Networking45North_v10.no5.1996.09-10.pdf
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Property of the Ct:nte r
THE NEWSLETTER OF _,,,,f:8.!J~~;;;;:;;~~: -::··
INC., an association of lesbians, gay men , bi-sexuals and their friends.
N
K
R
VOLUME
Friends North Gay and
Lesbian History and
Education Conference
Friends North is sponsoring the second annual Gay and
Lesbian History and Education conference the weekend of
October 25th through October 27th at the Sugar Loaf Resort,
located on the Leelanau Peninsula near Traverse City, Michigan.
The activities will begin with a hospitality gathering and
registration on Friday night. On Saturday, registration will take
place between 8:00 and 9:00 am with the conference starting at
9:00 am. The conference will officially close at an informal
breakfast on Sunday morning. Saturday will include two keynote
speakers, six workshops, a luncheon, one act stage readings, an
outdoors walkabout, a documentary film, and a dance.
The keynote speakers for the conference are Beth Brant and
Gerry Crane. Beth Brant is a Bay of Quinte, Mohawk from
Tyendinage Mohawk Territory in Ontario, Canada and lives in the
Detroit area. She is the author of Mohawk Trail, poetry and prose;
Food and Spirits, short fiction; and Writing As Witness, a
collection of essays. She is also the editor of A Gathering of Spirit,
the ground-breaking collection of writing and artwork by Nature
women; and I'll Sing Till the Day I Die: Conversations with
Tyendinaga Elders. Her work has appeared in over seventy-five
Native, feminist and lesbian anthologies throughout North
America, Europe, and Asia.
Gerry Crane is a former music director from Byron Center,
Michigan who worked· hard to change the community's
misinformation regarding gay teachers.
The workshops wil I include Lesbian and Gay Teachers, Gays/
Lesbians and the Media; Diversity in Our Community; Local Gay/
Lesbian Rights Ordinances; Lesbian and Gay History Spotlights;
and Generational Issues.
The registration fee for the conference is $25.00 which
includes al I the plenary, workshops, luncheon and dance. Sugar
Loaf Resort is reserving rooms for this Friends North event at the
low conference rate of $52 .00 per room per night. The Resort does
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request that you fill out a registration form and mail it with a
$50.00 required deposit, as soon as possible. Reservations
CANNOT be accepted by phone.
If you are interested in participating in the Gay and Lesbian
History and Education Day and would like to register for the
conference, PLEASE USE THE FORM IN THE CENTER OF THIS
NEWSLETTER, or send a check or money order made out to Friends
North for $25.00 to: Friends North, PO Box 562, Traverse City, Ml
49685-0562, and plea~ note that the money is for the Gay/Lesbian
History conference. If you would like a form sent to you, please call
the Friends North phone Ii ne, (61 6) 946-1804 and leave your name
and address (clearly) for a registration form for the conference.
Please join us for a wonderful getaway in beautiful northern
lower Michigan for a weekend of sharing, learning, and having fun!
PRESS RELEASE
M 'Lynn Hartwell and GLSTN (Gay Lesbian Straight Teachers Network} will
proudly present at the Lesbian and Gay History and Education Conference
at Sugar Loaf October 26. 1996 the Michigan premiere of:
IT'S ELEMENTARY:
Talking About Gay Issues In School
by Academy Award winning director Debra Chasnoff
This ground-breaking documentary film features real educators
from across the nation who successfully weave gay and lesbian issues
into their elementary and middle school programs. The film includes
actual classroom lessons; remarkable insights from students, faculty,
parents and administrators; and courageous profiles of educators who
have taken a stand against homophobia that pervades our nation's
schools. Be prepared for inspiration, laughter and tears!
For more information contact: M'Lynn at 616 / 943-8800
FALL HIKING
AND MOUNTAIN BIKING
.. . along the Leelanau Trail on Saturday, October 12, at 1 p.m.
Join us for a naturalist-led hike or mountain bike ride on the
beautiful Leelanau Trail during the peak of color season . A
potluck is to follow at Jim and Paul's. Call for directions and
more information. 271-4510 Uim or Paul)
JACK KEMP'S VIEW-Aug 11, Sunday NY Times*/ believe in dvil liberties for homosexuals. I guess I'd have to soy I'd draw the line at letting them teach in the schools* Jock Kemp -1987
Richard Tuxbu,y
Friends North, Inc., P.O. Box 562, Traverse City, MI 49685-0562 (616)
946-1804 (This is a general information line to receive FIN
information.)
FROM THE EDITOR
The annual bike tour this summer at
Sleeping Bear is bittersweet in my mind .
It was the largest ever, with over 130 men
and women from the area, the state and
the region- even California was wellrepresented. People began gathering on Friday, July 26, at the base
of the giant, moving sand dunes in the national park.
But no matter how dynamic the people or how blue the sky
during Saturday's ride in Leelanau County, it will forever be
remembered as the weekend we lost our friend, Dave Ference.
Dave was a generous and intriguing person who we met on the
tour four years ago. We first saw him and his partner Tom Todd when
they roared into the campground, dust flying and hair blowing from
the wind in their classic 1962 Cadillac convertible. Their bikes were
strapped to the top of the enormous trunk and Tom's bagpipes and
all the camping gear overflowed from the back seat.
Six months later we again met Dave when we were both racing
at the NORBA national biking event in Bellaire. He loved mountain
biking and racing, and made many miles of single-tracks at their farm
in Saline which he used for practice. Road biking for him was
perhaps like it is for me - something to fill in the time between riding
the trails. I never imagined him as being a piano tuner, but that is
how he spent many of his days. He also loved computers, and weemailed each other many times about biking and gay events.
Dave collapsed and died at the end of Saturday's 75-mile ride,
near Glen Arbor, in the company of many friends and his partner of
23 years. As Tom said, he died with the person he cared most about,
doing what he loved doing most, on one of the most beautiful days.
Saturday night's dinner in Glen Arbor, so deliciously catered by
Michigan Trader's Matt Hunter, was somewhat somber, as people
waited to hear word about Dave's condition. He had been rushed to
the hospital by local ambulance a few hours earlier.
The
announcement was made at the end of the meal.
Sunday morning we awoke to the quietest of rains, bordering on
mist, but with the threat that it would be staying all day. After
breakfast and coffee around the many stoves and fires each of the
various groups gradually came to decide that it was time to pack up
and head home. By noon, all the goodbyes had been said, the wet
tents stowed, and promises made to meet again in 1997. The forced
ending of the tour that dreary Sunday morning was somehow
appropriate to me, and seemed a perfect reflection of our collective
mood.
Tom Todd has written and called, and of course, is still grieving.
But, his life is moving forward, and he plans to visit Sleeping Bear
again this fall. He said he would be joining us for next year's Bike
Tour as well.
Tom wanted to remind other couples the importance of having
wills and partnership agreements in order. I took this to heart, and
my partner, Jeff, and I put our wishes onto paper and had them
notarized. For your information, I have included an article on some
of the essential agreements that all gay and lesbian couples should
have. There is also an appropriate book list for reference. You will
find this on page 19 of this newsletter.
FRIENDS NORTH is an organization oflesbians, gay men, bi-sexuals and
. their friends from northwestern lower Michigan. Located in Traverse
City, we provide soda! activities, a newsletter, phone line, workshops,
and a community needs fund for financial assistance.
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS of FRIENDS NORTH is composed of nine
women and men elected each December. Regular board meetings are
held at Northwestern Michigan College, West Hall, Room 2 in the
cafeteria the first Tuesday of every month at 6:30 p.m. Everyone is
welcome to attend.
Tom LaForte
Tim Evans
Julie Parker
Victor Dinsmoore-secretary M'Lynn Hartwell
Tom Kincaid-VP- -earol Lambertson-Pres.
Jim Poole
Scott Southwell-treasurer
Networking 45° North, P.O. Box 562, Traverse City, MI 49685-0562
NEWSLETTER COMMITTEE: Publication of Networking 45° North.
Editor:
Publishing & Layout:
Advertising:
Mailing List:
Richard Tuxbury: 271-3042
or e-mail: tux00 l@aol.com
Richard Curtis: 929-9605
or e-mail: rlc@traverse.com
Jim Carruthers: 922-7768
John Evans: 922-0746
Networking 45° North is the newsletter of Friends North, Inc. Viewpoints
expressed do not necessarily represent those of the board or general
membership.
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING and notices are run without charge. Please
submit in writing or by calling the editor (and leave ad on machine 2713042 or by email.)
DISPLAY ADVERTISING in Networking 45° North is available in Business
Card size - $25.00 per space per issue or an annual rate of $120.00 for
6 issues. Inserts and larger sized ads are available. Please call
'advertising' for rates.
SPONSORING POLITICAL POSTCARDS: Cost for printing 2,800 postcards
for Networking 45°North is $100.00. To sponsor all or part of this, and
to give your input, call Richard 271-3042.
CONTRIBUTIONS to Networking are welcome. Letters, essays, features,
reflections, and original artwork should be sent "c/o Editor" to above
address. (Networking will not accept material that is sexist,
discriminatory or sexually explicit. Contributors are responsible for
obtaining permission from those whose names they submit for
publication.)
DEADLINES: Issue #6-October 15; Volume 11 Issue #1 Dec. 15.
ADDRESS CHANGES: Please notify us in advance if a change is coming.
Call John Evans, 922-0746, or send changes to our address.
SUBSCRIPTIONS/MEMBERSHIPS: $15.00/single; $25.00/couple. Please
send checks or money orders to: Friends North, P.O. Box 562, Traverse
City, MI 49685-0562.
DISTRIBUTION: Networking is published 6 times per year. Copies are sent
bulk-mail in a plain envelope to approximately 700 households.
Additional copies are available at select local establishments. Our
mailing list is not sold or traded with other organizations.
a
printed on recycled paper
NE1WORKING 45°NORTH
2
VOLUME 10 •ISSUES• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
dinner and the hostess actually asked us, 'Where are your men
tonight, girls?'
I was conscious of my own homophobia, as well. I recognize
how easy it is to become comfortable in my own home town and my
daily life with enough people who know and accept me -- I can be
out most of the time. I was glad to get home to that familiarity, but
found myself wondering how non-hetero visitors to the Grand
Traverse area feel. Do they feel welcome and accepted, or do they,
too, feel stared at, or scared? After all, our city does not yet have a
city or county non-discrimination clause that includes sexual
orientation.
I am about to dismount my soapbox here, but not before I
encourage everyone reading this to help the cause for equal rights for
every individual. Get involved in any way you can to talk to people,
help educate non-gays, ask questions, write letters to representatives
and senators, get involved with a gay group or organization, or come
out to someone. I believe the more people know who we are, what
we think and what we want, the better off we wil I become. The single
most important thing you can do this November is to arm yourself
with information and use it to VOTE wisely. (off soapbox)
Be sure to check out the Friends North calendar of events for the
remainder of the year, especially our 2nd annual Gay & Lesbian
History Conference on October, 25 - 27, the trip to the AIDS quilt in
D.C. slated for early October, the FN co-sponsored Toward
Understanding Workshop in November (see insert in this newsletter),
and our annual meeting in December.
Remember that I and the rest of the Board are available to you any
time to hear your comments, questions or concerns. And you are invited
to attend al I board meetings, held the first Tuesday of each month at Grace
Episcopal Church in Traverse City. I hope to see you there!
Lansing, Michigan has the distinction of being the only place in
the country this November with an anti-gay referendum on the ballot.
The Lansing Equal Rights Committee, chaired by activists Bob Egan
and Cheryl VanDeKerkhove, report that even after the U.S. Supreme
Court overturned Colorado's Amendment 2, an extremist group in
Lansing has organized simply to deny basic civil rights to lesbian and
gay people.
The strategy of the extremists is to overturn the entire,
comprehensive city civil rights ordinance, which would eliminate all
local civil rights protections in employment and public
accommodations for everybody for at least two years.
V
'V
For all of you who have been on the fence about Bill Clinton, I
ask that you read Deb Price's column in the newsletter. I believe that
she will convince you that Bill is absolutely our only option in the
D- II
,-,. I
upcoming election.
1'·•-<Ah W"\ 1Vr:-l.,7
Carol Lambertson
FROM THE PRESIDENT ...
Here's hoping everyone had an enjoyable
summer -- albeit a short one weather-wise for
some here in northern Michigan. With the Pride
events and celebrations behind us, and those festigoes back home again, most of us are beginning
to settle down to regular routines.
Let's not get too comfy, though . With elections on the horizon,
there is still much work we can do.
I just returned from a vacation in the South- the 'heartland' of
America . Once again I was faced with the realization that we have a
long way to go in our country before there is liberty and justice for
all. And once again I was reminded, as I traveled with three other
lesbian women, of the homophobia that is still rampant in less liberal
areas of the country. I kept looking around corners for Pat Robertson!.
As we traveled and participated in typical tourist activities in 'down
home' America, I was very conscious of being stared at (Southern folk
"TOWARD UNDERSTANDING"
WORKSHOP TO BE PRESENTED IN
TRAVERSE CITY
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) will be
presenting this excellent weekend workshop in Traverse City on
November 8 - 10, 1996. The workshop focuses on teaching
nonviolent techniques for discussing sexual orientation, and is
co-sponsored by Friends North, P-FLAG of Traverse City, Unity
Church, Unitarian Church, and others.
Held at Neahtawanta Center, the workshop teaches
participants how to turn confrontation into opportunity for
sincere dialog when discussing sexual orientation and related
issues.
The AFSC is an affiliate of the Quaker tradition, whose
primary focus is education in order to affirm the dignity of every
individual, to foster peace and reconciliation and to promote
social justice.
We are very fortunate to have th is workshop presented I our
area . Please refer to the enclosed brochure for registration
information . Space is limited, so make your reservation now!
can't appreciate a good dyke haircut, I guess). One night we went to
dive/ coach.
SCUBA DIVING INSTRUCTION
Private and CD ROM home study courses available
Glenn Sanford, certified NAUI instructor
(616) 946-0433
2.671 Shenandoah Drive
Traverse City, Michigan 49684-892.2.
NE1WORKING 45°NORTH
3
VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
Outin
POPULAR POP/JAZZ VOCALIST &
INSTRUMENTALIST COMES TO GRAND RAPIDS
+About
Sons and Daughters, Grand Rapids' Lesbian and Gay bookstore
and coffeehouse is proud to being popular pop/jazz vocalist and
instrumentalist, Suede to Grand Rapids. Suede will perform at 8:00
pm on Saturday, September 21, 1996, at the Ladies Literary Club,
located at 61 Sheldon Blvd., SE.
Suede, whose two recordings Easily Suede and Barely Blue have
met with critical and popular acclaim across the country, has
performed in concerts, festivals, colleges and clubs on two
continents. Her intriguing blend of popular, jazz and blues styles
have earned has a reputation as "a fireball performer," according to
the New York Post, which declared, "Voices like hers come along
maybe once in a generation."
Fans of jazz, pop and "red-hot mamas" will not want to miss this
silky-voiced entertainer. Suede has received recognition by her peers
by receiving the highly regarded Bistro Award from the Manhattan
Association of Cabarets and Jazz Clubs. Other recipients include Mel
Torme & Liza Minelli. The Washington Post writes " ... more than a
Iittle Streisand in her."
Tickets for the single performance are $15.00 and are available
at Sons and Daughters, 962 Cherry St., SE, Grand Rapids: The Bookie
Joint, 120 S. Union, Traverse City; Pandora's, 226 W. Lovell St.,
Kalamazoo: It's Your Pleasure, 3228 Glade St., Muskegon Heights;
and Real World Emporium, 1214-16 Turner St., Lansing. Tickets may
be charged by phone to Visa, Mastercard or American Express at 616/
459-8877.
A Lesbian Coffeehouse
Unity Church - 3600 Five Mile Road - Traverse City
Call 946-2708 for more information
Come play the game of "LESBO"! Lesbian's Endo' Summer
Bingo Orgy (orgy: an excessive indulgence in any activity ... in this
case, bingo). The September Out 'n About Lesbian Coffeehouse
will be hosting a bingo tourney designed by and for lesbians, to
be played with and by lesbians. There will be "Ooooo! Ahhhh!
Fabulous prizes!" purchased and donated for this special event.
Your three dollar donation at the door will get you four LESBO
cards and a handful of dots; more cards can be obtained, for
nominal donations, if you excel at this sport. Then, "Let the games
begin!" The Out 'n About Lesbian Coffeehouse will be open from
7 pm until 11 pm on Saturday, September 21.
In the month of October, the Out 'n About Lesbian
Coffeehouse is pleased to welcome and present to you the talents
of Mimosa Music artist, Mimi Baczewska (baa shef ska). She is a
singer, songwriter, dancer and performer who has a true gift of
being both entertaining and thought provoking. Mimi's soft magic
and feisty attitude mingle to create a diverse performance which
runs the gamut from folk to jazz. She plays with guitar, vocals and
keyboard, and her songs call to the soul of the listener. She will
be on the Coffeehouse stage on Saturday, October 19. Doors open
at 7 pm with the entertainment to begin soon after.
Out 'n About Lesbian Coffeehouse is managed by an informal
gathering of lesbians who call themselves the Steering Committee.
This Committee meets for a few hours on the Monday prior to the
3rd Saturday coffeehouse for planning of each month's event. The
Committee is always seeking input from you, the lesbian
community, about what or who Out 'n About should feature in
upcoming months. Please consider joining the Steering
Committee so that your ideas can be heard and so that you can
make a positive impact on your own community.
SAUGATUCK, MICHIGAN
GAY RIGHTS WEIGHED AGAIN
A committee will explore again an ordinance designed to
protect the rights of homosexuals months after the city council
stopped discussion on the question last March.
The Saugatuck City Council voted 6-1 Monday to reopen the
issue of preserving human rights regardless of sexual orientation.
The council will create a committee of 10 residents and three
council members to discuss the issue.
Out n' About Lesbian Coffeehouse is held on the third Saturday
of each month except August and December. The Coffeehouse
comes alive between 7:00 and 11 :00 pm at the Unity Church,
3600 Five Mile Road, Traverse City. Smoke-free and Chem-free
with a cover donation of $3 ($5-$10 if we have entertainment).
Coffee, tea and snacks are free; soft drinks are available.
Bay
Business
•
Services
Inc.
For more information, or to have your name placed on the Out 'n
About Lesbian Coffeehouse mailing list, call Brenda at 946-2708leave message. (Please note this telephone number is for
Coffeehouse information only. If you have other questions or needs,
please call Friends North at 946-1804.)
Office: (616) 941-5748
ANDREW L. MITCHELL
Accounting & Tax Service
810-B South Garfield Ave• Traverse City, Ml 49686
NETWORKING 45°NORTH
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VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
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STATE AND NATIONAL HOTLINES
LOCAL SPIRITUAL:
Department of Justice Hotline (for reporting
Hate Crimes against gays and lesbians) ..... . .... .. 800-347-HATE
Child Abuse Hotline . .. .............. .. . . .... . ..... 800-392-8222
Michigan Wellness Networks . ... . .. . ................ 800-872-AIDS
Gay/Lesbian National Youth Hotline .. . .. . ... . ........ 800-347-TEEN
Rev. Geraldine Colvin & Rev. David Florence
Unity Church, 3600 Five Mile, Traverse City . ..... ... . 616-932-9587
Rev. Emmy Lou Belcher
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Grand Traverse
6726 Center Rd., Traverse City-Home: 938-9078 ... Office: 947-3117
Rev. Nancy Hayward, Circle of the Sacred Earth . ........ 616-223-7999
STATEWIDE SERVICES
SOCIAL / POLITICAL / MEDIA
LOCAL COUNSELING:
Third Level Crisis Intervention, 902 W. Front St. .... . .... 616-922-4800
........ . .... .. . . ... . ........ . ... . .. . ... . and 800-442-7315
Women's Resource Center ...... . .... . .............. 616-941-121 O
Rodger Landvoy, PHO .. . .... . .. . .. .. .............. 616-929-1711
Susan Breuer PHO (Frankfort/ Traverse City) ... . . .. .... 616-352-4261
Margo Miliion, ACSW ........ .. .... ... .. ..... ... . .. 616-947-0511
David Blisk (Maple City) ............................ 616-228-5105
Joanna T. Lauber, MA, OTR, CHI ............. . .. . .... 616-947-8842
Barbara Jones Smith, PHO ............... . .... . ..... 616-947-1444
Elizabeth Most, MSW, ACSW (Petoskey) .... . .... . ..... 616-348-2415
William D. Gould, MA (Gladwin) ......... .. ... . ... . ... 517-426-2351
David Rushlow, ACSW, Munson Medical Center .. . ... . .. 616-935-6385
Bay Area Counseling (Petoskey/Harbor Springs)
Margalo Bley, MSW, ACSW ........... . ......... . . 616-348-3616
Daniel C. Doran, PHO, CSW .. .. ... .. .. ............. 906-635-9263
Lois Martindale, Ph.D., Benzonia ..... . ............... 616-882-5888
CDRS (a free substance abuse referral agency)
808-A S. Garfield, Traverse City .......... 929-1315 or 800-686-0749
The Network: Lesbian and Gay Community Network of W. Michigan
909 Cherry St. S.E., Grand Rapids, Ml 49506 . . ... ... . 616-458-3511
Lavender Morning
P.O. Box 729, Kalamazoo, Ml 49005 ................ 616-685-6061
Kalamazoo Resource Center
P.O. Box 1532, Kalamazoo, Ml 49005 ........ . ...... 616-345-7878
Affirmations Lesbian/Gay Community Center
Suite 110, 195 W. Nine Mile Rd.
Ferndale, Ml 48220 ....... . ........... . ......... 313-398-GAYS
http1/www.webspace.com/~tcc/affirmations/index.htme
Lansing Association of Human Rights
P.O. Box 18062, Lansing, Ml 48826 ................. 517-332-3200
Capital Men's Club
P.O. Box 18062, Lansing, Ml 48902 ... . (Kelly Stevens) 517-482-0860
Ambitious Amazons/Lesbian Connection
P.O. Box 811, East Lansing, Ml 48826 . . ... .. .... . ... 517-371-5257
Lesbian Alliance
P.O. Box 6423, East Lansing, Ml 48826 .. . ........... 517-394-1454
Triangle Foundation (Lesbian/Gay Foundation of Michigan)
19641 W. Seven Mile Rd., Detroit48219 . . .... . .. . . . . 313-537-3323
... . . .. . . . . ....... . . .. .... . . ....... . . .. . . Fax: 313-537-3379
email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . trijeffm@aol.com
PRIDE-Flint: P.O. Box 7014, Flint, Ml 48507 . .. . ... .. ... 313-238-9854
Aurora Newsletter: (reaching out to gays, lesbians, bisexuals in the UP &
Canada) POB 626, Marquette, Ml 49855
Team Great Lakes
195 W. Nine Mile Rd., Suite 106, Ferndale, Ml 48220 .. 810-553-3586
LOCAL SERVICE/ SOCIAL/ POLITICAL
Friends North (information line) ... .. .... . .. . .... . .. . . 616-946-1804
Windfire Gay & Lesbian Youth Support Group-Call Third Level for location & time . . . ... . .. . ... . .... 616-922-4800
or .. .... .. ... .. .... . ................... .. ..... 800-442-7315
Side Traxx Nite Club, 520 Franklin St. off of 8th St. ....... 616-935-1666
Traverse City Human Rights Commission, 400 Boardman . 616-922-4700
Gay Alcoholics Anonymous,
Grace Church, Washington at Boardman, TC .... John 616-922-0746
P-FLAG, Traverse City
POB 1705, Acme, Ml 49610 .. ... . .......... . . Cindy 616-271-5045
GLSTN (Gay/Lesbian/Straight Teachers Network) .... ... . 616-943-8800
NOW (National Organization for Women) Gail Trill ... . ... 616-938-1333
NATIONAL SERVICE / SOCIAL / POLITICAL
P-FLAG: Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
101214th St. NW, Ste. 700, Washington, DC 20005 .... 202-638-4200
GLAAD: Gay/Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
80 Varick St., #3E, New York, NY 10013 ...... ... ... . 212-807-1700
. ... ... . . .... .. .. . ....................... Fax: 212-807-1806
email . . .............. . ... .. .. .. . . ..... . ... glaadnatl@aol.com
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force . ... . . .... .. ..... 202-332-6483
2320 17th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009 ....... Fax: 202-332-0207
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund
666 Broadway, New York, NY 10012 . . ...... . . .... . . 212-995-8585
ACLU Lesbian/Gay Rights Project
1370 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94130 .... . .. . .. 415-621-0674
HRC: Human Rights Campaign (National Coming Out Day)
101214th St. NS #607, Washington, DC 20005 ...... . 202-628-4160
... .. . ............... ... . ................ Fax: 202-347-5323
email . . ...... . ......... .... .. ..... . .. . ... . . www@hrcusa.org
Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, Political Action Committee
101214th St. NW #707, Washington, DC 20005 ....... 202-842-7679
NE1WORKING 4S°NORTH
LOCAL HIV/AIDS HEALTH COUNSELING:
Wellness Networks, Grand Traverse,
P.O. Box 1632, Traverse City, Ml 49685 ........ ... .. 616-947-1110
Wellness HIV Support Group and
Family and Significant Other Support Group . . .. .. .... 616-947-1110
Grand Traverse County Health Department ....... . . . ... 616-922-4831
(anonymous HIV Testing Center)
Mary Dillinger, RN, Clinical Nurse Specialist .. .. . ... . ... 616-935-8140
Munson Medical Center HIV Clinic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-800-847-84 74
Community Health Clinic . . .. ... .... .. ..... . . . . . . .... 616-929-4448
(anonymous counseling/testing; same-day results no fee)
H.A.N.D.S. (HIV/AIDS Support: Petoskey) . . . ....... . . 1-800-248-6777
HERE ARE SOME PHONE NUMBERS EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE:
The White House (202) 456-1111; the U.S. Capital (202) 224-3121;
and some phone numbers for Northwest Michigan Residents-Carl Levin (202)
224-6221 or in TC (616) 947-9569; Spencer Abraham (202) 224-4822 or in Grand
Rapids (616) 456-2592; Bart Stupak (202) 225-4735 or in TC 929-4711
s
VOLUME 10 •ISSUES• SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
Contributions
Keep this in mind when voting against Democrats, I myself am a
Democrat, and I understand that they have their shortcomings, but I
look at the alternative (Republicans) and Democrats don't seem too
bad. If you will, Democrats are the lesser of two evils.
Please exercise your right as an American citizen and register to
vote, and get out and support those who will help our community
and defeat those who can hurt us. If you are interested in politics and
want to put your efforts into helping the LGBT Community through
the political process, we do have people here in Northern Michigan
already organized. If you would like more information, please
contact me through Friends North at the FN PO Box, I will respond
immediately.
FROM THE COMMUNITY
GET POLITICAL
Col Spitler
I attended an event this past April called the Michigan LGBT
Political Leadership Summit. This day long workshop/summit
energized my own interest and involvement in politics and reminded
me how politics affects our community. I know that many in our
community, and maybe Americans in general, react to politics with
an EEUUWW! as they hold their noses. One of the speakers at the
Summit, Rep. Lynn Rivers (D-Ann Arbor), pointed out that we must
be political, ubecause the people of the religious right, who are
opposed to everything that positively affects the LGBT Community,
are so organized that they will steam roll over us and destroy any
accomplishments we have achieved."
How do we protect what we have accomplished and improve the
situation for our community? Rivers has some good advice. First of all,
please register to vote and vote. Look for coalitions, join forces with
other groups who are fighting something or looking to accomplish the
same goal. Sometimes there are allies we never dreamed of who will
join us. For example, John Engler actually helped to defeat an anti-gay
petition drive similar to Oregon's and Colorado's because he knew
potential boycotts would have hurt the state.
If you are trying to get a legislator's attention on an issue, find
some kind of connection that will touch them personally. Perhaps
you are acquainted with a close relative or friend of the legislator who
might be able to get his/her attention better. The key is to find a
personal touch that puts a human face on the issue and thus makes
the legislator take notice. When calling or writing to a legislator, do
not say, "And I sent you money to fund your campaign." This only
sends the message that you believe the legislator only cares about
moneyed interests and can be bought or sold by whoever has the
most money.
Rivers also pointed out something crucial that I think we should
heed. She says that it does no good to do a letter writing campaign to
a legislator who is diametrically opposed to our point of view. This is
a waste of energy. Instead we should put our energy into finding good
candidates who will be supportive of our goals and do everything
possible to get that person elected.
I know that some people are turned off by Bart Stupack, for
example, and some people might vote for a Republican candidate
who might be (or say they are) Pro-Choice. I understand the thought
behind the vote against Bart. But please keep in mind that every vote
for a Republican and every victory for a Republican is an addition to
a Republican majority in Congress, and a Republican majority means
that Newt Gingrich is Speaker of The House. He decides what antigay-legislation is introduced or what pro gay legislation is blocked.
NE1WORKING 45°NORTH
A SENSE OF PLACE
}. D. Fournier
5800 Eubank Blvd. 111723
Albuquerque, NM 87111
Like a flock of homesick cranes
flying night and day back to
their mountain nests, let all my
life take its voyage to its eternal
home in one salutation to thee.
-Rabindranath Tagore
What do homesick cranes have to do with my life and with the
broken places of all our lives? They are a symbol of our inside, the
place that I call the pilgrim heart. It is a part of us that is never home,
that is always stretching and yearning to be home but knows that we
have not yet arrived. It is in my yearning, my brokenness, that I am
drawn to finding "a sense of place" for my own life. I am one of the
homesick cranes and my winging homeward is a process that each
one of us experiences. It is the journey of my spirit and the road
markers along the way that keep saying: HELLO this way GOOD-BYE
that way. When I recognize this most important dimension of my life,
it can make being "homeless" a little easier to understand and can
help me to live through the pain of my heartaches with more hope. I
can see my life experiences from the perspective of going home, and
PLACE
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VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
PLACE (continued from previous page)
I know that the groaning and yearning of my spirit is natural because
I am in the homeward process.
"What?" you might ask, has prompted this homeward journey,
this need for a sense of place. This journey really began years ago in
my late teens; when I had come to realize and understand who I was
as a gay man. Growing up Catholic and being raised in rural
Michigan has and continues to play an important part in finding my
way home. But most recently with the death of my father and four
years earlier the death of my mother this winging homeward has
become most important. Home had always been where they were.
Namely, Michigan. I have moved and lived in many places. I have
said good-bye often in my life. I have seen friends die and
relationships have ended. I have struggled to find a place in the
Church because of my being gay. Even in that pain and struggle I will
continue to do the work that I do and I will not budge from my place
at the Communion Table because that is my right and I will remain
standing next to those who hate me. I will not give up the piece of
bread that has been broken for me. I have struggled to find a place in
the gay community because.of my belief in God and my need for a
life of spirit and prayer. I am looked at as strange and one not to be
trusted because of what has been done to the gay and lesbian
community through the Organized Church. I am gay and that will not
change nor do I want it to change. And as a gay man I want to believe
that there is something greater and that God is bigger than the hate
that is spewed ollt by Christian groups. I should feel comfortable and
unafraid to profess this even with my gay brothers and sisters. And
not fear a life of isolation and aloneness.
So where is this place? I believe it is a place inside of me where
I find wholeness and self, that inner core of peace. It is also the place
of being true to who I am. Entering the home of my true self. There is
no longer a false sense of home for me. I come home to myself in my
wholeness, my goodness, my fullness of beauty. This homecoming is
always in process. The homesick crane in me knows that life is a
journey, and that I can never completely settle in.
The reality that comes from being a homesick crane is that while
I know that I am always going home, I must also be deeply rooted
and involved in my present condition. I must give myself to the
human journey and not try to by-pass it because of the pain, struggle,
or possible isolation. It is in my humanness, my being gay, and in my
beliefs, that I discover the beauty of the inner terrain. It is then that I
find "a sense of place."
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begins
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I forget how
it should be!
The communion feast
is prepared
from the sacred cupboard.
I take and eat.
JDF
THE MYTH OF
"HOMOPHILE CHRISTIANITY"
John D. Partin
Though I'm all in favor of any help to individual gays and
lesbians and advancement of gay liberation coming from Christian
denominations or some few Christians, even if very short-sighted and
short-term or done for public relations purposes or to whitewash their
religion's past, I still must confirm the truth that Christianity isn't
naturally or consistently homophile. Of course, as a gay Pagan, I'm
biased toward Paganism and against Christianity, but this is, I believe,
a reasonable bias (contradictory as that sounds), based on realistic
consideration of Christian history, consistent policy and philosophy,
and mind set, instead of airy dismissal of their history, in the name of
"forgiveness," "ecumenicism," and "understanding."
Black people or Jews wouldn't be expected to be as "forgiving"
or "understanding" towards white racists or Nazis respectively, much
less align themselves with white racist or Nazi groups; so, why should
gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders align themselves with
groups which have, historically, always persecuted, dehumanized,
oppressed, and tried to genocide them, too, just because some of
them are now saying: "Gosh, I guess that we just made a mistake!"
Well, those things happen-so, c'mon, just forgive us and let us
off the hook for all of that and we'll have to be made for these slips,
but matters of consistent policy, repeated hundreds of millions of
times over the course of two millennia, no longer qualify as
"mistakes" or "accidents," and so, no longer deserve the same
consideration given to mistakes. Christianity has to be held every bit
as accountable for its past as we demand that the Nazis, white racists,
and all other such types are held accountable for their pasts, and not
just let off the hook because they say: "I'm sorry," since that wouldn't
suffice for these other guys. Every scoundrel is in love with the idea
of just being let off the hook for his crimes and people's pretending
MYTH
7
(continued page next page)
VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
MYTH (continued from previous page)
that the crimes "just didn't happen," but if "I'm sorry" doesn't
whitewash or gloss over 12 years of Nazi atrocities, how could it
possibly do so for two thousand years of Christian crimes?
Paganism (and even Satanism) are far more appropriate religions
for gays and lesbians, since they come right out of the box accepting
of homosexuality and ready for gay and lesbian use and practice (with
no assembly or modification required), whereas, after everything that
you can think to do to Christianity, it still doesn't quite fit with the
homosexual (or heterosexual, for that matter) I ifestyle. Christianity
simply cannot be "revised," "re-edited," "renewed," "rehashed,"
"reformed" or "updated" enough to really meet the current needs of
man, generally, or, in this particular discussion, of gays and lesbians,
specifically, or really be homosexual-friendly, homosexualcompatible or homosexual-relevant. It is, of course, entirely
understandable why gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, under the social
pressure to conform, at least outwardly, to the predominant nominal
religious structure and beliefs of Western society, the same as
everyone else, and yet also desiring to indulge in their natural,
normal, and healthy sexual desires openly and without fear or shame,
would try to find some way of "reconciling" their sexuality with this
nominal religion. But, however much we may sympathize with the
desire for self-preservation and avoidance of being ganged up on by
society involved in this decision, it is still compromise with the
religious status quo, which ultimately, can't help the cause of gay
liberation or homosexuality's acceptance in the world.
Homosexuality has to be accepted on its own merit and not merely
superficially "accepted" by its alignment with, and blessing from,
conventional religion.
The "holy" justification of natural love life and sexuality should
never have become and shouldn't now be necessary. Homosexuality
and heterosexuality shouldn't have to, now, try to drape themselves
, in "holy" and "God-approved" robes and win the approval of their
historic persecutors and bigots, just so that ther can be accepted as
what they should have been accepted as all along, without going
through al I of that rigmarole: that is, entirely natural, normal, and
healthy sexual desires and activities.
No doubt, Jesus' teachings (if Jesus really lived at all) were greatly
distorted by "Saint" Paul and later generations of Christians regarding
homosexuality, too, but it is also true that some religions, political
parties, etc. are more prone toward distortion than others--and a
religion (Christianity) purporting to speak for "the one true God: the
Way, the Truth, and the Life" and "His Will" on Earth can't avoid
being "distorted" and attracting right-wing and fascistic types right
from the start, wanting to identify their will and beliefs with "God's,"
thereby sanctioning them and making it easier to impose them on
other people. To reply, as does the author of the "Does God Love
Gays" article in the April 1996 issue of The Third Coast, that God
wouldn't allow severely homophobic scribes to place anti-gay
passages in the Scriptures if that weren't really His law must, by
logical extension, mean that the Inquisition, Crusades,
Conquistadors' actions in the New World, religious wars, and other
crimes of Christianity were also God's will, since nothing happens in
Christianity that isn't His will and He would hardly object to a few
passages being written in the book of His Word when He didn't keep
these far worse actual deeds from being committed and showing by
action what Christianity really is-in the moving book of His Word!
Of course, all religions put among human beings are going to be
affected by human beings, no matter what "God" wants.
As for "the original Christianity" (about which there are only
guesses), even if it was considerably more pro-homosexual and
homophile than is present-day Christianity (and it could hardly not
have been more so, since it couldn't have been as homophobic asor more homophobic than-present-day Christianity), it still couldn't
have been as pro homosexual and homophile as just accepting
homosexuality as a natural part of life and sexual expression and
activity without going through all of that rigmarole! So, the whole
matter of "original Christianity" is irrelevant and an evasion.
Paganism is more naturally homophile because it offers religious
diversity, instead of "the one and only truth," and so is more accepting
of diversity among people and less susceptible to right-wing and
fascistic distortion. People claim to "get something" out of "believing"
in Christianity as a way of compensating for giving in to the social
pressure of just going along, nominally, with the religious status quo,
so as to make it seem less repugnant and cowardly-and more "noble";
otherwise, no intelligent people would ever claim to "get something"
from claiming to believe that "a virgin gave birth," "a dead man rose
from the grave and ascended bodily into Heaven," etc.
The examples of David and Jonathan, Ruth and Naomi, etc.
aren't proof of the compatibility of homosexuality with JudeaChristianity so much as they are proof that people will fulfill their
natural desires, one way or another-and no matter who says that
they shouldn't. We can argue endlessly about whether or not "God"
destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of the "sin" of
homosexuality------or because of inhospitality-and never come to the
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8
VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
MYTII (continued from previous page)
"truth" about this mythical story (who cares, anyway, since it's just
another attempt to justify our life-style to the Christians?). If "God" in
Biblical stories were to destroy ten thousand Sodoms and Gomorrahs
on every page of the Bible, homosexuality would be proven no less
correct, natural, and healthy by all of that-so, it is all irrelevant to
the issue of homosexuality! Homosexuality is right, no matter how
many "Gods" say that it isn't, since they are only the projections of
homophobic people, anyway, and no matter if these "Gods" approve
of homosexuality, since we don't need their stamp of approval: it only
concerns us and is our affair! It is only the social pressure to conform,
outwardly, to Christianity that makes people even care or bother
about finding the exact meaning of words in Biblical passages in the
original Hebrew or Aramaic or Greek, the exact context of certain
words and statements, Biblical actions which support their position
or lifestyle, etc., just so that they can try to justify, in this roundabout
and rigmarole way, their position or lifestyle, instead of just directly
going ahead and doing or believing it-and to Hell with justifying it
to "God," Christianity or society, so long as it hurts nobody else!
you want to just fad away. But it doesn't work that way. You try to go
on with your life without them and find the pain there each day. It is
like a snake sneaking upon you as you progress through the day. By
the time it is night the snake has swallowed you. If you are able to
sleep it has another day to follow and swallow you again, again,
again.
But the skins do not hide the feeling of loneliness inside nor cover
the pain that seeps through like drops of dew on a blade of grass. It is
there to see but no one looks. Try as hard as you can there is no
breakthrough and no out. You live with it and keep hope alive where
there is none. I have lived this way too long but know it isn't the end.
The new day will come and the same feeling will be there.
Where is the escape you so want but will not be given. Is this the
Hell Christians talk about; the place where no one wishes to tread? I
go step by step with hope in a hopeless area. There is no escape
except by those who wish you no escape. Being beyond pain the
feeling is not describable. But to tread on and on and on.
I wouldn't wish this type of life upon anyone but many in the
family have wished it upon me and have had their wish granted. Who
could but wish for the end to this pain and suffering. But no end will
come. It is my constant companion. Maybe I have to learn to take it
to heart and love it. Then it couldn't hurt me anymore. Life O life why
is it such that this happens?
FAMILY REUNION AND 1DIDN'T FEEL
COMFORTABLE TO GO.
FEELINGS OF REJECTION
Pat Calligan
The worst thing in the world a person can do is ignore another
human being. I am speaking from experience. I don't think they know
the pain they cause and if they do they are really sick people. It is
hard to believe one would visit this onto another person. Even if I was
the worst person in the world the torture is beyond the justice they
LETTERS
Dear Editor,
I would like to add my two cents worth toward the issue of
adding sexual orientation to the city's non-discrimination laws. As a
gay man in this community I suppose I should be behind this 200%
but I can't.
When I first heard about this I was all for it but when I found out
it would only cover city employees I changed my mind. I don't give
a rats butt about city employee benefits. They don't do anything for
me. Government employee already have the best medical coverage,
highest wages and every holiday under the sun, off with pay!! And
you want me to help them get another benefit I don't have? Sorry
Charlie as selfish as this may be I believe we're all entitled to be selfish
at times, nobody's out there helping me get better benefits or equal
protection or what ever you want to call it.
Being gay doesn't mean I always agree on gay issues just because
the majority feels it's so. I realize there has to be a starting point and
eventually it might cover everyone not just the city but I can't find it
in my heart to help a government employee when the government
local or state does nothing for me.
Thanks for the space,
Alec Alspaugh, Interlachen, Ml
seem to want.
I guess I should expect them to feel I am not worth the time of
the day to any of them. It is a pain I have to live with always expecting
them to remember the un-remembered and knowing they won't.
Loneliness is not a pain they have experienced as I have. I wouldn't
wish it upon anyone. Despair is not a way of life but of death.
I have tried to say 'I don't need any of them' but I need the love
all of them could give. It is a pain that grows everyday and makes
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9
VOLUME 10 •ISSUES• SE!YfEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
GAY MARRIAGE IS ACT OF COURAGE
Loraine Anderson,
I've answered the RSVP. The gift is bought. As I wait for the
wedding day, I find myself wondering.
Will they both wear dresses?
The wedding is a lesbian holy union ceremony. It's my second.
The first was a couple of years ago, performed by a Christian minister
in a Grand Traverse County living room.
I've gone to countless church weddings over the course of my I ife.
I've been a bridesmaid a couple of times and a maid of honor in my
brother's first marriage.
Those were wonderful experiences, but it was the wedding in the
living room that helped me understand at heart level the importance of
a ceremony that brings one's spiritual beliefs into the union.
"Will all of you witnessing these promises do all in your power to
uphold these two persons in their marriage?" the minister asked us.
"Yes," we murmured. Something deep inside split open and rolled
through me-recognitior\lt's said it takes a village to raise a child. It also takes community
and the sense of being part of one to help marriages survive.
As my friends' wedding day approaches. I think of the Defense of
Marriage Act. Whenever I hear the name, I don't know whether to
laugh or scream.
Who thought it up?
Never mind, I know. They sit at the right hand of GOP.
And who does marriage need defending from?
The law is aimed at homosexuals, but we certainly are not the
people responsible for all of those divorce statistics.
The politicians can say what they like. I personally believe the law
is designed to protect the sick, depraved stereotypes about
promiscuous gays and lesbians constitutionally incapable of
commitment. They shield people, who talk about "family values" but
mean discrimination against gays and lesbians, from having to
acknowledge that family exists in many forms.
The wedding I'm going to next week will be an announcement
and celebration of love and commitment.
It also will be an act of courage-one for everyone there and for
other gays and lesbians and their families.
I suppose some people-without knowing the couple or one thing
about their struggles, their accomplishments and their lives-will revile
and ridicule them. They will insist that the two women can changewithout knowing how they came to this decision to celebrate a
traditional wedding, complete with engraved invitations, gift registry
and reception.
The prejudice against them won't negate their commitment or
love. It won't make them straight. It will be just one of the additional
stresses that gays and lesbians in committed relationships have to
endure that heterosexuals do not.
Neither their marriage nor their love for each other will be
recognized by our laws, our courts, our insurance companies, the
Internal Revenue Service.
But it will be recognized in the hearts of all of us there who will
promise to do all within our power to uphold these people in their
marriage.
reprinted w/permission from the Traverse City Record-Eagle
NE1WORKING 45°NORTH
TEACHER'S CASE PROVES NEED FOR
SEXUAL ORIENTATION POLICY
If ever there was an example of why sexual orientation should
be added to state, federal and local anti-discrimination employment
laws, the case of the Byron Center music teacher is it.
The teacher, Gerry Crane, was drummed out of the suburban
Grand Rapids school system, and the school board was a participant
in that process.
In light of recent Traverse City Commission discussion of this
issue, it would behoove all of us to look at Byron Center as a troubling
example of what happens when a community doesn't take a stand
on homophobia and other prejudices.
Opponents of adding sexual orientation to anti-discrimination
employment policies say such policies aren't needed. One of the
problems in dealing with a deep, pervasive prejudice is that society
often is blind to examples.
What happened in Byron Center wouldn't have been possible if
our national, state and local governments prohibited discrimination
on the basis of sexual orientation.
Crane became the center of controversy last year when it was
learned that he was gay and 'married' to his partner. Crane did not fit
the false and devastating stereotypes of homosexuals. He was a good,
popular teacher with a reputation for revitalizing a dying high school
music program. Though he did nothing wrong, he got himself into
trouble by tel ling the truth about himself and the commitment
between himself and his partner.
He originally vowed to stick the controversy out. He survived the
school year, hate mail and threats, the intense scrutiny of school
administrators. In June, two outspoken anti-Crane candidates won
seats on the school board. Crane resigned two weeks ago.
"You can put up with just so much and then you say, 'My
humanity is more important than to have to deal with this,' he said.
"Sooner or later, enough is enough." An employment policy that
banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation would have
made the Byron Center community and school focus on the real issue
- homophobia.
It is true that the school board declined to fire Crane last
December as many of the hundreds of people who attended school
board meetings wished. But the board still issued an extraordinary
statement that only fueled the prejudice against Crane.
"Individuals who espouse homosexuality do not constitute
proper role models as teachers for students in this district," the board
said in pledging to keep him under scrutiny.
History shows us that prejudice against minorities, and the
hateful, untrue stereotypes used to maintain that prejudice, do not
begin to abate until discrimination becomes illegal.
Gerry Crane is a good example for people who would argue that
the civil rights of gays and lesbians do not need to be protected.
(This editorial of Friday, August 9, 1996 was reprinted w/permission of
the Traverse City Record-Eagle)
10
VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
COMING HOME
would. Don't get me wrong, the falls are beautiful, but walk a block
west up on Clifton Hill and be prepared for complete chaos. This
by Greg R. Baird
place is the mother of all tourist traps.
So, I bet by now you thought I had gone to California and was
For 7 or 8 Canadian dollars each you can visit such classic places
probably basking in wonderful sunshine, swinging off of palm trees, like, Ripley's Believe it or not, Dracula's Castle, The Criminals Hall
drinking exotic drinks and had a man on each arm. Well I wish I of Fame (I'm not kidding), The John F. Kennedy Asassination Exhibit
could tell you that you are right, but you're not. I'm now basking in (I'm not kidding, again!), wax museums and much, much more. The
the wonderful area of Petoskey. In all respects, I've come home.
place was packed with thousands of tourists and people trying to
Last June I packed my bags and headed out to the east coast
make a buck. I'm not sure why anyone, gay or staight, would choose
where I direct a Performing Arts program. Before I left I had a job offer Niagara as a honeymoon destination. When all is said and done, it
over the phone from a school district in Pasadena. It was to direct a
was an interesting stopover to watch people.
Theatre program at a Magnet school starting in the fall. I thought it
The following day, I arrived back in Petoskey. My journey was
would be a great opportunity and one hell of a move!
over. I saw friendly faces, some who I have not seen in ages and
Well, after numerous phone calls over a period of a month and others I'd just seen before I left in June. It seems a bit strange to be
no more feedback and response from Pasadena, I decided that I back, but exciting. I'm glad that the gay dinner group meets on
should look for other employment possibilities. It appeared that Thursdays. Its a great way to meet people and has a real sense of
Pasaenda was not going to follow through with their offer. I decided
Community. I'm proud to now be a part of it.
to look for another position elsewhere. It was a bit nerving not
I have some adjustments to do with my new job and the place I
knowing what my fate would be in the fall.
now call home. I'll feel more settled in the next couple of weeks.
Along came job prospect number two! The end of June brought a Pasadena and Connersville lost a good prospective member of their
phone call from the principal of a high school in Connersville, Indiana. community - Petoskey just gained one.
He wanted me badly for an interview and was impressed by my
experience. Two days later, I boarded a plane from Hartford,
Connecticut and headed for Dayton, Ohio. I rented a car and hotel
room and went for my interview that night. I must say that Connersville
reminded me of the town in the movie, "Footloose". You know, no
dancin' until you cross the railroad tracks and a church on every
corner. The interview went great and I left feeling like I had a job.
The next day, I flew back to Connecticut and began work on my
Shamanism is the most ancient method of mind-body healing.
first musical of the summer, waiting for the phone to ring. As you can
Shamans the world over saw illness as a break in our
read, stress was knocking on my door. After four days, I received a
spiritual essence causing debilitation and disease.
phone cal I saying I hadn't gotten the job. It came down to myself and
a lady who had six years of contracted teaching experience, and they
Trauma or negative energy from another person causes
chose her because of her experience. I had experience too, lots of it,
spiritual break resulting in loss of power, soul loss or spirit
but unfortunately not six contracted with another school.
intrusion.
A few weeks passed and I was in the final week of directing my
Symptom of power loss are
first show when I got a call from an employer in Petoskey. I'm glad to
say after many phone calls, interviews and discussions, I was offered
chronic bad luck, illness, frequent
a job to come back to a city I had lived in before. I never thought I
accidents or low self esteem.
would go back to live there, but I have.
Symptom of soul loss are empty
The journey from Connecticut back to Michigan is always an
feelings, depression, loss of
interesting one. My halfway mark is always, Niagara Falls, Canada. I
vitality, gaps in memory and long
must be honest with you though, if I could stay somewhere else I
grieving periods.
When we are dispirited, who helps us? We have doctors for
the body and mind. As a practicing shaman, Nancy
Hayward uses techniques from the ancient ones. She
journeys to other worlds and with spirit help restores
personal power, knowledge, healing and wholeness to her
clients.
502 E. Eighth St. • 616•947-1965
Nancy has her training from the Foundation for Shamanic
Studies. For information or for an appointment call her at
616-223-7999.
COPIES • PRINTING • SHIPPING • FAX
OPENING MARCH, 1996
Joann Ewin & Brian Bensett
NE1WORKING 4S°NORTH
11
VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
le
IL A
TI IF JI IE ID
ANNOUNCEMENTS
PRIDE DAY 1997 PLANNING AND STRATEGY MEETING: Please join
us in making Pride Day -1997 next June the best ever for Grand Traverse
area. The first meeting will be Wednesday, September 25 at 5:30 p.m.,
at the law offices of Robb, Messing, Palmer and Dignan, 420 E. Front St.
We need your help and all are welcome. Call Cindy at 271-5045 for
further information. (issue 5)
ADOPT-A-ROAD CLEANUP scheduled for 1996. The last date to clean
Friends North's section of M-72 near Acme is September 26. We will again
meet at the theatre in Acme at 5:30. Call Alec at 943-4492 (issue 5)
GAY GAMES IN 1998: Team Great Lakes is organizing for the upcoming
games in Amsterdam, scheduled for August 1-5, 1998. Those interested,
please call Ann Heier at 810-547-4692. Team Great Lakes sent 180
individual athletes and teams to New York City in '94. (Issue 6)
BI-MONTHLY, Bl-SEXUAL, WOMEN'S LUNCHEON: Meet the first and
third Tuesday of each month, from 11 :30 am until 1:00 at a local, Traverse
City restaurant Call Pamela at 922-0734 or contact Friends North. (issue 5)
WASHINGTON D.C. QUILT: I am putting together a group of people
who are interested in going to Washington in October to see the entire
Names Project Quilt. Please contact me, Tom, at 616-947-4647 or write:
208 Circle Dr., Apt. C, Traverse City, 49684. (issue 5)
PLEASE SPONSOR OUR POSTCARD PROJECT: They do make a
difference! The cost for printing the 2800 postcards is $100.00. To
contribute specifically to the Postcard Project, please call Richard at 2713042 or send a check (in an amount of $1 00.00 or less) directly to Friends
North. (issue 6)
QUESTIONS ABOUT HIV AND AIDS? Call locally 24 hours a day to
947-1110. This program is sponsored by the HIV/AIDS Wellness
Networks Grand Traverse Area and is staffed by Third Level Crisis Center
volunteers. (Issue 6)
THE UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CONGREGATION OF PETOSKEY is
meeting at the Concord Academy, 2230 East Mitchell St. Services wi II be
held on alternate Sundays with dates disclosed in their newsletter,
Diversity. Please call 348-3117 for details or write to us at POB 2 71,
Petoskey, Ml 49770-0271 (Issue 6)
HATE CRIMES WATCH: The Triangle Foundatio~ of Michigan has begun
a VICTIMS' PROGRAMCOMMUNITYWATCH COALITION. The group
will collect hate-crime information from Lesbian and Gay victims of such
crimes. For details, call 313-533-1166 or 517-753-9823. Report Hate
Crimes! Stop the Violence! (issue 5)
CREATING CHANGE: The annual NGLTF Conference is being held in
Alexandria, VA, outside of Washington D.C., on November 6-10. For infonnation
contact NGLTF through their web page or call 617-492-6393. (issue 5)
PERSONALS:
LOOKING FOR WOMYN in their 50's and 60's for correspondence.
would like to move into your area after my house sells. Need to know if
anyone has an apt. for rent, or shared housing until I can re-establish my
business. I'm a furniture and interior wood refinisher, also like to do
houses that are considered "fixers." Please write if you feel you might
have something of interest for me. Would like to have a friend in the area
when I more. Will answer all. J.A. Morrison, 508 Delia St., Ludington,
Ml 49431; 616-845-1542 (issue 6)
LOKI'S LIGHTHOUSE (on Tricksters in every culture and religion: Loki,
Puck, Ghede, Coyote, Maui, Hermes, Pan, etc.) is now available! Send
submissions of poetry, essays, erotica, contact ads, homosexuality,
bisexuality, drawings, photos, darker Paganism, humor, lies, scams,
anything about trickery or tricksterism, and/or subscriptions ($15.00 for
four 30 page issues annually, published at the Equinoxes and Solstices,
payable in money order or well-concealed cash only--no personal
checks, please) to: John D. Partin, PO Box 7809, Flint, Ml 48507 (issue 6)
NE1WORKING 45°NORTH
12
G.W.F. NEVER MARRIED, 35, 5'7", brown hair, green eyes, 130 lbs. I'm
looking for a friend or better? I'm honest, trustworthy and FUN to be with.
I enjoy camping, fishing, quiet walks on the beach, looking at the stars,
candlelite dinners and sitting by a fire just holding each other. I'm a
hopeless romantic. Kelli Doyle, 522 E. State St., T.C., 49686 (issue 6)
GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT: Their
Reproductive Health Clinic is open to women and men of all ages.
Confidential services provided are physical exams, HIV counseling and
testing, pregnancy testing, sexual transmitted disease testing and
treatment, all methods of birth control available, FREE Norplants, DepoProvera, IUDs, and Condoms. For more info about these and other
methods which are charged on a sliding fee scale, call 922-4630.
Services are by appointment only. (issue 5)
GROUPS:
FRIENDS NORTH BOARD AND MEMBER MEETINGS: The Friends
North Board meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 6:30 pm. at
Northwestern Michigan College, West Hall on the first floor, Room 2 in
the cafeteria. Everyone is welcome! (issue 5)
FRIENDS NORTH RAP GROUP is a group of men and women who get
together monthly for informal discussion, often on a particular topic.
Please join us on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at Grace Episcopal
Church, 349 Washington, T.C., at 7:30 pm. For information, call Tom at
275-6127 or Ed at 947-4697. (issue 6)
GLSTN, the Gay-Lesbian-Straight Teachers Network, is meeting monthly in
Traverse City. Newly forming, they welcome all interested educators. For
more information, call M'Lynn at 943-8800. (issue 5)
P-FLAG: (Parents, Friends and Families of Lesbians and Gays.) This is a
network of parents, friends, and families of lesbians and gays who meet
monthly to offer information, support, and a place to talk with others
about the issues concerning them. Gays and Lesbians are also welcome
and encouraged to attend P-FLAG meetings. Meet at Grace Episcopal
Church every third Wednesday of the month, at 7:30 pm. For more
information call Cindy Robb at 271-5045 (Issue 5)
WINDFIRE: This is a local youth support group for teens and others under
the age of 25, which meets on a weekly basis in an atmosphere that is
comfortable and friendly. Please contact Third Level at 922-4800 or 1800-442-7315 for location, date and time. (issue 5)
OUT 'N ABOUT is a lesbian coffeehouse featuring entertainment as well
as a chance to meet others from the area. It all happens at the Unity
Church, 3600 Five Mi le Rd. in T.C . Please see the Out 'n About calendar
elsewhere in this newsletter for times and specific activities. (issue 5)
TRAVERSE CITY FRONTRUNNERS If you are interested in running, call
Paul or Jim at 271-451 0 and leave your name, number, and that you are
interested in Frontrunners. We will return your call with information on
where to meet. All ages and abilities are welcome. (issue 6)
WELLNESS NETWORKS SUPPORT GROUP is for people with HIV or
AIDS and they welcome you to attend. Please drop in Monday evenings
from 6:00 to 7:30 pm at the Grace Episcopal Church library at 341
Washington in Traverse City. Every fourth Monday of the month the
Significant-Other Support Group wi 11 be meeting at 3301 Veterans Drive,
Suite 221, just north of S. Airport Road. For further information, please
call 933-0279. (issue 6)
THE PETOSKEY GROUP: A social group for lesbian, gay and bi-sexual
persons is meeting weekly in Petoskey. The group meets at 7 p.m.
Thursdays at the Park Garden Cafe on Lake Street. For information please
contact Tim at 348-8151 (issue 5)
NORTHERN MICHIGAN WOMYN'S CHOIR is always looking for new
voices. To obtain more information or for a performance schedule, please
contact Deb at 275-5924. (issue 4)
VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
Classifieds continued
H.A.N.D.S is an HIV/AIDS Network located in Petoskey. They are
currently seeking volunteers in the northern lower peninsula and eastern
upper peninsula of Michigan. HANDS is a non-profit organization that
has committed itself to helping and supporting the needs of HIV infected
persons. They offer a number of services, including support groups,
education, public awareness, and one-on-one friendship support.
Volunteers are urgently needed in the Alpena, Gaylord, and Rogers City
areas. If you would be interested in the program, please call 616-5269213. (issue 6)
GAY ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS: Meetings for gays and lesbians are
held each Saturday at 11 :00 am and have been moved to a new location
at Grace Episcopal Church, corner Washington and Boardman Streets in
TC. For further info, call John at 922-0746 or Tom at 947-4647. (issue 6)
FRIENDS LIKE US: A social group in north east lower Michigan for gay,
lesbian, and bisexual people. Meets monthly. For info, please contact Jeff
@ 51 7-354-7702, or write to him at POB 391, Alpena, Ml 49707. (issue 6)
CELLULOID CLOSET
TO PREMIER IN SUTTONS BAY
The Sundance Film Festival award winning film, The Celluloid
Closet is coming to northern Michigan! Friends North, in cooperation
will Bob Bahle will be sponsoring the presentation of the film, The
Celluloid Closet at the Bay Theater in downtown Suttons Bay Sunday, October 06, 1996 - at 5:00 pm. We will request a $5.00
donation at the door. Joe Bertucci, Guy Molnar and Nancy
Sundstrom will lead a moderated discussion immediately following
the film.
The Celluloid Closet
Movie Review by M 'Lynn Hartwell
Recently, on one of sojourns to visit my sweetie in Ann Arbor, I
had the pleasure of experiencing the Rob Epstein/ Jeffery Friedman
film, The Celluloid Closet for the very first time. I laughed aloud! It
was great!
Siskel and Ebert said, "Two Thumbs Up! Terrific!"
The New York Times Stated, "Sheer Fun!"
M'Lynn Hartwell says, "You Will Regret it if You Don't Join Usl"
The basis for the film, "The Celluloid Closet" is Vito Russo's book
(published in 1981) examining the patterns in Hollywood's treatment
of gay characters on the screen since the days of the silent film . Mr.
Russo, died of Al DS in 1990, and never saw the skillful transformation
of his research onto film by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, whose
other credits include the Oscar-winning "Times of Harvey Milk" and
"Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt," into such a funny and
informative documentary using the film clips he could only describe
on the page.
We could be describe the Celluloid Closet as, "That's
Entertainment!" with a gay agenda. Film footage ranges from obscure
film clips - two men dancing together a hundred years ago in an
experimental film of Thomas Edison's - to scenes from popular
movies that are familiar to most of us.
NE1WORKING 45°NORTH
Yet even if you have seen Judith Anderson stroking her late
mistress's clothing in "Rebecca," Peter Lorre toying with a walking
stick in "The Maltese Falcon," or Marlene Dietrich cross-dressing in
"Morocco," count on watching those images in a much different light
this time.
"The Cel Iulo id Closet" moves chronologically through film
history, beginning with silent films that featured simpering gay
characters ("Clarence, the clerk - one of nature's mistakes in a
country where men are men").
Lily Tomlin, is outstanding as the film's narrator, stating, "The
sissy made everyone feel more manly or more womanly by filling the
space in between." Later, The Celluloid Closet dwells on gay
sentiments that got past the censorship of the Hays Office and a long
period when they treated gayness as a sign of villainy or terminal
anguish.
Armistead Maupin notes that he always thought sex with another
man would mean having to commit suicide. "And I got that
impression from the movies," he says.
Much of "The Celluloid Closet" concentrates on sheer fun, as
when Paul Rudnick introduces the "Ain't There Anyone Here for
Love?" a musical number from "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." As he
explains, it features ";i gym ful I of body builders who have absolutely
no interest in Jane Russell."
The film also highlights Hollywood's casual use of gay-baiting
epithets and the current abundance of films dealing with gay
characters. Most of the films cited are independent rather than studio
productions, but "The Celluloid Closet" is too upbeat to make an
issue of that.
Among the well-chosen interviewees here are Gore Vidal (very
droll about the different directions given to Stephen Boyd and
Charlton Heston in "Ben Hur"), the writer Susie Bright (describing
what it's like to be galled by the disingenuousness of a "Fried Green
Tomatoes"), Matt Crowley on his watershed "Boys in the Band," Tom
Hanks on his impact in "Philadelphia," and Susan Sarandon, talking
about "The Hunger" and "Thelma and Louise."
Thinking about the latter film's ending, in which the two women
kissed and then drove off a cliff, she wonders what it would have been
like if Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had met their fate in the
same way. Ms. Sarandon speaks with a rueful awareness of
Hollywood's deep-rooted prejudices. "Well, then they would have
had more reason to shoot them, I suppose," she says.
Open Monday-Saturday- 6:00 pm - Sunday at 2:00 pm
616,.. 935,.. 1666,.. 520 Franklin ,.. Traverse City, MI 49684
Proudl Ga Owned and O erated since 1989
13
VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
PRESS RELEASE
WORDS AND MUSIC:
OPEN MIND OPENS IN THE SOO
SAULT STE. MARIE, MICHIGAN-A bit of history was made
recently when the Upper Peninsula's largest circulation newspaper
carried an ad including the words "gay and lesbian." Apparently, it's a
first for the area. The phrase appeared in the Evening News,
announcing the start-up of the Open Mind Bookstore. It referred not
only to fiction and nonfiction works stocked by the store, but also to
buttons, bumper stickers, postcards, greeting cards and magazines.
Open Mind's owners-Dan Doran, Sharon Komondy and Stef
Rutledge-want it known that the business represents "an emphatically
!es/bi/gay-friendly undertaking." They located the relevant titles in a
labeled section of their own near the front of the shop. The window
displays and floor exhibits always feature volumes of interest to gays,
lesbians, or bisexuals. The store's community bulletin board welcomes
postings from gay and lesbian individuals or groups.
The over-all inventory of Open Mind resembles that of alternative
bookstore in larger cities. It focuses on progressive politics (liberal to
anarchist), non-church spirituality (especially Eastern and Neo-Pagen),
nonconformist culture, personal development and holistic health.
Sections are devoted to women's studies and Native American issues.
Free coffee and teas are available in an area with bistro tables looking
out onto the downtown. Stools are positioned among the shelves to
encourage browsing. Music, plants and lighting make for a relaxed
setting.
All books sold at Open Mind, from best sellers to the harder to find
titles, are discounted 10%-70%. The reduced prices usually apply to
special orders as well. If for no other reason than to enjoy the
atmosphere of a place in northernmost Michigan that clearly affirms
sexual diversity, travelers are encouraged to visit Open Mind Bookstore
at 223 Ashumn St. in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. The shop is open 1O
am to 6 pm, Tuesday through Saturday.
EACH DAY BRINGS A CHANCE
How often we wish for another chance
To make a fresh beginning,
A chance to blot out our mistakes
And change failure into winning,
And it does not take a special time
To make a brand-new start,
It only takes the deep desire
To try with all our heart
To live a little better
And to always be forgiving
And to add a little "Sunshine"
To the world in which we're livingSo never give up in despair
And think that you are through,
For there's always a tomorrow
And a chance to start anew ... !
-Kelli Doyle
NE1WORKING 4S°NORTH
A LOCAL GUIDE To BOOKS, MAGAZINF.S, TAPF.S AND CD's
By Rick Gould
Here are a few suggestions for fall reading and listening:
At The Bookie Joint, Shelley gave us this list:
Lesbian Sacred Sexuality by Vicki Noble and Diane Mariechild,
$24.95. A beautiful picture book of black and white photographs of
Highly erotic and
women loving women all over the world.
passionate. Also a big seller.
Prayers for Bobby by Leroy Aarons, $11.95. A true story of how
one family's "love" of God contributed to the suicide of their son.
Bobby's mother has come full circle, with her son's death leading her
to new ideas and experiences which have made her a more caring,
compassionate and open-minded human being.
Forbidden Fires by Margaret Anderson, $21.95. Anderson was
one of the founders of the influential magazine, "The Little Review,"
which published the works of Amy Lowell, James Joyce, Emma
Goldman, and others in the 1920's. This fictionalized account of her
lifelong love of two women captures an era along the lines of
"Ragtime." Has 97 photographs of her acquaintances from her life.
Gay by the Bay: A History of Queer Culture in the San Francisco
Bay Area, by Susan Stryker and Jim Van Buskirk, $24.95.
Music at the Bookie Joint:
I Am Woman, Various Artists, cass. -$11.95, CD-$17.99. 14 of
the best pop songs about the strength and independence of women.
"I Will Survive," "She Works Hard For The Money," and "9 to 5" are
among the tunes.
Legacy, Various Artists, CD-$19.95. Three discs celebrating the
life and music of Michael Callen. Featuring Cris Williamson, Tret
Fure, The Flirtations, Holly Near, and much more.
Note: The Bookie Joint plans on keeping Sunday hours, noon to
4 p.m., at least through December.
At AB CD's, Norm found that some of lnterlochen's Festival
artists, particularly some of the opening acts, have been popular
choices this past summer:
Holly Palmer. This self-titled debut is by a performer who
seemed to captivate audiences with her Marcia Brady looks and her
jazzy vocals. Palmer opened for the marvelous k.d. lang and her CD
features Me'Shell Ndegocello playing on several tracks.
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JenITees
tEr_°s ~,,,u 1r,,, BETTER l(PRt!J
custom screen printing
516 E. Eighth St.
Traverse City, MI 49686
(616)929-3610 FAX 929-9206
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VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
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The Neahtawanta Center
The Neahtawanta Inn
The Center, housed in the Neahtawanta Inn, is a non-profit
The Neahtawanta Inn is located 12 miles out on Old
Mission Peninsula, a 22 mile long
finger of land that divides Grand
Traverse Bay. Nestled among
white pines, maples and oaks,
the long porch looks out onto the
waters of Lake Michigan. A
private beach, wood-burning
sauna and great biking and
hiking nearby add to the spirit of
peace and rejuvenation found
at the Inn. Healthy vegetarian
continental breakfasts are served, and arrangements
can be made for other meals for groups. We just completed a renovation project to add a first floor wheelchair
accessible bedroom and bathroom, a lovely yoga/
meeting space and an updated kitchen.
~!~f:r~~i~~;2i~:;::~~:; ~r
formed in 1987 and continues to grow ~~~ •
and evolve as its members strive to
respond to the challenge of creating
a peaceful, healthy and sustainable
world . Local activities include sponsoring workshops, organizing Earth
Day and working with local peace
groups. The Center maintains a resource library containing pertinent books and periodicals,
and publishes Synapse, a quarterly newsletter. On the national and international level, the volunteer staff at the center is connected with other groups doing similar work, and
maintains a web site on the Internet.
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Registration Form
Nome_________________________
Address_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
Mail to: NEAHTAWANTA CENTER
1308 Neahtawanta Road
Traverse City, Ml 49686
616.223.7315
Cit:-1--_____________.Stote_ _.Zip_ _ _ __
✓
Phone _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _(h)_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (w)
Options:
Single in private room
Couple in private room
Single in shored room
No lodging*
s180.00
s 280.00
s 140.00
s 65.00
0
0
0
0
Please send half of the option chosen as
a deposit with your registration.
✓Costs include lodging, workshop and
meals beginning with Friday dinner and
ending with Sunday luncheon.
✓ We welcome women and men of all
sexual orientations, single individuals and
couples.
✓ For people with allergies - a dog and cat
live on the premises but are not allowed in
the sleeping area.
-With Saturday & Sunday lunch : dinner extra
The American Friends SeNice Committee ( AFSC ) presents ....
techniques for discussing sexual orientation
November 8-10 Friday thru Sunday
Neahtawanta Center
Traverse City
Co-sponsoring Organizations:
Friends North
Parents Family & Friends of Lesbians &
Gays (P-FLAG)- Traverse City
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Unity Church of Traverse City
Are you at
a loss when someone makes an
offensive comment about lesbian,
gay or bisexual people?
This weekend workshop teaches participants nonviolent speech techniques
that help tum verbal confrontations into opportunities for sincere dialogue. It is designed
to help participants find their own voice, in a way that reduces hostility and seeks
common ground, without abandoning their principles.
The workshop is offered by the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Issues Program of
the American Friends Service Committee's Michigan Office. AFSC is particularly
committed to increasing the level of understanding within faith communities about
lesbian, gay and bisexual people and the issues they face.
Come and learn both the theory and the practice of nonviolent communication.
This workshop addresses the verbal combat many of us get into when discussing this
emotionally charged subject. We believe that speech can be used nonviolently to
seek common ground and build community.
People of all religious affiliations or those not religiously affiliated, people of all
sexual orientations and people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds are welcome and
encouraged to participate.
Member SeNice_
s Committee SuNey
Y
our answers to these questions are vital to us. Friends North growth has left us with an
incomplete picture of who our membership is, and what programs and services you value the
most from us . The results of this survey will be carefully tabulated and will help to guide the
Friends North Member Services Committee strategic planning recommendations for 1996-1997 ,
Your answers to these questions will also help guide us into the future . Friends North represents you !
Hearing what you have to say is critical- if we are to do our job well.
<Jrl'P,ynn
PART ONE: WHO ARE YOU?
l. What Is Your Primary Connection to Friends North?
0 Community Member
O Educator
0 Parent
O Student/Youth
2. What Is Your Gender?
O Female
3. What Is Your Sexual Identity?
0 Lesbian
O Gay Male
4. How Old Are You?
0 under 18
0 36-45
5. What Is Your Annual Income?
O Less than $25,000
0 $50,000-$ l 00,000
::J Counselor/Therapist
0 Other _ _ _ _ _ __
::J Male
O Bisexual
O Heterosexual
OTransgender
0 25-35
0 over 55
0 18-24
0 46-55
lJ $25,000-$50,000
0 More than $100,000
PART TWO: WHY ARE YOU A MEMBER OF FRIENDS NORTH?
6. How Long Have You Been a Member of Friends North?
7. Why Did You Join?
0 I Believe in the General Mission of the Organization
0 I Am Impressed by the Organization's Work to Date
0 I Need/Want the Organization's Support in My Life
O I Have Participated in Friends North Events/Programs and Was Pleased with My Experience
0 I (Or Someone Close to Me) Was Deeply Affected by Homophobia
0 I Was Personally AffectedNictimized by Hate Crime
O Verbal
0 Physical
O Someone Close to Me Was AffectedNictimized by Hate Crime O Verbal
0 Physical
O I Know Someone Who ls/Was Involved in the Organization
0 To Meet Like-Minded People
0 Other--------------------------------
8. What Organizations Are You Currently a Member Of. (or Actively Involved With)?
Friends North
□ Out 'n About
□ PFLAG
□ Gay Alcoholics Anonymous
0 GLSTN
□ NOW - National Organization of Women
0 Windfire
□ Other _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
0 Wellness Network
□
PART THREE: FRIENDS NORTH PROGRAMMING AND FUTURE
9. Where Would You like to See Friends North Focus in the Coming Years?
Note: This Is Your Opportunity to Tell Us What You Want From Our Organization.
0 Advocacy / Helping Others
□ Establishing a Regional Help Line (Telephone) That Will be Available 24 Hours a Day/ 7 Days a Week
□ Creating Informative Materials for Use in Northern Michigan Communities
□ Developing Regional Chapters and Increasing Membership (e.g. Petoskey, Charlevoix etc .)
0 Raising Public Awareness on the Issue of Homophobia Through the Media and Other Means
0 Establishing a Trained (Lesbian/Gay) Speakers Bureau
0 Additional Programming (e.g. a Speaker/ Entertainer Series)
0 Creating a Lesbian/Gay/Bi Friendly Regional Business Directory
0 Providing Friends North Membership Cards (Includes Discounts at Area Businesses)
0 Providing More Member Oriented Services (E .g. a Lending Library for Books and Videos)
O Other---------------------------------
l 0. What do you like Most About Friends
North? Please Describe:
l l . What Do You Like Least About Friends
North? Please Describe:
12. Who Do You Feel Friends North Should Best Represent and/or Provide Services For (check all
that apply)?
:J Our Family
0 Lesbians
□ Bisexuals
O Our Friends
0 Gay Males
0 Transgendered
Other Comments :
Thank you very much for your time and help . All information is c onfidential. (Rev: Septem ber 4, 1996)
Please Send Completed Questionnaire to: Member Services T P.O Box 9 T Traverse City Ml 49685
BOOK LIST (continued from previous page)
Shawn Colvin. Colvin, who has already several highly praised
CD's out, "Steady On" and Norm's fave, "Cover Girl." Colvin, who
opened for Jackson Browne, has a new one, "A Few Small Repairs,"
out by the time you read this.
Acoustic Alchemy, the duo who opened for Bob James, has a
new CD out, entitled "Arcanum."
Ashley Macisaac debuts with Hi, How Are You Today? Sound
innocuous? Hardly. This Nova Scotia native really shook things up
when he opened for The Chieftains this summer, with his grungemeets-kilt look and his wild fiddleplaying. Critics say he's doing for
traditional Celtic music what rap artists have done for soul. You
decide! This has been a big seller at AB CD's this summer.
Still haven't gotten over that memorable evening with k.d. fang? Well,
AB CD's is stocked with this great performer's work, from her cowgirl
days to her soundtrack work to her current pop music.
THE Boo.KIE
NE1WORKING 45°NORTH
01NT
15
GLSTN BACK TO SCHOOL CAMPAIGN
by M'Lynn Hartwell
For the lesbian teen who enjoyed a welcome summer's
respite from taunts and abuse from schoolmates, going back is
not, as the TV commercial parodies, "the most wonderful time
of the year."
For a teen-age boy who realized this summer that he is gay,
going back to school this month is not as simple as "what I did
on my summer vacation."
Remember when you were the one whom they shoved in
the school hallway or verbally taunted? Perhaps you were the
girl who was teased in gym class for looking like a boy, or the
boy who got cut from the team as the coach sarcastically
humiliated you when he bellowed, you run like a girl.
GLSTN Traverse City, is asking every reader of Networking
45 Degrees North to join us in kicking off our Second Annual
Back to School Campaign this September. We are encouraging
adults to write personal letters to former school officials and tell
them, in your own words, what it was like being lesbian or gay
in their school and encourage them to do whatever they can do
to make today's schools supportive and protective of
homosexual youth.
The single mo,! effective way to combat homophobia is to
know a person who is lesbian or gay. Alumni who write letters
put a familiar face on the struggles gay teens face in school. We
will be clearly saying that this is not some outsider. I am a part
of your community. This is me you are talking about! This
simple concept has been a very effective tool in creating
positive change in many schools. Your former educators will
not be receiving some stern, preachy tome from a faceless
organization, but your own heartfelt story! Your letter shows
that not only does homosexuality have a face, it is a face that
they know!
The numbers generally cited are alarming: Ninety-seven
percent of high-school kids report regu Iarly hearing some
homophobic remark; 28 percent of gay and lesbian students
drop out of school; 30 percent of all attempted suicides are by
students are commonly believed to be gay, lesbian or bisexuals.
You and I can help our school officials learn how to reach
our lesbian and gay youth through our personal stories. We can
hold ourselves up as examples of gay students who got through
it, despite the long odds and hostile surroundings. If you are
uncomfortable with the idea of signing your name to the letter,
I hope that you will send your letter anyway. If you were not
personally victimized, but have observed a friend's
victimization, it would be helpful if you would write a letter as
well.
Please join GLSTN. Make Schools Safe for All of Our
Children. Sample letters are available from GLSTN -Traverse
City, PO Box Nine, Traverse City Ml 49685 or telephone
M'Lynn (GLSTN -Traverse City, co-chair) at 616 / 943-8800 for
more information. Thank you!
VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
(GLSTN continued from previous page)
BLANKET JUDGMENT
THE PROJECT'S FOUNDER
TELLS WHY TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT
Cleve Jones
The quilt that I began in my backyard nine years ago now covers
25 acres. It's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and the film
made about it, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, won an Oscar.
It's been featured in Doonesbury and on One Life to Live. Tens of
thousands of people have participated in creating it and six mill ion more
have come to see it worldwide. HIVaphoba Reverend Fred Phelps call it
"that filthy fag blanket" and AIDS activist patriarch Larry Kramer wants it
burned. It's the world's largest art project, and it's still growing.
But I had no idea how far it would go that spring day in April '87when
I spray-painted Marvin Feldman's name on a 3-by-6-foot piece of cloth. I
just knew that my best friend was dead and that I missed him terribly. And
that the world was ignoring the disease that killed him.
Marvin would have hated that first panel I made in his name: its
spray-painted casualness was not up to his standards at all. He would
have wanted something fine enough to hand in the Museum of Modern
Art or Suzie Tomkin's collection at Esprit or at least the windows of
Bloomingdales. Fortunately, Marvin had many friends-all more
talented that I-and now he has many quilts. All but the first are beautiful.
When I started the Quilt I was searching for visible evidence of
the horror that was then already so clear to me and to my friendstrying to find a way to illustrate the enormity of the AIDS crisis to the
rest of the world.
I remember standing at the corner of Castro and Market streets with
my friend Joseph Durant one afternoon in late November of 1985.
Joseph and I were each carrying staple guns and stacks of flyers
announcing the annual candlelight memorial march for Harvey Milk
and George Moscone, the first gay city supervisor and the I iberal mayor
gunned down by ex-cop Dan White in 1978. We had paused from
posting flyers to grab a slice of pizza at Marcello's and check out the
San Francisco Examiner. The headline on the front page read: "1,000
AIDS Deaths in S.F."
Joseph and I had known many of those first thousand. We had
danced with them on Pride Days and marched together in protests at City
Hall, gone to school with them at City College and S.F. State, sunbathed
with them at Land's End. And we had met them in the long lines of young
men with anxious, worried faces coming through the doors of the San
Francisco AIDS Foundation.
As we stood on the corner looking around us, we knew that of those
first thousand, almost every one of them had lived and died within a 10block radius of where we stood. There was no evidence we were
standing at Ground Zero-no crater, no blackened ruins, no smoke or
fire or flashing red lights or sirens. Just tree-lined streets of beautifully
restored Victorian homes-the sound of music and the smell of coffee
always in the air. "If this were just a field with a thousand corpses lying
in the sunlight," I said to Joseph, "then people, would see it and
understand and be compelled to respond."
A few days later, as thousands of San Franciscans gathered on the
night of Milk/Moscone march, Joseph and I stacked poster board and
markers on the sidewalk and asked people to print names of their friends
who had died. At first people hesitated. Then a few, and finally hundreds,
of people stopped and wrote a name. Some of the signs carried full
names, but most only the first. Some had only initials, and a few just read
"my brother" or "my lover."
We marched down Market Street as we'd always marched, carrying
a silent river of candles illuminating the signs with the names of our dead.
But this time we left the candles on the steps of City Hall for Harvey and
George and marched another two blocks down Civic Center to the old
Federal building. As the crowd surged into the Plaza, we quickly raised
the ladders againstthe building. climbed up three stories with big rolls of
tape and secured the names of the dead to the gray stone walls of the
Federal building. The thousands below watched quietly as those of us
on the ladders completed our task. When we had finished, the irregular
patchwork of names covered almost the entire front facade of the
building. There were no speeches, no songs, no chanting. The wind was
damp and cold, but the crowd lingered, reading the names on the wall.
"It looks like a quilt," I said to Joseph.
FRIENDS NORTH, INC., P.O. Box 562, TRAVERSE CITY, Ml 49685-0562
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VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
BLANKET JUDGMENT (continued from previous page)
As I spoke these words, my mind was suddenly flooded with
memories of my grandmothers and great-grand-mothers and of the quilts,
passed down through my family's generations, that they had sewn.
Images of covered wagons and pioneer women crossing the prairies,
crackling fires and warm hearths and cozy beds layered with quilts on
snowy winter nights reeled by. It was, I thought, the most perfect symbol
of traditional American family values, coming from the heartland of the
American middle class. It was the perfect symbol for a disease that was
killing the perceived stereotypical polar opposite of that heartland:
Faggots and junkies and black babies.
The NAMES Project AIDS M emorial Quilt was unfolded on October
11, 1987--one year after Marvin Feldman's death-at the National
March for Lesbian and Gay Rights. It contained 1,920 names.
In the nine years that have passed, the Quilt has changed and grown
with the epidemic. Those first thousand San Franciscans to die of AIDS
have been joined by 15,000 more. The Quilt panels of gay friends have
been joined by panels for housewives from Michigan, New Jersey and
Alberta: mine workers from South Africa and Kentucky: teenagers from
Bangkok, Rio de Janeiro, Manila and Sacramento: farmers from Wales,
Iowa, Uganda and Peru: office workers from Sydney, Dallas, Tokyo and
Prague: soldiers from Arkansas, Israel, Thailand the Brazil; teachers from
New York City, London, Bombay and Caracas; police officers from
Marseilles, Berlin, Johannesburg and Los Angeles. Now there are panels
for babies from Nairobi, Phoenix, Mexico City and Moscow; panels for
mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, and sons and daughters of every
age, race, faith and nationality.
The message has also changed and grown. From the beginning we
sought to illustrate the enormity of the AIDS pandemic by revealing
something of the lives behind the statistics. We have offered a positive
and creative means of expression for the many different kinds of people
all over the world whose lives have been invaded by HIV. And we have
provided the entire world with a powerful symbol of remembrance,
compassion and solidarity.
The Quilt that we wil[ unfold on October 11, 1996, three weeks
before election day, will be 20 times the size of the Quilt first unfolded
in 1987. Everyday, somewhere in America, a section is revealed,
comforting people deep in grief, raising money for vital services, and
educating young and old about the epidemic. But the Quilt has also
become a monstrous thing: Terrible evidence of the consequences of our
government's failure. For 15 years the struggle against AIDS has been
sabotaged by outright bigotry, political cowardice and mind numbing
stupidity from Congress and the White House. The cost of this failure is
incalculable, although now measured in thousands of American lives.
The Quilt represents only a small fraction of the total dead from
AIDS in our country and around the world. We unfold it in our nation's
capital in 1996 for the same reason we did in 1987: To demand that the
President and leaders of Congress move forward to accelerate research,
educate the public and care for the sick.
Today we Iive with new hope for effective treatments, vaccines and
a cure. We know that the lives of tens of millions of men, women and
children hang in the balance. The Quilt proclaims that all these lives are
valued, that human life and love are sacred and should be cherished and
defended. Within its fabric acres, we rediscover our commonality and
are reminded how irrecoverably our lives are linked.
For more information or to volunteer at this October's display of the
entire AIDS Memorial Quilt in Washington, call 415.882.3500. For
travel information and special airline and hotel rates, call 800.926.2631 .
/reprinted with permission of Cleve Jones. Cleve spent some time in TC
this summer and resides in Northern California)
Pictured is the display of portions of the Names Proiecf AIDS Memorial
Quilt as seen in Traverse City High School Gym in 1991
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VOLUME 10 • ISSUE S • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
FEEDBACK FROM HAWAII
any attempt to repeal the Brady Bill or assault weapons ban will
be met with a veto. We call on the states to ... guarantee that serious
violent criminals serve at least 85 percent of their sentence ... When
young people commit serious violent crimes, they should be
prosecuted like adults."
REPUBLICANS
"We will reform the Supreme Court's fanciful exclusionary rule,
which has allowed a generation of criminals to get off on
technicalities ... We will. .. require adult trials for juveniles who
commit adult crimes."
11
Aloha awakea kakou!
I just got back from attending a fundraising event in Honolulu at
which Dan Foley, lead attorney in the Baehr v. Miike case (aka SameSex Marriage) laid out this probable time schedule:
1) The case is set to resume Tuesday, September 10th, and is
expected to last two to three weeks.
2) A decision in the case should be handed down around the
end of November.
...
3) Regardless of the outcome, an appeal is expected to be
filed.
4) The appeal should be heard by August 1997
5) Same-Sex Marriage in Hawaii should become a reality by
the end of 1997 or the early part of 1998.
This all sounds very optimistic to some. It must be remembered that
Hawaii revised its Constitution at the time that the Equal Rights
Amendment was being considered, and wrote the ERA into its state
constitution after ratifying the same. Baehr v. Miike has been
successful up until this time as it has been treating the non-issuance
of marriage licenses as gender-based discrimination.
Conservatives are now arguing that marriage licenses are
available to everyone who is otherwise entitled to get married. This
is a true statement. A marriage license can be issued regardless of
sexual orientation. They will not be issued because of the gender of
a partner, however. This is how the case will succeed. It is 11 onceremoved" discrimination akin to denying someone their voting rights
because a sister is a minor, an uncle is a convicted felon or grandpa
was an illegal alien.
A hui hou,
Martin
P.S.-lf you haven't done so already, please donate to HERMP, the
Hawaii Equal Rights Marriage Project. You can call 1-900-97MARRY and donate $5, $10, $15 or $25 as many times as you would
like.
DISCRIMINATION
DEMOCRATS
"We continue to lead the fight to end discrimination on the basis of
race, gender, religion, age, ethnicity, disability and sexual
orientation ... We support continued efforts ... to end discrimination
against gay men and lesbians ... "
REPUBLICANS
"We oppose discrimination based on sex, race, age, creed or national
origin ... We reject the distortion of those laws to cover sexual
preference ... We will attain our nation's goal of equal rights without
quotas or other forms of preferential treatment."
NEW SINCE 1992 ...
Changes to the Democratic platform include the following:
GAY RIGHTS: The 1992 platform promised "civil rights protection
for gay men and lesbians, and an end to Defense Department
discrimination." The 1996 platform is similar, but does not include
specific language on gays in the military.
DEB PRICE COLUMN
Cl in ton is out of step with progress, yet still deserves to have gays
marching behind him.
With 10 simple words in 1992, Bill Clinton changed the place of
gay people in American politics: "I have a vision, and you are part of it."
I couldn't have felt Clinton was speaking more directly to me if
he'd been whispering in my ear. For the first time ever, a leading
presidential candidate was reaching out to me, to all of us who are gay.
COMPARING THE PLATFORMS
ABORTION
DEMOCRATS
"The Democratic Party stands behind the right of every woman
to choose, consistent with Roe v. Wade, and regardless of ability of
pay."
REPUBLICANS
"We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and we
endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's
protections apply to unborn children."
CRIME
DEMOCRATS
NE1WORKING 4S°NORTH
fax 616-929-0799
18
Ph 616-929-9605
VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
DEB PRICE (continued from previous page)
But four years later, it's tempting to dismiss those fine Clinton
words as sweet nothings, as mere campaign froth calculated to bring
in gay money and gay votes.
By this November's election, two of the most sweepingly antigay measures in U.S. history will likely bear the signature of the
president who raised gay hopes so high. The first, signed during
Clinton's clumsy freshman year as president, toughened the ban on
gays in the military by turning a government policy into an actual law.
Clinton is poised to sign the second, the offensive Defense of
Marriage Act, if the Senate joins the House in passing it. Intended to
ensure that gay couples remain second-class citizens after Hawaii lets
us wed legally, the bill would deny federal benefits to same-sex
marriages and allow other states t? refuse to recognize them.
Understandably, some gay voters are thoroughly convinced that
what Clinton held out to us wasn't a vision but a mirage. Our sometime
friend Bill deserves to be punished at the voting booth, they argue.
I must admit Clinton's words didn't have the same old magic for me
when, addressing the gay Human Rights Campaign by videotape Aug.
17, he said, 'When I ran for president in 1992, I told you about my vision
for America - a vision you were and are very much a part of."
But what I've come to realize is that Clinton's imperfect vision
isn't of paramount importance. Far more important is what we gay
people can see for ourselves: His re-election will hasten the day when
we'll have the same rights as other Americans, the day when we'll
have not just a place at the table but an equal portion of justice.
So what we must tell President Clinton is, "We have a vision, and
you are part of it. Not all, just part."
Clinton, of course, can't topple all the discriminatory barriers we
gay people face. He's proven he wouldn't even if he could. Yet I can
reach beyond my disappointment to support his re-election
enthusiastically because he's a forward-looking transitional figure, a
bridge helping move the nation from the era when presidents ignored
or scapegoated us to the one when they'll fully embrace our rights.
Looking backward (the Bob Dole direction), it's encouraging to
see how far our fast-paced civil rights movement has traveled in four
years. When candidate Clinton was asked about gay marriage, it was
a throwaway question. His negative reply sounded no alarms. Gay
marriage seemed a century away. What changed was our prospects,
not Clinton's stance. He's just out of step with a future that's arriving
more quickly than most of us had ever dreamed.
But to give Clinton his due, he's taken dozens of actions to make
this an easier country in which to be gay - from prohibiting anti-gay
job bias within the civil service to declaring that security clearances
won't be denied on the basis of sexual orientation to securing sizable
increases in AIDS funding. Dole, hctstile even to gay money, could
roll back every bit of that progress.
Even our Supreme Court looks much different from four years ago.
This spring a six-member majority broke with the past to hand down a
landmark gay victory. That decision overturning Colorado's Amendment
2 would have swung the other way if Clinton's two appointees hadn't
recognized the right of gay Americans to equal protection.
If we see Bill Clinton as the lesser of two evils, we're the ones
being shortsighted. Improving the lives of gay Americans really is part
of his vision. We need to keep him.
ESSENTIAL DOCUMENTS
FOR UNMARRIED COUPLES
Some documents
unmarried couples should consider:
WILL.
Allows you to pass on property to designated
beneficiaries after death, including those outside a biological or
legally defined family. Also essential for assigning guardianship of
minor children.
LIVING TRUST. Similar to a will, except it allows property to
pass to named heirs without going through probate. A trust holds and
ultimately distributes your assets to named beneficiaries.
LIVING WILL. A directive that says if death is imminent, doctors
can withhold treatment if the only way to stay alive is through
artificial means.
HEALTH CARE PROXY. Lets your partner speak on your behalf
and make decisions during medical emergencies.
DURABLE POWER OF ATTORNEY. Allows your partner to
handle financial matters in the event of a disability or emergency, like
sign documents, pay bills or apply for benefits.
JOINT TENANCY AGREEMENT. Means you and your partner
take title to property jointly and equally, and upon death, the survivor
inherits the other half. With tenants-in-common, a deceased party's
portion goes to whoever was named in the will or estate plan. With
no will or trust, the share goes to the nearest relative.
PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT OR NON-NUPTIAL.
Like a
prenuptial, it lays out how property will be sold or divided if the
relationship is dissolved.
IRREVOCABLE LIFE INSURANCE TRUST. If your estate is larger
than $600,000, you may need to purchase life insurance to handle
the estate taxes upon death. Only married couples are entitled to the
unlimited marital deduction. The insurance proceeds likely won't be
taxed as part of the estate if the policy is bought through a trust.
INSURANCE POLICIES. Some carriers let unmarried couples
buy life insurance on each other if they can prove an "insurable
interest." Otherwise, you can buy a policy on yourself and name your
partner as beneficiary. Many car insurers will insure a nonmarital
partner as a secondary driver. With home owner and renter's
insurance, marital status often doesn't matter.
BOOKS ON
NON-TRADITIONAL FAMILY PLANNING
A few financial planning books for unmarried couples:
Financial Self-Defense for Unmarried Couples, by Larry M. Elkin,
Doubleday paperback.
The Living Together Kit: A Legal Guide for Unmarried Couples,
by Toni lhara and Ralph Warner, Nolo Press.
A Legal Guide for Lesbian and Gay Couples, by Hayden Curry,
Denis Clifford and Robin Leonard, Nolo Press.
Personal Financial Planning for Gays Lesbians, by Peter M.
Berkery Jr., Irwin Professional Publishing. (available at 1-800-6343966, ext 2411, 10am-6pm EST, M-F)
(Reprinted with permission from· Deb Price of 1he Detroit News)
NE1WORKING 45°NORTH
19
VOLUME 10 • ISSUE S • SEl1fEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
BITS
&PIECES
Richard Tuxbury
FIRM LAUNCHES FUND
FOR GAYS AND LESBIANS
Meyers Sheppard & Co., a money management firm based in
Beverly Hills, launched the Meyers Sheppard Pride Fund a month
ago to invest in companies that have formal anti-discrimination
policies against gays and lesbians.
For Meyers, social change isn't her only goal. Investing in
companies that treat gays and lesbians the same as other
employees should be better investments. "It's indicative of strong
forward-looking management team," she said.
Meyers, a 37 year-old lesbian, started Meyers Sheppard with
Les Sheppard, who is gay, back in January. "Everyone wants to
manage their own portfolio," she said of her reasons for leaving
Boston Co. Asset Management, where she worked as an analyst
and assistant portfolio manager for two years.
ALEXIS ARQUETTE TO STAR IN GAY MOVIE
Alexis Arquette has been cast as the lead in the low-budget
picture "I Think I Do," opposite Guillermo Diaz and Margaret
Cho, sources said Friday.
A member of the acting family that includes Rosanna, David
and Patricia, Arquette's credits include "Pulp Fiction" and "Last
Exit to Brooklyn."
"I Think I Do" is the tale of two former roommates who come
together to form a gay couple at the wedding of their college
buddies. It begins filming in the New York metro area this fall, and
marks the feature film debut of writer-director Brian Sloan, a
recent NYU Film School graduate.
SCIENTISTS FIND
NEW EVIDENCE OF GAY GENE
Scientists have found new evidence that a gene inherited from
mothers helps influence whether a man is homosexual, bolstering
a study that made headlines in 1993.
"Our result says that genes are involved in male sexual
orientation, although they certainly do not determine a person's
sexual orientation," said Dean Hamer, an author of the study.
"There probably are other biological factors like hormones,
for example, and other variables we simply don't know anything
about yet."
The study follows others that have suggested a biological
influence in sexual orientation, but scientists still can't explain what
makes a person homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual.
The latest study does not identify a specific gene. But like
Hamer's 1993 study, it suggests such a gene resides in a particular
region of the X chromosome, which is inherited from their
mothers.
OREGON ORDERED
TO GIVE GAY SPOUSAL BENEFITS
A judge has ordered the state of Oregon to offer insurance
benefits to the partners of gay state employees in a decision that
appears to be the first of its kind in the nation.
Judge Stephen Gallagher ruled the Oregon Employes' Benefit
Board violated the state constitution by denying spousal benefits
to three lesbian couples who have all "enjoyed a long-term and
committed relationship identical to marriage." He said the state's
failure to give gays the same benefits as married, heterosexual
employees amounted to discrimination.
It is expected that the state will appeal the decision.
PlanetOut: New online service caters to the
gay, lesbian communities
The San Francisco company's target audience is the gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. Its first Web site,
named PopcornQ, provides movie reviews and information. Its
subtitle is "the ultimate on line home for the queer moving image."
Ultimately, PlanetOut aims to provide all sorts of information,
products and services over the Internet to gays and lesbians
worldwide.
'We will provide everything that gay and lesbian people need
but may not be able to buy in their hometown," said founder and
President Tom Rielly. Outside 12 major metropolitan areas, it's
hard for gays and lesbians to find what they're looking for, he said.
And even if they can find it, some are afraid to be seen buying it.
"This medium lets us bring the Castro to them and provides
anonymity.' (web address: www.popcornq.com)
GAY SENATORS OUTED IN WASHINGTON
Michael Petrel is held a news conference this week and outed
three U.S. Senators, who he says are gay. They are: Mark Hatfield,
Republican of Oregon; Herb Kohl, Democrat of Wisconsin; and
Barbara Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland. All three are presently
sitting on the fence about how they'll vote on the Defense Of
Marriage Act.
The press asked why Petrelis hadn't outed Senator Larry
Pressler, Republican of South Dakota. One reporter, of the New
York Daily News, said that Pressler is known as "the prairie fairy."
Petrelis said that his purpose in outing the Senators was to
bring attention to same-sex marriage and bigotry, and blowing the
hinges off the Senate closet was a good place to start. Rev. Mel
White lent his silent support to the press conference. Rev. White
is currently fasting to show his concern for DOMA.
HARVEY MILK FILM STILL POSSIBLE
The Mayor of Castro Street, an ages in-development
biography of slain San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, may also
NE1WORKING 45°NORTH
finally get made by (To Die For) director Gus Van Sant, who,
ironically, was slated to direct the film years ago but dropped out
during a bout of creative differences. "We never had any
resistance from Warner Bros." on the subject matter, says producer
Craig Zadan. "It was always just about finding the right director
and cast."
20
VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
HRC CAMPAIGN 96 IN NORTH CAROLINA,
The Country's Largest Gay/Lesbian Group
Campaigns Against Helms
LESBIAN AND GAY CHRISTIANS PLAN
'PRAY IN' ON CAPITOL STEPS
Calling Jesse Helms an embarrassment to North Carolina," local
and national leaders from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) have
launched a $220,000 persuasion and get-out-the-vote campaign
targeting the state's undecided - or "swing" voters - whom they
believe can be convinced to~ote against Sen. Helms on November 5.
"North Carolina Campaign 96" was officially launched August 6
at receptions in Durham and Greensboro, featuring HRC Executive
Director Elizabeth Birch and other staff members from Washington, DC
and North Carolina. It is the largest expenditure that HRC has made to
date in an effort to promote the election (or defeat) of a candidate.
Tuesday, Sept. 10, gay Christians wearing black arm bands with
pink triangles climbws the east Capitol steps, formed into a human
triangle, knelt and pray for the defeat of the 'Defense of Marriage Act.'
11
NEWSPAPER OUTS ROSIE O'DONNELL
THE GLOBE, one of the 'sensational' papers from Florida, ran an
article in its September 3rd issue describing the "marriage"
relationship of actress/talkshow host Rosie O'Donnell and Michelle
Blakely, star of Grease.
The article describes in detail, through interviews with friends,
the nature of the relationship, which includes raising Rosie's 16
month old child and their attempt to adopt another.
Rosie is apparently quite happy in her first adult relationship
which has worked for her. The couple resides in Rosie's apartment
in New York and are in the process of renovating Helen Hayes'
mansion just outside the city.
JAMIE NABOZNY GETS JUSTICE
A decision from the US Court of appeals for the 7th Circuit
reversed a lower court ruling letting the school system off the hook.
Jamie Nabozny was repeatedly harassed and assaulted because he is
gay, and the Wisconsin school system would do nothing to protect
him. Jamie and his parents filed suit to force the school district to
change their policy, and lost in a lower court ruling earlier this year.
AUSTRIA HAS BLESSED WEDDING
Austria's first homosexual wedding took place in early
September after days of controversy among Protestant clerics over
whether to allow the service to go ahead. Around 100 people
gathered in the Evangelical Church in Vienna's Simmering district to
witness the service for the lesbian couple, the first homosexual
wedding to be officially blessed by a religion.
September 9, 1996 Washington, D.C.
For the past ten days, lesbian and gay Christians and their allies
have gathered near the east Capitol steps in their "Fast for Justice."
They represent thousands of clergy and laity across America who are
praying and fasting with them that the anti-homosexual "Defense of
Marriage Act" (DOMA) will be defeated and that the "Employment
Non-Discrimination Act" (ENDA) will be passed. DOMA denies
lesbians and gays more than 175 legal rights associated with
heterosexual marriage and ENDA forbids discrimination in the
workplace on the basis of sexual orientation. On Tuesday, September
10, the fate of both bills is scheduled to be decided in the U.S. Senate.
"When a great injustice is about to be done," says the Rev. Dr.
Mel White, spokesman for the fast, "our Jewish and our Christian
prophets call us to fast and pray. The 'Defense of Marriage Act'
would result in a great injustice. For the first time, Federal law is
being used to make second-class-citizens.out of every lesbian and gay ,
in America. We are fasting and praying that God will change the
minds and hearts of the Senators who have been taken in by the false
and inflammatory anti-gay rhetoric of religious extremists like Pat
Robertson and James Dobson."
During Tuesday's 12 noon vigil, lesbian and gay Christians
wearing black arm bands with pink triangles will climb the east
Capitol steps, form into a human triangle, kneel arid pray for justice.
During Hitler's Third Reich, European lesbians and gays were forced
to wear a pink triangle as "enemies of the state." White, Justice
Minister for the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community
Churches*, compares the "Defense of Marriage Act" to Paragraph 175
of the Prussian Penal Code, the law used by Hitler in his attempts to
eliminate German homosexuals.
"It's all happening again," claims White. "DOMA is just one
more attempt by religious and political extremists to dehumanize and
degrade homosexuals. One of the Christian Coalition's primary goals
is 'to eliminate homosexuality.' DOMA helps pave their way with its
inference that our love for one another is inferior, unworthy,
perverse."
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21
VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
FIRST-EVER GAY YOUTH
MARCH ON WASHINGTON
HUMAN
RIGHTS
CAMPAIGN
ELIZABETH BIRCH TO ATTEND
MICHIGAN DINNER
Elizabeth Birch, the Executive Director of the Human Rights
Campaign will be a guest speaker at the Human Rights Campaign
Michigan Dinner this fall.
Birch joined the Human Rights Campaign as the organization's
Executive Director in January, 1995 vowing to bring new and robust
marketing and communications technologies to the organization.
Birch had previously served on the legal staff of Apple Computers and
had been instrumental in assisting the company in recognizing and
treasuring its gay and lesbian employees.
In a recent interview with The Advocate, the national gay and
lesbian newsmagazine, President Bill Clinton named Elizabeth Birch
as one of nine people in response to the question, "What gay or
lesbian person has had the biggest impact on your life?"
The dinner is planned for Saturday, October 19 in the
Renaissance Ballroom of the Westin Hotel in downtown Detroit. The
evening will include, in addition to the dinner, a silent auction that
will benefit three local Detroit area organizations and an afterglow
party that is planned to go until 4:00 am. The event is a black tie
optional one hundred and fifty dollar a plate dinner. For information
on attending the dinner call (313) 441-7431.
Press release
LECTURE SERIES AT NORTH CENTRAL
MICHIGAN COLLEGE
The first lecturer is going to be Jeanie White-Ginder. She is the
Mother of Ryan While who passed away from AIDS in 1990. She
will be speaking in the Conference Room on the campus of North
Central, October 16 at 7:00pm. Jeanie will be talking about her life
with Ryan and The Ryan White Foundation. The Lecture is free to
the public. For more information they can Greg at (616) 348-6706.
On October 12, 1996 an estimated 500 gay, lesbian, bisexual
and transgendered young adults are expected to arrive at the Nation's
Capital for the first-ever gay youth march on Washington. As part of
the festivities planned for the 2nd Annual IYG National Youth festival
the 350 Festival participants will be joined by an estimated 150 mor~
local youth. Together they will march on the streets of Washington
DC to demonstrate that one, these youth exist, two, these youth have
voices, and three their voices count.
This festival is an invaluable opportunity for gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgendered people under age 21, from all across the
nation to enjoy the peer support often found by heterosexual
adolescents in everyday activities. Mainstream activities such as
school, sporting events, youth camps, and retreats often do not
provide a safe environment for gays and lesbians to be themselves.
Youth will be provided a safe place to identify with peers who have
similar experiences and to have fun without fear. The weekend
Festival is a direct result of the efforts of youth planners from St. Louis,
Missouri, Indianapolis, Indiana and Washington, DC.
the Youth Festival is running concurrently with the 16th National
P-FLAG conference, and the full display of the NAMES Project AIDS
Quilt. The Festival runs from October 12, 1996. The goal is to create
a supportive context for the youth to share their stories and
experiences, while gaining strength, hope and support from their nongay friends, relatives, and allies.
IYG is a non-profit agency.which supports youth in gender and
sexual self-discovery. In 1987 IYG was founded by Christopher
Gonzalez. Nine years later IYG is considered one of the largest gay
youth-serving organizations in the country. Over the last several years
IYG has expanded throughout Indiana with the development of 1O
different support Chapters, including: Anderson, Bloomington,
Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Lafayette, Merrillville, Muncie,
South Bend, and Richmond, and expansion continues as IYG makes
a name for itself nationally. On the national front, IYG is home to the
first National peer-run toll-free support hotline for gay and lesbian
young adults.
For information about how to register, or more information about
the Festival, contact Michele O' Mara at (317) 541-872 6.
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TRANSSEX MOVEMENT GROWING
'Last pariahs' demand respect, legal rights
by Carey Goldberg, The New York Times
LOS ANGELES-In Boston, Nancy Nangeroni is helping arrange a
courthouse vigil for a slain transsexual. In Washington, Dana Priesing
lobbies for laws that would ban discrimination against "transgendered"
people.
And in Southern California, Jacob Hale and the rest of the local
Transgender Menace chapter occasionally pull on their black Menace Tshirts and go for a group walk just to look people in the eye with collective
pride in who they are.
All see themselves as part of a movement with members who are only
now, nearly two decades after gay liberation took off, gathering the
courage to go public and struggle for the same sort of respect and legal
protections.
The name that scholars and organizers prefer for this nascent
movement is "transgender," an umbrella term for transsexuals crossdressers (the word now preferred over transvestites), intersexed people
(also known as hermaphrodites), womanish men, mannish women, and
anyone whose sexual identity seems to cross the line of what in 1990s
America, is considered normal.
That line has certainly blurred. Dennis Rodman preens in his bridal
gown, Ru Paul puckers for MAC cosmetics, and viewers flock to Movies
like The Crying Game.
Butmovementmemberssaytheycannotescapethefeelingthatinasociety
grown more responsive to other minorities, they are among the last pariahs.
When they give up the old dream of simply" passing" as their desired
sex, they face painful battles in everyday life and in the political arena,
where they are condemned as deviants by religious conservatives and
often spark controversy among more mainstream gay and lesbian groups.
Their very existence, they say, is such a challenge to gut-level ideas
about a person's sex as an either-or category-as reflected in everything
from binary bathrooms to "he" and "she" pronouns--that they are often
subjected to scorn, job bias and violence.
"There's finally a voice saying, 'Enough,"' said Riki Anne Wilchins, a
Wall Street computer consultant and movement organizer.
"We pay taxes. We vote. We work. There's no reason we should be
taking this. When you have people in isolation who are oppressed and
victimized and abused, they think it's their own fault but when .. . they see
it happening to other people, they realize it's not about them. It's about a
system, and the only way to contest a system is with an organized response.
As many as 60,000 Americans consider themselves valid candidates
for sex-change surgery, based on what psychiatrists call "gender identity
disorder" reports the Harry Benjamin Gender Dysphoria Association.
But that is only the tip of a far larger icebergs organizers say, of crossdressers--many of whom are heterosexual men-and people who live as
the opposite sex but never undergo surgery.
The movement's growth, however, is easy to discern. Scores of
participants rallied as part of a new advocacy group called Gender PAC for
the first time in Washington last fall and plan to do the same in May, and
transgender conventions now draw hundreds and number nearly 20 a year.
The movement's coalescence, which members say began over the last
five years and recently accelerated, has gained parti cu Iar mo men tum from
NE1WORKING 45°NORTH
23
the Internet, which connects far-flung people and affords them a sense of
safety.
On-line groups that began by swapping tips on using makeup and
obtaining hormones now also spread word of the latest victims of violence
and the next protest.
But "the fundamental building block of the whole movement," said Dr.
Barbara Warren of the Gender Identity Project at New York City's Lesbian
and Gay Community Services Center, "is the willingness of transgender
folk to put themselves out there."
SCOIT continued from back page
all the people at Sugar Loaf - they may not have heard all the
information but they probably assumed everyone was gay and could
picture them as real people. Friends North has been a social
organization as long as I have known it and I think that social aspect
can be our route to activism."
The subject of a place to hang out came up, the bar being the
only place right no~.
"I go over there after work occasionally. And it is w;ually fairly
quiet except on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays .. And it seems to '
me that it could be used as a center by having a non-music night - a
coffee bar on certain nights of the week. I would be more likely to go
over there to not have a drink during the week. But there's nobody
there as it is now. I would like to go and know that some of my friends
would meet there. "
Besides working at Tender Care and gardening this summer, Scott
has been regular in his weight training which he does at the TC Gym.
"I like to get up at 8 and have coffee. At 9 I have a bowl of cereal
or something. At 10 I go to the gym, and I work out for an hour or an
hour and a half and when I come back I do my errands and chores or
whatever and go to work at 2:30.
"Gardening and weight-lifting have been the main things this
summer. But this spring I was threatening Florida big time. I even had
someone come in to appraise the house. I was putting it on the market
and leaving for Florida. Last winter was a terrible one for many
reasons: work, relationship and snow. I decided, though, to stay and
be more active. Last winter the only winter activity I did was
shoveling. It was not exciting. I'm going to get more involved with
winter activities."
•.i
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Flowers
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Gi.fts
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A
•
VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996
ScottJust being himself. (what's he smiling about?}
PROFILE: SCOTT SOUTHWELL
and then took a job
in
August
with
John Evans
Tender Care where
As I approached Scott's house I noticed a new garden had been
he is still on staff.
.
.
dug out along the east side of the walk.
"I like care11 1 did the bed alongside the walk during cherry festival - dug It
giving. When I left
out by hand with a shovel!" Scott explained. And I recalled the
the
hospital
in
beautiful garden he had in the backyard of his house in Marquette,
Marquette I went
where we first met. At the time Scott was a nurse on the oncology
into a management
unit of Marquette General Hospital.
role at the hospice
A graduate of Indian River High School Scott went to Northern
up there for a year.
Michigan University where he got a degree in English with a minor
Then down here the
in mathematics.
position I had at
11 1 student-taught for six weeks and didn't like that at all. I was
hospice was actually
too young and I didn't want to be teaching people my own age. Now
coordinating direct
I could do a better job teaching ... probably if I did it over I would be
care, and then I went
an elementary school teacher ... they're still teachable."
to the management
After graduation Scott took a year off and got a job at the
position which was
hospital washing dishes.
.
only
managing
" ... Which is how I became a nurse! I worked there about six
people. Then I went to Tender Care and I worked for about six weeks
months and then applied to nursing school. I had an interview with
in direct care, and I enjoyed that and then took a promotion to
the dean of nursing. There was really no problem getting in (I had
management becaus~ I have that ability and did that for six months
good grades) until the last question of the interview: Why do you
and really didn't care for that at all, not at all fulfilling. Then I went
want to be a nurse? 'Well,' I said, 'I work at the hospital now and I
back to a staff position in April of this year ... someone said 'You know
have to wear white and I think I look very good in white, but I don't
Scott you're the only one I know who is studiously climbing DOWN
want to wash dis hes for the rest of my I ife.' And she laughed, and she
the ladder."
let me in. And to this day I can't think of a better reason. I'm a good
We got on the subject of coming out and family. Scott has seven
caretaker."
brothers and sisters. He is the third oldest.
Scott got his nursing degree in 1987 and worked at Marquette
"My oldest brother and three sisters I'm close to and they are
General for five years during which time he also worked part time in
open about it. The only bad coming out experience I've ever had is
the doctors' office.
with my parents. That was eight years ago and they still don't talk.
11 Working oncology is my vicarious death experience. I get it
There's a lot of fear there ... I was the star child - good grades, wellover and over. It teaches me how important it is to enjoy your life as
behaved, went to college, got a good job, could make something of
it is right now all the time."
myself and I turned out queer."
In the course of his work on the seventh floor of Marquette
Scott's first realization of his gayness began when he got to
General, Scott met Joe Bertucci (who has been profiled in these pages
college. His acceptance of it didn't occur until he was a senior and
some months ago). At the time Joe was taking care of a person with
had a relationship with a classmate.
AIDS named Earl and needed help.
About a year after Scott moved here he was elected to the board
"It was a 24-hour care job. Being\1 nurse and a good care giver I
of Friends North and ·soon after that took over the duties of
was able to take up some of the slack. We became a little family of three,
treasurer from Gretchen Sauvage.
and Earl and Joe moved into my home six months before Earl died."
"I see Friends North always trying to define itself: Are we a social
group or are we an activist group? Are we something in between? It
After this stressful period of time, coupled with several severe Upper
really depends on the composition of the board. Over time we should
Peninsula winters, Scott and Joe began to think "Florida". But the job
just kind of relax and be what we are. My own belief - I don't carry
search only took them as far south as Traverse City. So far, so good! Scott
placards - I've got my rainbow sticker - don't get me wrong - and it's
sold his home in Marquette and purchased the one they now occupy,
on my new truck! The way to change the world is to live your life the
which happens to be within shouting distance of Side Traxx!
way you would if the world were right and influence people. I'm out
"I didn't know that. It was a surprise when I moved in!"
at work ... I used to be shy, but I'm over that!"
Right!
We discussed the effect of Friends North on the community.
The job that Scott landed was with the hospice program based at
"The bike tour brought 120 queers to Leelanau County. That's
Munson Medical Center.
better than a demonstration. I think it impacts people lives more
"I worked there a year and then I took a promotion to
directly. They get a picture of who we are more than if we had a
management in private duty, but I didn't care for managing."
demonstration somewhere. The picnic at the Robb's was
Scott left Munson last summer to take care of Jim Carruthers'
wonderful. .. the history and education day at Sugar Loaf. It impacted
grandmother in her summer home out on the Old Mission peninsula
SCOTT continued on page 23
NE1WORKING 45°NORTH
24
VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1996