10 ▼ A u g u s t 1001 ▼ Just out
national briefs
Love Bites
This book featuring erotic lesbian photo­
graphs has been released by US Customs. No­
body is quite sure w hy-rum or has it a woman
made the decision.
K.C. Mayor
affirms gay and
lesbian pride
Kansas City, M issouri-An estimated crowd
of 4,000 people greeted Mayor Emanuel Cleaver
in Southm orcland Park at the June 22 Pride
Week picnic. Cleaver’s appearance at the event
culminated several weeks of anxiety and agita­
tion which began when Gay and Lesbian Aware­
ness, which organizes Kansas City’s Pride activi­
ties, requested a Mayoral proclamation recogniz­
ing Gay and Lesbian Pride Week. Although the
mayor ultimately declined to issue a formal proc­
lamation, he not only attended the picnic but
came bearing gifts. During his remarks to the
crowd. Cleaver introduced Linda May and Keith
Spare as liaisons to the Mayor’s office from the
gay and lesbian community, and announced the
formation of a Commission on Lesbian and Gay
Concerns.
Newspaper to
continue despite
controversy
A scries of anti-homophobia educational ads
produced by the Los Angeles-based Lesbian and
Gay Public Awareness Project will continue in a
Washington state newspaper despite a threatened
boycott from some advertisers and subscribers.
Officials at the Tacoma Morning News Trib­
une said the educational scries, which is being
published as a public service, will continue be­
cause the negative reaction from publication of
the first ad is proof that they arc needed.
Heartland stops
publishing
The Indianapolis-based gay and lesbian
newspaper Heartland published its last issue in
late June
Editor James Jackson said the two-year-old
publication had not attracted enough advertisers
and was unable to lure professionals to work for
an openly gay business.
Heartland was unique in that it claimed satu­
ration distribution across an eight-state area.
Apart from T he Advocate, that had never
happened-or been attempted-before.
Heartland's editorial page frequently featured
letters from readers in small Midwestern cities
who were aghast to learn of all that was happen­
ing in the gay movement nationally and interna­
tionally.
The newspaper had a strong commitment to
international news, in large part through sub­
scription to the Chicago-based Outlines News
Service.
Previous gay newspapers published in Indian­
apolis focused mainly on bar news and commu­
nity gossip. The last of those. The New Works
News, recently ceased publication when its pub­
lisher died of AIDS complications.
The farewell issue o f Heartland contained
several pages of moving obituaries for the news­
paper written by staff and contributors.
Rex Wockner
Gay Peace Corps
group forming
A nation-wide group of lesbian and gay for­
mer Peace Corps Volunteers is being organized
for the first time in the Peace C orps’ 30-year
history. The group’s first activities will coincide
with Peace Corps’ 30th Anniversary Celebration,
August 1 -4, which is expected to bring more than
10,000 Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, to the
nation’s capital.
Anyone interested in getting information
about the group’s activities should write: D.
Tickner, PO Box 65874, W ashington, D.C.
20035 or phone Cynthia at (202) 331 -0066. For
information about the 30th Anniversary Celebra­
tions, contact the National Council of RPCV’s at
(202) 462-5938.
T-shirt leads to
suspension of
fraternity
Leaders of the national Alpha Chi Rho frater­
nity have suspended members of the Syracuse
University chapter because they sold T-shirts
with anti-homosexual slogans.
The T-shirts read, "Homophobic and Proud
of It!” on the front. The back of the shirts read,
“Club Faggots and Not Seals,’’ and depicted a
muscled crow, the fraternity’s mascot, holding a
club and standing over an unconscious figure.
The T-shirts drew protests from gay and les­
bian groups on the campus, which filed a com­
plaint with the university code that prohibits
verbal or physical harassment.
The chapter may recruit new members in the
fall, but they must attend workshops on prejudice
against homosexuals.
Michele N-K Collison
Chronicle o f Higher Education
Gay bashing
caught on video
Videotape footage showing a man being gay-
bashed by a neighbor’s 17-ycar-old son was
broadcast by several Bay Area television stations
on June 14, bringing mainstream media attention
to the issue o f anti-gay hate crimes.
Activists working against anti-gay violence
praised the media attention given the incident.
The man attacked had been a recipient of
abuse from neighbors over a three year period.
He set up the video camera in his living room
window on the advice of lawyers. The incident
was taped on the final moments of the tape.
Gay Community News
tical costs of living in the closet, anti-gay vio­
lence, or discrimination in employment and
housing services.
“Sharing these stories will empower the indi­
viduals who write them,” Sauerman added, “and
P-FLAG will publish some of them as a con­
sciousness-raising device for National Coming
Out Day. They will also be used to document
discrimination in meetings with public officials
and for testifying in favor of legislation such as
the 1991 Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Bill.”
Same-sex
couples need to
cover their
assets
Millions of gay and lesbian couples need to
make better legal arrangements to protect them­
selves and their partners, according to Stevie
Bryant and Demian, who publish and edit Part­
ners Newsletter for Gay and Lesbian Couples.
As evidence, the men cite their national survey of
1,266 gay and lesbian couples, in which the ma­
jority of couples had taken no legal precautions
whatever.
“In the United States, same-sex couples have
none of the automatic legal protections that are
routinely conferred on married couples,” says
Bryant. “Consequently, lawyers generally rec­
ommend that we execute certain legal documents
to protect ourselves and our partners. Most
commonly mentioned are wills, powers of attor­
ney, and partnership or living together agree­
ments.”
“Generally speaking, a will can ensure that
your wishes are carried out in the event of
death,” Demian explained. “With powers of at­
torney, you can assign your partner the right to
act on your behalf under specified circumstances,
such as incapacitating illness. Partnership or
living together agreements allow you and your
partner to record the ground rules of the relation­
ship, including how it would be dissolved, if
necessary.”
Women distract
men
A federal judge has ruled that the Virginia
M ilitary Institute, a tax supported institution,
may continue to legally discriminate against
women. The judge ruled that the discrimination
meets important government objectives and if
women were admitted, the school would have to
make some changes such as allowing for more
personal privacy. The judge also held that the
presence o f women would distract men from
their studies.
P-FLAG to collect
Body Counts-LCP
discrimination
Penn State
stories
cannot
discriminate
Tom Saucrman, Executive Director o f the
Federation of Parents and Friends of Lesbians
and Gays, used FLAG Day on June 14 to kick
off a national campaign to collect stories to be
used in observance of National Coming Out Day,
October 11 , 1991 .
Members and friends of P-TLAG are asked to
write a story or keep a journal of approximately
one week in which they document the ways that
anti gay and lesbian discrimination affects them
and their lives. They can describe overt or subtle
affronts to their dignity, the emotional and prac­
Coaches and sports officials at Pennsylvania
State University must not discriminate on the
basis of sexual orientation, the athletics depart­
ment noted in memorandum this month.
Penn State’s athletics director. James Tarman,
said the memo was designed to reinforce the
departm ent’s commitment to the university’s
anti-discrimination policy.
Penn State came under criticism in recent
months because Rene Portland, the women’s
basketball coach, had suggested in some of her
public comments that she didn’t want lesbians on
her team.
Maybe George
and Barbara just
don’t know
AIDS activists contend that George Bush has
shown no political leadership in the war against
AIDS; AIDS is not & domestic priority in the
White House. Bush has undermined and under­
cut funding for the Ryan White CARE legisla­
tion, ignored national plans proposed by two
president-appointed com m issions, permitted
undercounting of the epidemic, and allowed the
National Institutes o f Health to waste millions
upon millions o f dollars. This is nothing to say
of the billions o f dollars thrown into the Gulf
War, stealing even more potential dollars from
health care.
Groups across the nation are clipping obitu­
ary notices of those people who have died from
AIDS and are sending them to George and Bar­
bara.
President Bush is to be a target in September
of a series of national demonstrations demanding
he seriously act against the AIDS epidemic. By
sending obituaries this month, he can feel the
weight o f those who have died.
Send the obit alone or with a note. If the no­
tice doesn’t explicitly mention “AIDS”, annotate
it. Send to: President George Bush or Mrs. Bar­
bara Bush, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20500.
Doctors, nurses,
AIDS
If the Senate o f the United States has any­
thing to do with it, doctors and nurses infected
with the AIDS virus could go to jail for 10 years
for not informing patients o f their HIV status.
Jesse Helms authored this bill. The American
M edical A ssociation and the American Civil
Liberties Union are both strongly opposed to the
legislation.
Rare stories o f AIDS transmission from
medical workers to patients has created a nation­
wide scare-C ongress is responding with this
proposal. Sen. Mark Hatfield voted against the
bill, Sen. Packwood voted in favor of it.
Sen. Packwood is seen by many as compro­
mising his stand on issues to appear more conser­
vative. He has yet to sign on in support of the
national Gay Civil Rights Bill.
Also passed by the Senate was a measure
regarding health care workers and HIV testing-
The bill would pressure states to require
healthcare workers who perform treatments de­
fined as high-risk involving exposure to blood to
be tested for the HIV virus. Should a worker test
positive, he or she would be required to notify
patients or stop practicing.
If a state does not pass such legislation, that
state would risk losing m uch needed federal
health-care payments amounting to hundreds of
millions o f dollars every year.
Linda K Hewer