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Gay rights law insulting,
Boston group says
For the first time under Massachusetts law, the bill establishes
that sexual orientation is legitimate grounds fo r discrimination
in employment, housing and credit.
. S. Representative Gerry Studds (D,Ma.),
Oscar Wilde, Allen Ginsberg, A. Philip
Randolph are among the thousands left
unprotected by the recently enacted
Massachusetts “Gay Rights” Law. That’s
because the bill explicitly denies protection to
anyone who has any attraction to persons
under the age of 18. That means there is NO
civil rights protection for two 15-year-old
lesbian lovers, or a man in a perfectly legal
relationship with a 17-year-old boy.
The Massachusetts bill writes off gay
youth, man/boy lovers, or any lesbian or gay
person who fails to deny all erotic attraction
for young people.
It establishes, for the first time under
Massachusetts law, that sexual orientation is
legitimate grounds for discrimination in
employment, housing and credit.
And that’s not all. One amendment
safeguards Governor Michael Dukakis’s
homophobic ban on lesbian and gay foster
parents, and bears the clear implication that
homosexuals are a threat to children.
What has been won? Virtually nothing of
concrete value. This law leaves discrimination
against gays and lesbians entirely legal in
health care, education and foster care. In the
coming years, this law will directly benefit a
tiny handful of mostly white, mostly middle-
class gays and lesbians — those who can
afford to buy justice in America’s classist and
racist marketplace.
Massachusetts gays and lesbians have
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fought for a civil rights bill for 17 years
because of its potentially powerful symbol
ism, not its toothless protections. We have
fought to affirm that sexual orientation does
not diminish anyone’s claim to justice, not
divide our community into those who deserve
rights and those who do not. We have fought
to give gays and lesbians the self-confidence
to come out, not require many to deny part of
their sexuality.
Instead of mobilizing the gay and lesbian
community to fight the bigoted language in
this bill, a small group of gay and lesbian
“leaders” met secretly with state legislators in
October and decided that the bill’s flaws were
tolerable. They betrayed some of the most
vulnerable constituencies of our community
for a hollow legalistic victory.
They did this even though many other
offensive amendments were successfully
struck down, even though some 70 percent of
the state electorate supports gay rights, even
though two massive demonstrations proved
our community’s muscle.
This bill is an insult to gays and lesbians.
Its ageism and homophobia set a dangerous
precedent nationwide. Much more than our
progress, this bill shows how far we have to
go before we achieve real liberation. We must
demand nothing less of those who speak in
our name.
— Boston Union o f Radical Gays and Lesbians
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just out ▼ 8 ▼ January 1990
Radical women
plan conference
n anticipation of a rapidly escalating war
for women’s liberation in the 1990s,
Radical Women will sponsor a national
conference to chart a course for militant
feminist organizing.
Titled *The Third Wave of Feminism: A
Candidly Revolutionary Approach,” the
conference will be held February 17-20,
1990, in Santa Monica, California, and will
focus on theory and strategies essential to
winning permanent social and political
equality for all women.
The conference will feature three spirited,
controversial and diverse keynote speakers
whose ideas have inspired the movement__
Martha Cotera, Chicana Feminist theoretician
and author of Diosa y Hembra: The History
and Heritage o f Chic anas in the US; Clara
Fraser, Jewish labor and civil rights activist
and socialist feminist pioneer; and Merle
Woo, Asian American lesbian educator and
free speech fighter.
Additional conference topics include:
exerting the class strength of women workers;
waging war on poverty, ageism and ableism;
revitalizing campus activism by uniting
students, faculty and staff; and affirming
global solidarity against the imperial
overlords.
For more information, call (503) 249-8067 or
write Radical Women. 1510 NE Brazee
Portland. OR 97212.
I
NLC interim task
committee meets
he National Lesbian Conference interim
task committee met in Atlanta in October
to further define the membership of the
steering committee that will guide the
planning process for the conference scheduled
for April 24-28,1991 in Atlanta.
The 50 states plus the District of
Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and
British Columbia have been divided into 10
regions. Each region will have four planning
members on the steering committee. Regions
were created by considering existing
networks, lesbian population and travel
distances. Each region is responsible for
contributing one-third of all monies raised by
the National Office, which is presently located
in Albany, New York.
Regional planners will be chosen at
regional meetings which are being organized
before the next large national planning
meeting. The first steering committee session
is scheduled for Kansas City, Missouri on
Friday, April 27,1990. The third national
planning meeting, to which lesbians from
around the country are invited, will be held in
Kansas City the same weekend, April 28 and
29. The interim task committee will meet a
second time in Atlanta the first weekend in
February.
For more information about the conference
or to get involved, contact Michelle Crone
with the national office at (518) 463-1051, or
write NLC, P.O. Box 3057, Albany. NY
12203. •
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