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P,operty of the Center

Volume 15
Issue 3

FRIENDS NORTH of MICHIGAN, INC.
An association of lesbians, gays,
bisexuals, transgendered and their friends.

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A Time For Unity
By Alan Collard

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Fall
2001

Dear Friends ...
I want to take this
time to talk to you about
the importance of unity in
our community. With the
anti-gay vote in Traverse City
this November I feel we all
need to come together. The
"City Proposal l", is aimed at
taking away our rights. An anti
gay group downstate is working hard to make it legal to
basically discriminate against
Gay's, Lesbian's, Bi-sexual's,
and Transgendered person's in
the city of Traverse City.
This group is definitely unified in their cause.
They have the money to work
at getting this proposal passed.
My concern is this: are we
unified and dedicated to fight
for our rights as human beings
that just happen to have a different sexual orientation than
the American Family Association? I was . a little disappointed that more of us didn't
come to the Pride Day this
year. We all need to show support!
Last year was the first
pride day celebration I attended. Before that I was a
little apprehensive at "being
seen" at a Gay event out in
public! I thought "Oh my God,
there will be cameras and pro-:
testors!" Well guess what?
There were none! Instead I had
a great time and met new
friends!
Part of the problem as
I see it is, is that the gay community is divided into our own

ttfttt
little groups here in northern
Michigan. For years when I
would talk to patrons of the bar
about Friends North, they
would say, "Oh you don't want
to join them, they're all stuck
up!" I guess they felt since
members of Friends North didn't frequent the bar that they
were "cliquey''. Well I have
been a member for over a year
now and I have met some of the
best friends I will ever know!
Another problem is
that some of us, as I used to,
live our lives trying to make
sure others are comfortable
with our lifestyle. I used to be
closeted and was a member of a
church that denounced homosexuality. I volunteered a lot of
my time and donated a lot of
my money, trying to fit in and
cure my true feelings, and what
I believe God's plan is for me.
The day I finally left my
church, the Pastor had a sermon
on how we should vote in the
election. He had different criteria, and one of them was the
issue of homosexuality. He
stated that if a politician supported "GAY RIGHTS", we
should not support that individual. By that time my pastor
knew that I was gay, and was
trying to get me to join Exodus.
I left that day and have never
gone back!
We all need to realize
that our money and our actions
are very important. We have a
lot of power too! We pay more
taxes than most, as we have less
deductions and rights than heterosexual couples do. Stop giving your money to group's that
support "Hate Legislation". My

church supported Rev. Jerry
Farwell. I can't stand the
thought that I helped his fight
against you and I!
Please get involved!!!!
Volunteer your time, donate
money to TCCAD (Traverse
City Campaign Against Discrimination), register to vote,
and get down to the polls and
vote. Voting is easy and actually fun. Go as a group of
friends, make it a celebration!
Have a party afterwards.
For those of you who
are closeted, coming out is not
that hard! Scary yes, and emotional too! If you have good
people in your life that truly
love you, and care about you, it
will be all right! It was the best
thing I ever did in my life! I got
rid of a lot of stress, and I am
following God's plan for me!
Not prejudice persons of Earth
who have their own sexuality
questions about themselves.

Gay? Lesbian?
Bisexual?
Transgendered?
Have Questions?
Need Help?
Call the Northern
Michigan Help Line!
(231) 946-1804
For Emergency Help
(231) 922-4800
(800) 442-7315

From The President

fRJI

By Tom Kincaid

~be Missio_n of Friends North of Michigan, Inc., is to provide
social, educational and support activities and opportunities for the
gay men, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities in
Northern Michigan.
Please note: Friends North is not a dating, nor dating refe"al service.
Networking 45° North is the newsletter of Friends North of Michigan,
Inc. For information, write to Friends North, PO Box 562,
Tnverse City, MI 49685-0562.
www.friendsnortb.org
Viewpoints expressed in Networking do not necessarily represent those of the
Board of Trustees or the genen,l membership.

Friends Nord, ol Michigan, lac. , is an association of lesbians, w,.y men, bisexuals, transgendered and their friends from Northwestern Lower Michigan centered in Traverse City.
Fnends North provides social actmhes, a newsletter, an infonnation line, workshops, a web
site and a scholarship fund for financial assistance.

Friends North's &enl of Trustea is elected each Dccembe,- at the Annual Meeting.
Regular Board meetmgs are held at Grace F.piscopal Church, at the comer of Washington and
Boardman_Streets m Traverse Clly, at 6:30 pm on the 1st Tuesday of every month except July.
Eveiyone JS welcome to attend. Please contact Friends North in writing ahead of time if you
have an rtem for the agenda CUJTent mernbe,-s of the Board include:

Well, what a couple of months this has
been. In May, Friends
North held our annual High
Tea which was a resounding
success. The following
weekend we held our annual
Gay Pride Day. Even
though it rained cats, dogs
and triangles, several people
turned out and Pride was a
success. While it was raining, the committee managed
to carry on all of their
planned activities.

Tom Kincaid, Presiden, (231) 929-2919
Gwm Sanford, Vice Presiden, (231) 946-0433
Toni Poole, Secretary,
Ridtanl Por;niak, Treasurer, (231) 933-3969

&b Buck, Trustee, 7 Bowerman Rd. Mansitee, Ml 49660

Dianna Johnson, Trustee, (231) 933--0571
Joe Kaubeuw, Trustee, (23 I) 947-8402
Craig Philip Ridianl, Trustee, (23 I) 922-I 967

Alan Cc,ilanl, Trustee, (231)941-9110
David Hummel, Trustee, (231) 929-1226
The Friends North N.,..letter C-mittee is responsible for the publicaf
f
,on o
Networking 45" North.
Publisher: Gwen Sanford, GwenChris@worldnet.att.net
lldito.-: Dianna Johnsoo, Huntgoddess@aol.com
Advertising: Gwen Sanford, GwenChris@worldnet.att.net

Oa,sified Advertising and notices are run without charge. Please submit your ads in writing.

Display Advertising in Networong is available in business card siz.ed displays at a rate of $25
per space per LSSue or an annual rate of $125. Inserts and larger siz.ed ads are available; please
contact the advertismg edrtor for more information.

Contributions to Networking are welcome. Letters, essays, features, reflections, poetty
ongmal are work etc ._ should be sent to Networking 45" North, PO Box 562, Traverse City
39685-0562, or to
the publisher or editor listed above. Networking will not ~ t
material that lS . sex,st, d,smmmatory or sexually explicit. Contributors are responsible for
obtammg perm1SS10n from those v,hooe names they submit for publication. Please include
your name, address and a pltone number where you can be reached. H you would like your
contributton to be prurted anonymously, please let us know.

either

Mi

Address O,ang,s sltould be sent to the above address.

Subsaiptioos & Memberships are $15. Please send checl<s or money orders to the above
address. Complimentary subocripnons are also available to those who are unable to pay.

Distribution: . Networong is sent via bullc mail in a plain envelope to subscribers Additional
•
copies are available at select local establishments.

I want to comment
on something that took
place at Pride Day. I have
had several phone calls and
2 letters about the simulated
sex act that took place
between one of the entertainers and one of the audience members. While
Friends North does not specifically endorse or approve
of acts like this, it was done,
I hope in good clean fun.
The single most
important event to happen to
the Traverse area GLBT
conu~mnity is happening in
November. For those of us
residing in the City of Traverse City, you have the
opportunity to vote no on an
issue that would
PERMANENTLY allow
discrimination in our
community. You may have
heard of it as "Vote yes for

equal rights, not special
rights." Heck, this anti-gay
group even got signatures
from people in the GLBT
community because of the
spin that they put on their
rhetoric. If the majority of
Traverse City votes yes, the
city charter will be
amended so that sexual orientation can never be part
of the discrimination code.
An amendment similar to
this has already passed in
Royal Oak which is a city
known for its gay friendliness. Please register and
VOTE NO. For more information please call
TCCAD (Traverse City
Campaign for Discrimination) at (231 )883-1058, or
on the Web at www.
TCCAD2000.org. Remember vote NO or a year from
now if you live in Traverse
City you actually could lose
your job orlose your home
because you are gay and
you will have no legal
recourse.
Please call me if
you have any questions.
We still need vo lunteers for our committees
and would love to have you
join us.
Tom Kincaid
231/ 929-2919

-----------------------------Networking 45° North

Treasurer

Fall 200 l

;

By~~~
.J
Summer is upon us and we
have had two big events since the last
newsletter. The High Tea and Pride
Day. The High Tea was a financial success. We took in $5,150.99, which included table sponsors, ticket sales, and,
of course, the auction. After expenses
included rental of the Opera House, Dinnerware and linen rentals, and food
which came to $1664.88 it. We cleared
$3,486.11.
Pride Day was also a success
considering the bad weather. Although
this event is not meant to be a moneymaker, we try to at least break even. As
of yet all the bills for that event are not
in.
Money is coming in for the
Bike Tour and it looks like we will have
lots of bike riders again this year.
Expenses this month have been
for Insurance for the year's events, High
Tea expenses, phone bills and printing/
mailing of the newsletter. So as of June
1st we have $5,012.25 in the bank.
I'd like to thank all the sponsors
of the High Tea, Pride Day for there donations and to all those that gave many,
things for the High Tea Auction. I look
forward to seeing all of you at the Bike
Tour the last weekend in July.

Page 4

Treasurer
Report

By Richard Pozniak

Friends North had a total of
$11,753.25 deposited in June and
July. It was High Tea, Pride and
Membership money but most came
from the Bike Tour.
I wrote checks totaling
$5,000 for Pride, phone and mostly
the Bike Tour bills. This left a total
of$6,247.65 in the bank. We still
have bills, like printing, mailing
and phone to pay and no fund raisers scheduled for the rest of the
year.
So keep your fingers
crossed that we stay in the black by
the end of the year.
The Bike Tour was a great
event again this year. It seems
to get better each year.

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Are You A Friends North Member?

Join Friends North or Renew your membership today! Just $15 single or $25 for a couple.
Name:__________________Amount Enclosed:_for

Single □ , Couple □

plus_ Donation

Address: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _City: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _State:_Zip:_ _ __
E-Mail: _____________________ □ Please include me in Friends North e-mail updates.
Comments:- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - □

Check this box if you are unable to contribute the full membership amount and would like to be considered for a reduced rate or
complimantary membership.

Mail this form and your check to Friends North Inc.

□

PO Box 562

□

Traverse City, MI 49685-0562

□

Attn: Memberships

Friends North's membership list is strictly confidential, and mail fi·om Friends North is sent in plain envelops.

------------------------------------------------------J

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

Page5

Minutes of the June S, 2001 Board Meeting
Held at Grace Episcopal Church Basement,
341 Washington Street, Traverse City, Ml
Prepared by Toni Poole, Secretary
Board Members Present: Tom Kincaid, Gwen Sanford, Richard
Posniak, Dianna Johnson, Toni Poole, Craig Richard, Bob Buck,
Alan Collard, Joe Kaubenaw

by June 13 th .
Tom brought up phone bill.
Total monthly bill is $90.41. Breakdown is $47/mo for
phone bill, $30/mo for yellow page ad, and $13.41/mo for
Others Present: Nancy and Rose
AT&T bill.
- All discussed options to reduce bill. Thoughts: disconnect
Board Members Absent: Al Kitzmiller
phone completely, eliminate the 800 number. Much discussion ensued.
- Motion to disconnect 800 line by Tom, seconded by Joe,
Meeting called to order at 6:33PM
carried unanimously.
- Motion to disconnect phone completely by Bob, seconded
• Richard gave a Treasurer's Report. He stated $5368.25 in
by Alan. More discussion ensued. Motions fails 4-5.
bank as of June 5th. Richard reported $3486.11 made from
- Tom suggests forming a committee to investigate phone
High Tea.
problems, options, and needs. Suggests Toni as chair of
• Minutes of the May 1st board meeting were reviewed.
committee.
- Motion by Joe to accept the minutes, seconded by Toni, _ Motion to create Phone Line Committee chaired by Toni
carried unanimously.
by Bob, seconded by Joe, carried unanimously.
• Tom talked about success of High Tea. Toni asked why
• Tom brought up MOOT cleanup.
there wasn't more entertainment as expected. Discussion
- Next dates are July 14th-July 22ndtabled.
- Craig volunteered to head up project.
• Joe talked briefly about Pride. No final numbers yet.
- Established date/time of July 1~ at 6:30PM to meet at old
Enough t-shirts were sold to break even on them.
theater in Acme for all who wish to participate.
• Nancy gave Bike Tour report.
• Craig brought up subject of newsletter subscriptions. Sug- 43 riders so far registered.
gests we act on expired subscriptions.
- A possible new caterer has been located - "Hungry Tummy". _ Tom suggested appointing Craig chair of a newly formed .
Next Bike Tour meeting is June 19th at 7:00PM on the land.
Newsletter Committee, with initial goal of weeding out ex- A contest is being held for a logo to go on the t-shirts.
pired subscriptions.
- Rose notes that the current numbers of rider registrations will _ Dianna suggested we do not need a committee to do this.
allow event to break even.
Much discussion ensued.
- Gwen asked about cost breakdowns - Nancy will get info.
- Motion to form a Newsletter Committee chaired by Craig
- Tom asked if volunteers are needed. Nancy replied in the
by Tom, seconded by Joe. Motion fails 4-5.
affirmative.
- More discussion ensued.
- Alan brought up subject of possible massages at Bike Tour.
- Motion to insert newsletters with warning notice to unNancy indicated that much thought was given to it, and
paid subscribers by Bob, seconded by Dianna. More disquestioned if it might raise problems if other vendors
cussion ensued. Motion amended to insert newsletter of
wished to provide services in the future. Much discussion
only subscribers unpaid from 1997 back. Carried
ensued. More thought will be given to it.
unanimously.
• Craig talked about a fictional story he submitted to each
- Craig asked ifwe are printing too many newsletters. Tom
board member in advance of the meeting, and requested
will investigate and come up with solid number to print.
feedback on whether it is appropriate to include in newslet- • Tom informed all that Joanne Ewing has recently had a heart
ter.
attack.
- Much discussion ensued. General feeling was that it was not
Motion by Tom to spend $50 for flowers for her, secappropriate due to some adult oriented content.
onded by Dianna, carried unanimously.
- Motion to reject request to put story in newsletter by
Toni, seconded by Alan. Motion passes 8-1.
Moved to adjourn at
• Dianna gave newsletter report.
8:17PM by Joe, seconded
- Only received one article to date.
by Alan, carried unani- Discussion ensued on timing, pushing deadline back, etc.
mously.
- Alan suggested going to 4 newsletters per year but distributing over a wider area of the state.
- Diane indicated she would like to see all articles submitted
•
-

Networking 45° North

Page6

Fall 2001

Minutes of the August 7, 2001 Board Meeting
Reid at Grace Episcopal Church Basement,
341 Washington Street, Traverse City, Ml
Prepared by Toni Poole, Secretary
Board Members Present: Tom Kincaid, Gwen Sanford, Richard Posniak, Toni Poole, Craig Richard, Bob
Buck, Alan Collard, Joe Kaubenaw
Others Present: Paul Heaton, David Hummel, Rose,
Mary Ann

•
•

Board Members Absent: Al Kitzmiller, Dianna Johnson
Meeting called to order at 6:31PM

•

•

•

•

•

•

Minutes of the June 5th board meeting were reviewed.
- Motion by Joe to accept the minutes, seconded by Richard, carried unanimously.
Richard gave a Treasurer's Report. He stated $6247.65 in
bank as of August ?.
Paul Heaton talked about and gave an update on the Traverse
City Campaign Against Discrimination (TCCAD).
City commission denounced Proposal I by a 5-2 vote at the
August <r1' meeting.
NGL TF .h as awarded a $5000 matching grant to TCCAD.
Paul asks Friends North for a donation. Discussion ensued.
Paul asks the board to commit to a phone bank/canvass one
evening.
Mary Ann from Andy Mitchell's (CPA) office talked about
the processing ofFN's 501C3 application.
Mary Ann talked about the liability of the current FN accounts, as several people that aren't on the board are authorized signers on the accounts.
Mary Ann discussed the Friends North of Michigan Inc.
name, and how it would need to be registered with the State
of Michigan by filing a Michigan Annual Return. She presented an MAR form for the FN officers to sign to this end.
Mary Ann indicated the need for FN to obtain a Federal
ID#. She will handle this.
Mary Ann indicated the need for the Treasurer to create an
anticipated budget for the upcoming year.
Mary Ann talked about the possibility of registering as a
non-profit organization using a 501 C3 designation versus
50 l C7. She says 501 C3 is strictly for a charitable organization, while 501C7 isn't. lfFN was a 50IC7 organization,
donations would not be tax deductible for the contributor.
Much discussion ensued on this. A number of people suggested we look at other organizations of a similar nature to
FN and see how they attained 50 l C3 status.
Mary Ann indicated the need to create bylaws and formally
adopt them. These can be based on previous bylaws and

•

•

•

•

modified. Gwen and Toni will handle the modification of
these.
Rose gave brief Bike Tour overview report. She indicated
one rider required an ambulance, and one rider was verbally
harassed. She will give more information next meeting.
Joe gave a Pride wrap-up. Pride paid for itself.
A Pride committee separate and apart from Friends North
has formed. Some discussion ensued around the Pride event
not being driven by FN. This committee suggested that
$2500 be raised prior to next years event to pay for the upfront costs.
Tom brought up subject of phone expenses. Discussed cost
versus usage. In the previous month, FN received 17 calls
on the line.
Richard brought up the subject of Thank You notes. He has
many, and indicates they can be used for any purpose.
Tom brought up the subject of the MDOT pickup. Asks why
it didn't happen as planned.
Craig indicated that an article requesting volunteers dido 't
make it in the newsletter, so nobody was available. Craig
says the next date will definitely be met.
Tom brought up the newsletter currently at Copyworld.
Talked about newsletter content, indicating that many of the
articles are out of date now that the newsletter has been
pushed back.
Richard suggested we get a newsletter out on time regardless of how much content we have. He indicates 4 pages are
better than nothing.
Much discussion ensued around only putting out 4 newsletters per year to reduce the amount of effort needed in a volunteer organization.
Motion by Richard to publish only 4 newsletters per
year versus the current 6 by Richard, seconded by Toni,
carried unanimously.
All present agreed that the current newsletter should be in
the mail by September 151.
The subject of a potential TCCAD donation was brought up.
All present agreed that a donation was acceptable. Discussion of how much ensued.
Motion by Gwen to donate $300 to the Traverse City
Campaign Against Discrimination, seconded by Joe, carried unanimously.
Current and absent board members were discussed briefly.
David Hummel expressed a desire to be on the board.
Motion by Craig to appoint David Hummel to the
Friends North board, seconded by Richard, carried
unanimously.

Moved to adjourn at 8:50PM by Toni, seconded by Joe,
carried unanimously.

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

Page7

Announcements

Excerpt from Newsweek's
A_ugust 1st cover story,
"Scouts Divided"

Hey,hey,hey! ! !
Don't forget about the monthly
potluck dinner held the fourth
Thursday of every month. This
purely social get-together starts at
6:30 PM in the cafeteria of Grace
Episcopal Church.

Nt._th

Friends
Fall Bik~ -,._\
October 14,2001
12Nto4P \
@

Have you had a recent addition to your family? Did you and
your partner just get hitched?
Would you like to announcement
an engagement but your town
paper won't publish it? Send us
your announcements at
huntgoddess@aol.com

PFLAG MONTHLY
MEETINGS
Parents, Family, and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays (and Bisexual
& Transgendered people) meet on
the third Wednesday of every
month at 7 :00PM. Meeting
location is Third Level Crisis
Center at 1022 East Front St.(enter
from the alley, third building
from Burger King). Program var- ·
ies each month.
For more information, email
joanpw@coslink.net.

ll

Sable's
Warming Rut
in beautiful
Suttons Bay, Ml
Bring a dessert
to pass•
Beverages
Probided
-Join UsIt's way cool!
Needmore
information?
Call
(231) 946-1804
or929-2919

-- GREAT poll numbers -- keep
on coming out, everyone! It's
making a difference! - Sara
The Texas [Boy Scouts] leadership may have misjudged a cultural climate that is now more like
"Dawson's Creek" than
"Mayberry R.F.D." For the first
time in 20 years, Gallup last
month reported that the majority
of Americans consider homosexuality "an acceptable alternative
lifestyle." Polls show that more
Americans today than ever before
know someone gay. For them, the
formal scouting position has
caused excruciating conflicts.
Sara Boesser-bsara.alaska@gci.net

SIDETRAXX
.ACTIVITIES
Sunday Night
Movie Nite 7:30 pm showing
new releases and old favorites.
Wednesday, Friday and
Saturday Nights
(Starting in October
for the Winter)
Come on down and enjoy great
dance music spun by your
favorite DJ's Mike and Fred.

TM oomfortobk gathering place for p,uls and c.·wpks.

935 T 1666

Open7 Days

(SIOI: T~4~~J
Open7days
T 520 Franklin T Traverse

City, MI 49686

T

David Schulz & Jim Walker
212 Part Sheet, Bellai.e, Michigaa 49615
~545-0780 • (616) SlJ-6077

Networking 45° North

Page8

Fall 2001

Friends North 2001 Bike Tour
History for this year -Ya shoulda been there!

The 2001 Friends North Bike Tour - the land was wonderful, bike riding excellent, dinners Friday and
Saturday were delicious, a little bit of rain on Saturday night after dinner, canoeing on Sunday and then playing at the beach late Sunday morning. All with friends and family. If you have never attended a bike tour,
then you are missing out on a fabulous weekend. Any one of the major components by themselves is a good
time - to combine them all makes it a special weekend. Jon W. designed our t-shirts and won a free weekend,
Kirk did his usual great job of getting donations, Gretchen handled a bunch of little details, Rose crunched
numbers, Nancy kept Rose sane and organized, Hilda and Sheryl kept everyone fed & settled, all the bikers
and campers had a good time and helped build our totem. We have a great bunch of volunteers and sag team
and everyone works hard to make a good time. Next year we start in a new decade for OUR BIKE TOUR
and we believe that this is how everyone should look at it, this is our event, our tour and it only gets better with
everyone participating. So, we hope to see you next year!
We owe a special thanks to the Bike Tour Committee for their long hours of planning,
bard work and tremendous dedication to make this main event come together.. - pub.

and they were both naked as
jaybirds.
Now, however you feel about this
type of behavior, it is against the
law so please pay attention and
get a room.

LISTEN UP
PEOPLE!
This goes out as a word of
caution to everyone in the gay
community. Please let any of
your friends or acquaintances
know that this IS VERY
SERIOUS.
On Friday I was interviewed by
Channel 7 and 4 about the rumor
that the Grand Traverse County
Sheriffs Department will be
stepping up all undercover patrols

at the parks where gay men like to
frequent for sex specifically in the
area of Cass Road.
I spoke to Sheriff Scott Fewins that
same day and was told basically the
same thing.
Two uniformed officers had arrested two men in the full act of
( well you use your imagination),

Please note! When gay men are
frequenting a location, people
notice. Some of these people will
call the police. The police will
respond, and if you're caught
with your pants down - the big
door (at the jail) will go "clang"
again.- pub. & retired pol. off.

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

RighTea
2001
By Sheryl Layton
Every Spring for the last
nine years, the glbt community
has gathered at the Opera
House for a somewhat formal
afternoon tea. In the past two
years, there has also been a live
and silent auction included with
the event as a major fundraiser.
It's a social event where we share
good food and fun entertainment.
This year's event raised almost
$3,500. The committee of 8, Sheryl
Layton, Dianna Johnson, Charles Egeler,
Cheryl Roulston, Gwen Sanford, Brenda
Bartz, Deb Medlin, Tom Kincaid &
Richard Pozniak started meeting in January to begin preparing for HighTea 2001.
A five course meal was served
consisting of tea nuts, scones, finger
sandwiches, salad and a knockout dessert called "Menage a Trois." The tea
nuts are a repeat performance every
year; pecans rolled in a brown sugar concoction and roasted in butter. The
scones' recipe came from our Tea hostess a - - - - - - - •
years
The dessert this
MiZucco; year was knockout. We called
have
cherit Menage a
alTrois because it
and are had 3 different

few
ago,
chelle
they
dried
ries,
monds

Page9

serve. It's hard to imagine this being something special, but if you were there, then
you know what we're talking about with
this one. It has cream cheese and lots of
aged Stilton that Chef Charles gets from
Toledo {don't ask me why it comes from
there, ask him). We dice poached pears
and toss it all together and spread it on
wheat-nut bread. Chef Charles and I named
the salad "rainbow" because it was neatly
arranged with matchstick cut colorful
vegetables of zucchini, yellow squash, radish and carrots and drizzled over with raspberry vinaigrette. English Breakfast and
Earl Grey Tea was served with the first 4
courses and Red current tea was served
with the dessert.
The dessert this year was knockout. We called it Menage a Trois because
it had· 3 different chocolates. We plated
each dessert individually {we made 150 of
these babies). We
started with a rich, Richard Pozniak
sweet circle of
recruited 5 bf his
chocolate sauce,
friends, choreoplaced a chewy
sugar wafer in the graphed and
center of the plate starred in the
and piped a rosette
"Half Monty."
of double ch~
late mouse on top
of the cookie. We placed a handmade raspberry truffle on top of the mousse and then
got funky and squirted plain old Hershey's
syrup and raspberry coulees {raspberry puree) all over the place. We balanced it with
a triangle of sugar wafer poked in the side
of the mousse and finished it"offwith a
sprinkle of cocoa powder. It was a work of
art. Nice work kitchen team.
Princess Laura emceed the tea this
year. She spiced up the show with her red
& black saloon dress and rainbow under-

--------

shirt. She hostessed a gay trivia game
and she also auctioneered our live auction. She added a lot oflaughs and color
to our event. Thank you Princess Laura.
Richard Pozniak recruited 5 of
his friends, choreographed and starred in
the "Half Monty." We had a lot of fun
with that. They danced and took off half
of it all to the tune of "Heard it through
the Grapevine." It was wonderfully enjoyable and fun.
There was a silent auction again
this year with over 30 items that were
donated from members and businesses of
the community. Support those businesses and business owners that support
our community! Thank you Charles
Egeler at Chef Charles, Princess Laura
and Capt. Dave at Nauticat Catamaran
Gay Cruises, Sheryl Layton at Charles
Layton Chocolates, Allan Collard, C.M.
T., Victoria, Rosalyn Tyge at Tyge Tile,
Mike Negel Massage, Dave Rinckey,
Gwen Sanford and Carol Larson, Borders Books, Barker Creek Nursery,
Brenda Bartz, Todd McMillen at The
Instant Framer, Sheila McRae, Chateau Grand Traverse, Kristi Brubaker
at Leelanau Interiors, Erika, Yola and
Petra at the Silver Swan, Wild Birds
Unlimited, Krystal Miller's Handmade Handbags, Esther Parzych, Julie
Lahaye at Fabulous Nails, Marge Phillips, Ultimate Fitness, Joe Breech and
Paula Gale at Complete Body Work &
Massage Therapy, Candle Factory,
Jen Tees, Mirage Tanning Salon, Richard Pozniak, Kirk Day at Kirk Day Design, David Schultz and Jim Walker at
the Bellaire Bed & Breakfast, Fred
Farage and Carl Strebel, The Bellaire
Inn and Restaurant.
Continued page 10, see High Tea

chocolates.
brushed with cream when they come out
of the oven, which makes them rich and
moist. The scones are served with madefrom-scratch lemon curd and whipped
butter. This year we made chicken salad
from fresh chicken breasts, celery, ranch
dressing and our secret ingredient-diced
tart apples and lots of fresh chopped tarragon, dill, thyme and basil and scooped
a luscious fresh croissant. The other finger sandwich is Stilton and pear con-

Char P. Kirchner,

CPA~ MSA

Tax Returns - Confidential & Discreet
Stngle T a ~ -U. ,our flllng stotw to~ adoanlage
Un-Married Coupla - Tau odwn"'1.fe of ull pour options
Appoinlmenls in W i ~ « 7,_,_,_aq,

P. 0. Box 1040
IWllomsburs Ml 49690-Jo«>

(61612-67-5818

Page IO

Fall 2001

Networking 45° North

High Tea 2001
Continued from page 9

***In Massachusetts, a 229 percent increase, from 5,194 to 17,099 same-sex partner households.

Thank you to our table sponsors:
Lisa Aragona-King at Matrix Financial
Group, Copy World, Jen Tees, Kim
Gower at Business Clarity, Barker Creek
Nursery, Andrew L. Mitchell and Associates, Linda Zajac & Tom Elliot at Century
2 I, Charles Egeler and his crew at Chef
Charles, Dr. Suzette Corbit, D.C., Joe
Breech and Paula Gale at Complete Body
Work & Massage Therapy, and Todd
McMillen at Instant Framer. The table
sponsors make it possible for our guests
to enjoy the High Tea with china and linens. It's so important for us to celebrate
our community with class. We deserve it.

***In Montana, a 326 percoot increase,
from 286 to 1,218 same-sex partner households.

Thanks to all who contributed, to all who volunteered
and especially those whose hard
work on the committee made it
all possible. Oh, and of course to
our perennial Tea Captain. Tom
Kincaid. Well Done! High Tea
2001!

The TC Campaign Against
Discrimination is delighted to share
two pieces of ggod news with out supporters and volunteers.

***In Nebraska, a 413 percent increase,
from 455 to 2,332 same-sex partner households.
***In Nevada a 711 percent increase, from
613 to 4,973 same-sex partner households.

- The Traverse City Commission
voted to denounce Proposal 1 and encourage people to vote no.

Released .>n June 13:

-The National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force announced that it will award
TCCAD $5000 toward our efforts to
defeat Proposal 1.

***In Delaware, a 781 percent increase,
from 21Zto 1,868 same-sex partner households.

It is important to note that we
need to match this grant with local
dollars, and encourage you to help
identify people who might be able to
write a $500 or $1000 check.

***In Vermont, a 422 percent increase,
from 3'0 to 1,933 same-sex partner households.

***********************************
******#***************
Foundelin 1973, NGLTFworks to eliminate prrjudice, violence and iryustice
against gay lesbian, bisexual and transgen'~
dered people at the local, state and national
level. As pat ofa broader social justice
movement for freedom, justice and equality,
NGLTF is creating a world that respects
Same-Sex Couples
and celebrates f.1e diversity ofhuman exContinued from page 3
pression and ideuity where all people may
~ ~ - ~ - - - - - - - - - " " " " " - ' fully participate h society.
***In Indiana, a 428 percent increase,
To reach the NGL1F Communications Defrom 1,935 to 10,219 same-sex partner
partment at NGLTF,please call David
households.
Elliot, Communicati01s Director, at
202-332-6483 x3303 llt" pager
***In Louisiana, a 562 percent increase,
800-757-6476 or email ielliot@ngltf.org.
from I ,33 I to 8,808 same-sex partner
households.
"'

,~-

/.Y

,,._

Linda Hasse, PHD
Precision Hair Design

Located in

Hair Quarters
509 S. Union Traverse City, Ml

922~504

NGTLF
Awards TCCAD
$5,000 Grant

It is also important to note
that this grant comes because the
NGTLF believes we are running a
very organized campaign that has a
good chance of winning.. .if we continue to focus on talking directly to
voters, as has been our strategy.
Based on our review of records from other cmapaigns, we know
that our opponets will receive many
thousands of dollars from the AFA
and other organizations in the last days
of the campaign, so this seed money is
very important to our success.
Thanks for your assistance in helping
us match the grant.

ll.lRll tv1- DAY DLll(iN
Q.J~TOt.1 INT612..IOR Db..61<:;N

~TRIT~t.~
??l-88?-6422
P.O.
6422

e,ox

TR.AV'b12..~ QTY. Ml 49696

~-MAIL il.RllDAYD~@AOLCOM

/
Networking 45° North

Prop£r.:y of the C -,nt::.r
Fall 2001

NGTLF
Awards TCCAD
$5,000 Grant

the campaigns that are willing to do the
critical work of building a list of gay and
pro-gay voters who we can then tum out to
vote in every election. This 'voter I.D.' work
is essential to win elections."

NGLTF Announces Grants to Help
Local Communities Fight AntiGay Ballot Measures

Jean noted that since 1998, 19 GLBTrelated measures have been voted on in the
United States. Only in five of the 19 elections have GLBT activists prevailed. "In
both Oregon and in Traverse City, local
leaders have made the extraordinary commitment to running strong campaigns and
doing the on-the-ground organizing that is
so often neglected," Jean said.

MEDIA CONTACT:
David Elliot, Communications Director
delliot@ngltf.org
202-332-6483, ext. 3303
Pager: 800-757-6476

The National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force today announced its first two grants
to local communities facing ballot initiatives that threaten the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. NGLTF
announced it will award $20,000 to Basic
Rights Oregon and $5,000 to Traverse
City Campaign Against Discrimination.
Oregon, which has experienced 33
GLBT-related ballot measures since 1988
on the local and state level, is now facing
a potential statewide effort in 2002 to ban
the positive or neutral mention of homosexuality in public schools. Traverse City
is voting this November on a proposed
city charter amendment that would ban
the enactment of any nondiscrimination
law covering gay, lesbian or bisexual people. Two other Michigan cities - Kalamazoo and Huntington Woods - also face
anti-GLBT ballot measures this November.

NGL TF expects to announce an additional $75,000 in local grants later this
year. The Task Force is the only national
organization that provides electoral training on an ongoing basis in how to defeat
anti-GLBT ballot initiatives.
"This grant money will help our state and
local partners work to defeat measures
that threaten our communities," said
NGL TF Executive Director Lorri L. Jean.
"We are particularly committed to helping

"This grant makes it possible for us to get an
early start in our campaign," said Roey
Thorpe, executive director of Basic Rights
Oregon. "The right-wing assault in Oregon
has implications for the entire nation, and
we are committed to defeating this assault
again this year. NGL TF has given us many
kinds of support over the years, including
technical assistance and training. We are
thrilled to be recognized in this way, and
grateful for NGL TF's vision and understanding of the importance of this work."
"We plan to use NGLTFs gift to solicit
matching funds from local donors," said
Bonnie Deigh, co-chair of the Traverse City
Campaign Against Discrimination.
NGL TFs belief in our ultimate success at
the polls assures our grassroots supporters
that their individual contributions will be
money well spent. We deeply appreciate
NGLTF's great vote of confidence."

To contribute or volunteer for Basic Rights
Oregon, call 503-222-6151, email
roey@basicrights.org or visit www.
basicrights.org.

To contribute or volunteer for Traverse City
Campaign Against Discrimination, call 231883-1058, email info@tccad2000.org or
visit www.tccad2000.org.

To read NGLTF's Rethinking Elections: An
Op-Ed Series on Critical Electoral Battles
Facing GLBT Communities, please visit
www.ngllf.org/library/rethink.htm.

Page 11

The National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force has worked to eliminate
prejudice, violence and injustice
against gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender people at the local, state
and national level since its inception
in 1973. As part ofa broader social
justice movement for freedom, justice
and equality, NGLTF is creating a
world that
respects and celebrates
the diversity ofhuman expression and
identity where all people may fully
participate in society.

Networking 45° North

Page 12

Fall 2001

Transgender
Corner
OPINION I Lesbian Notions
Are Transsexual Women
"Real" Women? Yes.
by Paula Martinac
April 17, 2001
Are transsexual women "real"
women? It's a tedious question that
male-to-female transsexuals often run
up against when they're open and
honest about their personal history.
But the life experiences of many
MTFs make them more aware of how
gender roles and sexism work than a
lot of so-called "real" women.
I've never met a transsexual woman
who didn't have a feminist
consciousness. I'm sure there are
some, but it makes perfect sense that
many trans-women would be attracted
to feminism as a philosophy. After all,
feminism by definition seeks to break
down the barriers society has set up
based on gender.
It's infuriating, then, that some feminists and lesbians continue to question
the "womanhood" ofMTFs. I support
the concept of "women-only space,"
but I'm concerned that this legitimate
policy is sometimes used to discriminate against trans-women.
The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, for example, still maintains a
policy of trans-exclusion that sounds
eerily like the "don't ask, don't tell"

policy of the U.S. military. An official
festival handout states, "No womon's
gender will be questioned on the land."
However, the flyer goes on, the festival
has the right to deny admission "to individuals who self-declare as male-tofemale transsexuals." In theory, one of
Fred Phelps's daughters could attend
Michigan, while an open feminist
trans-woman could not.
In another galling example, a women's
rape crisis center in British Columbia
recently refused to allow Kimberly
Nixon, a transsexual woman, to train as a
peer counselor. The staff assumed she
wouldn't understand violence against
women because she was born male. According to a center spokesperson, Nixon
could not possibly have faced the unique
mix of social, psychological, and biological factors that "shape women's
experiences and ... the world's perception
ofus."
But, in fact, the experience of many
transsexual women turns the meaning of
being "born" female or male upside
down. Many MTFs talk about knowing
they were "female" from a very young
age. "Growing up," Nixon told a reporter for Canadian Press, "I had the
sense and burden of being female and
the burden of being aware of ... all the
issues women deal with."
The exclusionary policies that feminist
and lesbian groups institute toward
transsexual women rest on two false
premises. First of all, because the world
once viewed MTFs as boys and men, it's
assumed that they enjoyed male privilege. Yet the opposite may actually be
true, given the many stories transsexual

women tell about the intense gender oppression they experienced before surgery.
According to Australian trans-feminist
Julie Peters, transgender male youth tend
to be regarded "as feminine or different
boys and are denied entry into male
power structures; they are vilified, ostracized, and bashed." Misunderstood or
rejected by their families, they sometimes take to the streets, where they're at
high risk for drugs and prostitution and
often learn early on about sexual violence, just like many girls do.
The second false premise is that only
"real" women can fully comprehend
female oppression. But what about the
"real" women who think feminism has
nothing to do with their lives? And don't
forget the "women-born women" who
actively oppose abortion rights, or who
accept their church's dictate that wives
submit to their husbands, or who voted
for George W. Bush.
Now compare those "real" women with
trans-activist Riki Wilchins, Executive
Director of GenderPAC. In a recent editorial, Wilchins called on activists to
build "a broad-based and inclusive national movement for gender rights."
Gender, Wilchins states, is a basic human right that unites everyone from "a
boy-dyke with buzz-cut blue hair" to "an
FTM fired for transitioning on the job"
to "a soccer mom banging her head on
the glass ceiling" to "a gay man genderbashed ... because some bigot thinks homosexuals are unmanly."
We can learn a lot from reading the work
Continued on page 15, see "Real Women"

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2001
1
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9

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13

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11:00 AM @ Grace

20
19LAMBDAAA
S:JO fM @ Grace
PFLAG 7:00 PM
@IhirdLeul
Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P

21

22
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28

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8
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Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P
18

17

6

FN Board Mtg.
6:30PM@
Friends U.P. North
Grace Episcopal Perry Hotel @ 7:00P
11

10

5LAMBDAAA
S:JO fM @ Grace

26LAMBDAAA
5:JOPM@Gme

27

Potluck Social
6:30PM@
Friends U.P. North
Grace
Episcopal
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0~2001
2

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7

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6:30PM@
Grace Episcopal

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13
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5:30 PM @ Grace

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6

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Perry Hotel @ 7:00P

14
Fall Hike@
Bahl.e's Warming Hut 12-4 pm

21

16

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17LAMBDAAA
5:30 PM @ Grace
PFLAG 7:00 PM
@ Third Level
Friends U.P. North
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6:30PM@
Friends U.P. North
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Episcopal
Perry Hotel@7:00P

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---

28

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Friends U.P. North
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20
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27
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~2001
1

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6:30PM@
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Perry Hotel @ 7:00P
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PFLAG 7:00 PM
6:30PM@
@ Third Level
Grace
Episcopal
Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P

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Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

The Creation
Mythos
As It Was Written In
The Atlantean Texts
By James Amidon
In The Beginning
Was The Spirit of All
That Was, Is, or Will Be.
And The Spirit Stirred
For It Sensed Its Entirety
And In Its Entirety Was
All That Is.
Yet,
It Felt Incomplete.
It Had No Perception
Beyond "Self,"
No Concept of"Others,"
No "Past,"
No "Present,"
No "Future."
IT,
WAS,
"Alone."
So Moved, The Spirit "Spoke"
"I Have None But Self
No Perceptions Beyond Self
Though I Am The "Finality"
I Am Unfinished
Who Am I?
What Am I?
Why AmI?
Where and When
AmI?

Ontuix21·
·
t - ..

-----

Page 13

Why Does This Move Me
To Ponder These Questions?
The
"Answer"
Grows Clear.
Only by Multiplying "Self'
Can I Know Myself
Only By Perceiving from
Different Points of Awareness,
From The Awareness of"Others"
Shall I Know
My Extent.
And By Multiplying "Self'
Shall I Become More Complete
By Becoming Not "Self," But
By Becoming "Other Selves"
Do I Move Toward Completion
Yea From My Being Shall
Come "The Multiverse,"
From My "Spirit" The Power
To Actualize all Concepts,
From My "Will" The Foundations
Upon Which To Build,
From My "Love" The Power
To Nurture and Sustain
"All That Is."
Thus in The Beginning
Were "Thought" and "Deed" As
One.
From This Came The Great
Explosion of Creation,
Concept and Deed Building
Upon Each Other Exponentially,
"Infinity" Contained
"Infinity" Unleashed.
Thus Came to Be The Multiverse.

Tom Elliott

~..o

Linda Zajac --

_J

t'...Jivily

Ever "Growing"
Ever "Changing"
Ever "Becoming"
Ever "Aware"
Ever ''Now"
Yea "Realities" Without
"End."
Realities Awash in a
Sea oflnfinite "Love,"
Ever Bathed in the
After glow of the
"Original" Thought
That
Birthed
Creation.
Thus "It" Was Written.

James Amidon offered his poem
as "filler" for our newsletter. I
believe this qualifies as much
more. Thank you Jim. -Pub.

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---------------------------------.-iiNetworking 45° North

Fall 2001

ACLU Denounces
Proposed Amendment

"This amendment is
the legal equivalent of
a nuclear bomb ..... "
ACLU Denounces Proposed
Amendment to US Constitution That Would Invalidate
All Laws Recognizing Gay
Families
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 11, 2001
WASIIlNGTON - Saying it
would deprive millions of families of their most fundamental
rights, the American Civil Liberties Union today denounced a
new proposal to amend the U.S.
Constitution as an unwarranted
attempt to limit liberty in the
United States.
"With only a few exceptions,
most of the anti-gay attacks in
Congress are the legal equivalent
of sticks and stones," said Christopher E. Anders, an ACLU
Legislative Counsel. "This
amendment is the legal
equivalent of a nuclear bomb. It
will wipe out every single law
protecting gay and lesbian
families and other un.rnarried
couples. "
The amendment will be intro-

duced tomorrow at a Washington
news conference. The ACLU said
the new proposal would deprive
the families of lesbians and gay
men - and all other unmarried
couples - of all legal protections
for their relationships by overriding any federal or state constitutional protections and federal,
state and local laws.
The ACLU said that the impact of
the amendment would be extremely harmful. Specifically, the
amendment would invalidate all
state and local domestic partnership laws, including those in at
least eight states and in more than
100 counties, cities and towns
across the country. "The extreme
measure would even prohibit state
and local governments from making their own decisions on providing benefits to their employees,"
Anders said.
During last year's presidential
campaign, Vice President Dick
Cheney explicitly said that
"people should be free to enter
into any kind of relationship they
want to enter into." He added:
"different states are likely to come
to different conclusions, and that's
appropriate. I don't think there
should necessarily be a federal
policy in this area."
The ACLU said the proposed
amendment would undermine
state adoption, foster care and

Page 14

kinship care laws. In many states,
the ACLU said, unmarried persons - including unmarried relatives, heterosexual couples, gay
and lesbian couples and even unrelated clergy members - have the
same rights as married persons to
jointly adopt or provide
foster care or kinship care.
The proposed amendment would
also reverse the tradition of protecting - not harming - individual
liberty through constitutional
amendments and of allowing states
to adopt stronger civil rights protections.
"The few amendments to the Constitution that have been adopted in
the last 200 years are the source of
most of the Constitution's protections for individual liberty rights,"
Anders said. "The proposed
amendment, by contrast, would
deny all protection for the most
personal decisions made by millions of families."
An ACLU letter to the House and
Senate on the proposed amendment can be found at: http://www.
aclu.org/congress/10711 Ola.html

Eric Ferrero, Public Education
Director The American Civil
Liberties Union Lesbian and Gay
Rights Project/AIDS Project
125 Broad St., 18th Floor
New York, NY 10004-2400
P: 212-549-2568; F: 212-549-2650

The above article was taken
from an On-Line Newsletter
published by Sara Boesser.
<bsara.alaska@cgi.net>

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

"Real Women"
Cont. from page 12

But, in fact, Brevard has a strong feminist
sensibility. After transitioning, she slowly
came to realize that the role she envisioned or herself as a Donna Reed-style
wife was too limited. Instead of clinging
to the belief that "a good woman must be
docile and long suffering" and invariably
attached to a man, she recognized that she
could be happily fulfilled as an independent woman.

The liberation of her mind,
Brevard says, took much
longer than the physical
reconstruction of her body.
of cutting-edge activists like Wilch ins.
But even older trans-women, who transitioned long before the founding of the
National Organization for Women or the
riots at the Stonewall Inn, have gone
through their own transformative process
and come out as feminists.
In an engaging new memoir called The
Woman I Was Not Born to Be, Aleshia
Brevard, a former drag performer and actor, describes her own personal journey.
Glancing through the book's photos of
Brevard boasting long, painted nails and a
cinched-in, hourglass figure, you might be
tempted to rehash the old feminist complaint that MTFs simply reinforce gender
stereotypes rather than break them down.

**************************

SERVICE WITH A SNEER
Meijer Employee Insults Transexual

Paula Martinac is the author of seven
books, including The Queerest
Places: A Guide to Gay and Lesbian
Historic Sites. She can be reached
care of this publication or at LNcolumn@aoI.com.

(Okemos) While shopping at the
Okemos Meijer store, Michigan's most
prominent transsexual activist and her
friend were met with a lewd and offensive slur instead of friendly service.

Gentle Chiropractic
Massage Therapy
Wellness Education
Stress Reduction

Dr. Suzette Corbit, D.C.
!1l't'

TRIANGLE FOUNDATION
RELEASE:
For immediate release: Contact: Sean
Kosofsky
August 13, 2001 (313) 537-3323

Get In Touch
with your Mind,
Body & Spirit

. l lt.w

Meijer
Employee
Insults
Transexual

The liberation of her mind, Brevard says,
took much longer than the physical reconstruction of her body. Her experiences
and those of other trans-women hold important lessons for teminists and lesbians
who remain stubbornly hung up on
biology.

In Touch ChiroP-ractic

•
•
•
•

Page 15

~1/ S;1tura! H,•/1hJ/g \t-J',,_.

.3301 Veterans Drive, Suite 215 • Traverse City, Ml 49684
Res: 231-922-9272 Office: 231-933-9388
Participa tin g Pr ov i d e r with ll l u e C r o,,/Bl u ~ Shi dd

Cont. Page 16, see Triangle Release

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Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

Triangle Release

hope Meijer employees that cannot control their personal bigotry and offensive
language should not be dealing with the
public. We call on all Meijer stores and
all employers to prevent these incidents
by making it clear to their employees that
such discrimination will not be tolerated."

Cont. from page 15

Recently Rachel Crandall and her roommate Raquel Gonzales, who are both
transsexual, were degraded by a Meijer
cashier, while in the check-out line.
The cashier correctly assumed the two
women were transgendered and then
without provocation made the following
statement, "It doesn't matter how you're
dressed, I know you still have d*cks and
you can f"'ck your mamas."
Crandall and Gonzalez were shocked,
offended and confused by the statement,
but they immediately complained about
this conduct to a manager on duty. To
date, Meijer officials at that store claim
that they reprimanded the employee but
they have refused to formally apologize to
the women for the hostile and offensive
behavior of the employee.
"I couldn't believe my ears," said Crandall. "I was offended and angry that I
would be treated this way by a Meijer
employee. This kind of thing stays with
you for awhile and cause a lot of emotional damage to people. Transgender
people face this kind of discrimination,
harassment, vandalism and violence every
day. I am very fortunate she didn't turn
violent."
Rachel Crandall, who is a therapist and
the President ofTransgender Michigan
(Michigan's most visible and active
Transgender support and advocacy
organization) tried to remedy the situation
on her own, and feels that she has been
ignored by Meijer. So she contacted
Triangle Foundation for assistance.
"This is contemptible and offensive, but
certainly not the first time we have had
this happen at a Meijer store," said Sean
Kosofsky, Director of Policy and Victim
Services for Triangle Foundation. Triangle Foundation is Michigan's statewide
civil rights, advocacy and anti-violence
organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender GLBT people. "We demand a
formal apology from Meijer to Rachel
and Raquel and to the entire GLBT
community for what happened. We also

Discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender expression is perfectly
legal in Okemos and in Michigan, so
Crandall and Gonzalez have no legal remedy for the discrimination. They and
Triangle Foundation hope to raise awareness about legal discrimination and why it
is a problem. There is a bill currently
awaiting action in the Michigan legislature that would fix this gap in the state's
Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. House
Bill 4661 enjoys bi-partisan support and if
passed it would ban, anti-gay and antitransgender discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations, like Meijer stores, that are open to
the public.

****************************
****************************
If you're not out outraged,
you're not paying attention.

****************************
****************************
Sean Kosofsky
Director of Policy and Victim
Services
Triangle Foundation
19641 West Seven Mile Road
Detroit, Michigan 48219-2721
313-537-3323 ph
313-537-3379 fx
1-877-7-TRIANGLE toll free
report hate crimes
Sean@tri.org
www.tri.org

Page 16

"Lesbian
Judges Suing
South African
Government"
DataLounge
http://www.datalounge.com/
Friday, 10 August 2001

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -The rights of gay and lesbian couples in South Africa could change
dramatically for the better, pending
the outcome of two cases before the
Pretoria High Court, the British newspaper The Telegraph reports.
The cases are noteworthy not only because they are liable to establish broad
new precedents in South African law,
they are unusual in that they are being
filed directly by two lesbian judges.
One case involves a joint adoption petition that seeks to broaden parental
rights for both gay partners; the second concerns pension and other benefits granted to spouses. Both cases
challenge the constitutionality of existing laws, arguing that in their current
form they discriminate against samesex couples.
The first application is from a lesbian
judge, Anna-Marie de Vos, who has
asked the court to rule that she be allowed to co-adopt children with her
lesbian partner. As current laws forbid
such an arrangement, she's petitioning
the court to have the Child Care Act
declared unconstitutional.
Judge Frans Kgomo told reporters he
wished to rule on the benefits petition
first, noting there were many similarities between the two judges' cases.
The benefits petition filed against the
president and the justice minister was
brought before the court by
Cont. page 21, see Lesbian Judges

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

Letter Page

munity. We want this town hall meeting
to be a forum to discuss legislation that
directly affects the GLBT community,
and a forum that will allow you to tell us
what state government can do to
improve your quality of life.

Friends North received
this letter at the end of
May from the Michigan
House of Representatives Democratic Floor
Leader ...
Dear Friends:
In January, the Democratic
Caucus of the Michigan House of Representatives released it "Quality of Life
Agenda". The Oakland County delegation of the Caucus (Representatives
Clarence Phillips, Nancy Quarles, Dave
Woodward and I) have invited Democratic House Leader (and Detroit mayoral
candidate) Kwame Kilpatrick to Oakland
County to discuss that agenda with our
constituents.
On Saturday, June 9, we will be
hosting a ''town hall meeting" to discuss
quality of life issues with representatives
of the Metro Detroit GLBT community.
The meeting will take place from 9:30
a.m. to 11 :00 am at the Pride Building in
Ferndale (429 Livernois-just north of
Eight Mile road). Our moderator will be
State Representative Chris Kolb (D-Ann
Arbor), the first openly gay member of
the Michigan Legislature. This is the
first time that the leaders of the House
Democratic Caucus have sat down with
the movers and shakers of the GLBT
community, and we couldn't think ofa
more appropriate time than June, traditionally Gay Pride Month. I am writing
to ask for your participation as a leader
the GLBT community.
As Democrats, we want this
event to be as inclusive as possible. Our
"Quality of Life Agenda" focuses on
education, economic and personal security, health care, livable communities
and preparing for the New Economy.'
Although we think these topics are
important to every Michigan citizen, I
know there are particular issues of
special significance to the GLBT com-

Page 17

Gild Z. Jacobs
Democratic Floor Leader

Tom responded by writing
a letter to Jason Allen and
CC'ing it to Gilda Jacobs,
Chris Kolb, and Debbie
Stabenow ...
Dear Mr. Allen:
As a long time resident of
Traverse City, I want to take this opportunity to write you concerning the Gay
and Lesbian community in Northern
Michigan.

Gay Pride or Gay "Shame"
Festival?
Something has to be done about
the Gay "Pride" festival.
Once again, I was embarrassed
to be at the Gay Pride festival. This is
supposed to be an event to show the
community of Traverse City and the surrounding communities what we are all
about. Instead, it turned into another
show of entertainment (?) about vulgar
jokes and simulated sex acts.
Is this really how we want to
present ourselves to the community?
This event is attended by mothers,
fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles,
children and friends. We should be
putting our best foot forward, not presenting vulgar, lewd, sexually simulated
acts. All other aspects of the festival
were great. Great food, great bands, but
all were marred by the vulgar entertainment.
Let's hope we get it right next
year.

We have a good, strong community and as you know, have lately
come under fire from all sides. I am
Gerald Houk
writing to request some of your time
Traverse City
when you are in Traverse City so that we
can discuss the direction the gay and
lesbian community is going, the issues
Continued page 18, see letters
that we are facing, and so that we can
discuss quality oflife issues similar to
those discussed in the Detroit area. I am
enclosing the letter Friends
North
received from the Democratic Floor leader for you to
read. As you can see, there is a
meeting planned which could be
Experience the many benefits of MASSAGE...
and should be very productive,
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participate.

MASSAGE SPECIAL

Since you are our Representative, and one for all the
residents of this community, gay
and straight, I think as the President of Friends North, I deserve
some of your time.
Thomas D. Kincaid

Guess what, Tom's still waiting
for a letter from Jason ...........
surprised?

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Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

Letter Page

allow members to receive money in
emergency situations. When the ByLaws were changed we were unable to
continue to do this.

continued
Friends North!! Here to help the
GLBT Community??

We are taking another look at
this issue, and if you have input for us to
consider, please write, call or e-mail the
Friends North Board members.

I turned to Friends North for help on
April 1st.
I need to go to Toledo to see my mother
who was ill and in a nursing home. I
decided that morning to drive to Toledo
to see my mother. Packed my bags, got
into my car, and drove about two blocks
and my car started to act up. Backfiring,
etc.
I drove back to my apartment, rather dejected.
I decided to see if my neighbor, Thomas
Kincaid, President of Friends North,
could help me. I thought perhaps
Friends North could help. Perhaps make
a loan to me so that I could get my car
repaired! I didn't want a hand out, just a
loan.
He made a few calls and found out that
Friends North couldn't do that, not in the
Charter!! Friends North needs to change
their Charter!
Well, I called my credit card company
and asked if they could give a higher
credit limit on my card due to the circumstances. They did so.
So, I rented a car, drove to Toledo, and
was able to get there before my mother
passed away.
I think Friends North needs to be a little
more sensitive to the needs of the community! Needs to change it's CHARTER. Ifl didn't have a credit card, then
WHAT??
Gerald L. Houk
Traverse City

Response from the FN BoardSome time ago we had a fund to

"Mystical
Activist"
By Jim Curtain
Taken from an article
in "Genre Magazine"
Andrew Harvey is a fearless adventurer, a determined explorer,
•who has searched the world for
the roots of authentic spirituality.
Harvey is openly gay and in a recent interview he discussed the
role his homosexuality has played
in his spiritual development.
Q: What role has your homosexuality
played in your spiritual development?
AH: "Like so many gay people, I internalized a good deal of homophobia.
Part ofmy early search, what drove me
to India in my twenties and what drove
me on the spiritual journey, was the
desire to escape the agony of sexuality,
the agony of the body and the desire to
enter totally into some transcendent
ecstasy that would, in a way, free me
from emotional complexity and ambiguity. Fortunately for me, the desire was
shattered when I met my husband, Eryk.
Through my relationship with him, I
have been able to heal the sexual wounds
of my past, heal my internalized homophobia -- because he has none of it -heal the body/soul/spirit and actually
experience in a very intense and glorious
way what has been written about in all
the Tantric texts."
Q: How do you go about accomplishing
this healing?

Page 18

AH: "The most important lesson is to
accept the (sexual) desire that is integral
to being gay and to realize what its real
destination is. Our responsibility is to
take the whole gay experience to a whole
new level of intensity and revelation. It
is a very, very, difficult and refined path
because just as you can be hooked on
physical ecstasy, so can you be hooked
on mystical ecstasy. Part of where the
gay movement has stumbled, or a sign
of its immaturity, has been its obsessions
with the body and with sex. The best
way to spirituality is to find the place of
radiant balance where spirit meets body
and body is infused with spirit. That
place is simply love. That is a very important message to the gay movement.
It's really the message of Walt Whitman.
Whitman is an extraordinary pioneer in
many ways, because he opens up the
. glory of sexuality. But that glory is
always placed and experienced in the
context of a profound relationship."
Q: Are you advocating monogamy?
AH: "It's not that I'm against anything. I
couldn't care less about puritanical values. I'm certainly not against people
experiencing anything they like, and sexual freedom is something that people are
entitled to. Even promiscuity can have
some revelations, but it will not produce
the fullness of union that only a committed relationship can have. I think it's an
important distinction because true Tantric revolution is going to be born
amongst gay people. What gay people
must also come gently to learn are the
laws of that Tantric revolution. And the
laws, as I've tried to make clear and that
I've discovered for myself, are laws of
dignity, of respect, of tremendous mutual
honoring of fidelity, which is not a
fashionable concept, but a tremendous
surrendering to and worshipping of each
other as divine beings. We must not confuse very exciting sexual experiences,
which can lead to delight, with Tantric
experience that leads to initiation and
revelation. It does not mean that the sexual experience that leads to delight is
something inferior or dirty. Of course
not! It is a pure joy like eating a peach or
listening to wonderful music. But it isn't
the sacred initiation that happens at the
higher level.
Cont. pa2e 19, see Mystical Activist

Networking 45° North

"Mystical
Activist"
Continued from page 18

Q: It seems to me that the gay community is crying out for sacred initiation.
How is it achieved?
AH: "As Rilke says: 'You have to train
for it.' Love requires a profound training
of the spirit and a profound training of
the heart. And, if you do train for it by
opening your aesthetic and spiritual
senses, by really experiencing the divine
in your heart and by becoming aware of
and experiencing your sacred creativity,
then you become a full self and everyone
you meet is another full self. Then the
real celestial magic can begin. Gay people carry a very deep knowledge and
courage of love, because to be openly
gay, you have to choose love beyond all
things very early on. You have to
choose love beyond the dogma of your
family and of society, and very often
beyond the dogma of religion or the guru
that you're with. You have to choose
love, and that is a tremendous initiation
in itself because it initiates you into the
utter, divine sacredness of love.
We are at this crossroad in the gay
movement. Are we going to go on celebrating narcissistic images of desire, or
are we going to discover new forms of
desire that are transfiguring socially, politically, sexually and artistically? Are
we going to be frozen in postures of adoration of youth and physical beauty,
which can be liberating, but only up to a
point, or are we going to go forward into
a far deeper, wilder, more socially radical, more politically explosive, more
creative vision of how the gay Eros can
fuel the transformation of the whole being? The Direct Path is dedicated to that
transformation for straight people as
well, but it is very much a prayer to all
gay people to get serious about the pain
of the world, to acknowledge the glory
of the body and the existence of the soul,
and to marry all of those recognitions
with their entire lives. It must be where
the gay movement is to go if it is going
to claim its true radical place."

Fall 2001

Q: You write that each religion, "in different, but fundamentally similar ways,
controls believers and claims to broker
the relationship between the believer and
God in ways that both subtly and blatantly, keep the believer from claiming
the full range of his or her innate divine
powers." That has certainly been problematic for members of our community.
AH: Tragically, there is a war in all of
the religions and in all of the patriarchal
mystical systems between what you
could call the lust for power and the
authentic vision of divine equality that
all mystics come to realize. What has
happened over the millennia is that elites
and hierarchies, both in official religions
and in the esoteric branches of those
official religions, have claimed either to
represent the truth or to mediate the truth
for other people. But the outrageous
knowledge at the core of all mysticism is
that we are all children of the Father/
Mother, all living a totally sacred life, all
connected simply in the deepest way, to
the divine and, therefore, all profoundly
able to empower ourselves with these
sacred intensities, so as to be able to
transform our lives. Well, you can see
why religions and mystical systems don't
want this to get out in its full outrageousness, because it simply destroys the need
for all forms of hierarchy, dogma, religious elite -- powers that use religion
for their justification because it releases
everybody into the divine ground of their
own life and therefore into their divine
independence, their divine creativity,
their divine abandon, their divine, wild
truthfulness of their own authentic
selves, which makes everybody who has
those traits extremely dangerous.
Q: Despite the abuses of religion, don't
we still need wise teachers and guides?
You acknowledge many of them in
your book. I regard you as one myself.
AH: Of course, we need teachers, we
need mentors, we need people to inspire
us. We need people we can see further
along on the path. We need to admire
them, we need to learn from them, we
need to revere them. What we don't need
to do is deify them or idolize the or make
them into icons. What we don't need to

Page 19

do is worship them and give away our
power to them. The relationship with a
true teacher is a liberating one. The real
teacher is humble. The real teacher refuses our projections.
Q: In your book you say "Humility is the
beginning, the middle and the end of the
path. Only God is humble enough. The
more humble you become. the more you
can watch the Divine manifest more
richly and playfully in your mind and
heart and soul and body and relationships and surroundings." There's a playfulness in you now, certainly in person,
that was not always present in your writings. It is as if you are coming into the
Divine Childhood that you have longed
for so long.

AH: what a lovely thought. That's a very
pleasant thought. I think that's why sacred marriage, in general, births the Divine Child. And I think that the freer you
become, the more playful you become.
Playfulness and seriousness go together,
in my mind. Somebody once said to me,
"Enlightenment is when you know the
Mother is at home." And that means that
you can play in your life. And Rama
Krishna said something I have thought
about all my life: "The Mother does not
love those who just float out into the
transcendent. The Mother really loves
those who play the game wildly, who go
for it." And they may fall down, they
may bleed, they may suffer, they may
scream. But eventually, if they do it
passionately enough, they will be given
enough of her joy and enough of her
bliss to start to laugh and to start to play
it truthfully. And rm hoping that is
where I've come to in my own life.

Networking 45° North

Page20

Fall2001

On The Headboard and Beside The Bed
By Dianna Johnson

1. Lust for Life by Irving Stone;
beautifully written biography about
the life of Vincent Van Gogh that includes his martyrdom as a young clergyman, his unsuccessful life as an artist (he sold only one painting in his
lifetime), the madness that lead him to
severe his ear, and his several affairs
with less than socially acceptable
women. This was one of those books
that I took a long time to finish, just
because I didn't want it to be over.

2. Refuge by Terry Tempest WilJiams
is a book that came into my life exactly as it was supposed to. Terry
Tempest Williams is an amazing
writer that masterfully weaves the
story of her mother dying of cancer
with the flooding of the Bear River
Migratory Bird Sanctuary bird refuge
near the Great Salt Lake. Nature,
spirituality, grief and relationships are
some of the themes that run through
this incredible book.

3. Sick Puppy and Stormy Weather
by Carl Hiaasen. This guy is a completely wacky author who builds
twisted characters and their most
unlikely plots that evolve into something charming and almost believable.
By the middle of the book I wondered
exactly who the Sick Puppy was: the
main character who is the
"independently wealthy eco-terrorist
Twilly Spree trying to teach a flagrant
litterbug a lesson--and leaves the offender's precious Range Rover swarming with hllllgry dung beetles"; the pet
of the offender whom Spree dognaps,
or the author of the book. After reading Stormy Weather, I am convinced
that one of the Sick Puppies is
Hiaasen. Man, can this guy write.
These are definitely a couple of books
I would suggest you stash in your bag
for the beach or your carry-on for a
cross-country flight.

4. The Truth is .. .My Life in Love and
Music by Melissa Etheridge with Laura
Morton; first, I love this woman's music.
Love it. And I suppose if I were looking
for sensationalism, I'd like her book too.
But the Truth Is ... this book is crap. Oh
sure, she reveals some of the ''Little Secrets" of her life like-how she and Julie
got pregnant, how she had a lot of oneniters early in her career, the affair between Julie and kd lang, how her sister molested her (on the second or third page),
and how her and Julie's relationship ended.
But I thank the Goddess that this woman
has a guitar to aid her pen and doesn't have
to stand on the pen alone. Not exactly Pulitzer Prize material. My biggest beef with
this book is the chapter where she is talking about the literary figures that influenced her life and she is trying to sound all
scholarly-but out of six authors that she
mentions, she spells two names wrong.
Bad editing, maybe? But you would think
that if one was SO influenced by others,
they might at least spell their name correctly?

5. The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook by
Andrew Doughty and Harriett Friedman; if
there is any chance that you may be flying
to the Garden Isle, this book is a must, and
I swear a queen wrote it. The writing is so
catty and bitchy and I love it. Plus, W1like
Fodor's or Frommer's, this book's authors
are obviously not paid by hotels and restaurants because if something is overrated
or not worth the time or money, it's right
there in print. Love it.

6. Uncommon Friendship by Frederic C.
Tubach, Bernat Rosner, Sally Patterson
Tubach; this story is incredible. These two
men meet in California and become friends
to find out that one is the son of a Nazi
army officer and the other is a Hungarianborn survivor of Auschwitz. It has all of
the potential of a phenomenal book but I
hated reading every minute of it. . Books
like this piss me off because publishers and
editors don't spend enough time to do it
right. Why would a publisher let something this poorly written go to press when

it has so much potential? What really
bugged me about it was the way that
Tubach's perspective was written in
first person, but Rosner's was in third
person. I W1derstand that Rosner did
not want to relate to what happened at
Auschwitz and kept it at a distance by
reciting in third person, but it takes so
much power away from his point of
view. Plus, Tubach constantly, constantly talks about how he was hungry,
but not nearly as hungry as Bernie
must have been, or how it was a cold
winter, but he surely wasn't as cold as
Bernie must have been ... by doing this
he takes away the power of HIS experience. So, we have a story with SO
MUCH POWER in the story itself, but
the storyteller just diminishes it over
and over. Too bad. It'll sell though,
because of the story and the press that
it's getting.

7. I'm just about finished with ffi&
Stone Gap by Adrianna Trigiani. It's
a good summer fluff read with not a
lot of depth in plot or character but
mildly entertaining. Reads like Fannie
Flagg or Billie Letts. They'll make a
movie out of it, then sell more
books-Oprah will slap her logo on it,
sell even more books-but it will still
be summer fluff.

Univlli

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

P.~ erty of the c~~t'"'r

i[111111ll1fi ~'1 1l~I1lf1[1i11li1~i~ll~l1md,OK
M 001 111 483

Page21

Whadaya mean the newsletter is late?
By Gwen Sanford

Many of our readers
would probably like to know
why this issue is so&%*#@!
late. It was supposed to be a June/
July issue, but for lack of material to
put in it, we pushed it to July/August.
As you can see it's now just plain August. Where does the time go ........ . .
The latest snafu was my own
computer. It seems that we must be
subjected to electric power drop-outs
from our local Rural Electric, sometimes on a daily basis. Somehow, my
operating system (the wonderful
WIN98) was corrupted, which of
course shut down a few systems. No
modem, giant icons, no sound and a
choice of two or sixteen colors to
name just a few. My scanner has quit
completely.
Fortunately I'm back in business again with no lost data that I
know of. But it took awhile, and no
small amount of study to figure out ·
what to do. I'm smarter now though.
The scanner - another story.
Anyway, I'm sorry for the
delay of this issue of the newsletter
and any inconveniences it has caused.

The Board of Trustees has discussed the newsletter any number of times
over the years, and that probably won't
change. Items such as content, advertising,
mailing list, paid and unpaid subscriptions,
frequency of publication, cost of publication and mailing, submission of material,
and the number of hours it takes to edit,
publish, fold-stuff-address and mail several
hundred of them. Needless to say, it is
quite a project done with too few volunteers at a serious financial obligation to
Friends North.
Is the cost worth it? The Board
thinks it is. For some ofus the newsletter
is our only contact with the outside world,
which may seem odd, but think back to
before you were out of the closet.
We have a problem though, as I
see it. Friends North of Michigan is a
large organization with just a teeny-tiny
few who help to do the work. Sometimes,
we just feel like throwing up our hands and
saying *@#%,"&@*, or whatever. Ifno
one else is interested, why should we care!
I know this is a common problem with any
volunteer organization, but we as lgbt individuals are better than the others. I view
each of us as caring, loving and responsible spirits that the rest of the world would
do well to follow.

THERAPEUTIC
MASSAGE BY AL
'Experience our
6eautifu£ new.faciuty

There is none like it in Northern Michigan!

Alan Collard CMT
Graduate of Health Enrichment Center
Facials w/ upper body massage available
Mirage Tanning Center
1128 E. 8th St. Traverse City
941-9110
www.massagebyal.com
satisfaction auaranteed or your monq becJt .

So, how about it? We know
you're busy- we are too. But, with a
little more sharing of the work it
wouldn't take as Jong, and we would
have a lot more fun along the way.
We will be discussing the
newsletter in depth at the September
Board Meeting, and welcome any
input. Give us a call, or join us. -

Lesbian Judges
Continued from
page16
Judge Kathy Satchwell from the
Johannesburg High Court.
Satchwell seeks to have sections of the
Judges Remuneration and Conditions_
of Employment Act declared unconstitutional, as she says it prevents her
female partner from sharing in benefits available to spouses of other
judges.
Satchwell's application is being
opposed by the state while no
resistance is expected against De Vos'
adoption petition.

T•shlrts • Sweatshirts •Hats •Jackets

~

!!!1.!,!!

a w . . ~ ~ $ -1'1,,,,.1
515 Wellington SL, Travme City
~ ,i1---1--~;.;.:;.~;.;.St,.

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• Bm•roidely
• 'ltm Uaiform
• Nllllberirl l Letlaing
• l'holo &: Digital 1iudm
• Adffltuiag Spedaliet
pm-blftoflf-ap&11111tt/.
• hi bou9t gftphit clfllgn

929~3610'
.

Networking 45° North

2001

State And National Hotlines
Department of Justice............ 800-347-4283
Gay/Lesbian National Youth ............ .
800-347-TEEN (8336)
Michigan Wellness Networks ............ .
800-872-AIDS (2437)
Triangle Hate Crime Reporting .......... .
877-7-TRIANGLE (877-787-42640)

Statewide Services
ACLU Of Michigan ........................ .
1249 Washington Blvd., Suite 209,
Detroit,
Ml
48220
Office ......................... 248-398- 7105
Help Line ........................ 800-398-4297
E-mail ................. michaclu@aol.com
WWW ........... ...... http://michigan.aclu.org/
Lansing Association of Human Rights ..... .
PO Box 18062, Lansing, MI 48826
Phone ...................... 517-332-3200
http://www.macatawa.org/-lahr
Triangle Foundation ..... .
19641 W. Seven Mile Rd., Detroit, MI
313-357-3323 ....... Fax ..... 313-537-33 79
WWW ..................... .... http://www.tri.org
OLSEN
WWW ............ www.GLSEN-Michigan.org

::===========================:::
National Services
OLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education
Network), 121 West 127th St.,,Suite 804,
New York, NY 10001.. ....... 212-727-0135
WWW ........ .......... http://www.GLSEN.org/
Gender PAC ..............New York, NY
WWW ................. .... http://www.gpac.org/
HRC (Human Rights Campaign), 919 18th
Street NW, Washington DC 20006
Ph .. 202-628-4160
FAX.. 202-347-5323
E-mai 1........................ hrc@hrc.org
WWW .......... ............. http://www.hrc.org/
IFGE (International Foundation for Gender
Education), PO Box 540229, Waltham, MA
02454-0229
Ph .. 781-899-22 l 2
FAX.. 781-899-5703
E-mai 1................... in fo@i fge. org
WWW ....................... http://www.ifge.org

NOLTF (National Gay & Lesbian Task
Force), 2320 Seventeenth St. NW,
Washington
DC
20009-2702
Ph.. 202-332-6483
FAX.. 202-332-0207
WWW ................. ..... http://www.ngtlf.org/
PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays), I IOI 14th St. NW,
Suite 1030, Washington DC 2005
Ph .. 202-638-420
Email..info@pflag.org
WWW .... ................. http://www.pflag.org/

HIV Testing Anonymous

& Confidential

Community Health Clinic (same day)
Phone .............................. 23 1-929-4448
Grand Traverse County Health Dept.
Phone .............................. 231-922-483 l
Planned Parenthood Northern Michigan
Phone .................... 800-230-PLAN (7526)

Lesbian and Gay Aging Issues Network
WWW ............. http://www.asaging.
org/lgain.html

Thomas
Judd
Care
Center
Phone .............................. 231-935-8140

Local Spiritual

Emmet County Health Dept.
Phone .............................. 231-347-6014

Circle of the Sacred Earth,
Rev. Nancy Hayward ............. 231-223-7999
Journey in Light Ministries,
Rev. Linda L. Wilson .............231-271-2529
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Grand
Traverse, Rev. Emmy Lou Belcher, 6726
Center Rd., Traverse City, Ml 49686
Home.. 231-938-9079 Office.. 231-947-3117
Unity Church, Rev. Judy Grimes,
3600 Five Mile Rd., Traverse City,
MI 49686 .......................... 231-938-9587
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of
Petoskey, PO Box 873, Petoskey,
MI 49770 ...... : ................... 231-347-8916

Local Counseling
CDRS (free substance abuse referral)
Phone .............................. 231-929-13 15
Toll-Free ........................... 800-686-0749
THIRD LEVEL Crisis Intervention Center,
I022 E. Front St., Traverse City, MI
49686 ........... 231-922-4800
Toi I-Free .................. 800-442- 7315
WWW ...... http://www.travese.net/
members/third level/
WOMAN'S RESOURCE CENTER
Phone ............................... 231-941-1210

Wellness Networks ......... 231-933-0279
Toll-Free ........................... 800-947-1160
WWW .... http://www.WellnessNetworks.org

Local Service/Social/Political
Common Voices: The Friends North Rap
Group, Call Tom ................. 231-275-6127
Friends North of Michigan, PO Box 562,
Traverse City, MI 49685-0562
Northern Michigan Help Line
Phone ............................231-946- I 804
E-mai I. ................. .info@friendsnorth.org
WWW .......... .http://www.friendsnorth.org
OLSEN, PO Box 9, Traverse City, MI
49685-0685 ........................ 231-943-5050
WWW ...... www. TraverseArea.corn/GLSEN
E-mail ............ GLSEN@TraverseArea.com
Gay Alcoholics Anonymous,
Grace
Call
Episcopal Church, Traverse City
John .............................231-922-0746 or
Hilda................................231-938-9294
WINDFIRE Gay & Lesbian Youth Support
Group... Call Third Level for location &
time ............................... 231-922-4800
Toll-Free............................ 800-442-7315
Human Rights Commission .......... 922-4447

Susan Odgers, PhD .................... 946-0331
Barbara Jones Smith, PhD............ 947-1444

LAMBDA Legal Defense & Education
Fund, 120 Wall St., Suite 1500, New York,
NY 10005 ................... ..... 212-809-8585
Fax ................................. 212-809-0055
WWW ............................................ .
http://www.thebody.com/lambda.html

Local HIVI AIDS Health
Counseling & Information

Bay Area Counseling, LLC ........... 933-4009
Susan RBreuer, PhD, Benzonia.... 882-4455

Sarah ' s Circle/Carl Anderson .995-9431

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual,
Transgendered?
Have Questions, Need Help?
Call the Northern Michigan
Help Line
231-946-1804



P,operty of the Center

Volume 15
Issue 3

FRIENDS NORTH of MICHIGAN, INC.
An association of lesbians, gays,
bisexuals, transgendered and their friends.

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A Time For Unity
By Alan Collard

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Fall
2001

Dear Friends ...
I want to take this
time to talk to you about
the importance of unity in
our community. With the
anti-gay vote in Traverse City
this November I feel we all
need to come together. The
"City Proposal l", is aimed at
taking away our rights. An anti
gay group downstate is working hard to make it legal to
basically discriminate against
Gay's, Lesbian's, Bi-sexual's,
and Transgendered person's in
the city of Traverse City.
This group is definitely unified in their cause.
They have the money to work
at getting this proposal passed.
My concern is this: are we
unified and dedicated to fight
for our rights as human beings
that just happen to have a different sexual orientation than
the American Family Association? I was . a little disappointed that more of us didn't
come to the Pride Day this
year. We all need to show support!
Last year was the first
pride day celebration I attended. Before that I was a
little apprehensive at "being
seen" at a Gay event out in
public! I thought "Oh my God,
there will be cameras and pro-:
testors!" Well guess what?
There were none! Instead I had
a great time and met new
friends!
Part of the problem as
I see it is, is that the gay community is divided into our own

ttfttt
little groups here in northern
Michigan. For years when I
would talk to patrons of the bar
about Friends North, they
would say, "Oh you don't want
to join them, they're all stuck
up!" I guess they felt since
members of Friends North didn't frequent the bar that they
were "cliquey''. Well I have
been a member for over a year
now and I have met some of the
best friends I will ever know!
Another problem is
that some of us, as I used to,
live our lives trying to make
sure others are comfortable
with our lifestyle. I used to be
closeted and was a member of a
church that denounced homosexuality. I volunteered a lot of
my time and donated a lot of
my money, trying to fit in and
cure my true feelings, and what
I believe God's plan is for me.
The day I finally left my
church, the Pastor had a sermon
on how we should vote in the
election. He had different criteria, and one of them was the
issue of homosexuality. He
stated that if a politician supported "GAY RIGHTS", we
should not support that individual. By that time my pastor
knew that I was gay, and was
trying to get me to join Exodus.
I left that day and have never
gone back!
We all need to realize
that our money and our actions
are very important. We have a
lot of power too! We pay more
taxes than most, as we have less
deductions and rights than heterosexual couples do. Stop giving your money to group's that
support "Hate Legislation". My

church supported Rev. Jerry
Farwell. I can't stand the
thought that I helped his fight
against you and I!
Please get involved!!!!
Volunteer your time, donate
money to TCCAD (Traverse
City Campaign Against Discrimination), register to vote,
and get down to the polls and
vote. Voting is easy and actually fun. Go as a group of
friends, make it a celebration!
Have a party afterwards.
For those of you who
are closeted, coming out is not
that hard! Scary yes, and emotional too! If you have good
people in your life that truly
love you, and care about you, it
will be all right! It was the best
thing I ever did in my life! I got
rid of a lot of stress, and I am
following God's plan for me!
Not prejudice persons of Earth
who have their own sexuality
questions about themselves.

Gay? Lesbian?
Bisexual?
Transgendered?
Have Questions?
Need Help?
Call the Northern
Michigan Help Line!
(231) 946-1804
For Emergency Help
(231) 922-4800
(800) 442-7315

From The President

fRJI

By Tom Kincaid

~be Missio_n of Friends North of Michigan, Inc., is to provide
social, educational and support activities and opportunities for the
gay men, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities in
Northern Michigan.
Please note: Friends North is not a dating, nor dating refe"al service.
Networking 45° North is the newsletter of Friends North of Michigan,
Inc. For information, write to Friends North, PO Box 562,
Tnverse City, MI 49685-0562.
www.friendsnortb.org
Viewpoints expressed in Networking do not necessarily represent those of the
Board of Trustees or the genen,l membership.

Friends Nord, ol Michigan, lac. , is an association of lesbians, w,.y men, bisexuals, transgendered and their friends from Northwestern Lower Michigan centered in Traverse City.
Fnends North provides social actmhes, a newsletter, an infonnation line, workshops, a web
site and a scholarship fund for financial assistance.

Friends North's &enl of Trustea is elected each Dccembe,- at the Annual Meeting.
Regular Board meetmgs are held at Grace F.piscopal Church, at the comer of Washington and
Boardman_Streets m Traverse Clly, at 6:30 pm on the 1st Tuesday of every month except July.
Eveiyone JS welcome to attend. Please contact Friends North in writing ahead of time if you
have an rtem for the agenda CUJTent mernbe,-s of the Board include:

Well, what a couple of months this has
been. In May, Friends
North held our annual High
Tea which was a resounding
success. The following
weekend we held our annual
Gay Pride Day. Even
though it rained cats, dogs
and triangles, several people
turned out and Pride was a
success. While it was raining, the committee managed
to carry on all of their
planned activities.

Tom Kincaid, Presiden, (231) 929-2919
Gwm Sanford, Vice Presiden, (231) 946-0433
Toni Poole, Secretary,
Ridtanl Por;niak, Treasurer, (231) 933-3969

&b Buck, Trustee, 7 Bowerman Rd. Mansitee, Ml 49660

Dianna Johnson, Trustee, (231) 933--0571
Joe Kaubeuw, Trustee, (23 I) 947-8402
Craig Philip Ridianl, Trustee, (23 I) 922-I 967

Alan Cc,ilanl, Trustee, (231)941-9110
David Hummel, Trustee, (231) 929-1226
The Friends North N.,..letter C-mittee is responsible for the publicaf
f
,on o
Networking 45" North.
Publisher: Gwen Sanford, GwenChris@worldnet.att.net
lldito.-: Dianna Johnsoo, Huntgoddess@aol.com
Advertising: Gwen Sanford, GwenChris@worldnet.att.net

Oa,sified Advertising and notices are run without charge. Please submit your ads in writing.

Display Advertising in Networong is available in business card siz.ed displays at a rate of $25
per space per LSSue or an annual rate of $125. Inserts and larger siz.ed ads are available; please
contact the advertismg edrtor for more information.

Contributions to Networking are welcome. Letters, essays, features, reflections, poetty
ongmal are work etc ._ should be sent to Networking 45" North, PO Box 562, Traverse City
39685-0562, or to
the publisher or editor listed above. Networking will not ~ t
material that lS . sex,st, d,smmmatory or sexually explicit. Contributors are responsible for
obtammg perm1SS10n from those v,hooe names they submit for publication. Please include
your name, address and a pltone number where you can be reached. H you would like your
contributton to be prurted anonymously, please let us know.

either

Mi

Address O,ang,s sltould be sent to the above address.

Subsaiptioos & Memberships are $15. Please send checl<s or money orders to the above
address. Complimentary subocripnons are also available to those who are unable to pay.

Distribution: . Networong is sent via bullc mail in a plain envelope to subscribers Additional
•
copies are available at select local establishments.

I want to comment
on something that took
place at Pride Day. I have
had several phone calls and
2 letters about the simulated
sex act that took place
between one of the entertainers and one of the audience members. While
Friends North does not specifically endorse or approve
of acts like this, it was done,
I hope in good clean fun.
The single most
important event to happen to
the Traverse area GLBT
conu~mnity is happening in
November. For those of us
residing in the City of Traverse City, you have the
opportunity to vote no on an
issue that would
PERMANENTLY allow
discrimination in our
community. You may have
heard of it as "Vote yes for

equal rights, not special
rights." Heck, this anti-gay
group even got signatures
from people in the GLBT
community because of the
spin that they put on their
rhetoric. If the majority of
Traverse City votes yes, the
city charter will be
amended so that sexual orientation can never be part
of the discrimination code.
An amendment similar to
this has already passed in
Royal Oak which is a city
known for its gay friendliness. Please register and
VOTE NO. For more information please call
TCCAD (Traverse City
Campaign for Discrimination) at (231 )883-1058, or
on the Web at www.
TCCAD2000.org. Remember vote NO or a year from
now if you live in Traverse
City you actually could lose
your job orlose your home
because you are gay and
you will have no legal
recourse.
Please call me if
you have any questions.
We still need vo lunteers for our committees
and would love to have you
join us.
Tom Kincaid
231/ 929-2919

-----------------------------Networking 45° North

Treasurer

Fall 200 l

;

By~~~
.J
Summer is upon us and we
have had two big events since the last
newsletter. The High Tea and Pride
Day. The High Tea was a financial success. We took in $5,150.99, which included table sponsors, ticket sales, and,
of course, the auction. After expenses
included rental of the Opera House, Dinnerware and linen rentals, and food
which came to $1664.88 it. We cleared
$3,486.11.
Pride Day was also a success
considering the bad weather. Although
this event is not meant to be a moneymaker, we try to at least break even. As
of yet all the bills for that event are not
in.
Money is coming in for the
Bike Tour and it looks like we will have
lots of bike riders again this year.
Expenses this month have been
for Insurance for the year's events, High
Tea expenses, phone bills and printing/
mailing of the newsletter. So as of June
1st we have $5,012.25 in the bank.
I'd like to thank all the sponsors
of the High Tea, Pride Day for there donations and to all those that gave many,
things for the High Tea Auction. I look
forward to seeing all of you at the Bike
Tour the last weekend in July.

Page 4

Treasurer
Report

By Richard Pozniak

Friends North had a total of
$11,753.25 deposited in June and
July. It was High Tea, Pride and
Membership money but most came
from the Bike Tour.
I wrote checks totaling
$5,000 for Pride, phone and mostly
the Bike Tour bills. This left a total
of$6,247.65 in the bank. We still
have bills, like printing, mailing
and phone to pay and no fund raisers scheduled for the rest of the
year.
So keep your fingers
crossed that we stay in the black by
the end of the year.
The Bike Tour was a great
event again this year. It seems
to get better each year.

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Are You A Friends North Member?

Join Friends North or Renew your membership today! Just $15 single or $25 for a couple.
Name:__________________Amount Enclosed:_for

Single □ , Couple □

plus_ Donation

Address: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _City: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _State:_Zip:_ _ __
E-Mail: _____________________ □ Please include me in Friends North e-mail updates.
Comments:- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - □

Check this box if you are unable to contribute the full membership amount and would like to be considered for a reduced rate or
complimantary membership.

Mail this form and your check to Friends North Inc.

□

PO Box 562

□

Traverse City, MI 49685-0562

□

Attn: Memberships

Friends North's membership list is strictly confidential, and mail fi·om Friends North is sent in plain envelops.

------------------------------------------------------J

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

Page5

Minutes of the June S, 2001 Board Meeting
Held at Grace Episcopal Church Basement,
341 Washington Street, Traverse City, Ml
Prepared by Toni Poole, Secretary
Board Members Present: Tom Kincaid, Gwen Sanford, Richard
Posniak, Dianna Johnson, Toni Poole, Craig Richard, Bob Buck,
Alan Collard, Joe Kaubenaw

by June 13 th .
Tom brought up phone bill.
Total monthly bill is $90.41. Breakdown is $47/mo for
phone bill, $30/mo for yellow page ad, and $13.41/mo for
Others Present: Nancy and Rose
AT&T bill.
- All discussed options to reduce bill. Thoughts: disconnect
Board Members Absent: Al Kitzmiller
phone completely, eliminate the 800 number. Much discussion ensued.
- Motion to disconnect 800 line by Tom, seconded by Joe,
Meeting called to order at 6:33PM
carried unanimously.
- Motion to disconnect phone completely by Bob, seconded
• Richard gave a Treasurer's Report. He stated $5368.25 in
by Alan. More discussion ensued. Motions fails 4-5.
bank as of June 5th. Richard reported $3486.11 made from
- Tom suggests forming a committee to investigate phone
High Tea.
problems, options, and needs. Suggests Toni as chair of
• Minutes of the May 1st board meeting were reviewed.
committee.
- Motion by Joe to accept the minutes, seconded by Toni, _ Motion to create Phone Line Committee chaired by Toni
carried unanimously.
by Bob, seconded by Joe, carried unanimously.
• Tom talked about success of High Tea. Toni asked why
• Tom brought up MOOT cleanup.
there wasn't more entertainment as expected. Discussion
- Next dates are July 14th-July 22ndtabled.
- Craig volunteered to head up project.
• Joe talked briefly about Pride. No final numbers yet.
- Established date/time of July 1~ at 6:30PM to meet at old
Enough t-shirts were sold to break even on them.
theater in Acme for all who wish to participate.
• Nancy gave Bike Tour report.
• Craig brought up subject of newsletter subscriptions. Sug- 43 riders so far registered.
gests we act on expired subscriptions.
- A possible new caterer has been located - "Hungry Tummy". _ Tom suggested appointing Craig chair of a newly formed .
Next Bike Tour meeting is June 19th at 7:00PM on the land.
Newsletter Committee, with initial goal of weeding out ex- A contest is being held for a logo to go on the t-shirts.
pired subscriptions.
- Rose notes that the current numbers of rider registrations will _ Dianna suggested we do not need a committee to do this.
allow event to break even.
Much discussion ensued.
- Gwen asked about cost breakdowns - Nancy will get info.
- Motion to form a Newsletter Committee chaired by Craig
- Tom asked if volunteers are needed. Nancy replied in the
by Tom, seconded by Joe. Motion fails 4-5.
affirmative.
- More discussion ensued.
- Alan brought up subject of possible massages at Bike Tour.
- Motion to insert newsletters with warning notice to unNancy indicated that much thought was given to it, and
paid subscribers by Bob, seconded by Dianna. More disquestioned if it might raise problems if other vendors
cussion ensued. Motion amended to insert newsletter of
wished to provide services in the future. Much discussion
only subscribers unpaid from 1997 back. Carried
ensued. More thought will be given to it.
unanimously.
• Craig talked about a fictional story he submitted to each
- Craig asked ifwe are printing too many newsletters. Tom
board member in advance of the meeting, and requested
will investigate and come up with solid number to print.
feedback on whether it is appropriate to include in newslet- • Tom informed all that Joanne Ewing has recently had a heart
ter.
attack.
- Much discussion ensued. General feeling was that it was not
Motion by Tom to spend $50 for flowers for her, secappropriate due to some adult oriented content.
onded by Dianna, carried unanimously.
- Motion to reject request to put story in newsletter by
Toni, seconded by Alan. Motion passes 8-1.
Moved to adjourn at
• Dianna gave newsletter report.
8:17PM by Joe, seconded
- Only received one article to date.
by Alan, carried unani- Discussion ensued on timing, pushing deadline back, etc.
mously.
- Alan suggested going to 4 newsletters per year but distributing over a wider area of the state.
- Diane indicated she would like to see all articles submitted
•
-

Networking 45° North

Page6

Fall 2001

Minutes of the August 7, 2001 Board Meeting
Reid at Grace Episcopal Church Basement,
341 Washington Street, Traverse City, Ml
Prepared by Toni Poole, Secretary
Board Members Present: Tom Kincaid, Gwen Sanford, Richard Posniak, Toni Poole, Craig Richard, Bob
Buck, Alan Collard, Joe Kaubenaw
Others Present: Paul Heaton, David Hummel, Rose,
Mary Ann

•
•

Board Members Absent: Al Kitzmiller, Dianna Johnson
Meeting called to order at 6:31PM

•

•

•

•

•

•

Minutes of the June 5th board meeting were reviewed.
- Motion by Joe to accept the minutes, seconded by Richard, carried unanimously.
Richard gave a Treasurer's Report. He stated $6247.65 in
bank as of August ?.
Paul Heaton talked about and gave an update on the Traverse
City Campaign Against Discrimination (TCCAD).
City commission denounced Proposal I by a 5-2 vote at the
August <r1' meeting.
NGL TF .h as awarded a $5000 matching grant to TCCAD.
Paul asks Friends North for a donation. Discussion ensued.
Paul asks the board to commit to a phone bank/canvass one
evening.
Mary Ann from Andy Mitchell's (CPA) office talked about
the processing ofFN's 501C3 application.
Mary Ann talked about the liability of the current FN accounts, as several people that aren't on the board are authorized signers on the accounts.
Mary Ann discussed the Friends North of Michigan Inc.
name, and how it would need to be registered with the State
of Michigan by filing a Michigan Annual Return. She presented an MAR form for the FN officers to sign to this end.
Mary Ann indicated the need for FN to obtain a Federal
ID#. She will handle this.
Mary Ann indicated the need for the Treasurer to create an
anticipated budget for the upcoming year.
Mary Ann talked about the possibility of registering as a
non-profit organization using a 501 C3 designation versus
50 l C7. She says 501 C3 is strictly for a charitable organization, while 501C7 isn't. lfFN was a 50IC7 organization,
donations would not be tax deductible for the contributor.
Much discussion ensued on this. A number of people suggested we look at other organizations of a similar nature to
FN and see how they attained 50 l C3 status.
Mary Ann indicated the need to create bylaws and formally
adopt them. These can be based on previous bylaws and

•

•

•

•

modified. Gwen and Toni will handle the modification of
these.
Rose gave brief Bike Tour overview report. She indicated
one rider required an ambulance, and one rider was verbally
harassed. She will give more information next meeting.
Joe gave a Pride wrap-up. Pride paid for itself.
A Pride committee separate and apart from Friends North
has formed. Some discussion ensued around the Pride event
not being driven by FN. This committee suggested that
$2500 be raised prior to next years event to pay for the upfront costs.
Tom brought up subject of phone expenses. Discussed cost
versus usage. In the previous month, FN received 17 calls
on the line.
Richard brought up the subject of Thank You notes. He has
many, and indicates they can be used for any purpose.
Tom brought up the subject of the MDOT pickup. Asks why
it didn't happen as planned.
Craig indicated that an article requesting volunteers dido 't
make it in the newsletter, so nobody was available. Craig
says the next date will definitely be met.
Tom brought up the newsletter currently at Copyworld.
Talked about newsletter content, indicating that many of the
articles are out of date now that the newsletter has been
pushed back.
Richard suggested we get a newsletter out on time regardless of how much content we have. He indicates 4 pages are
better than nothing.
Much discussion ensued around only putting out 4 newsletters per year to reduce the amount of effort needed in a volunteer organization.
Motion by Richard to publish only 4 newsletters per
year versus the current 6 by Richard, seconded by Toni,
carried unanimously.
All present agreed that the current newsletter should be in
the mail by September 151.
The subject of a potential TCCAD donation was brought up.
All present agreed that a donation was acceptable. Discussion of how much ensued.
Motion by Gwen to donate $300 to the Traverse City
Campaign Against Discrimination, seconded by Joe, carried unanimously.
Current and absent board members were discussed briefly.
David Hummel expressed a desire to be on the board.
Motion by Craig to appoint David Hummel to the
Friends North board, seconded by Richard, carried
unanimously.

Moved to adjourn at 8:50PM by Toni, seconded by Joe,
carried unanimously.

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

Page7

Announcements

Excerpt from Newsweek's
A_ugust 1st cover story,
"Scouts Divided"

Hey,hey,hey! ! !
Don't forget about the monthly
potluck dinner held the fourth
Thursday of every month. This
purely social get-together starts at
6:30 PM in the cafeteria of Grace
Episcopal Church.

Nt._th

Friends
Fall Bik~ -,._\
October 14,2001
12Nto4P \
@

Have you had a recent addition to your family? Did you and
your partner just get hitched?
Would you like to announcement
an engagement but your town
paper won't publish it? Send us
your announcements at
huntgoddess@aol.com

PFLAG MONTHLY
MEETINGS
Parents, Family, and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays (and Bisexual
& Transgendered people) meet on
the third Wednesday of every
month at 7 :00PM. Meeting
location is Third Level Crisis
Center at 1022 East Front St.(enter
from the alley, third building
from Burger King). Program var- ·
ies each month.
For more information, email
joanpw@coslink.net.

ll

Sable's
Warming Rut
in beautiful
Suttons Bay, Ml
Bring a dessert
to pass•
Beverages
Probided
-Join UsIt's way cool!
Needmore
information?
Call
(231) 946-1804
or929-2919

-- GREAT poll numbers -- keep
on coming out, everyone! It's
making a difference! - Sara
The Texas [Boy Scouts] leadership may have misjudged a cultural climate that is now more like
"Dawson's Creek" than
"Mayberry R.F.D." For the first
time in 20 years, Gallup last
month reported that the majority
of Americans consider homosexuality "an acceptable alternative
lifestyle." Polls show that more
Americans today than ever before
know someone gay. For them, the
formal scouting position has
caused excruciating conflicts.
Sara Boesser-bsara.alaska@gci.net

SIDETRAXX
.ACTIVITIES
Sunday Night
Movie Nite 7:30 pm showing
new releases and old favorites.
Wednesday, Friday and
Saturday Nights
(Starting in October
for the Winter)
Come on down and enjoy great
dance music spun by your
favorite DJ's Mike and Fred.

TM oomfortobk gathering place for p,uls and c.·wpks.

935 T 1666

Open7 Days

(SIOI: T~4~~J
Open7days
T 520 Franklin T Traverse

City, MI 49686

T

David Schulz & Jim Walker
212 Part Sheet, Bellai.e, Michigaa 49615
~545-0780 • (616) SlJ-6077

Networking 45° North

Page8

Fall 2001

Friends North 2001 Bike Tour
History for this year -Ya shoulda been there!

The 2001 Friends North Bike Tour - the land was wonderful, bike riding excellent, dinners Friday and
Saturday were delicious, a little bit of rain on Saturday night after dinner, canoeing on Sunday and then playing at the beach late Sunday morning. All with friends and family. If you have never attended a bike tour,
then you are missing out on a fabulous weekend. Any one of the major components by themselves is a good
time - to combine them all makes it a special weekend. Jon W. designed our t-shirts and won a free weekend,
Kirk did his usual great job of getting donations, Gretchen handled a bunch of little details, Rose crunched
numbers, Nancy kept Rose sane and organized, Hilda and Sheryl kept everyone fed & settled, all the bikers
and campers had a good time and helped build our totem. We have a great bunch of volunteers and sag team
and everyone works hard to make a good time. Next year we start in a new decade for OUR BIKE TOUR
and we believe that this is how everyone should look at it, this is our event, our tour and it only gets better with
everyone participating. So, we hope to see you next year!
We owe a special thanks to the Bike Tour Committee for their long hours of planning,
bard work and tremendous dedication to make this main event come together.. - pub.

and they were both naked as
jaybirds.
Now, however you feel about this
type of behavior, it is against the
law so please pay attention and
get a room.

LISTEN UP
PEOPLE!
This goes out as a word of
caution to everyone in the gay
community. Please let any of
your friends or acquaintances
know that this IS VERY
SERIOUS.
On Friday I was interviewed by
Channel 7 and 4 about the rumor
that the Grand Traverse County
Sheriffs Department will be
stepping up all undercover patrols

at the parks where gay men like to
frequent for sex specifically in the
area of Cass Road.
I spoke to Sheriff Scott Fewins that
same day and was told basically the
same thing.
Two uniformed officers had arrested two men in the full act of
( well you use your imagination),

Please note! When gay men are
frequenting a location, people
notice. Some of these people will
call the police. The police will
respond, and if you're caught
with your pants down - the big
door (at the jail) will go "clang"
again.- pub. & retired pol. off.

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

RighTea
2001
By Sheryl Layton
Every Spring for the last
nine years, the glbt community
has gathered at the Opera
House for a somewhat formal
afternoon tea. In the past two
years, there has also been a live
and silent auction included with
the event as a major fundraiser.
It's a social event where we share
good food and fun entertainment.
This year's event raised almost
$3,500. The committee of 8, Sheryl
Layton, Dianna Johnson, Charles Egeler,
Cheryl Roulston, Gwen Sanford, Brenda
Bartz, Deb Medlin, Tom Kincaid &
Richard Pozniak started meeting in January to begin preparing for HighTea 2001.
A five course meal was served
consisting of tea nuts, scones, finger
sandwiches, salad and a knockout dessert called "Menage a Trois." The tea
nuts are a repeat performance every
year; pecans rolled in a brown sugar concoction and roasted in butter. The
scones' recipe came from our Tea hostess a - - - - - - - •
years
The dessert this
MiZucco; year was knockout. We called
have
cherit Menage a
alTrois because it
and are had 3 different

few
ago,
chelle
they
dried
ries,
monds

Page9

serve. It's hard to imagine this being something special, but if you were there, then
you know what we're talking about with
this one. It has cream cheese and lots of
aged Stilton that Chef Charles gets from
Toledo {don't ask me why it comes from
there, ask him). We dice poached pears
and toss it all together and spread it on
wheat-nut bread. Chef Charles and I named
the salad "rainbow" because it was neatly
arranged with matchstick cut colorful
vegetables of zucchini, yellow squash, radish and carrots and drizzled over with raspberry vinaigrette. English Breakfast and
Earl Grey Tea was served with the first 4
courses and Red current tea was served
with the dessert.
The dessert this year was knockout. We called it Menage a Trois because
it had· 3 different chocolates. We plated
each dessert individually {we made 150 of
these babies). We
started with a rich, Richard Pozniak
sweet circle of
recruited 5 bf his
chocolate sauce,
friends, choreoplaced a chewy
sugar wafer in the graphed and
center of the plate starred in the
and piped a rosette
"Half Monty."
of double ch~
late mouse on top
of the cookie. We placed a handmade raspberry truffle on top of the mousse and then
got funky and squirted plain old Hershey's
syrup and raspberry coulees {raspberry puree) all over the place. We balanced it with
a triangle of sugar wafer poked in the side
of the mousse and finished it"offwith a
sprinkle of cocoa powder. It was a work of
art. Nice work kitchen team.
Princess Laura emceed the tea this
year. She spiced up the show with her red
& black saloon dress and rainbow under-

--------

shirt. She hostessed a gay trivia game
and she also auctioneered our live auction. She added a lot oflaughs and color
to our event. Thank you Princess Laura.
Richard Pozniak recruited 5 of
his friends, choreographed and starred in
the "Half Monty." We had a lot of fun
with that. They danced and took off half
of it all to the tune of "Heard it through
the Grapevine." It was wonderfully enjoyable and fun.
There was a silent auction again
this year with over 30 items that were
donated from members and businesses of
the community. Support those businesses and business owners that support
our community! Thank you Charles
Egeler at Chef Charles, Princess Laura
and Capt. Dave at Nauticat Catamaran
Gay Cruises, Sheryl Layton at Charles
Layton Chocolates, Allan Collard, C.M.
T., Victoria, Rosalyn Tyge at Tyge Tile,
Mike Negel Massage, Dave Rinckey,
Gwen Sanford and Carol Larson, Borders Books, Barker Creek Nursery,
Brenda Bartz, Todd McMillen at The
Instant Framer, Sheila McRae, Chateau Grand Traverse, Kristi Brubaker
at Leelanau Interiors, Erika, Yola and
Petra at the Silver Swan, Wild Birds
Unlimited, Krystal Miller's Handmade Handbags, Esther Parzych, Julie
Lahaye at Fabulous Nails, Marge Phillips, Ultimate Fitness, Joe Breech and
Paula Gale at Complete Body Work &
Massage Therapy, Candle Factory,
Jen Tees, Mirage Tanning Salon, Richard Pozniak, Kirk Day at Kirk Day Design, David Schultz and Jim Walker at
the Bellaire Bed & Breakfast, Fred
Farage and Carl Strebel, The Bellaire
Inn and Restaurant.
Continued page 10, see High Tea

chocolates.
brushed with cream when they come out
of the oven, which makes them rich and
moist. The scones are served with madefrom-scratch lemon curd and whipped
butter. This year we made chicken salad
from fresh chicken breasts, celery, ranch
dressing and our secret ingredient-diced
tart apples and lots of fresh chopped tarragon, dill, thyme and basil and scooped
a luscious fresh croissant. The other finger sandwich is Stilton and pear con-

Char P. Kirchner,

CPA~ MSA

Tax Returns - Confidential & Discreet
Stngle T a ~ -U. ,our flllng stotw to~ adoanlage
Un-Married Coupla - Tau odwn"'1.fe of ull pour options
Appoinlmenls in W i ~ « 7,_,_,_aq,

P. 0. Box 1040
IWllomsburs Ml 49690-Jo«>

(61612-67-5818

Page IO

Fall 2001

Networking 45° North

High Tea 2001
Continued from page 9

***In Massachusetts, a 229 percent increase, from 5,194 to 17,099 same-sex partner households.

Thank you to our table sponsors:
Lisa Aragona-King at Matrix Financial
Group, Copy World, Jen Tees, Kim
Gower at Business Clarity, Barker Creek
Nursery, Andrew L. Mitchell and Associates, Linda Zajac & Tom Elliot at Century
2 I, Charles Egeler and his crew at Chef
Charles, Dr. Suzette Corbit, D.C., Joe
Breech and Paula Gale at Complete Body
Work & Massage Therapy, and Todd
McMillen at Instant Framer. The table
sponsors make it possible for our guests
to enjoy the High Tea with china and linens. It's so important for us to celebrate
our community with class. We deserve it.

***In Montana, a 326 percoot increase,
from 286 to 1,218 same-sex partner households.

Thanks to all who contributed, to all who volunteered
and especially those whose hard
work on the committee made it
all possible. Oh, and of course to
our perennial Tea Captain. Tom
Kincaid. Well Done! High Tea
2001!

The TC Campaign Against
Discrimination is delighted to share
two pieces of ggod news with out supporters and volunteers.

***In Nebraska, a 413 percent increase,
from 455 to 2,332 same-sex partner households.
***In Nevada a 711 percent increase, from
613 to 4,973 same-sex partner households.

- The Traverse City Commission
voted to denounce Proposal 1 and encourage people to vote no.

Released .>n June 13:

-The National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force announced that it will award
TCCAD $5000 toward our efforts to
defeat Proposal 1.

***In Delaware, a 781 percent increase,
from 21Zto 1,868 same-sex partner households.

It is important to note that we
need to match this grant with local
dollars, and encourage you to help
identify people who might be able to
write a $500 or $1000 check.

***In Vermont, a 422 percent increase,
from 3'0 to 1,933 same-sex partner households.

***********************************
******#***************
Foundelin 1973, NGLTFworks to eliminate prrjudice, violence and iryustice
against gay lesbian, bisexual and transgen'~
dered people at the local, state and national
level. As pat ofa broader social justice
movement for freedom, justice and equality,
NGLTF is creating a world that respects
Same-Sex Couples
and celebrates f.1e diversity ofhuman exContinued from page 3
pression and ideuity where all people may
~ ~ - ~ - - - - - - - - - " " " " " - ' fully participate h society.
***In Indiana, a 428 percent increase,
To reach the NGL1F Communications Defrom 1,935 to 10,219 same-sex partner
partment at NGLTF,please call David
households.
Elliot, Communicati01s Director, at
202-332-6483 x3303 llt" pager
***In Louisiana, a 562 percent increase,
800-757-6476 or email ielliot@ngltf.org.
from I ,33 I to 8,808 same-sex partner
households.
"'

,~-

/.Y

,,._

Linda Hasse, PHD
Precision Hair Design

Located in

Hair Quarters
509 S. Union Traverse City, Ml

922~504

NGTLF
Awards TCCAD
$5,000 Grant

It is also important to note
that this grant comes because the
NGTLF believes we are running a
very organized campaign that has a
good chance of winning.. .if we continue to focus on talking directly to
voters, as has been our strategy.
Based on our review of records from other cmapaigns, we know
that our opponets will receive many
thousands of dollars from the AFA
and other organizations in the last days
of the campaign, so this seed money is
very important to our success.
Thanks for your assistance in helping
us match the grant.

ll.lRll tv1- DAY DLll(iN
Q.J~TOt.1 INT612..IOR Db..61<:;N

~TRIT~t.~
??l-88?-6422
P.O.
6422

e,ox

TR.AV'b12..~ QTY. Ml 49696

~-MAIL il.RllDAYD~@AOLCOM

/
Networking 45° North

Prop£r.:y of the C -,nt::.r
Fall 2001

NGTLF
Awards TCCAD
$5,000 Grant

the campaigns that are willing to do the
critical work of building a list of gay and
pro-gay voters who we can then tum out to
vote in every election. This 'voter I.D.' work
is essential to win elections."

NGLTF Announces Grants to Help
Local Communities Fight AntiGay Ballot Measures

Jean noted that since 1998, 19 GLBTrelated measures have been voted on in the
United States. Only in five of the 19 elections have GLBT activists prevailed. "In
both Oregon and in Traverse City, local
leaders have made the extraordinary commitment to running strong campaigns and
doing the on-the-ground organizing that is
so often neglected," Jean said.

MEDIA CONTACT:
David Elliot, Communications Director
delliot@ngltf.org
202-332-6483, ext. 3303
Pager: 800-757-6476

The National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force today announced its first two grants
to local communities facing ballot initiatives that threaten the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. NGLTF
announced it will award $20,000 to Basic
Rights Oregon and $5,000 to Traverse
City Campaign Against Discrimination.
Oregon, which has experienced 33
GLBT-related ballot measures since 1988
on the local and state level, is now facing
a potential statewide effort in 2002 to ban
the positive or neutral mention of homosexuality in public schools. Traverse City
is voting this November on a proposed
city charter amendment that would ban
the enactment of any nondiscrimination
law covering gay, lesbian or bisexual people. Two other Michigan cities - Kalamazoo and Huntington Woods - also face
anti-GLBT ballot measures this November.

NGL TF expects to announce an additional $75,000 in local grants later this
year. The Task Force is the only national
organization that provides electoral training on an ongoing basis in how to defeat
anti-GLBT ballot initiatives.
"This grant money will help our state and
local partners work to defeat measures
that threaten our communities," said
NGL TF Executive Director Lorri L. Jean.
"We are particularly committed to helping

"This grant makes it possible for us to get an
early start in our campaign," said Roey
Thorpe, executive director of Basic Rights
Oregon. "The right-wing assault in Oregon
has implications for the entire nation, and
we are committed to defeating this assault
again this year. NGL TF has given us many
kinds of support over the years, including
technical assistance and training. We are
thrilled to be recognized in this way, and
grateful for NGL TF's vision and understanding of the importance of this work."
"We plan to use NGLTFs gift to solicit
matching funds from local donors," said
Bonnie Deigh, co-chair of the Traverse City
Campaign Against Discrimination.
NGL TFs belief in our ultimate success at
the polls assures our grassroots supporters
that their individual contributions will be
money well spent. We deeply appreciate
NGLTF's great vote of confidence."

To contribute or volunteer for Basic Rights
Oregon, call 503-222-6151, email
roey@basicrights.org or visit www.
basicrights.org.

To contribute or volunteer for Traverse City
Campaign Against Discrimination, call 231883-1058, email info@tccad2000.org or
visit www.tccad2000.org.

To read NGLTF's Rethinking Elections: An
Op-Ed Series on Critical Electoral Battles
Facing GLBT Communities, please visit
www.ngllf.org/library/rethink.htm.

Page 11

The National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force has worked to eliminate
prejudice, violence and injustice
against gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender people at the local, state
and national level since its inception
in 1973. As part ofa broader social
justice movement for freedom, justice
and equality, NGLTF is creating a
world that
respects and celebrates
the diversity ofhuman expression and
identity where all people may fully
participate in society.

Networking 45° North

Page 12

Fall 2001

Transgender
Corner
OPINION I Lesbian Notions
Are Transsexual Women
"Real" Women? Yes.
by Paula Martinac
April 17, 2001
Are transsexual women "real"
women? It's a tedious question that
male-to-female transsexuals often run
up against when they're open and
honest about their personal history.
But the life experiences of many
MTFs make them more aware of how
gender roles and sexism work than a
lot of so-called "real" women.
I've never met a transsexual woman
who didn't have a feminist
consciousness. I'm sure there are
some, but it makes perfect sense that
many trans-women would be attracted
to feminism as a philosophy. After all,
feminism by definition seeks to break
down the barriers society has set up
based on gender.
It's infuriating, then, that some feminists and lesbians continue to question
the "womanhood" ofMTFs. I support
the concept of "women-only space,"
but I'm concerned that this legitimate
policy is sometimes used to discriminate against trans-women.
The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, for example, still maintains a
policy of trans-exclusion that sounds
eerily like the "don't ask, don't tell"

policy of the U.S. military. An official
festival handout states, "No womon's
gender will be questioned on the land."
However, the flyer goes on, the festival
has the right to deny admission "to individuals who self-declare as male-tofemale transsexuals." In theory, one of
Fred Phelps's daughters could attend
Michigan, while an open feminist
trans-woman could not.
In another galling example, a women's
rape crisis center in British Columbia
recently refused to allow Kimberly
Nixon, a transsexual woman, to train as a
peer counselor. The staff assumed she
wouldn't understand violence against
women because she was born male. According to a center spokesperson, Nixon
could not possibly have faced the unique
mix of social, psychological, and biological factors that "shape women's
experiences and ... the world's perception
ofus."
But, in fact, the experience of many
transsexual women turns the meaning of
being "born" female or male upside
down. Many MTFs talk about knowing
they were "female" from a very young
age. "Growing up," Nixon told a reporter for Canadian Press, "I had the
sense and burden of being female and
the burden of being aware of ... all the
issues women deal with."
The exclusionary policies that feminist
and lesbian groups institute toward
transsexual women rest on two false
premises. First of all, because the world
once viewed MTFs as boys and men, it's
assumed that they enjoyed male privilege. Yet the opposite may actually be
true, given the many stories transsexual

women tell about the intense gender oppression they experienced before surgery.
According to Australian trans-feminist
Julie Peters, transgender male youth tend
to be regarded "as feminine or different
boys and are denied entry into male
power structures; they are vilified, ostracized, and bashed." Misunderstood or
rejected by their families, they sometimes take to the streets, where they're at
high risk for drugs and prostitution and
often learn early on about sexual violence, just like many girls do.
The second false premise is that only
"real" women can fully comprehend
female oppression. But what about the
"real" women who think feminism has
nothing to do with their lives? And don't
forget the "women-born women" who
actively oppose abortion rights, or who
accept their church's dictate that wives
submit to their husbands, or who voted
for George W. Bush.
Now compare those "real" women with
trans-activist Riki Wilchins, Executive
Director of GenderPAC. In a recent editorial, Wilchins called on activists to
build "a broad-based and inclusive national movement for gender rights."
Gender, Wilchins states, is a basic human right that unites everyone from "a
boy-dyke with buzz-cut blue hair" to "an
FTM fired for transitioning on the job"
to "a soccer mom banging her head on
the glass ceiling" to "a gay man genderbashed ... because some bigot thinks homosexuals are unmanly."
We can learn a lot from reading the work
Continued on page 15, see "Real Women"

DOUGLAS ASHWORTH
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2001
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11 :00 AM @ Grace

2

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PFLAG 7:00 PM
@IhirdLeul
Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P

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FN Board Mtg.
6:30PM@
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Grace Episcopal Perry Hotel @ 7:00P
11

10

5LAMBDAAA
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26LAMBDAAA
5:JOPM@Gme

27

Potluck Social
6:30PM@
Friends U.P. North
Grace
Episcopal
Perry Hotel@ 7:00P

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2

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6:30PM@
Grace Episcopal

9

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Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel@ 7:00P

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Fall Hike@
Bahl.e's Warming Hut 12-4 pm

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5:30 PM @ Grace
PFLAG 7:00 PM
@ Third Level
Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel@ 7:00P

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Grace Episcopal Perry Hotel @ 7:00P
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14
LAMBDAAA

5:30 PM @ Grace

Windfire

Friends U .P. North
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P
18

19

20

22 21LAMBDAAA
5;30 PM @ Grace
Potluck Social
PFLAG 7:00 PM
6:30PM@
@ Third Level
Grace
Episcopal
Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P

23

27

28
LAMBDAAA

30

Windfire

25

26
Windfire

5:30 PM @ Grace
Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P

29

1
LAMBDAAA
11:00 AM@ Grace
2

5

4

3

ANNUAL
Windfire

9

10

FN Board Mtg.
6:J0PM@

17

24
Windfire

30

31
Windfire

-- -

8
LAMBDAAA
11:00 AM@Grace

12
13
LAMBDAAA
5:30 fM @ Grae~
Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P

14

15
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11:00 AM@Grace

18

20
19LAMBDAAA
S:JOPM@O~
PFLAG 7:00 PM
@IhirdLevd
Friends U .P. North
Perry Hotel@ 7:00P

21

22
LAMBDAAA
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25

26
27
28
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Potluck Social
S:30 PM @ Grae~
6:J0PM@
Friends U.P. North
Grace
Episcopal
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P

29
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11:00 AM @ Grace

Windfire

23

7

11
Windfire

16

6

LAMBDAAA
S:30 PM @ Grae~
Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

The Creation
Mythos
As It Was Written In
The Atlantean Texts
By James Amidon
In The Beginning
Was The Spirit of All
That Was, Is, or Will Be.
And The Spirit Stirred
For It Sensed Its Entirety
And In Its Entirety Was
All That Is.
Yet,
It Felt Incomplete.
It Had No Perception
Beyond "Self,"
No Concept of"Others,"
No "Past,"
No "Present,"
No "Future."
IT,
WAS,
"Alone."
So Moved, The Spirit "Spoke"
"I Have None But Self
No Perceptions Beyond Self
Though I Am The "Finality"
I Am Unfinished
Who Am I?
What Am I?
Why AmI?
Where and When
AmI?

Ontuix21·
·
t - ..

-----

Page 13

Why Does This Move Me
To Ponder These Questions?
The
"Answer"
Grows Clear.
Only by Multiplying "Self'
Can I Know Myself
Only By Perceiving from
Different Points of Awareness,
From The Awareness of"Others"
Shall I Know
My Extent.
And By Multiplying "Self'
Shall I Become More Complete
By Becoming Not "Self," But
By Becoming "Other Selves"
Do I Move Toward Completion
Yea From My Being Shall
Come "The Multiverse,"
From My "Spirit" The Power
To Actualize all Concepts,
From My "Will" The Foundations
Upon Which To Build,
From My "Love" The Power
To Nurture and Sustain
"All That Is."
Thus in The Beginning
Were "Thought" and "Deed" As
One.
From This Came The Great
Explosion of Creation,
Concept and Deed Building
Upon Each Other Exponentially,
"Infinity" Contained
"Infinity" Unleashed.
Thus Came to Be The Multiverse.

Tom Elliott

~..o

Linda Zajac --

_J

t'...Jivily

Ever "Growing"
Ever "Changing"
Ever "Becoming"
Ever "Aware"
Ever ''Now"
Yea "Realities" Without
"End."
Realities Awash in a
Sea oflnfinite "Love,"
Ever Bathed in the
After glow of the
"Original" Thought
That
Birthed
Creation.
Thus "It" Was Written.

James Amidon offered his poem
as "filler" for our newsletter. I
believe this qualifies as much
more. Thank you Jim. -Pub.

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---------------------------------.-iiNetworking 45° North

Fall 2001

ACLU Denounces
Proposed Amendment

"This amendment is
the legal equivalent of
a nuclear bomb ..... "
ACLU Denounces Proposed
Amendment to US Constitution That Would Invalidate
All Laws Recognizing Gay
Families
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 11, 2001
WASIIlNGTON - Saying it
would deprive millions of families of their most fundamental
rights, the American Civil Liberties Union today denounced a
new proposal to amend the U.S.
Constitution as an unwarranted
attempt to limit liberty in the
United States.
"With only a few exceptions,
most of the anti-gay attacks in
Congress are the legal equivalent
of sticks and stones," said Christopher E. Anders, an ACLU
Legislative Counsel. "This
amendment is the legal
equivalent of a nuclear bomb. It
will wipe out every single law
protecting gay and lesbian
families and other un.rnarried
couples. "
The amendment will be intro-

duced tomorrow at a Washington
news conference. The ACLU said
the new proposal would deprive
the families of lesbians and gay
men - and all other unmarried
couples - of all legal protections
for their relationships by overriding any federal or state constitutional protections and federal,
state and local laws.
The ACLU said that the impact of
the amendment would be extremely harmful. Specifically, the
amendment would invalidate all
state and local domestic partnership laws, including those in at
least eight states and in more than
100 counties, cities and towns
across the country. "The extreme
measure would even prohibit state
and local governments from making their own decisions on providing benefits to their employees,"
Anders said.
During last year's presidential
campaign, Vice President Dick
Cheney explicitly said that
"people should be free to enter
into any kind of relationship they
want to enter into." He added:
"different states are likely to come
to different conclusions, and that's
appropriate. I don't think there
should necessarily be a federal
policy in this area."
The ACLU said the proposed
amendment would undermine
state adoption, foster care and

Page 14

kinship care laws. In many states,
the ACLU said, unmarried persons - including unmarried relatives, heterosexual couples, gay
and lesbian couples and even unrelated clergy members - have the
same rights as married persons to
jointly adopt or provide
foster care or kinship care.
The proposed amendment would
also reverse the tradition of protecting - not harming - individual
liberty through constitutional
amendments and of allowing states
to adopt stronger civil rights protections.
"The few amendments to the Constitution that have been adopted in
the last 200 years are the source of
most of the Constitution's protections for individual liberty rights,"
Anders said. "The proposed
amendment, by contrast, would
deny all protection for the most
personal decisions made by millions of families."
An ACLU letter to the House and
Senate on the proposed amendment can be found at: http://www.
aclu.org/congress/10711 Ola.html

Eric Ferrero, Public Education
Director The American Civil
Liberties Union Lesbian and Gay
Rights Project/AIDS Project
125 Broad St., 18th Floor
New York, NY 10004-2400
P: 212-549-2568; F: 212-549-2650

The above article was taken
from an On-Line Newsletter
published by Sara Boesser.
<bsara.alaska@cgi.net>

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

"Real Women"
Cont. from page 12

But, in fact, Brevard has a strong feminist
sensibility. After transitioning, she slowly
came to realize that the role she envisioned or herself as a Donna Reed-style
wife was too limited. Instead of clinging
to the belief that "a good woman must be
docile and long suffering" and invariably
attached to a man, she recognized that she
could be happily fulfilled as an independent woman.

The liberation of her mind,
Brevard says, took much
longer than the physical
reconstruction of her body.
of cutting-edge activists like Wilch ins.
But even older trans-women, who transitioned long before the founding of the
National Organization for Women or the
riots at the Stonewall Inn, have gone
through their own transformative process
and come out as feminists.
In an engaging new memoir called The
Woman I Was Not Born to Be, Aleshia
Brevard, a former drag performer and actor, describes her own personal journey.
Glancing through the book's photos of
Brevard boasting long, painted nails and a
cinched-in, hourglass figure, you might be
tempted to rehash the old feminist complaint that MTFs simply reinforce gender
stereotypes rather than break them down.

**************************

SERVICE WITH A SNEER
Meijer Employee Insults Transexual

Paula Martinac is the author of seven
books, including The Queerest
Places: A Guide to Gay and Lesbian
Historic Sites. She can be reached
care of this publication or at LNcolumn@aoI.com.

(Okemos) While shopping at the
Okemos Meijer store, Michigan's most
prominent transsexual activist and her
friend were met with a lewd and offensive slur instead of friendly service.

Gentle Chiropractic
Massage Therapy
Wellness Education
Stress Reduction

Dr. Suzette Corbit, D.C.
!1l't'

TRIANGLE FOUNDATION
RELEASE:
For immediate release: Contact: Sean
Kosofsky
August 13, 2001 (313) 537-3323

Get In Touch
with your Mind,
Body & Spirit

. l lt.w

Meijer
Employee
Insults
Transexual

The liberation of her mind, Brevard says,
took much longer than the physical reconstruction of her body. Her experiences
and those of other trans-women hold important lessons for teminists and lesbians
who remain stubbornly hung up on
biology.

In Touch ChiroP-ractic

•
•
•
•

Page 15

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Res: 231-922-9272 Office: 231-933-9388
Participa tin g Pr ov i d e r with ll l u e C r o,,/Bl u ~ Shi dd

Cont. Page 16, see Triangle Release

verse
tors
Carolyn R. Delo
Sale., & fras ing
Phone 231/946-5540 • Fa'< ~-' l/9-i!l-O~:-R
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Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

Triangle Release

hope Meijer employees that cannot control their personal bigotry and offensive
language should not be dealing with the
public. We call on all Meijer stores and
all employers to prevent these incidents
by making it clear to their employees that
such discrimination will not be tolerated."

Cont. from page 15

Recently Rachel Crandall and her roommate Raquel Gonzales, who are both
transsexual, were degraded by a Meijer
cashier, while in the check-out line.
The cashier correctly assumed the two
women were transgendered and then
without provocation made the following
statement, "It doesn't matter how you're
dressed, I know you still have d*cks and
you can f"'ck your mamas."
Crandall and Gonzalez were shocked,
offended and confused by the statement,
but they immediately complained about
this conduct to a manager on duty. To
date, Meijer officials at that store claim
that they reprimanded the employee but
they have refused to formally apologize to
the women for the hostile and offensive
behavior of the employee.
"I couldn't believe my ears," said Crandall. "I was offended and angry that I
would be treated this way by a Meijer
employee. This kind of thing stays with
you for awhile and cause a lot of emotional damage to people. Transgender
people face this kind of discrimination,
harassment, vandalism and violence every
day. I am very fortunate she didn't turn
violent."
Rachel Crandall, who is a therapist and
the President ofTransgender Michigan
(Michigan's most visible and active
Transgender support and advocacy
organization) tried to remedy the situation
on her own, and feels that she has been
ignored by Meijer. So she contacted
Triangle Foundation for assistance.
"This is contemptible and offensive, but
certainly not the first time we have had
this happen at a Meijer store," said Sean
Kosofsky, Director of Policy and Victim
Services for Triangle Foundation. Triangle Foundation is Michigan's statewide
civil rights, advocacy and anti-violence
organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender GLBT people. "We demand a
formal apology from Meijer to Rachel
and Raquel and to the entire GLBT
community for what happened. We also

Discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender expression is perfectly
legal in Okemos and in Michigan, so
Crandall and Gonzalez have no legal remedy for the discrimination. They and
Triangle Foundation hope to raise awareness about legal discrimination and why it
is a problem. There is a bill currently
awaiting action in the Michigan legislature that would fix this gap in the state's
Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. House
Bill 4661 enjoys bi-partisan support and if
passed it would ban, anti-gay and antitransgender discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations, like Meijer stores, that are open to
the public.

****************************
****************************
If you're not out outraged,
you're not paying attention.

****************************
****************************
Sean Kosofsky
Director of Policy and Victim
Services
Triangle Foundation
19641 West Seven Mile Road
Detroit, Michigan 48219-2721
313-537-3323 ph
313-537-3379 fx
1-877-7-TRIANGLE toll free
report hate crimes
Sean@tri.org
www.tri.org

Page 16

"Lesbian
Judges Suing
South African
Government"
DataLounge
http://www.datalounge.com/
Friday, 10 August 2001

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -The rights of gay and lesbian couples in South Africa could change
dramatically for the better, pending
the outcome of two cases before the
Pretoria High Court, the British newspaper The Telegraph reports.
The cases are noteworthy not only because they are liable to establish broad
new precedents in South African law,
they are unusual in that they are being
filed directly by two lesbian judges.
One case involves a joint adoption petition that seeks to broaden parental
rights for both gay partners; the second concerns pension and other benefits granted to spouses. Both cases
challenge the constitutionality of existing laws, arguing that in their current
form they discriminate against samesex couples.
The first application is from a lesbian
judge, Anna-Marie de Vos, who has
asked the court to rule that she be allowed to co-adopt children with her
lesbian partner. As current laws forbid
such an arrangement, she's petitioning
the court to have the Child Care Act
declared unconstitutional.
Judge Frans Kgomo told reporters he
wished to rule on the benefits petition
first, noting there were many similarities between the two judges' cases.
The benefits petition filed against the
president and the justice minister was
brought before the court by
Cont. page 21, see Lesbian Judges

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

Letter Page

munity. We want this town hall meeting
to be a forum to discuss legislation that
directly affects the GLBT community,
and a forum that will allow you to tell us
what state government can do to
improve your quality of life.

Friends North received
this letter at the end of
May from the Michigan
House of Representatives Democratic Floor
Leader ...
Dear Friends:
In January, the Democratic
Caucus of the Michigan House of Representatives released it "Quality of Life
Agenda". The Oakland County delegation of the Caucus (Representatives
Clarence Phillips, Nancy Quarles, Dave
Woodward and I) have invited Democratic House Leader (and Detroit mayoral
candidate) Kwame Kilpatrick to Oakland
County to discuss that agenda with our
constituents.
On Saturday, June 9, we will be
hosting a ''town hall meeting" to discuss
quality of life issues with representatives
of the Metro Detroit GLBT community.
The meeting will take place from 9:30
a.m. to 11 :00 am at the Pride Building in
Ferndale (429 Livernois-just north of
Eight Mile road). Our moderator will be
State Representative Chris Kolb (D-Ann
Arbor), the first openly gay member of
the Michigan Legislature. This is the
first time that the leaders of the House
Democratic Caucus have sat down with
the movers and shakers of the GLBT
community, and we couldn't think ofa
more appropriate time than June, traditionally Gay Pride Month. I am writing
to ask for your participation as a leader
the GLBT community.
As Democrats, we want this
event to be as inclusive as possible. Our
"Quality of Life Agenda" focuses on
education, economic and personal security, health care, livable communities
and preparing for the New Economy.'
Although we think these topics are
important to every Michigan citizen, I
know there are particular issues of
special significance to the GLBT com-

Page 17

Gild Z. Jacobs
Democratic Floor Leader

Tom responded by writing
a letter to Jason Allen and
CC'ing it to Gilda Jacobs,
Chris Kolb, and Debbie
Stabenow ...
Dear Mr. Allen:
As a long time resident of
Traverse City, I want to take this opportunity to write you concerning the Gay
and Lesbian community in Northern
Michigan.

Gay Pride or Gay "Shame"
Festival?
Something has to be done about
the Gay "Pride" festival.
Once again, I was embarrassed
to be at the Gay Pride festival. This is
supposed to be an event to show the
community of Traverse City and the surrounding communities what we are all
about. Instead, it turned into another
show of entertainment (?) about vulgar
jokes and simulated sex acts.
Is this really how we want to
present ourselves to the community?
This event is attended by mothers,
fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles,
children and friends. We should be
putting our best foot forward, not presenting vulgar, lewd, sexually simulated
acts. All other aspects of the festival
were great. Great food, great bands, but
all were marred by the vulgar entertainment.
Let's hope we get it right next
year.

We have a good, strong community and as you know, have lately
come under fire from all sides. I am
Gerald Houk
writing to request some of your time
Traverse City
when you are in Traverse City so that we
can discuss the direction the gay and
lesbian community is going, the issues
Continued page 18, see letters
that we are facing, and so that we can
discuss quality oflife issues similar to
those discussed in the Detroit area. I am
enclosing the letter Friends
North
received from the Democratic Floor leader for you to
read. As you can see, there is a
meeting planned which could be
Experience the many benefits of MASSAGE...
and should be very productive,
Relirvt>S Pain
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although because of the distance,
Rl:'dtlfPS Stress
lnrrr,lSCS ent119y
is nearly impossible for us to
•
• J
participate.

MASSAGE SPECIAL

Since you are our Representative, and one for all the
residents of this community, gay
and straight, I think as the President of Friends North, I deserve
some of your time.
Thomas D. Kincaid

Guess what, Tom's still waiting
for a letter from Jason ...........
surprised?

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Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

Letter Page

allow members to receive money in
emergency situations. When the ByLaws were changed we were unable to
continue to do this.

continued
Friends North!! Here to help the
GLBT Community??

We are taking another look at
this issue, and if you have input for us to
consider, please write, call or e-mail the
Friends North Board members.

I turned to Friends North for help on
April 1st.
I need to go to Toledo to see my mother
who was ill and in a nursing home. I
decided that morning to drive to Toledo
to see my mother. Packed my bags, got
into my car, and drove about two blocks
and my car started to act up. Backfiring,
etc.
I drove back to my apartment, rather dejected.
I decided to see if my neighbor, Thomas
Kincaid, President of Friends North,
could help me. I thought perhaps
Friends North could help. Perhaps make
a loan to me so that I could get my car
repaired! I didn't want a hand out, just a
loan.
He made a few calls and found out that
Friends North couldn't do that, not in the
Charter!! Friends North needs to change
their Charter!
Well, I called my credit card company
and asked if they could give a higher
credit limit on my card due to the circumstances. They did so.
So, I rented a car, drove to Toledo, and
was able to get there before my mother
passed away.
I think Friends North needs to be a little
more sensitive to the needs of the community! Needs to change it's CHARTER. Ifl didn't have a credit card, then
WHAT??
Gerald L. Houk
Traverse City

Response from the FN BoardSome time ago we had a fund to

"Mystical
Activist"
By Jim Curtain
Taken from an article
in "Genre Magazine"
Andrew Harvey is a fearless adventurer, a determined explorer,
•who has searched the world for
the roots of authentic spirituality.
Harvey is openly gay and in a recent interview he discussed the
role his homosexuality has played
in his spiritual development.
Q: What role has your homosexuality
played in your spiritual development?
AH: "Like so many gay people, I internalized a good deal of homophobia.
Part ofmy early search, what drove me
to India in my twenties and what drove
me on the spiritual journey, was the
desire to escape the agony of sexuality,
the agony of the body and the desire to
enter totally into some transcendent
ecstasy that would, in a way, free me
from emotional complexity and ambiguity. Fortunately for me, the desire was
shattered when I met my husband, Eryk.
Through my relationship with him, I
have been able to heal the sexual wounds
of my past, heal my internalized homophobia -- because he has none of it -heal the body/soul/spirit and actually
experience in a very intense and glorious
way what has been written about in all
the Tantric texts."
Q: How do you go about accomplishing
this healing?

Page 18

AH: "The most important lesson is to
accept the (sexual) desire that is integral
to being gay and to realize what its real
destination is. Our responsibility is to
take the whole gay experience to a whole
new level of intensity and revelation. It
is a very, very, difficult and refined path
because just as you can be hooked on
physical ecstasy, so can you be hooked
on mystical ecstasy. Part of where the
gay movement has stumbled, or a sign
of its immaturity, has been its obsessions
with the body and with sex. The best
way to spirituality is to find the place of
radiant balance where spirit meets body
and body is infused with spirit. That
place is simply love. That is a very important message to the gay movement.
It's really the message of Walt Whitman.
Whitman is an extraordinary pioneer in
many ways, because he opens up the
. glory of sexuality. But that glory is
always placed and experienced in the
context of a profound relationship."
Q: Are you advocating monogamy?
AH: "It's not that I'm against anything. I
couldn't care less about puritanical values. I'm certainly not against people
experiencing anything they like, and sexual freedom is something that people are
entitled to. Even promiscuity can have
some revelations, but it will not produce
the fullness of union that only a committed relationship can have. I think it's an
important distinction because true Tantric revolution is going to be born
amongst gay people. What gay people
must also come gently to learn are the
laws of that Tantric revolution. And the
laws, as I've tried to make clear and that
I've discovered for myself, are laws of
dignity, of respect, of tremendous mutual
honoring of fidelity, which is not a
fashionable concept, but a tremendous
surrendering to and worshipping of each
other as divine beings. We must not confuse very exciting sexual experiences,
which can lead to delight, with Tantric
experience that leads to initiation and
revelation. It does not mean that the sexual experience that leads to delight is
something inferior or dirty. Of course
not! It is a pure joy like eating a peach or
listening to wonderful music. But it isn't
the sacred initiation that happens at the
higher level.
Cont. pa2e 19, see Mystical Activist

Networking 45° North

"Mystical
Activist"
Continued from page 18

Q: It seems to me that the gay community is crying out for sacred initiation.
How is it achieved?
AH: "As Rilke says: 'You have to train
for it.' Love requires a profound training
of the spirit and a profound training of
the heart. And, if you do train for it by
opening your aesthetic and spiritual
senses, by really experiencing the divine
in your heart and by becoming aware of
and experiencing your sacred creativity,
then you become a full self and everyone
you meet is another full self. Then the
real celestial magic can begin. Gay people carry a very deep knowledge and
courage of love, because to be openly
gay, you have to choose love beyond all
things very early on. You have to
choose love beyond the dogma of your
family and of society, and very often
beyond the dogma of religion or the guru
that you're with. You have to choose
love, and that is a tremendous initiation
in itself because it initiates you into the
utter, divine sacredness of love.
We are at this crossroad in the gay
movement. Are we going to go on celebrating narcissistic images of desire, or
are we going to discover new forms of
desire that are transfiguring socially, politically, sexually and artistically? Are
we going to be frozen in postures of adoration of youth and physical beauty,
which can be liberating, but only up to a
point, or are we going to go forward into
a far deeper, wilder, more socially radical, more politically explosive, more
creative vision of how the gay Eros can
fuel the transformation of the whole being? The Direct Path is dedicated to that
transformation for straight people as
well, but it is very much a prayer to all
gay people to get serious about the pain
of the world, to acknowledge the glory
of the body and the existence of the soul,
and to marry all of those recognitions
with their entire lives. It must be where
the gay movement is to go if it is going
to claim its true radical place."

Fall 2001

Q: You write that each religion, "in different, but fundamentally similar ways,
controls believers and claims to broker
the relationship between the believer and
God in ways that both subtly and blatantly, keep the believer from claiming
the full range of his or her innate divine
powers." That has certainly been problematic for members of our community.
AH: Tragically, there is a war in all of
the religions and in all of the patriarchal
mystical systems between what you
could call the lust for power and the
authentic vision of divine equality that
all mystics come to realize. What has
happened over the millennia is that elites
and hierarchies, both in official religions
and in the esoteric branches of those
official religions, have claimed either to
represent the truth or to mediate the truth
for other people. But the outrageous
knowledge at the core of all mysticism is
that we are all children of the Father/
Mother, all living a totally sacred life, all
connected simply in the deepest way, to
the divine and, therefore, all profoundly
able to empower ourselves with these
sacred intensities, so as to be able to
transform our lives. Well, you can see
why religions and mystical systems don't
want this to get out in its full outrageousness, because it simply destroys the need
for all forms of hierarchy, dogma, religious elite -- powers that use religion
for their justification because it releases
everybody into the divine ground of their
own life and therefore into their divine
independence, their divine creativity,
their divine abandon, their divine, wild
truthfulness of their own authentic
selves, which makes everybody who has
those traits extremely dangerous.
Q: Despite the abuses of religion, don't
we still need wise teachers and guides?
You acknowledge many of them in
your book. I regard you as one myself.
AH: Of course, we need teachers, we
need mentors, we need people to inspire
us. We need people we can see further
along on the path. We need to admire
them, we need to learn from them, we
need to revere them. What we don't need
to do is deify them or idolize the or make
them into icons. What we don't need to

Page 19

do is worship them and give away our
power to them. The relationship with a
true teacher is a liberating one. The real
teacher is humble. The real teacher refuses our projections.
Q: In your book you say "Humility is the
beginning, the middle and the end of the
path. Only God is humble enough. The
more humble you become. the more you
can watch the Divine manifest more
richly and playfully in your mind and
heart and soul and body and relationships and surroundings." There's a playfulness in you now, certainly in person,
that was not always present in your writings. It is as if you are coming into the
Divine Childhood that you have longed
for so long.

AH: what a lovely thought. That's a very
pleasant thought. I think that's why sacred marriage, in general, births the Divine Child. And I think that the freer you
become, the more playful you become.
Playfulness and seriousness go together,
in my mind. Somebody once said to me,
"Enlightenment is when you know the
Mother is at home." And that means that
you can play in your life. And Rama
Krishna said something I have thought
about all my life: "The Mother does not
love those who just float out into the
transcendent. The Mother really loves
those who play the game wildly, who go
for it." And they may fall down, they
may bleed, they may suffer, they may
scream. But eventually, if they do it
passionately enough, they will be given
enough of her joy and enough of her
bliss to start to laugh and to start to play
it truthfully. And rm hoping that is
where I've come to in my own life.

Networking 45° North

Page20

Fall2001

On The Headboard and Beside The Bed
By Dianna Johnson

1. Lust for Life by Irving Stone;
beautifully written biography about
the life of Vincent Van Gogh that includes his martyrdom as a young clergyman, his unsuccessful life as an artist (he sold only one painting in his
lifetime), the madness that lead him to
severe his ear, and his several affairs
with less than socially acceptable
women. This was one of those books
that I took a long time to finish, just
because I didn't want it to be over.

2. Refuge by Terry Tempest WilJiams
is a book that came into my life exactly as it was supposed to. Terry
Tempest Williams is an amazing
writer that masterfully weaves the
story of her mother dying of cancer
with the flooding of the Bear River
Migratory Bird Sanctuary bird refuge
near the Great Salt Lake. Nature,
spirituality, grief and relationships are
some of the themes that run through
this incredible book.

3. Sick Puppy and Stormy Weather
by Carl Hiaasen. This guy is a completely wacky author who builds
twisted characters and their most
unlikely plots that evolve into something charming and almost believable.
By the middle of the book I wondered
exactly who the Sick Puppy was: the
main character who is the
"independently wealthy eco-terrorist
Twilly Spree trying to teach a flagrant
litterbug a lesson--and leaves the offender's precious Range Rover swarming with hllllgry dung beetles"; the pet
of the offender whom Spree dognaps,
or the author of the book. After reading Stormy Weather, I am convinced
that one of the Sick Puppies is
Hiaasen. Man, can this guy write.
These are definitely a couple of books
I would suggest you stash in your bag
for the beach or your carry-on for a
cross-country flight.

4. The Truth is .. .My Life in Love and
Music by Melissa Etheridge with Laura
Morton; first, I love this woman's music.
Love it. And I suppose if I were looking
for sensationalism, I'd like her book too.
But the Truth Is ... this book is crap. Oh
sure, she reveals some of the ''Little Secrets" of her life like-how she and Julie
got pregnant, how she had a lot of oneniters early in her career, the affair between Julie and kd lang, how her sister molested her (on the second or third page),
and how her and Julie's relationship ended.
But I thank the Goddess that this woman
has a guitar to aid her pen and doesn't have
to stand on the pen alone. Not exactly Pulitzer Prize material. My biggest beef with
this book is the chapter where she is talking about the literary figures that influenced her life and she is trying to sound all
scholarly-but out of six authors that she
mentions, she spells two names wrong.
Bad editing, maybe? But you would think
that if one was SO influenced by others,
they might at least spell their name correctly?

5. The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook by
Andrew Doughty and Harriett Friedman; if
there is any chance that you may be flying
to the Garden Isle, this book is a must, and
I swear a queen wrote it. The writing is so
catty and bitchy and I love it. Plus, W1like
Fodor's or Frommer's, this book's authors
are obviously not paid by hotels and restaurants because if something is overrated
or not worth the time or money, it's right
there in print. Love it.

6. Uncommon Friendship by Frederic C.
Tubach, Bernat Rosner, Sally Patterson
Tubach; this story is incredible. These two
men meet in California and become friends
to find out that one is the son of a Nazi
army officer and the other is a Hungarianborn survivor of Auschwitz. It has all of
the potential of a phenomenal book but I
hated reading every minute of it. . Books
like this piss me off because publishers and
editors don't spend enough time to do it
right. Why would a publisher let something this poorly written go to press when

it has so much potential? What really
bugged me about it was the way that
Tubach's perspective was written in
first person, but Rosner's was in third
person. I W1derstand that Rosner did
not want to relate to what happened at
Auschwitz and kept it at a distance by
reciting in third person, but it takes so
much power away from his point of
view. Plus, Tubach constantly, constantly talks about how he was hungry,
but not nearly as hungry as Bernie
must have been, or how it was a cold
winter, but he surely wasn't as cold as
Bernie must have been ... by doing this
he takes away the power of HIS experience. So, we have a story with SO
MUCH POWER in the story itself, but
the storyteller just diminishes it over
and over. Too bad. It'll sell though,
because of the story and the press that
it's getting.

7. I'm just about finished with ffi&
Stone Gap by Adrianna Trigiani. It's
a good summer fluff read with not a
lot of depth in plot or character but
mildly entertaining. Reads like Fannie
Flagg or Billie Letts. They'll make a
movie out of it, then sell more
books-Oprah will slap her logo on it,
sell even more books-but it will still
be summer fluff.

Univlli

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

P.~ erty of the c~~t'"'r

i[111111ll1fi ~'1 1l~I1lf1[1i11li1~i~ll~l1md,OK
M 001 111 483

Page21

Whadaya mean the newsletter is late?
By Gwen Sanford

Many of our readers
would probably like to know
why this issue is so&%*#@!
late. It was supposed to be a June/
July issue, but for lack of material to
put in it, we pushed it to July/August.
As you can see it's now just plain August. Where does the time go ........ . .
The latest snafu was my own
computer. It seems that we must be
subjected to electric power drop-outs
from our local Rural Electric, sometimes on a daily basis. Somehow, my
operating system (the wonderful
WIN98) was corrupted, which of
course shut down a few systems. No
modem, giant icons, no sound and a
choice of two or sixteen colors to
name just a few. My scanner has quit
completely.
Fortunately I'm back in business again with no lost data that I
know of. But it took awhile, and no
small amount of study to figure out ·
what to do. I'm smarter now though.
The scanner - another story.
Anyway, I'm sorry for the
delay of this issue of the newsletter
and any inconveniences it has caused.

The Board of Trustees has discussed the newsletter any number of times
over the years, and that probably won't
change. Items such as content, advertising,
mailing list, paid and unpaid subscriptions,
frequency of publication, cost of publication and mailing, submission of material,
and the number of hours it takes to edit,
publish, fold-stuff-address and mail several
hundred of them. Needless to say, it is
quite a project done with too few volunteers at a serious financial obligation to
Friends North.
Is the cost worth it? The Board
thinks it is. For some ofus the newsletter
is our only contact with the outside world,
which may seem odd, but think back to
before you were out of the closet.
We have a problem though, as I
see it. Friends North of Michigan is a
large organization with just a teeny-tiny
few who help to do the work. Sometimes,
we just feel like throwing up our hands and
saying *@#%,"&@*, or whatever. Ifno
one else is interested, why should we care!
I know this is a common problem with any
volunteer organization, but we as lgbt individuals are better than the others. I view
each of us as caring, loving and responsible spirits that the rest of the world would
do well to follow.

THERAPEUTIC
MASSAGE BY AL
'Experience our
6eautifu£ new.faciuty

There is none like it in Northern Michigan!

Alan Collard CMT
Graduate of Health Enrichment Center
Facials w/ upper body massage available
Mirage Tanning Center
1128 E. 8th St. Traverse City
941-9110
www.massagebyal.com
satisfaction auaranteed or your monq becJt .

So, how about it? We know
you're busy- we are too. But, with a
little more sharing of the work it
wouldn't take as Jong, and we would
have a lot more fun along the way.
We will be discussing the
newsletter in depth at the September
Board Meeting, and welcome any
input. Give us a call, or join us. -

Lesbian Judges
Continued from
page16
Judge Kathy Satchwell from the
Johannesburg High Court.
Satchwell seeks to have sections of the
Judges Remuneration and Conditions_
of Employment Act declared unconstitutional, as she says it prevents her
female partner from sharing in benefits available to spouses of other
judges.
Satchwell's application is being
opposed by the state while no
resistance is expected against De Vos'
adoption petition.

T•shlrts • Sweatshirts •Hats •Jackets

~

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a w . . ~ ~ $ -1'1,,,,.1
515 Wellington SL, Travme City
~ ,i1---1--~;.;.:;.~;.;.St,.

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• Bm•roidely
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• Adffltuiag Spedaliet
pm-blftoflf-ap&11111tt/.
• hi bou9t gftphit clfllgn

929~3610'
.

Networking 45° North

2001

State And National Hotlines
Department of Justice............ 800-347-4283
Gay/Lesbian National Youth ............ .
800-347-TEEN (8336)
Michigan Wellness Networks ............ .
800-872-AIDS (2437)
Triangle Hate Crime Reporting .......... .
877-7-TRIANGLE (877-787-42640)

Statewide Services
ACLU Of Michigan ........................ .
1249 Washington Blvd., Suite 209,
Detroit,
Ml
48220
Office ......................... 248-398- 7105
Help Line ........................ 800-398-4297
E-mail ................. michaclu@aol.com
WWW ........... ...... http://michigan.aclu.org/
Lansing Association of Human Rights ..... .
PO Box 18062, Lansing, MI 48826
Phone ...................... 517-332-3200
http://www.macatawa.org/-lahr
Triangle Foundation ..... .
19641 W. Seven Mile Rd., Detroit, MI
313-357-3323 ....... Fax ..... 313-537-33 79
WWW ..................... .... http://www.tri.org
OLSEN
WWW ............ www.GLSEN-Michigan.org

::===========================:::
National Services
OLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education
Network), 121 West 127th St.,,Suite 804,
New York, NY 10001.. ....... 212-727-0135
WWW ........ .......... http://www.GLSEN.org/
Gender PAC ..............New York, NY
WWW ................. .... http://www.gpac.org/
HRC (Human Rights Campaign), 919 18th
Street NW, Washington DC 20006
Ph .. 202-628-4160
FAX.. 202-347-5323
E-mai 1........................ hrc@hrc.org
WWW .......... ............. http://www.hrc.org/
IFGE (International Foundation for Gender
Education), PO Box 540229, Waltham, MA
02454-0229
Ph .. 781-899-22 l 2
FAX.. 781-899-5703
E-mai 1................... in fo@i fge. org
WWW ....................... http://www.ifge.org

NOLTF (National Gay & Lesbian Task
Force), 2320 Seventeenth St. NW,
Washington
DC
20009-2702
Ph.. 202-332-6483
FAX.. 202-332-0207
WWW ................. ..... http://www.ngtlf.org/
PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays), I IOI 14th St. NW,
Suite 1030, Washington DC 2005
Ph .. 202-638-420
Email..info@pflag.org
WWW .... ................. http://www.pflag.org/

HIV Testing Anonymous

& Confidential

Community Health Clinic (same day)
Phone .............................. 23 1-929-4448
Grand Traverse County Health Dept.
Phone .............................. 231-922-483 l
Planned Parenthood Northern Michigan
Phone .................... 800-230-PLAN (7526)

Lesbian and Gay Aging Issues Network
WWW ............. http://www.asaging.
org/lgain.html

Thomas
Judd
Care
Center
Phone .............................. 231-935-8140

Local Spiritual

Emmet County Health Dept.
Phone .............................. 231-347-6014

Circle of the Sacred Earth,
Rev. Nancy Hayward ............. 231-223-7999
Journey in Light Ministries,
Rev. Linda L. Wilson .............231-271-2529
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Grand
Traverse, Rev. Emmy Lou Belcher, 6726
Center Rd., Traverse City, Ml 49686
Home.. 231-938-9079 Office.. 231-947-3117
Unity Church, Rev. Judy Grimes,
3600 Five Mile Rd., Traverse City,
MI 49686 .......................... 231-938-9587
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of
Petoskey, PO Box 873, Petoskey,
MI 49770 ...... : ................... 231-347-8916

Local Counseling
CDRS (free substance abuse referral)
Phone .............................. 231-929-13 15
Toll-Free ........................... 800-686-0749
THIRD LEVEL Crisis Intervention Center,
I022 E. Front St., Traverse City, MI
49686 ........... 231-922-4800
Toi I-Free .................. 800-442- 7315
WWW ...... http://www.travese.net/
members/third level/
WOMAN'S RESOURCE CENTER
Phone ............................... 231-941-1210

Wellness Networks ......... 231-933-0279
Toll-Free ........................... 800-947-1160
WWW .... http://www.WellnessNetworks.org

Local Service/Social/Political
Common Voices: The Friends North Rap
Group, Call Tom ................. 231-275-6127
Friends North of Michigan, PO Box 562,
Traverse City, MI 49685-0562
Northern Michigan Help Line
Phone ............................231-946- I 804
E-mai I. ................. .info@friendsnorth.org
WWW .......... .http://www.friendsnorth.org
OLSEN, PO Box 9, Traverse City, MI
49685-0685 ........................ 231-943-5050
WWW ...... www. TraverseArea.corn/GLSEN
E-mail ............ GLSEN@TraverseArea.com
Gay Alcoholics Anonymous,
Grace
Call
Episcopal Church, Traverse City
John .............................231-922-0746 or
Hilda................................231-938-9294
WINDFIRE Gay & Lesbian Youth Support
Group... Call Third Level for location &
time ............................... 231-922-4800
Toll-Free............................ 800-442-7315
Human Rights Commission .......... 922-4447

Susan Odgers, PhD .................... 946-0331
Barbara Jones Smith, PhD............ 947-1444

LAMBDA Legal Defense & Education
Fund, 120 Wall St., Suite 1500, New York,
NY 10005 ................... ..... 212-809-8585
Fax ................................. 212-809-0055
WWW ............................................ .
http://www.thebody.com/lambda.html

Local HIVI AIDS Health
Counseling & Information

Bay Area Counseling, LLC ........... 933-4009
Susan RBreuer, PhD, Benzonia.... 882-4455

Sarah ' s Circle/Carl Anderson .995-9431

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual,
Transgendered?
Have Questions, Need Help?
Call the Northern Michigan
Help Line
231-946-1804



P,operty of the Center

Volume 15
Issue 3

FRIENDS NORTH of MICHIGAN, INC.
An association of lesbians, gays,
bisexuals, transgendered and their friends.

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A Time For Unity
By Alan Collard

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Fall
2001

Dear Friends ...
I want to take this
time to talk to you about
the importance of unity in
our community. With the
anti-gay vote in Traverse City
this November I feel we all
need to come together. The
"City Proposal l", is aimed at
taking away our rights. An anti
gay group downstate is working hard to make it legal to
basically discriminate against
Gay's, Lesbian's, Bi-sexual's,
and Transgendered person's in
the city of Traverse City.
This group is definitely unified in their cause.
They have the money to work
at getting this proposal passed.
My concern is this: are we
unified and dedicated to fight
for our rights as human beings
that just happen to have a different sexual orientation than
the American Family Association? I was . a little disappointed that more of us didn't
come to the Pride Day this
year. We all need to show support!
Last year was the first
pride day celebration I attended. Before that I was a
little apprehensive at "being
seen" at a Gay event out in
public! I thought "Oh my God,
there will be cameras and pro-:
testors!" Well guess what?
There were none! Instead I had
a great time and met new
friends!
Part of the problem as
I see it is, is that the gay community is divided into our own

ttfttt
little groups here in northern
Michigan. For years when I
would talk to patrons of the bar
about Friends North, they
would say, "Oh you don't want
to join them, they're all stuck
up!" I guess they felt since
members of Friends North didn't frequent the bar that they
were "cliquey''. Well I have
been a member for over a year
now and I have met some of the
best friends I will ever know!
Another problem is
that some of us, as I used to,
live our lives trying to make
sure others are comfortable
with our lifestyle. I used to be
closeted and was a member of a
church that denounced homosexuality. I volunteered a lot of
my time and donated a lot of
my money, trying to fit in and
cure my true feelings, and what
I believe God's plan is for me.
The day I finally left my
church, the Pastor had a sermon
on how we should vote in the
election. He had different criteria, and one of them was the
issue of homosexuality. He
stated that if a politician supported "GAY RIGHTS", we
should not support that individual. By that time my pastor
knew that I was gay, and was
trying to get me to join Exodus.
I left that day and have never
gone back!
We all need to realize
that our money and our actions
are very important. We have a
lot of power too! We pay more
taxes than most, as we have less
deductions and rights than heterosexual couples do. Stop giving your money to group's that
support "Hate Legislation". My

church supported Rev. Jerry
Farwell. I can't stand the
thought that I helped his fight
against you and I!
Please get involved!!!!
Volunteer your time, donate
money to TCCAD (Traverse
City Campaign Against Discrimination), register to vote,
and get down to the polls and
vote. Voting is easy and actually fun. Go as a group of
friends, make it a celebration!
Have a party afterwards.
For those of you who
are closeted, coming out is not
that hard! Scary yes, and emotional too! If you have good
people in your life that truly
love you, and care about you, it
will be all right! It was the best
thing I ever did in my life! I got
rid of a lot of stress, and I am
following God's plan for me!
Not prejudice persons of Earth
who have their own sexuality
questions about themselves.

Gay? Lesbian?
Bisexual?
Transgendered?
Have Questions?
Need Help?
Call the Northern
Michigan Help Line!
(231) 946-1804
For Emergency Help
(231) 922-4800
(800) 442-7315

From The President

fRJI

By Tom Kincaid

~be Missio_n of Friends North of Michigan, Inc., is to provide
social, educational and support activities and opportunities for the
gay men, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities in
Northern Michigan.
Please note: Friends North is not a dating, nor dating refe"al service.
Networking 45° North is the newsletter of Friends North of Michigan,
Inc. For information, write to Friends North, PO Box 562,
Tnverse City, MI 49685-0562.
www.friendsnortb.org
Viewpoints expressed in Networking do not necessarily represent those of the
Board of Trustees or the genen,l membership.

Friends Nord, ol Michigan, lac. , is an association of lesbians, w,.y men, bisexuals, transgendered and their friends from Northwestern Lower Michigan centered in Traverse City.
Fnends North provides social actmhes, a newsletter, an infonnation line, workshops, a web
site and a scholarship fund for financial assistance.

Friends North's &enl of Trustea is elected each Dccembe,- at the Annual Meeting.
Regular Board meetmgs are held at Grace F.piscopal Church, at the comer of Washington and
Boardman_Streets m Traverse Clly, at 6:30 pm on the 1st Tuesday of every month except July.
Eveiyone JS welcome to attend. Please contact Friends North in writing ahead of time if you
have an rtem for the agenda CUJTent mernbe,-s of the Board include:

Well, what a couple of months this has
been. In May, Friends
North held our annual High
Tea which was a resounding
success. The following
weekend we held our annual
Gay Pride Day. Even
though it rained cats, dogs
and triangles, several people
turned out and Pride was a
success. While it was raining, the committee managed
to carry on all of their
planned activities.

Tom Kincaid, Presiden, (231) 929-2919
Gwm Sanford, Vice Presiden, (231) 946-0433
Toni Poole, Secretary,
Ridtanl Por;niak, Treasurer, (231) 933-3969

&b Buck, Trustee, 7 Bowerman Rd. Mansitee, Ml 49660

Dianna Johnson, Trustee, (231) 933--0571
Joe Kaubeuw, Trustee, (23 I) 947-8402
Craig Philip Ridianl, Trustee, (23 I) 922-I 967

Alan Cc,ilanl, Trustee, (231)941-9110
David Hummel, Trustee, (231) 929-1226
The Friends North N.,..letter C-mittee is responsible for the publicaf
f
,on o
Networking 45" North.
Publisher: Gwen Sanford, GwenChris@worldnet.att.net
lldito.-: Dianna Johnsoo, Huntgoddess@aol.com
Advertising: Gwen Sanford, GwenChris@worldnet.att.net

Oa,sified Advertising and notices are run without charge. Please submit your ads in writing.

Display Advertising in Networong is available in business card siz.ed displays at a rate of $25
per space per LSSue or an annual rate of $125. Inserts and larger siz.ed ads are available; please
contact the advertismg edrtor for more information.

Contributions to Networking are welcome. Letters, essays, features, reflections, poetty
ongmal are work etc ._ should be sent to Networking 45" North, PO Box 562, Traverse City
39685-0562, or to
the publisher or editor listed above. Networking will not ~ t
material that lS . sex,st, d,smmmatory or sexually explicit. Contributors are responsible for
obtammg perm1SS10n from those v,hooe names they submit for publication. Please include
your name, address and a pltone number where you can be reached. H you would like your
contributton to be prurted anonymously, please let us know.

either

Mi

Address O,ang,s sltould be sent to the above address.

Subsaiptioos & Memberships are $15. Please send checl<s or money orders to the above
address. Complimentary subocripnons are also available to those who are unable to pay.

Distribution: . Networong is sent via bullc mail in a plain envelope to subscribers Additional
•
copies are available at select local establishments.

I want to comment
on something that took
place at Pride Day. I have
had several phone calls and
2 letters about the simulated
sex act that took place
between one of the entertainers and one of the audience members. While
Friends North does not specifically endorse or approve
of acts like this, it was done,
I hope in good clean fun.
The single most
important event to happen to
the Traverse area GLBT
conu~mnity is happening in
November. For those of us
residing in the City of Traverse City, you have the
opportunity to vote no on an
issue that would
PERMANENTLY allow
discrimination in our
community. You may have
heard of it as "Vote yes for

equal rights, not special
rights." Heck, this anti-gay
group even got signatures
from people in the GLBT
community because of the
spin that they put on their
rhetoric. If the majority of
Traverse City votes yes, the
city charter will be
amended so that sexual orientation can never be part
of the discrimination code.
An amendment similar to
this has already passed in
Royal Oak which is a city
known for its gay friendliness. Please register and
VOTE NO. For more information please call
TCCAD (Traverse City
Campaign for Discrimination) at (231 )883-1058, or
on the Web at www.
TCCAD2000.org. Remember vote NO or a year from
now if you live in Traverse
City you actually could lose
your job orlose your home
because you are gay and
you will have no legal
recourse.
Please call me if
you have any questions.
We still need vo lunteers for our committees
and would love to have you
join us.
Tom Kincaid
231/ 929-2919

-----------------------------Networking 45° North

Treasurer

Fall 200 l

;

By~~~
.J
Summer is upon us and we
have had two big events since the last
newsletter. The High Tea and Pride
Day. The High Tea was a financial success. We took in $5,150.99, which included table sponsors, ticket sales, and,
of course, the auction. After expenses
included rental of the Opera House, Dinnerware and linen rentals, and food
which came to $1664.88 it. We cleared
$3,486.11.
Pride Day was also a success
considering the bad weather. Although
this event is not meant to be a moneymaker, we try to at least break even. As
of yet all the bills for that event are not
in.
Money is coming in for the
Bike Tour and it looks like we will have
lots of bike riders again this year.
Expenses this month have been
for Insurance for the year's events, High
Tea expenses, phone bills and printing/
mailing of the newsletter. So as of June
1st we have $5,012.25 in the bank.
I'd like to thank all the sponsors
of the High Tea, Pride Day for there donations and to all those that gave many,
things for the High Tea Auction. I look
forward to seeing all of you at the Bike
Tour the last weekend in July.

Page 4

Treasurer
Report

By Richard Pozniak

Friends North had a total of
$11,753.25 deposited in June and
July. It was High Tea, Pride and
Membership money but most came
from the Bike Tour.
I wrote checks totaling
$5,000 for Pride, phone and mostly
the Bike Tour bills. This left a total
of$6,247.65 in the bank. We still
have bills, like printing, mailing
and phone to pay and no fund raisers scheduled for the rest of the
year.
So keep your fingers
crossed that we stay in the black by
the end of the year.
The Bike Tour was a great
event again this year. It seems
to get better each year.

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Are You A Friends North Member?

Join Friends North or Renew your membership today! Just $15 single or $25 for a couple.
Name:__________________Amount Enclosed:_for

Single □ , Couple □

plus_ Donation

Address: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _City: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _State:_Zip:_ _ __
E-Mail: _____________________ □ Please include me in Friends North e-mail updates.
Comments:- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - □

Check this box if you are unable to contribute the full membership amount and would like to be considered for a reduced rate or
complimantary membership.

Mail this form and your check to Friends North Inc.

□

PO Box 562

□

Traverse City, MI 49685-0562

□

Attn: Memberships

Friends North's membership list is strictly confidential, and mail fi·om Friends North is sent in plain envelops.

------------------------------------------------------J

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

Page5

Minutes of the June S, 2001 Board Meeting
Held at Grace Episcopal Church Basement,
341 Washington Street, Traverse City, Ml
Prepared by Toni Poole, Secretary
Board Members Present: Tom Kincaid, Gwen Sanford, Richard
Posniak, Dianna Johnson, Toni Poole, Craig Richard, Bob Buck,
Alan Collard, Joe Kaubenaw

by June 13 th .
Tom brought up phone bill.
Total monthly bill is $90.41. Breakdown is $47/mo for
phone bill, $30/mo for yellow page ad, and $13.41/mo for
Others Present: Nancy and Rose
AT&T bill.
- All discussed options to reduce bill. Thoughts: disconnect
Board Members Absent: Al Kitzmiller
phone completely, eliminate the 800 number. Much discussion ensued.
- Motion to disconnect 800 line by Tom, seconded by Joe,
Meeting called to order at 6:33PM
carried unanimously.
- Motion to disconnect phone completely by Bob, seconded
• Richard gave a Treasurer's Report. He stated $5368.25 in
by Alan. More discussion ensued. Motions fails 4-5.
bank as of June 5th. Richard reported $3486.11 made from
- Tom suggests forming a committee to investigate phone
High Tea.
problems, options, and needs. Suggests Toni as chair of
• Minutes of the May 1st board meeting were reviewed.
committee.
- Motion by Joe to accept the minutes, seconded by Toni, _ Motion to create Phone Line Committee chaired by Toni
carried unanimously.
by Bob, seconded by Joe, carried unanimously.
• Tom talked about success of High Tea. Toni asked why
• Tom brought up MOOT cleanup.
there wasn't more entertainment as expected. Discussion
- Next dates are July 14th-July 22ndtabled.
- Craig volunteered to head up project.
• Joe talked briefly about Pride. No final numbers yet.
- Established date/time of July 1~ at 6:30PM to meet at old
Enough t-shirts were sold to break even on them.
theater in Acme for all who wish to participate.
• Nancy gave Bike Tour report.
• Craig brought up subject of newsletter subscriptions. Sug- 43 riders so far registered.
gests we act on expired subscriptions.
- A possible new caterer has been located - "Hungry Tummy". _ Tom suggested appointing Craig chair of a newly formed .
Next Bike Tour meeting is June 19th at 7:00PM on the land.
Newsletter Committee, with initial goal of weeding out ex- A contest is being held for a logo to go on the t-shirts.
pired subscriptions.
- Rose notes that the current numbers of rider registrations will _ Dianna suggested we do not need a committee to do this.
allow event to break even.
Much discussion ensued.
- Gwen asked about cost breakdowns - Nancy will get info.
- Motion to form a Newsletter Committee chaired by Craig
- Tom asked if volunteers are needed. Nancy replied in the
by Tom, seconded by Joe. Motion fails 4-5.
affirmative.
- More discussion ensued.
- Alan brought up subject of possible massages at Bike Tour.
- Motion to insert newsletters with warning notice to unNancy indicated that much thought was given to it, and
paid subscribers by Bob, seconded by Dianna. More disquestioned if it might raise problems if other vendors
cussion ensued. Motion amended to insert newsletter of
wished to provide services in the future. Much discussion
only subscribers unpaid from 1997 back. Carried
ensued. More thought will be given to it.
unanimously.
• Craig talked about a fictional story he submitted to each
- Craig asked ifwe are printing too many newsletters. Tom
board member in advance of the meeting, and requested
will investigate and come up with solid number to print.
feedback on whether it is appropriate to include in newslet- • Tom informed all that Joanne Ewing has recently had a heart
ter.
attack.
- Much discussion ensued. General feeling was that it was not
Motion by Tom to spend $50 for flowers for her, secappropriate due to some adult oriented content.
onded by Dianna, carried unanimously.
- Motion to reject request to put story in newsletter by
Toni, seconded by Alan. Motion passes 8-1.
Moved to adjourn at
• Dianna gave newsletter report.
8:17PM by Joe, seconded
- Only received one article to date.
by Alan, carried unani- Discussion ensued on timing, pushing deadline back, etc.
mously.
- Alan suggested going to 4 newsletters per year but distributing over a wider area of the state.
- Diane indicated she would like to see all articles submitted
•
-

Networking 45° North

Page6

Fall 2001

Minutes of the August 7, 2001 Board Meeting
Reid at Grace Episcopal Church Basement,
341 Washington Street, Traverse City, Ml
Prepared by Toni Poole, Secretary
Board Members Present: Tom Kincaid, Gwen Sanford, Richard Posniak, Toni Poole, Craig Richard, Bob
Buck, Alan Collard, Joe Kaubenaw
Others Present: Paul Heaton, David Hummel, Rose,
Mary Ann

•
•

Board Members Absent: Al Kitzmiller, Dianna Johnson
Meeting called to order at 6:31PM

•

•

•

•

•

•

Minutes of the June 5th board meeting were reviewed.
- Motion by Joe to accept the minutes, seconded by Richard, carried unanimously.
Richard gave a Treasurer's Report. He stated $6247.65 in
bank as of August ?.
Paul Heaton talked about and gave an update on the Traverse
City Campaign Against Discrimination (TCCAD).
City commission denounced Proposal I by a 5-2 vote at the
August <r1' meeting.
NGL TF .h as awarded a $5000 matching grant to TCCAD.
Paul asks Friends North for a donation. Discussion ensued.
Paul asks the board to commit to a phone bank/canvass one
evening.
Mary Ann from Andy Mitchell's (CPA) office talked about
the processing ofFN's 501C3 application.
Mary Ann talked about the liability of the current FN accounts, as several people that aren't on the board are authorized signers on the accounts.
Mary Ann discussed the Friends North of Michigan Inc.
name, and how it would need to be registered with the State
of Michigan by filing a Michigan Annual Return. She presented an MAR form for the FN officers to sign to this end.
Mary Ann indicated the need for FN to obtain a Federal
ID#. She will handle this.
Mary Ann indicated the need for the Treasurer to create an
anticipated budget for the upcoming year.
Mary Ann talked about the possibility of registering as a
non-profit organization using a 501 C3 designation versus
50 l C7. She says 501 C3 is strictly for a charitable organization, while 501C7 isn't. lfFN was a 50IC7 organization,
donations would not be tax deductible for the contributor.
Much discussion ensued on this. A number of people suggested we look at other organizations of a similar nature to
FN and see how they attained 50 l C3 status.
Mary Ann indicated the need to create bylaws and formally
adopt them. These can be based on previous bylaws and

•

•

•

•

modified. Gwen and Toni will handle the modification of
these.
Rose gave brief Bike Tour overview report. She indicated
one rider required an ambulance, and one rider was verbally
harassed. She will give more information next meeting.
Joe gave a Pride wrap-up. Pride paid for itself.
A Pride committee separate and apart from Friends North
has formed. Some discussion ensued around the Pride event
not being driven by FN. This committee suggested that
$2500 be raised prior to next years event to pay for the upfront costs.
Tom brought up subject of phone expenses. Discussed cost
versus usage. In the previous month, FN received 17 calls
on the line.
Richard brought up the subject of Thank You notes. He has
many, and indicates they can be used for any purpose.
Tom brought up the subject of the MDOT pickup. Asks why
it didn't happen as planned.
Craig indicated that an article requesting volunteers dido 't
make it in the newsletter, so nobody was available. Craig
says the next date will definitely be met.
Tom brought up the newsletter currently at Copyworld.
Talked about newsletter content, indicating that many of the
articles are out of date now that the newsletter has been
pushed back.
Richard suggested we get a newsletter out on time regardless of how much content we have. He indicates 4 pages are
better than nothing.
Much discussion ensued around only putting out 4 newsletters per year to reduce the amount of effort needed in a volunteer organization.
Motion by Richard to publish only 4 newsletters per
year versus the current 6 by Richard, seconded by Toni,
carried unanimously.
All present agreed that the current newsletter should be in
the mail by September 151.
The subject of a potential TCCAD donation was brought up.
All present agreed that a donation was acceptable. Discussion of how much ensued.
Motion by Gwen to donate $300 to the Traverse City
Campaign Against Discrimination, seconded by Joe, carried unanimously.
Current and absent board members were discussed briefly.
David Hummel expressed a desire to be on the board.
Motion by Craig to appoint David Hummel to the
Friends North board, seconded by Richard, carried
unanimously.

Moved to adjourn at 8:50PM by Toni, seconded by Joe,
carried unanimously.

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

Page7

Announcements

Excerpt from Newsweek's
A_ugust 1st cover story,
"Scouts Divided"

Hey,hey,hey! ! !
Don't forget about the monthly
potluck dinner held the fourth
Thursday of every month. This
purely social get-together starts at
6:30 PM in the cafeteria of Grace
Episcopal Church.

Nt._th

Friends
Fall Bik~ -,._\
October 14,2001
12Nto4P \
@

Have you had a recent addition to your family? Did you and
your partner just get hitched?
Would you like to announcement
an engagement but your town
paper won't publish it? Send us
your announcements at
huntgoddess@aol.com

PFLAG MONTHLY
MEETINGS
Parents, Family, and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays (and Bisexual
& Transgendered people) meet on
the third Wednesday of every
month at 7 :00PM. Meeting
location is Third Level Crisis
Center at 1022 East Front St.(enter
from the alley, third building
from Burger King). Program var- ·
ies each month.
For more information, email
joanpw@coslink.net.

ll

Sable's
Warming Rut
in beautiful
Suttons Bay, Ml
Bring a dessert
to pass•
Beverages
Probided
-Join UsIt's way cool!
Needmore
information?
Call
(231) 946-1804
or929-2919

-- GREAT poll numbers -- keep
on coming out, everyone! It's
making a difference! - Sara
The Texas [Boy Scouts] leadership may have misjudged a cultural climate that is now more like
"Dawson's Creek" than
"Mayberry R.F.D." For the first
time in 20 years, Gallup last
month reported that the majority
of Americans consider homosexuality "an acceptable alternative
lifestyle." Polls show that more
Americans today than ever before
know someone gay. For them, the
formal scouting position has
caused excruciating conflicts.
Sara Boesser-bsara.alaska@gci.net

SIDETRAXX
.ACTIVITIES
Sunday Night
Movie Nite 7:30 pm showing
new releases and old favorites.
Wednesday, Friday and
Saturday Nights
(Starting in October
for the Winter)
Come on down and enjoy great
dance music spun by your
favorite DJ's Mike and Fred.

TM oomfortobk gathering place for p,uls and c.·wpks.

935 T 1666

Open7 Days

(SIOI: T~4~~J
Open7days
T 520 Franklin T Traverse

City, MI 49686

T

David Schulz & Jim Walker
212 Part Sheet, Bellai.e, Michigaa 49615
~545-0780 • (616) SlJ-6077

Networking 45° North

Page8

Fall 2001

Friends North 2001 Bike Tour
History for this year -Ya shoulda been there!

The 2001 Friends North Bike Tour - the land was wonderful, bike riding excellent, dinners Friday and
Saturday were delicious, a little bit of rain on Saturday night after dinner, canoeing on Sunday and then playing at the beach late Sunday morning. All with friends and family. If you have never attended a bike tour,
then you are missing out on a fabulous weekend. Any one of the major components by themselves is a good
time - to combine them all makes it a special weekend. Jon W. designed our t-shirts and won a free weekend,
Kirk did his usual great job of getting donations, Gretchen handled a bunch of little details, Rose crunched
numbers, Nancy kept Rose sane and organized, Hilda and Sheryl kept everyone fed & settled, all the bikers
and campers had a good time and helped build our totem. We have a great bunch of volunteers and sag team
and everyone works hard to make a good time. Next year we start in a new decade for OUR BIKE TOUR
and we believe that this is how everyone should look at it, this is our event, our tour and it only gets better with
everyone participating. So, we hope to see you next year!
We owe a special thanks to the Bike Tour Committee for their long hours of planning,
bard work and tremendous dedication to make this main event come together.. - pub.

and they were both naked as
jaybirds.
Now, however you feel about this
type of behavior, it is against the
law so please pay attention and
get a room.

LISTEN UP
PEOPLE!
This goes out as a word of
caution to everyone in the gay
community. Please let any of
your friends or acquaintances
know that this IS VERY
SERIOUS.
On Friday I was interviewed by
Channel 7 and 4 about the rumor
that the Grand Traverse County
Sheriffs Department will be
stepping up all undercover patrols

at the parks where gay men like to
frequent for sex specifically in the
area of Cass Road.
I spoke to Sheriff Scott Fewins that
same day and was told basically the
same thing.
Two uniformed officers had arrested two men in the full act of
( well you use your imagination),

Please note! When gay men are
frequenting a location, people
notice. Some of these people will
call the police. The police will
respond, and if you're caught
with your pants down - the big
door (at the jail) will go "clang"
again.- pub. & retired pol. off.

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

RighTea
2001
By Sheryl Layton
Every Spring for the last
nine years, the glbt community
has gathered at the Opera
House for a somewhat formal
afternoon tea. In the past two
years, there has also been a live
and silent auction included with
the event as a major fundraiser.
It's a social event where we share
good food and fun entertainment.
This year's event raised almost
$3,500. The committee of 8, Sheryl
Layton, Dianna Johnson, Charles Egeler,
Cheryl Roulston, Gwen Sanford, Brenda
Bartz, Deb Medlin, Tom Kincaid &
Richard Pozniak started meeting in January to begin preparing for HighTea 2001.
A five course meal was served
consisting of tea nuts, scones, finger
sandwiches, salad and a knockout dessert called "Menage a Trois." The tea
nuts are a repeat performance every
year; pecans rolled in a brown sugar concoction and roasted in butter. The
scones' recipe came from our Tea hostess a - - - - - - - •
years
The dessert this
MiZucco; year was knockout. We called
have
cherit Menage a
alTrois because it
and are had 3 different

few
ago,
chelle
they
dried
ries,
monds

Page9

serve. It's hard to imagine this being something special, but if you were there, then
you know what we're talking about with
this one. It has cream cheese and lots of
aged Stilton that Chef Charles gets from
Toledo {don't ask me why it comes from
there, ask him). We dice poached pears
and toss it all together and spread it on
wheat-nut bread. Chef Charles and I named
the salad "rainbow" because it was neatly
arranged with matchstick cut colorful
vegetables of zucchini, yellow squash, radish and carrots and drizzled over with raspberry vinaigrette. English Breakfast and
Earl Grey Tea was served with the first 4
courses and Red current tea was served
with the dessert.
The dessert this year was knockout. We called it Menage a Trois because
it had· 3 different chocolates. We plated
each dessert individually {we made 150 of
these babies). We
started with a rich, Richard Pozniak
sweet circle of
recruited 5 bf his
chocolate sauce,
friends, choreoplaced a chewy
sugar wafer in the graphed and
center of the plate starred in the
and piped a rosette
"Half Monty."
of double ch~
late mouse on top
of the cookie. We placed a handmade raspberry truffle on top of the mousse and then
got funky and squirted plain old Hershey's
syrup and raspberry coulees {raspberry puree) all over the place. We balanced it with
a triangle of sugar wafer poked in the side
of the mousse and finished it"offwith a
sprinkle of cocoa powder. It was a work of
art. Nice work kitchen team.
Princess Laura emceed the tea this
year. She spiced up the show with her red
& black saloon dress and rainbow under-

--------

shirt. She hostessed a gay trivia game
and she also auctioneered our live auction. She added a lot oflaughs and color
to our event. Thank you Princess Laura.
Richard Pozniak recruited 5 of
his friends, choreographed and starred in
the "Half Monty." We had a lot of fun
with that. They danced and took off half
of it all to the tune of "Heard it through
the Grapevine." It was wonderfully enjoyable and fun.
There was a silent auction again
this year with over 30 items that were
donated from members and businesses of
the community. Support those businesses and business owners that support
our community! Thank you Charles
Egeler at Chef Charles, Princess Laura
and Capt. Dave at Nauticat Catamaran
Gay Cruises, Sheryl Layton at Charles
Layton Chocolates, Allan Collard, C.M.
T., Victoria, Rosalyn Tyge at Tyge Tile,
Mike Negel Massage, Dave Rinckey,
Gwen Sanford and Carol Larson, Borders Books, Barker Creek Nursery,
Brenda Bartz, Todd McMillen at The
Instant Framer, Sheila McRae, Chateau Grand Traverse, Kristi Brubaker
at Leelanau Interiors, Erika, Yola and
Petra at the Silver Swan, Wild Birds
Unlimited, Krystal Miller's Handmade Handbags, Esther Parzych, Julie
Lahaye at Fabulous Nails, Marge Phillips, Ultimate Fitness, Joe Breech and
Paula Gale at Complete Body Work &
Massage Therapy, Candle Factory,
Jen Tees, Mirage Tanning Salon, Richard Pozniak, Kirk Day at Kirk Day Design, David Schultz and Jim Walker at
the Bellaire Bed & Breakfast, Fred
Farage and Carl Strebel, The Bellaire
Inn and Restaurant.
Continued page 10, see High Tea

chocolates.
brushed with cream when they come out
of the oven, which makes them rich and
moist. The scones are served with madefrom-scratch lemon curd and whipped
butter. This year we made chicken salad
from fresh chicken breasts, celery, ranch
dressing and our secret ingredient-diced
tart apples and lots of fresh chopped tarragon, dill, thyme and basil and scooped
a luscious fresh croissant. The other finger sandwich is Stilton and pear con-

Char P. Kirchner,

CPA~ MSA

Tax Returns - Confidential & Discreet
Stngle T a ~ -U. ,our flllng stotw to~ adoanlage
Un-Married Coupla - Tau odwn"'1.fe of ull pour options
Appoinlmenls in W i ~ « 7,_,_,_aq,

P. 0. Box 1040
IWllomsburs Ml 49690-Jo«>

(61612-67-5818

Page IO

Fall 2001

Networking 45° North

High Tea 2001
Continued from page 9

***In Massachusetts, a 229 percent increase, from 5,194 to 17,099 same-sex partner households.

Thank you to our table sponsors:
Lisa Aragona-King at Matrix Financial
Group, Copy World, Jen Tees, Kim
Gower at Business Clarity, Barker Creek
Nursery, Andrew L. Mitchell and Associates, Linda Zajac & Tom Elliot at Century
2 I, Charles Egeler and his crew at Chef
Charles, Dr. Suzette Corbit, D.C., Joe
Breech and Paula Gale at Complete Body
Work & Massage Therapy, and Todd
McMillen at Instant Framer. The table
sponsors make it possible for our guests
to enjoy the High Tea with china and linens. It's so important for us to celebrate
our community with class. We deserve it.

***In Montana, a 326 percoot increase,
from 286 to 1,218 same-sex partner households.

Thanks to all who contributed, to all who volunteered
and especially those whose hard
work on the committee made it
all possible. Oh, and of course to
our perennial Tea Captain. Tom
Kincaid. Well Done! High Tea
2001!

The TC Campaign Against
Discrimination is delighted to share
two pieces of ggod news with out supporters and volunteers.

***In Nebraska, a 413 percent increase,
from 455 to 2,332 same-sex partner households.
***In Nevada a 711 percent increase, from
613 to 4,973 same-sex partner households.

- The Traverse City Commission
voted to denounce Proposal 1 and encourage people to vote no.

Released .>n June 13:

-The National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force announced that it will award
TCCAD $5000 toward our efforts to
defeat Proposal 1.

***In Delaware, a 781 percent increase,
from 21Zto 1,868 same-sex partner households.

It is important to note that we
need to match this grant with local
dollars, and encourage you to help
identify people who might be able to
write a $500 or $1000 check.

***In Vermont, a 422 percent increase,
from 3'0 to 1,933 same-sex partner households.

***********************************
******#***************
Foundelin 1973, NGLTFworks to eliminate prrjudice, violence and iryustice
against gay lesbian, bisexual and transgen'~
dered people at the local, state and national
level. As pat ofa broader social justice
movement for freedom, justice and equality,
NGLTF is creating a world that respects
Same-Sex Couples
and celebrates f.1e diversity ofhuman exContinued from page 3
pression and ideuity where all people may
~ ~ - ~ - - - - - - - - - " " " " " - ' fully participate h society.
***In Indiana, a 428 percent increase,
To reach the NGL1F Communications Defrom 1,935 to 10,219 same-sex partner
partment at NGLTF,please call David
households.
Elliot, Communicati01s Director, at
202-332-6483 x3303 llt" pager
***In Louisiana, a 562 percent increase,
800-757-6476 or email ielliot@ngltf.org.
from I ,33 I to 8,808 same-sex partner
households.
"'

,~-

/.Y

,,._

Linda Hasse, PHD
Precision Hair Design

Located in

Hair Quarters
509 S. Union Traverse City, Ml

922~504

NGTLF
Awards TCCAD
$5,000 Grant

It is also important to note
that this grant comes because the
NGTLF believes we are running a
very organized campaign that has a
good chance of winning.. .if we continue to focus on talking directly to
voters, as has been our strategy.
Based on our review of records from other cmapaigns, we know
that our opponets will receive many
thousands of dollars from the AFA
and other organizations in the last days
of the campaign, so this seed money is
very important to our success.
Thanks for your assistance in helping
us match the grant.

ll.lRll tv1- DAY DLll(iN
Q.J~TOt.1 INT612..IOR Db..61<:;N

~TRIT~t.~
??l-88?-6422
P.O.
6422

e,ox

TR.AV'b12..~ QTY. Ml 49696

~-MAIL il.RllDAYD~@AOLCOM

/
Networking 45° North

Prop£r.:y of the C -,nt::.r
Fall 2001

NGTLF
Awards TCCAD
$5,000 Grant

the campaigns that are willing to do the
critical work of building a list of gay and
pro-gay voters who we can then tum out to
vote in every election. This 'voter I.D.' work
is essential to win elections."

NGLTF Announces Grants to Help
Local Communities Fight AntiGay Ballot Measures

Jean noted that since 1998, 19 GLBTrelated measures have been voted on in the
United States. Only in five of the 19 elections have GLBT activists prevailed. "In
both Oregon and in Traverse City, local
leaders have made the extraordinary commitment to running strong campaigns and
doing the on-the-ground organizing that is
so often neglected," Jean said.

MEDIA CONTACT:
David Elliot, Communications Director
delliot@ngltf.org
202-332-6483, ext. 3303
Pager: 800-757-6476

The National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force today announced its first two grants
to local communities facing ballot initiatives that threaten the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. NGLTF
announced it will award $20,000 to Basic
Rights Oregon and $5,000 to Traverse
City Campaign Against Discrimination.
Oregon, which has experienced 33
GLBT-related ballot measures since 1988
on the local and state level, is now facing
a potential statewide effort in 2002 to ban
the positive or neutral mention of homosexuality in public schools. Traverse City
is voting this November on a proposed
city charter amendment that would ban
the enactment of any nondiscrimination
law covering gay, lesbian or bisexual people. Two other Michigan cities - Kalamazoo and Huntington Woods - also face
anti-GLBT ballot measures this November.

NGL TF expects to announce an additional $75,000 in local grants later this
year. The Task Force is the only national
organization that provides electoral training on an ongoing basis in how to defeat
anti-GLBT ballot initiatives.
"This grant money will help our state and
local partners work to defeat measures
that threaten our communities," said
NGL TF Executive Director Lorri L. Jean.
"We are particularly committed to helping

"This grant makes it possible for us to get an
early start in our campaign," said Roey
Thorpe, executive director of Basic Rights
Oregon. "The right-wing assault in Oregon
has implications for the entire nation, and
we are committed to defeating this assault
again this year. NGL TF has given us many
kinds of support over the years, including
technical assistance and training. We are
thrilled to be recognized in this way, and
grateful for NGL TF's vision and understanding of the importance of this work."
"We plan to use NGLTFs gift to solicit
matching funds from local donors," said
Bonnie Deigh, co-chair of the Traverse City
Campaign Against Discrimination.
NGL TFs belief in our ultimate success at
the polls assures our grassroots supporters
that their individual contributions will be
money well spent. We deeply appreciate
NGLTF's great vote of confidence."

To contribute or volunteer for Basic Rights
Oregon, call 503-222-6151, email
roey@basicrights.org or visit www.
basicrights.org.

To contribute or volunteer for Traverse City
Campaign Against Discrimination, call 231883-1058, email info@tccad2000.org or
visit www.tccad2000.org.

To read NGLTF's Rethinking Elections: An
Op-Ed Series on Critical Electoral Battles
Facing GLBT Communities, please visit
www.ngllf.org/library/rethink.htm.

Page 11

The National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force has worked to eliminate
prejudice, violence and injustice
against gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender people at the local, state
and national level since its inception
in 1973. As part ofa broader social
justice movement for freedom, justice
and equality, NGLTF is creating a
world that
respects and celebrates
the diversity ofhuman expression and
identity where all people may fully
participate in society.

Networking 45° North

Page 12

Fall 2001

Transgender
Corner
OPINION I Lesbian Notions
Are Transsexual Women
"Real" Women? Yes.
by Paula Martinac
April 17, 2001
Are transsexual women "real"
women? It's a tedious question that
male-to-female transsexuals often run
up against when they're open and
honest about their personal history.
But the life experiences of many
MTFs make them more aware of how
gender roles and sexism work than a
lot of so-called "real" women.
I've never met a transsexual woman
who didn't have a feminist
consciousness. I'm sure there are
some, but it makes perfect sense that
many trans-women would be attracted
to feminism as a philosophy. After all,
feminism by definition seeks to break
down the barriers society has set up
based on gender.
It's infuriating, then, that some feminists and lesbians continue to question
the "womanhood" ofMTFs. I support
the concept of "women-only space,"
but I'm concerned that this legitimate
policy is sometimes used to discriminate against trans-women.
The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, for example, still maintains a
policy of trans-exclusion that sounds
eerily like the "don't ask, don't tell"

policy of the U.S. military. An official
festival handout states, "No womon's
gender will be questioned on the land."
However, the flyer goes on, the festival
has the right to deny admission "to individuals who self-declare as male-tofemale transsexuals." In theory, one of
Fred Phelps's daughters could attend
Michigan, while an open feminist
trans-woman could not.
In another galling example, a women's
rape crisis center in British Columbia
recently refused to allow Kimberly
Nixon, a transsexual woman, to train as a
peer counselor. The staff assumed she
wouldn't understand violence against
women because she was born male. According to a center spokesperson, Nixon
could not possibly have faced the unique
mix of social, psychological, and biological factors that "shape women's
experiences and ... the world's perception
ofus."
But, in fact, the experience of many
transsexual women turns the meaning of
being "born" female or male upside
down. Many MTFs talk about knowing
they were "female" from a very young
age. "Growing up," Nixon told a reporter for Canadian Press, "I had the
sense and burden of being female and
the burden of being aware of ... all the
issues women deal with."
The exclusionary policies that feminist
and lesbian groups institute toward
transsexual women rest on two false
premises. First of all, because the world
once viewed MTFs as boys and men, it's
assumed that they enjoyed male privilege. Yet the opposite may actually be
true, given the many stories transsexual

women tell about the intense gender oppression they experienced before surgery.
According to Australian trans-feminist
Julie Peters, transgender male youth tend
to be regarded "as feminine or different
boys and are denied entry into male
power structures; they are vilified, ostracized, and bashed." Misunderstood or
rejected by their families, they sometimes take to the streets, where they're at
high risk for drugs and prostitution and
often learn early on about sexual violence, just like many girls do.
The second false premise is that only
"real" women can fully comprehend
female oppression. But what about the
"real" women who think feminism has
nothing to do with their lives? And don't
forget the "women-born women" who
actively oppose abortion rights, or who
accept their church's dictate that wives
submit to their husbands, or who voted
for George W. Bush.
Now compare those "real" women with
trans-activist Riki Wilchins, Executive
Director of GenderPAC. In a recent editorial, Wilchins called on activists to
build "a broad-based and inclusive national movement for gender rights."
Gender, Wilchins states, is a basic human right that unites everyone from "a
boy-dyke with buzz-cut blue hair" to "an
FTM fired for transitioning on the job"
to "a soccer mom banging her head on
the glass ceiling" to "a gay man genderbashed ... because some bigot thinks homosexuals are unmanly."
We can learn a lot from reading the work
Continued on page 15, see "Real Women"

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2001
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2

4

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9

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16

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23

25

24
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30

7

12LAMBDAAA
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13

14

15
LAMBDAAA
11:00 AM @ Grace

20
19LAMBDAAA
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PFLAG 7:00 PM
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Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P

21

22
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28

29
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8
LAMBDAAA
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Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P
18

17

6

FN Board Mtg.
6:30PM@
Friends U.P. North
Grace Episcopal Perry Hotel @ 7:00P
11

10

5LAMBDAAA
S:JO fM @ Grace

26LAMBDAAA
5:JOPM@Gme

27

Potluck Social
6:30PM@
Friends U.P. North
Grace
Episcopal
Perry Hotel@ 7:00P

0~2001
2

1
Windfire

7

FN Board Mtg.
6:30PM@
Grace Episcopal

9

8

3

4

5

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5:30 PM @ Grace

LAMBDAAA
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Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel@ 7:00P

10

11

12

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5:30 PM @ Grace

Windfire

6

Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P

14
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Bahl.e's Warming Hut 12-4 pm

21

16

15
Windfire

23

22

18
17LAMBDAAA
5:30 PM @ Grace
PFLAG 7:00 PM
@ Third Level
Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel@ 7:00P

19

24

26

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Potluck Social
6:30PM@
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Grace
Episcopal
Perry Hotel@7:00P

Windfire

---

28

29

30
Windfire

25 ~

31
LAMBDAAA
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Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P

20
LAMBDAAA
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27
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~2001
1

2

3
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11:00 AM@ Grace

4

5

6

7

8

9

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11 :00 AM @ Grace

15

16

17
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6:30PM@
Friends U.P. North
Grace Episcopal Perry Hotel @ 7:00P
13

12

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5:30 PM @ Grace

Windfire

Friends U .P. North
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P
18

19

20

22 21LAMBDAAA
5;30 PM @ Grace
Potluck Social
PFLAG 7:00 PM
6:30PM@
@ Third Level
Grace
Episcopal
Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P

23

27

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30

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25

26
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Friends U.P. North
Perry Hotel @ 7:00P

29

1
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ANNUAL
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31
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Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

The Creation
Mythos
As It Was Written In
The Atlantean Texts
By James Amidon
In The Beginning
Was The Spirit of All
That Was, Is, or Will Be.
And The Spirit Stirred
For It Sensed Its Entirety
And In Its Entirety Was
All That Is.
Yet,
It Felt Incomplete.
It Had No Perception
Beyond "Self,"
No Concept of"Others,"
No "Past,"
No "Present,"
No "Future."
IT,
WAS,
"Alone."
So Moved, The Spirit "Spoke"
"I Have None But Self
No Perceptions Beyond Self
Though I Am The "Finality"
I Am Unfinished
Who Am I?
What Am I?
Why AmI?
Where and When
AmI?

Ontuix21·
·
t - ..

-----

Page 13

Why Does This Move Me
To Ponder These Questions?
The
"Answer"
Grows Clear.
Only by Multiplying "Self'
Can I Know Myself
Only By Perceiving from
Different Points of Awareness,
From The Awareness of"Others"
Shall I Know
My Extent.
And By Multiplying "Self'
Shall I Become More Complete
By Becoming Not "Self," But
By Becoming "Other Selves"
Do I Move Toward Completion
Yea From My Being Shall
Come "The Multiverse,"
From My "Spirit" The Power
To Actualize all Concepts,
From My "Will" The Foundations
Upon Which To Build,
From My "Love" The Power
To Nurture and Sustain
"All That Is."
Thus in The Beginning
Were "Thought" and "Deed" As
One.
From This Came The Great
Explosion of Creation,
Concept and Deed Building
Upon Each Other Exponentially,
"Infinity" Contained
"Infinity" Unleashed.
Thus Came to Be The Multiverse.

Tom Elliott

~..o

Linda Zajac --

_J

t'...Jivily

Ever "Growing"
Ever "Changing"
Ever "Becoming"
Ever "Aware"
Ever ''Now"
Yea "Realities" Without
"End."
Realities Awash in a
Sea oflnfinite "Love,"
Ever Bathed in the
After glow of the
"Original" Thought
That
Birthed
Creation.
Thus "It" Was Written.

James Amidon offered his poem
as "filler" for our newsletter. I
believe this qualifies as much
more. Thank you Jim. -Pub.

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---------------------------------.-iiNetworking 45° North

Fall 2001

ACLU Denounces
Proposed Amendment

"This amendment is
the legal equivalent of
a nuclear bomb ..... "
ACLU Denounces Proposed
Amendment to US Constitution That Would Invalidate
All Laws Recognizing Gay
Families
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 11, 2001
WASIIlNGTON - Saying it
would deprive millions of families of their most fundamental
rights, the American Civil Liberties Union today denounced a
new proposal to amend the U.S.
Constitution as an unwarranted
attempt to limit liberty in the
United States.
"With only a few exceptions,
most of the anti-gay attacks in
Congress are the legal equivalent
of sticks and stones," said Christopher E. Anders, an ACLU
Legislative Counsel. "This
amendment is the legal
equivalent of a nuclear bomb. It
will wipe out every single law
protecting gay and lesbian
families and other un.rnarried
couples. "
The amendment will be intro-

duced tomorrow at a Washington
news conference. The ACLU said
the new proposal would deprive
the families of lesbians and gay
men - and all other unmarried
couples - of all legal protections
for their relationships by overriding any federal or state constitutional protections and federal,
state and local laws.
The ACLU said that the impact of
the amendment would be extremely harmful. Specifically, the
amendment would invalidate all
state and local domestic partnership laws, including those in at
least eight states and in more than
100 counties, cities and towns
across the country. "The extreme
measure would even prohibit state
and local governments from making their own decisions on providing benefits to their employees,"
Anders said.
During last year's presidential
campaign, Vice President Dick
Cheney explicitly said that
"people should be free to enter
into any kind of relationship they
want to enter into." He added:
"different states are likely to come
to different conclusions, and that's
appropriate. I don't think there
should necessarily be a federal
policy in this area."
The ACLU said the proposed
amendment would undermine
state adoption, foster care and

Page 14

kinship care laws. In many states,
the ACLU said, unmarried persons - including unmarried relatives, heterosexual couples, gay
and lesbian couples and even unrelated clergy members - have the
same rights as married persons to
jointly adopt or provide
foster care or kinship care.
The proposed amendment would
also reverse the tradition of protecting - not harming - individual
liberty through constitutional
amendments and of allowing states
to adopt stronger civil rights protections.
"The few amendments to the Constitution that have been adopted in
the last 200 years are the source of
most of the Constitution's protections for individual liberty rights,"
Anders said. "The proposed
amendment, by contrast, would
deny all protection for the most
personal decisions made by millions of families."
An ACLU letter to the House and
Senate on the proposed amendment can be found at: http://www.
aclu.org/congress/10711 Ola.html

Eric Ferrero, Public Education
Director The American Civil
Liberties Union Lesbian and Gay
Rights Project/AIDS Project
125 Broad St., 18th Floor
New York, NY 10004-2400
P: 212-549-2568; F: 212-549-2650

The above article was taken
from an On-Line Newsletter
published by Sara Boesser.
<bsara.alaska@cgi.net>

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

"Real Women"
Cont. from page 12

But, in fact, Brevard has a strong feminist
sensibility. After transitioning, she slowly
came to realize that the role she envisioned or herself as a Donna Reed-style
wife was too limited. Instead of clinging
to the belief that "a good woman must be
docile and long suffering" and invariably
attached to a man, she recognized that she
could be happily fulfilled as an independent woman.

The liberation of her mind,
Brevard says, took much
longer than the physical
reconstruction of her body.
of cutting-edge activists like Wilch ins.
But even older trans-women, who transitioned long before the founding of the
National Organization for Women or the
riots at the Stonewall Inn, have gone
through their own transformative process
and come out as feminists.
In an engaging new memoir called The
Woman I Was Not Born to Be, Aleshia
Brevard, a former drag performer and actor, describes her own personal journey.
Glancing through the book's photos of
Brevard boasting long, painted nails and a
cinched-in, hourglass figure, you might be
tempted to rehash the old feminist complaint that MTFs simply reinforce gender
stereotypes rather than break them down.

**************************

SERVICE WITH A SNEER
Meijer Employee Insults Transexual

Paula Martinac is the author of seven
books, including The Queerest
Places: A Guide to Gay and Lesbian
Historic Sites. She can be reached
care of this publication or at LNcolumn@aoI.com.

(Okemos) While shopping at the
Okemos Meijer store, Michigan's most
prominent transsexual activist and her
friend were met with a lewd and offensive slur instead of friendly service.

Gentle Chiropractic
Massage Therapy
Wellness Education
Stress Reduction

Dr. Suzette Corbit, D.C.
!1l't'

TRIANGLE FOUNDATION
RELEASE:
For immediate release: Contact: Sean
Kosofsky
August 13, 2001 (313) 537-3323

Get In Touch
with your Mind,
Body & Spirit

. l lt.w

Meijer
Employee
Insults
Transexual

The liberation of her mind, Brevard says,
took much longer than the physical reconstruction of her body. Her experiences
and those of other trans-women hold important lessons for teminists and lesbians
who remain stubbornly hung up on
biology.

In Touch ChiroP-ractic

•
•
•
•

Page 15

~1/ S;1tura! H,•/1hJ/g \t-J',,_.

.3301 Veterans Drive, Suite 215 • Traverse City, Ml 49684
Res: 231-922-9272 Office: 231-933-9388
Participa tin g Pr ov i d e r with ll l u e C r o,,/Bl u ~ Shi dd

Cont. Page 16, see Triangle Release

verse
tors
Carolyn R. Delo
Sale., & fras ing
Phone 231/946-5540 • Fa'< ~-' l/9-i!l-O~:-R
1301 S Garfield Ro.ad • Tr,.l\ersc City. '.'\fl -i%Rh
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Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

Triangle Release

hope Meijer employees that cannot control their personal bigotry and offensive
language should not be dealing with the
public. We call on all Meijer stores and
all employers to prevent these incidents
by making it clear to their employees that
such discrimination will not be tolerated."

Cont. from page 15

Recently Rachel Crandall and her roommate Raquel Gonzales, who are both
transsexual, were degraded by a Meijer
cashier, while in the check-out line.
The cashier correctly assumed the two
women were transgendered and then
without provocation made the following
statement, "It doesn't matter how you're
dressed, I know you still have d*cks and
you can f"'ck your mamas."
Crandall and Gonzalez were shocked,
offended and confused by the statement,
but they immediately complained about
this conduct to a manager on duty. To
date, Meijer officials at that store claim
that they reprimanded the employee but
they have refused to formally apologize to
the women for the hostile and offensive
behavior of the employee.
"I couldn't believe my ears," said Crandall. "I was offended and angry that I
would be treated this way by a Meijer
employee. This kind of thing stays with
you for awhile and cause a lot of emotional damage to people. Transgender
people face this kind of discrimination,
harassment, vandalism and violence every
day. I am very fortunate she didn't turn
violent."
Rachel Crandall, who is a therapist and
the President ofTransgender Michigan
(Michigan's most visible and active
Transgender support and advocacy
organization) tried to remedy the situation
on her own, and feels that she has been
ignored by Meijer. So she contacted
Triangle Foundation for assistance.
"This is contemptible and offensive, but
certainly not the first time we have had
this happen at a Meijer store," said Sean
Kosofsky, Director of Policy and Victim
Services for Triangle Foundation. Triangle Foundation is Michigan's statewide
civil rights, advocacy and anti-violence
organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender GLBT people. "We demand a
formal apology from Meijer to Rachel
and Raquel and to the entire GLBT
community for what happened. We also

Discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender expression is perfectly
legal in Okemos and in Michigan, so
Crandall and Gonzalez have no legal remedy for the discrimination. They and
Triangle Foundation hope to raise awareness about legal discrimination and why it
is a problem. There is a bill currently
awaiting action in the Michigan legislature that would fix this gap in the state's
Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. House
Bill 4661 enjoys bi-partisan support and if
passed it would ban, anti-gay and antitransgender discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations, like Meijer stores, that are open to
the public.

****************************
****************************
If you're not out outraged,
you're not paying attention.

****************************
****************************
Sean Kosofsky
Director of Policy and Victim
Services
Triangle Foundation
19641 West Seven Mile Road
Detroit, Michigan 48219-2721
313-537-3323 ph
313-537-3379 fx
1-877-7-TRIANGLE toll free
report hate crimes
Sean@tri.org
www.tri.org

Page 16

"Lesbian
Judges Suing
South African
Government"
DataLounge
http://www.datalounge.com/
Friday, 10 August 2001

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -The rights of gay and lesbian couples in South Africa could change
dramatically for the better, pending
the outcome of two cases before the
Pretoria High Court, the British newspaper The Telegraph reports.
The cases are noteworthy not only because they are liable to establish broad
new precedents in South African law,
they are unusual in that they are being
filed directly by two lesbian judges.
One case involves a joint adoption petition that seeks to broaden parental
rights for both gay partners; the second concerns pension and other benefits granted to spouses. Both cases
challenge the constitutionality of existing laws, arguing that in their current
form they discriminate against samesex couples.
The first application is from a lesbian
judge, Anna-Marie de Vos, who has
asked the court to rule that she be allowed to co-adopt children with her
lesbian partner. As current laws forbid
such an arrangement, she's petitioning
the court to have the Child Care Act
declared unconstitutional.
Judge Frans Kgomo told reporters he
wished to rule on the benefits petition
first, noting there were many similarities between the two judges' cases.
The benefits petition filed against the
president and the justice minister was
brought before the court by
Cont. page 21, see Lesbian Judges

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

Letter Page

munity. We want this town hall meeting
to be a forum to discuss legislation that
directly affects the GLBT community,
and a forum that will allow you to tell us
what state government can do to
improve your quality of life.

Friends North received
this letter at the end of
May from the Michigan
House of Representatives Democratic Floor
Leader ...
Dear Friends:
In January, the Democratic
Caucus of the Michigan House of Representatives released it "Quality of Life
Agenda". The Oakland County delegation of the Caucus (Representatives
Clarence Phillips, Nancy Quarles, Dave
Woodward and I) have invited Democratic House Leader (and Detroit mayoral
candidate) Kwame Kilpatrick to Oakland
County to discuss that agenda with our
constituents.
On Saturday, June 9, we will be
hosting a ''town hall meeting" to discuss
quality of life issues with representatives
of the Metro Detroit GLBT community.
The meeting will take place from 9:30
a.m. to 11 :00 am at the Pride Building in
Ferndale (429 Livernois-just north of
Eight Mile road). Our moderator will be
State Representative Chris Kolb (D-Ann
Arbor), the first openly gay member of
the Michigan Legislature. This is the
first time that the leaders of the House
Democratic Caucus have sat down with
the movers and shakers of the GLBT
community, and we couldn't think ofa
more appropriate time than June, traditionally Gay Pride Month. I am writing
to ask for your participation as a leader
the GLBT community.
As Democrats, we want this
event to be as inclusive as possible. Our
"Quality of Life Agenda" focuses on
education, economic and personal security, health care, livable communities
and preparing for the New Economy.'
Although we think these topics are
important to every Michigan citizen, I
know there are particular issues of
special significance to the GLBT com-

Page 17

Gild Z. Jacobs
Democratic Floor Leader

Tom responded by writing
a letter to Jason Allen and
CC'ing it to Gilda Jacobs,
Chris Kolb, and Debbie
Stabenow ...
Dear Mr. Allen:
As a long time resident of
Traverse City, I want to take this opportunity to write you concerning the Gay
and Lesbian community in Northern
Michigan.

Gay Pride or Gay "Shame"
Festival?
Something has to be done about
the Gay "Pride" festival.
Once again, I was embarrassed
to be at the Gay Pride festival. This is
supposed to be an event to show the
community of Traverse City and the surrounding communities what we are all
about. Instead, it turned into another
show of entertainment (?) about vulgar
jokes and simulated sex acts.
Is this really how we want to
present ourselves to the community?
This event is attended by mothers,
fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles,
children and friends. We should be
putting our best foot forward, not presenting vulgar, lewd, sexually simulated
acts. All other aspects of the festival
were great. Great food, great bands, but
all were marred by the vulgar entertainment.
Let's hope we get it right next
year.

We have a good, strong community and as you know, have lately
come under fire from all sides. I am
Gerald Houk
writing to request some of your time
Traverse City
when you are in Traverse City so that we
can discuss the direction the gay and
lesbian community is going, the issues
Continued page 18, see letters
that we are facing, and so that we can
discuss quality oflife issues similar to
those discussed in the Detroit area. I am
enclosing the letter Friends
North
received from the Democratic Floor leader for you to
read. As you can see, there is a
meeting planned which could be
Experience the many benefits of MASSAGE...
and should be very productive,
Relirvt>S Pain
-Promotes hr.c1ling
although because of the distance,
Rl:'dtlfPS Stress
lnrrr,lSCS ent119y
is nearly impossible for us to
•
• J
participate.

MASSAGE SPECIAL

Since you are our Representative, and one for all the
residents of this community, gay
and straight, I think as the President of Friends North, I deserve
some of your time.
Thomas D. Kincaid

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Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

Letter Page

allow members to receive money in
emergency situations. When the ByLaws were changed we were unable to
continue to do this.

continued
Friends North!! Here to help the
GLBT Community??

We are taking another look at
this issue, and if you have input for us to
consider, please write, call or e-mail the
Friends North Board members.

I turned to Friends North for help on
April 1st.
I need to go to Toledo to see my mother
who was ill and in a nursing home. I
decided that morning to drive to Toledo
to see my mother. Packed my bags, got
into my car, and drove about two blocks
and my car started to act up. Backfiring,
etc.
I drove back to my apartment, rather dejected.
I decided to see if my neighbor, Thomas
Kincaid, President of Friends North,
could help me. I thought perhaps
Friends North could help. Perhaps make
a loan to me so that I could get my car
repaired! I didn't want a hand out, just a
loan.
He made a few calls and found out that
Friends North couldn't do that, not in the
Charter!! Friends North needs to change
their Charter!
Well, I called my credit card company
and asked if they could give a higher
credit limit on my card due to the circumstances. They did so.
So, I rented a car, drove to Toledo, and
was able to get there before my mother
passed away.
I think Friends North needs to be a little
more sensitive to the needs of the community! Needs to change it's CHARTER. Ifl didn't have a credit card, then
WHAT??
Gerald L. Houk
Traverse City

Response from the FN BoardSome time ago we had a fund to

"Mystical
Activist"
By Jim Curtain
Taken from an article
in "Genre Magazine"
Andrew Harvey is a fearless adventurer, a determined explorer,
•who has searched the world for
the roots of authentic spirituality.
Harvey is openly gay and in a recent interview he discussed the
role his homosexuality has played
in his spiritual development.
Q: What role has your homosexuality
played in your spiritual development?
AH: "Like so many gay people, I internalized a good deal of homophobia.
Part ofmy early search, what drove me
to India in my twenties and what drove
me on the spiritual journey, was the
desire to escape the agony of sexuality,
the agony of the body and the desire to
enter totally into some transcendent
ecstasy that would, in a way, free me
from emotional complexity and ambiguity. Fortunately for me, the desire was
shattered when I met my husband, Eryk.
Through my relationship with him, I
have been able to heal the sexual wounds
of my past, heal my internalized homophobia -- because he has none of it -heal the body/soul/spirit and actually
experience in a very intense and glorious
way what has been written about in all
the Tantric texts."
Q: How do you go about accomplishing
this healing?

Page 18

AH: "The most important lesson is to
accept the (sexual) desire that is integral
to being gay and to realize what its real
destination is. Our responsibility is to
take the whole gay experience to a whole
new level of intensity and revelation. It
is a very, very, difficult and refined path
because just as you can be hooked on
physical ecstasy, so can you be hooked
on mystical ecstasy. Part of where the
gay movement has stumbled, or a sign
of its immaturity, has been its obsessions
with the body and with sex. The best
way to spirituality is to find the place of
radiant balance where spirit meets body
and body is infused with spirit. That
place is simply love. That is a very important message to the gay movement.
It's really the message of Walt Whitman.
Whitman is an extraordinary pioneer in
many ways, because he opens up the
. glory of sexuality. But that glory is
always placed and experienced in the
context of a profound relationship."
Q: Are you advocating monogamy?
AH: "It's not that I'm against anything. I
couldn't care less about puritanical values. I'm certainly not against people
experiencing anything they like, and sexual freedom is something that people are
entitled to. Even promiscuity can have
some revelations, but it will not produce
the fullness of union that only a committed relationship can have. I think it's an
important distinction because true Tantric revolution is going to be born
amongst gay people. What gay people
must also come gently to learn are the
laws of that Tantric revolution. And the
laws, as I've tried to make clear and that
I've discovered for myself, are laws of
dignity, of respect, of tremendous mutual
honoring of fidelity, which is not a
fashionable concept, but a tremendous
surrendering to and worshipping of each
other as divine beings. We must not confuse very exciting sexual experiences,
which can lead to delight, with Tantric
experience that leads to initiation and
revelation. It does not mean that the sexual experience that leads to delight is
something inferior or dirty. Of course
not! It is a pure joy like eating a peach or
listening to wonderful music. But it isn't
the sacred initiation that happens at the
higher level.
Cont. pa2e 19, see Mystical Activist

Networking 45° North

"Mystical
Activist"
Continued from page 18

Q: It seems to me that the gay community is crying out for sacred initiation.
How is it achieved?
AH: "As Rilke says: 'You have to train
for it.' Love requires a profound training
of the spirit and a profound training of
the heart. And, if you do train for it by
opening your aesthetic and spiritual
senses, by really experiencing the divine
in your heart and by becoming aware of
and experiencing your sacred creativity,
then you become a full self and everyone
you meet is another full self. Then the
real celestial magic can begin. Gay people carry a very deep knowledge and
courage of love, because to be openly
gay, you have to choose love beyond all
things very early on. You have to
choose love beyond the dogma of your
family and of society, and very often
beyond the dogma of religion or the guru
that you're with. You have to choose
love, and that is a tremendous initiation
in itself because it initiates you into the
utter, divine sacredness of love.
We are at this crossroad in the gay
movement. Are we going to go on celebrating narcissistic images of desire, or
are we going to discover new forms of
desire that are transfiguring socially, politically, sexually and artistically? Are
we going to be frozen in postures of adoration of youth and physical beauty,
which can be liberating, but only up to a
point, or are we going to go forward into
a far deeper, wilder, more socially radical, more politically explosive, more
creative vision of how the gay Eros can
fuel the transformation of the whole being? The Direct Path is dedicated to that
transformation for straight people as
well, but it is very much a prayer to all
gay people to get serious about the pain
of the world, to acknowledge the glory
of the body and the existence of the soul,
and to marry all of those recognitions
with their entire lives. It must be where
the gay movement is to go if it is going
to claim its true radical place."

Fall 2001

Q: You write that each religion, "in different, but fundamentally similar ways,
controls believers and claims to broker
the relationship between the believer and
God in ways that both subtly and blatantly, keep the believer from claiming
the full range of his or her innate divine
powers." That has certainly been problematic for members of our community.
AH: Tragically, there is a war in all of
the religions and in all of the patriarchal
mystical systems between what you
could call the lust for power and the
authentic vision of divine equality that
all mystics come to realize. What has
happened over the millennia is that elites
and hierarchies, both in official religions
and in the esoteric branches of those
official religions, have claimed either to
represent the truth or to mediate the truth
for other people. But the outrageous
knowledge at the core of all mysticism is
that we are all children of the Father/
Mother, all living a totally sacred life, all
connected simply in the deepest way, to
the divine and, therefore, all profoundly
able to empower ourselves with these
sacred intensities, so as to be able to
transform our lives. Well, you can see
why religions and mystical systems don't
want this to get out in its full outrageousness, because it simply destroys the need
for all forms of hierarchy, dogma, religious elite -- powers that use religion
for their justification because it releases
everybody into the divine ground of their
own life and therefore into their divine
independence, their divine creativity,
their divine abandon, their divine, wild
truthfulness of their own authentic
selves, which makes everybody who has
those traits extremely dangerous.
Q: Despite the abuses of religion, don't
we still need wise teachers and guides?
You acknowledge many of them in
your book. I regard you as one myself.
AH: Of course, we need teachers, we
need mentors, we need people to inspire
us. We need people we can see further
along on the path. We need to admire
them, we need to learn from them, we
need to revere them. What we don't need
to do is deify them or idolize the or make
them into icons. What we don't need to

Page 19

do is worship them and give away our
power to them. The relationship with a
true teacher is a liberating one. The real
teacher is humble. The real teacher refuses our projections.
Q: In your book you say "Humility is the
beginning, the middle and the end of the
path. Only God is humble enough. The
more humble you become. the more you
can watch the Divine manifest more
richly and playfully in your mind and
heart and soul and body and relationships and surroundings." There's a playfulness in you now, certainly in person,
that was not always present in your writings. It is as if you are coming into the
Divine Childhood that you have longed
for so long.

AH: what a lovely thought. That's a very
pleasant thought. I think that's why sacred marriage, in general, births the Divine Child. And I think that the freer you
become, the more playful you become.
Playfulness and seriousness go together,
in my mind. Somebody once said to me,
"Enlightenment is when you know the
Mother is at home." And that means that
you can play in your life. And Rama
Krishna said something I have thought
about all my life: "The Mother does not
love those who just float out into the
transcendent. The Mother really loves
those who play the game wildly, who go
for it." And they may fall down, they
may bleed, they may suffer, they may
scream. But eventually, if they do it
passionately enough, they will be given
enough of her joy and enough of her
bliss to start to laugh and to start to play
it truthfully. And rm hoping that is
where I've come to in my own life.

Networking 45° North

Page20

Fall2001

On The Headboard and Beside The Bed
By Dianna Johnson

1. Lust for Life by Irving Stone;
beautifully written biography about
the life of Vincent Van Gogh that includes his martyrdom as a young clergyman, his unsuccessful life as an artist (he sold only one painting in his
lifetime), the madness that lead him to
severe his ear, and his several affairs
with less than socially acceptable
women. This was one of those books
that I took a long time to finish, just
because I didn't want it to be over.

2. Refuge by Terry Tempest WilJiams
is a book that came into my life exactly as it was supposed to. Terry
Tempest Williams is an amazing
writer that masterfully weaves the
story of her mother dying of cancer
with the flooding of the Bear River
Migratory Bird Sanctuary bird refuge
near the Great Salt Lake. Nature,
spirituality, grief and relationships are
some of the themes that run through
this incredible book.

3. Sick Puppy and Stormy Weather
by Carl Hiaasen. This guy is a completely wacky author who builds
twisted characters and their most
unlikely plots that evolve into something charming and almost believable.
By the middle of the book I wondered
exactly who the Sick Puppy was: the
main character who is the
"independently wealthy eco-terrorist
Twilly Spree trying to teach a flagrant
litterbug a lesson--and leaves the offender's precious Range Rover swarming with hllllgry dung beetles"; the pet
of the offender whom Spree dognaps,
or the author of the book. After reading Stormy Weather, I am convinced
that one of the Sick Puppies is
Hiaasen. Man, can this guy write.
These are definitely a couple of books
I would suggest you stash in your bag
for the beach or your carry-on for a
cross-country flight.

4. The Truth is .. .My Life in Love and
Music by Melissa Etheridge with Laura
Morton; first, I love this woman's music.
Love it. And I suppose if I were looking
for sensationalism, I'd like her book too.
But the Truth Is ... this book is crap. Oh
sure, she reveals some of the ''Little Secrets" of her life like-how she and Julie
got pregnant, how she had a lot of oneniters early in her career, the affair between Julie and kd lang, how her sister molested her (on the second or third page),
and how her and Julie's relationship ended.
But I thank the Goddess that this woman
has a guitar to aid her pen and doesn't have
to stand on the pen alone. Not exactly Pulitzer Prize material. My biggest beef with
this book is the chapter where she is talking about the literary figures that influenced her life and she is trying to sound all
scholarly-but out of six authors that she
mentions, she spells two names wrong.
Bad editing, maybe? But you would think
that if one was SO influenced by others,
they might at least spell their name correctly?

5. The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook by
Andrew Doughty and Harriett Friedman; if
there is any chance that you may be flying
to the Garden Isle, this book is a must, and
I swear a queen wrote it. The writing is so
catty and bitchy and I love it. Plus, W1like
Fodor's or Frommer's, this book's authors
are obviously not paid by hotels and restaurants because if something is overrated
or not worth the time or money, it's right
there in print. Love it.

6. Uncommon Friendship by Frederic C.
Tubach, Bernat Rosner, Sally Patterson
Tubach; this story is incredible. These two
men meet in California and become friends
to find out that one is the son of a Nazi
army officer and the other is a Hungarianborn survivor of Auschwitz. It has all of
the potential of a phenomenal book but I
hated reading every minute of it. . Books
like this piss me off because publishers and
editors don't spend enough time to do it
right. Why would a publisher let something this poorly written go to press when

it has so much potential? What really
bugged me about it was the way that
Tubach's perspective was written in
first person, but Rosner's was in third
person. I W1derstand that Rosner did
not want to relate to what happened at
Auschwitz and kept it at a distance by
reciting in third person, but it takes so
much power away from his point of
view. Plus, Tubach constantly, constantly talks about how he was hungry,
but not nearly as hungry as Bernie
must have been, or how it was a cold
winter, but he surely wasn't as cold as
Bernie must have been ... by doing this
he takes away the power of HIS experience. So, we have a story with SO
MUCH POWER in the story itself, but
the storyteller just diminishes it over
and over. Too bad. It'll sell though,
because of the story and the press that
it's getting.

7. I'm just about finished with ffi&
Stone Gap by Adrianna Trigiani. It's
a good summer fluff read with not a
lot of depth in plot or character but
mildly entertaining. Reads like Fannie
Flagg or Billie Letts. They'll make a
movie out of it, then sell more
books-Oprah will slap her logo on it,
sell even more books-but it will still
be summer fluff.

Univlli

Networking 45° North

Fall 2001

P.~ erty of the c~~t'"'r

i[111111ll1fi ~'1 1l~I1lf1[1i11li1~i~ll~l1md,OK
M 001 111 483

Page21

Whadaya mean the newsletter is late?
By Gwen Sanford

Many of our readers
would probably like to know
why this issue is so&%*#@!
late. It was supposed to be a June/
July issue, but for lack of material to
put in it, we pushed it to July/August.
As you can see it's now just plain August. Where does the time go ........ . .
The latest snafu was my own
computer. It seems that we must be
subjected to electric power drop-outs
from our local Rural Electric, sometimes on a daily basis. Somehow, my
operating system (the wonderful
WIN98) was corrupted, which of
course shut down a few systems. No
modem, giant icons, no sound and a
choice of two or sixteen colors to
name just a few. My scanner has quit
completely.
Fortunately I'm back in business again with no lost data that I
know of. But it took awhile, and no
small amount of study to figure out ·
what to do. I'm smarter now though.
The scanner - another story.
Anyway, I'm sorry for the
delay of this issue of the newsletter
and any inconveniences it has caused.

The Board of Trustees has discussed the newsletter any number of times
over the years, and that probably won't
change. Items such as content, advertising,
mailing list, paid and unpaid subscriptions,
frequency of publication, cost of publication and mailing, submission of material,
and the number of hours it takes to edit,
publish, fold-stuff-address and mail several
hundred of them. Needless to say, it is
quite a project done with too few volunteers at a serious financial obligation to
Friends North.
Is the cost worth it? The Board
thinks it is. For some ofus the newsletter
is our only contact with the outside world,
which may seem odd, but think back to
before you were out of the closet.
We have a problem though, as I
see it. Friends North of Michigan is a
large organization with just a teeny-tiny
few who help to do the work. Sometimes,
we just feel like throwing up our hands and
saying *@#%,"&@*, or whatever. Ifno
one else is interested, why should we care!
I know this is a common problem with any
volunteer organization, but we as lgbt individuals are better than the others. I view
each of us as caring, loving and responsible spirits that the rest of the world would
do well to follow.

THERAPEUTIC
MASSAGE BY AL
'Experience our
6eautifu£ new.faciuty

There is none like it in Northern Michigan!

Alan Collard CMT
Graduate of Health Enrichment Center
Facials w/ upper body massage available
Mirage Tanning Center
1128 E. 8th St. Traverse City
941-9110
www.massagebyal.com
satisfaction auaranteed or your monq becJt .

So, how about it? We know
you're busy- we are too. But, with a
little more sharing of the work it
wouldn't take as Jong, and we would
have a lot more fun along the way.
We will be discussing the
newsletter in depth at the September
Board Meeting, and welcome any
input. Give us a call, or join us. -

Lesbian Judges
Continued from
page16
Judge Kathy Satchwell from the
Johannesburg High Court.
Satchwell seeks to have sections of the
Judges Remuneration and Conditions_
of Employment Act declared unconstitutional, as she says it prevents her
female partner from sharing in benefits available to spouses of other
judges.
Satchwell's application is being
opposed by the state while no
resistance is expected against De Vos'
adoption petition.

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Networking 45° North

2001

State And National Hotlines
Department of Justice............ 800-347-4283
Gay/Lesbian National Youth ............ .
800-347-TEEN (8336)
Michigan Wellness Networks ............ .
800-872-AIDS (2437)
Triangle Hate Crime Reporting .......... .
877-7-TRIANGLE (877-787-42640)

Statewide Services
ACLU Of Michigan ........................ .
1249 Washington Blvd., Suite 209,
Detroit,
Ml
48220
Office ......................... 248-398- 7105
Help Line ........................ 800-398-4297
E-mail ................. michaclu@aol.com
WWW ........... ...... http://michigan.aclu.org/
Lansing Association of Human Rights ..... .
PO Box 18062, Lansing, MI 48826
Phone ...................... 517-332-3200
http://www.macatawa.org/-lahr
Triangle Foundation ..... .
19641 W. Seven Mile Rd., Detroit, MI
313-357-3323 ....... Fax ..... 313-537-33 79
WWW ..................... .... http://www.tri.org
OLSEN
WWW ............ www.GLSEN-Michigan.org

::===========================:::
National Services
OLSEN (Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education
Network), 121 West 127th St.,,Suite 804,
New York, NY 10001.. ....... 212-727-0135
WWW ........ .......... http://www.GLSEN.org/
Gender PAC ..............New York, NY
WWW ................. .... http://www.gpac.org/
HRC (Human Rights Campaign), 919 18th
Street NW, Washington DC 20006
Ph .. 202-628-4160
FAX.. 202-347-5323
E-mai 1........................ hrc@hrc.org
WWW .......... ............. http://www.hrc.org/
IFGE (International Foundation for Gender
Education), PO Box 540229, Waltham, MA
02454-0229
Ph .. 781-899-22 l 2
FAX.. 781-899-5703
E-mai 1................... in fo@i fge. org
WWW ....................... http://www.ifge.org

NOLTF (National Gay & Lesbian Task
Force), 2320 Seventeenth St. NW,
Washington
DC
20009-2702
Ph.. 202-332-6483
FAX.. 202-332-0207
WWW ................. ..... http://www.ngtlf.org/
PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays), I IOI 14th St. NW,
Suite 1030, Washington DC 2005
Ph .. 202-638-420
Email..info@pflag.org
WWW .... ................. http://www.pflag.org/

HIV Testing Anonymous

& Confidential

Community Health Clinic (same day)
Phone .............................. 23 1-929-4448
Grand Traverse County Health Dept.
Phone .............................. 231-922-483 l
Planned Parenthood Northern Michigan
Phone .................... 800-230-PLAN (7526)

Lesbian and Gay Aging Issues Network
WWW ............. http://www.asaging.
org/lgain.html

Thomas
Judd
Care
Center
Phone .............................. 231-935-8140

Local Spiritual

Emmet County Health Dept.
Phone .............................. 231-347-6014

Circle of the Sacred Earth,
Rev. Nancy Hayward ............. 231-223-7999
Journey in Light Ministries,
Rev. Linda L. Wilson .............231-271-2529
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Grand
Traverse, Rev. Emmy Lou Belcher, 6726
Center Rd., Traverse City, Ml 49686
Home.. 231-938-9079 Office.. 231-947-3117
Unity Church, Rev. Judy Grimes,
3600 Five Mile Rd., Traverse City,
MI 49686 .......................... 231-938-9587
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of
Petoskey, PO Box 873, Petoskey,
MI 49770 ...... : ................... 231-347-8916

Local Counseling
CDRS (free substance abuse referral)
Phone .............................. 231-929-13 15
Toll-Free ........................... 800-686-0749
THIRD LEVEL Crisis Intervention Center,
I022 E. Front St., Traverse City, MI
49686 ........... 231-922-4800
Toi I-Free .................. 800-442- 7315
WWW ...... http://www.travese.net/
members/third level/
WOMAN'S RESOURCE CENTER
Phone ............................... 231-941-1210

Wellness Networks ......... 231-933-0279
Toll-Free ........................... 800-947-1160
WWW .... http://www.WellnessNetworks.org

Local Service/Social/Political
Common Voices: The Friends North Rap
Group, Call Tom ................. 231-275-6127
Friends North of Michigan, PO Box 562,
Traverse City, MI 49685-0562
Northern Michigan Help Line
Phone ............................231-946- I 804
E-mai I. ................. .info@friendsnorth.org
WWW .......... .http://www.friendsnorth.org
OLSEN, PO Box 9, Traverse City, MI
49685-0685 ........................ 231-943-5050
WWW ...... www. TraverseArea.corn/GLSEN
E-mail ............ GLSEN@TraverseArea.com
Gay Alcoholics Anonymous,
Grace
Call
Episcopal Church, Traverse City
John .............................231-922-0746 or
Hilda................................231-938-9294
WINDFIRE Gay & Lesbian Youth Support
Group... Call Third Level for location &
time ............................... 231-922-4800
Toll-Free............................ 800-442-7315
Human Rights Commission .......... 922-4447

Susan Odgers, PhD .................... 946-0331
Barbara Jones Smith, PhD............ 947-1444

LAMBDA Legal Defense & Education
Fund, 120 Wall St., Suite 1500, New York,
NY 10005 ................... ..... 212-809-8585
Fax ................................. 212-809-0055
WWW ............................................ .
http://www.thebody.com/lambda.html

Local HIVI AIDS Health
Counseling & Information

Bay Area Counseling, LLC ........... 933-4009
Susan RBreuer, PhD, Benzonia.... 882-4455

Sarah ' s Circle/Carl Anderson .995-9431

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual,
Transgendered?
Have Questions, Need Help?
Call the Northern Michigan
Help Line
231-946-1804