity is the spectre of AIDS.
Gay politicans on the national and local levels
spent many hours and much energy focus
ing attention on the U.S. government’s foot-
dragging in appropriations for research into
the causes of the disease.
On the national level both the Gay Rights
National Lobby (GRNL) and the National Gay
Task Force (NGTF) were instrumental in
convincing legislators and health workers to
awareness to the dangers of AIDS in the
whole community.
In every gay com m unity across the nation
people have organized some sort of support
group and/or fundraising activity to help in
the fight against AIDS. In Portland, for exam
ple, Phoenix Rising was instrumental in
establishing the Cascade AIDS Project
Efforts to control the disease are continu
ing; and efforts to make the public aware of
the extent of the threat of the disease to both
gays and heterosexuals has become a prior
ity in both gay and straight presses.
LESBIAN
AND GAY BAR
Expanded Dinner
Menu beginning
January 15, 1984
Open Sun-Thurs 5 p .m .-11 p.m.
Fri-Sac 5 p.m .-l a.m.
1431NE Broadway
284-1485
Just Out January 6-January 20