LesbianPrideNewsletter_v7.no12.2002.12.pdf
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Newilefter
VOLUMNVII, ISSUE 12, December2002
Stay Anyway
by Mel White
Predictably, after the last election - when the Republicans
outnumbered the Democrats in the win columns - a bunch of
people expressed their fearsfor the fate of our nation. Some of
them even threatened to move to another country to show their
disappointment in the election results.
Alec Baldwin is one of those people, but then he promised
to leave when President Bush was elected two years ago, and
he hasn't gone yet. Barbra Streisand is another one who's always talking about going but who always seems to stay put.
Actually, I think it's pretty interesting that people like Alec
and Barbra, both of whom have received extraordinarily generous rewards from living in the Jand-of-the-free-United-States,
are always whining about how bad things are here. I doubt
very much that either one of them knows much about suffering
or doing without either riches or freedoms.
And when I compare those two people to less fortunate
folks all over the world - the ones who really do know what
doing without is all about - who still dream of coming to the
United States and who are even willing to risk death to get
here, I get downright irritated at how easy it is for some people
to try to belittle a country that is still the greatest country in the
world, no matter who's in charge.
I don't know what the Republican victory will mean No
one does. I remember bursting into tears some years ago when
Reagan won, thinking all must surely be lost for us, but I also
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know now what I didn't know then - that it will take several
years of historical perspective to know what this latest election
will really mean to us (providing the enemy outside our borders - al-Qaida, for example - doesn't get rid of us first
What I do know is that unless there is a military coup and
the terrorists take over, I think I'll stay right here. Right here
where movie stars can earn millions of dollars, and where anyone can make it big in any number of ways. Right here where,
luckily, it is still all right to publicly criticize the government
without fear of getting shot or imprisoned.
Right here where political discussions, strategies and decisions change drastically every two years thanks to our system
of free elections... not every 40 or 50 years or whenever the dictator dies. Right here where the pursuit of happiness is not just
an idle dream but a reality protected by our Constitution.
Right here where I can fin other people like me without
going underground; right here were I can not only find other
stories like mine, but where I am free to tell my own.
There is a lot that could be better about our country, I
know, but there is a lot that is right and good right now, and a
lot that is certainly better than most places on the planet.
A popular sentiment says, "America - love it or leave it''
and I don't think that's such a bad sentiment. Maybe people
should leave if they have a problem with the good ol' US, and
make more room for the people who really want to be here.
Or maybe they should just shut up or put up. Maybe they
should just express their disappointment and then get on with
it - especially on with the business of rolling up their sleeves
and putting their energies into whatever efforts it takes to make
our country an even better and stronger nation, of righting the
ever-present wrongs, of working for better representation and
better conditions for all Americans.
You may be one of those people who cringed when the results came in last month; you may have found yourself thinking you'd be better off somewhere else. And while I really have
no feelings one way or the other about where Mr. Baldwin decides to live, I would really, really miss Barbra Streisand if she
made good on her threat to leave, and I'd miss you too.
I'll just say stay anyway - the United States of America,
the land of incredible opportunity, is still the best place on
earth to be. A
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As I rongratul.at.emysel,f on ronduding another hdiday
season in my llfe,I may feel. like the child whD has opened all
the presents and says, "Is that all?" With the antidpation
beforehand, the glitter of derorations, the p1,ansfar speaal,
times with loved ones, the holidays rarely measure up to my expectations. Issues rel.ated to my
same-sex orientation have the poten:tial.for
added disappointment.
I won't make myself feel, worse by thinking I
shouldn't think the way I do. !f I am sad, my .••.
sadneS5 is understandable. I don't have to feeJ.
hDppy just because of the lwliday seasoTL I recallparts of the holiday season that did fee1.good, and enjoy
my memories of those experi.enres.
As I look bad(. over what has hDppened, I adcrwwledge
that I did my best, and I did well. Looking ahead, I consider
whether I want to plan differen.iy next year. To assure that I
won't forget, I oon put my thought. in writing. Perhaps I need
to devise some UXJ.Yof adrieving do.sure on some interactions
wi.th others. Or I may be ready to let it a1lgo without further
thought.
Al:tlwugh some of my hopes weren't met, I still look forward to the future, ronjident in the knowledge that I ron
make the best of all situations. I am wiser, I am stronger, and
I nurture my neu; vision for holiday seasons to come.
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I move beyond the holidays
with my hopes for future holiday seasons
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by Lee Lynch
For Michelle Abdi/I and Roxanne Ellis,
On The Anniversary of Their Murders
Sometimes-I hate bets. Excuse, me, my mother tried to teach me
never to use the word hate. Instead she recommended "intensely dislike." Whatever. I try to be this positive, loving, accepting, nonjudgmental person, but heterosexuals - we can all name exceptions
- and their pervasive culture sometimes sorely try my patience.
I realize that it's not directly their fault that Oscar Wilde Books in
New York City, the world's first gay bookstore, may be forced into
bankruptcy, just as I realize it is not entirely the fault of George Bush
that the U.S. appears to be chomping at the bit to get at Iraq. Blame is
easy to assign; responsibility is a much more complex matter.
It is so easy to participate in the culture of the majority, and I
wonder if our inability to prioritize our purchasing decisions is not
deeply rooted in our heterosexist upbringing. Tum on the TV and
what do you get: 99.9% bet programming. Go to the movies: 99.90/o
romanticized renditions of het life. Peruse the library shelves: 99.9%
are books, videotapes and CDs by, for and about people who experience the world very differently than most people reading this column.
When the Oscar Wilde first opened in 1967 I was living in the
closet in Connecticut, a new college grad with seven years experience
in quietly haunting libraries, straight bookshops, comer drugstores
and newspaper stores in search of gay literature. The thought that
there could be one physical space that would house what had taken
me years to find was incomprehensible. That there were people in the
world brave enough to risk their lives staffing such an emporiwn of
variance just blew me away.
It took a while to work up the courage to visit the shop, but my
need for it overcame my fear. The store was not on Christopher Street
then; the Stonewall riots had not yet changed the face of the gay universe. The Oscar Wilde was a tiny storefront that I found awe inspiring, comforting and terrifying all at once. I was nervous, not only that
I'd be seen but that I wouldn't be seen, wouldn't be able to make a
connection with other literary warriors. Here I was, surfacing from a
life underground; I wanted to shout my existence and muffle myself.
Life has never been the same - for .any of us - since the Oscar
Wilde took its stand at the portals of gay liberation. The founders of
that bookstore sold not just books, but courage and strength.
And now the Oscar Wilde may be closing. It's a matter of being
8
careful, as they say in 12-step groups, of what you pray for. When gay
lib came along, although I walked the gay pride route giddy with excitement and a feeling of empowerment, something in me was uneasy.
Would normalizing gayness lead to demystifying it? Would being gay
be viewed as normal instead of special? Because I have always felt
special and, yes, I admit it, superior, to the hets with all their privileges and blood ties and mini-me's.
While L and manylike me, came out early enough to have roots
in the old secret society kind of gay world, others threw themselves
whole-heartedly into the new era. Coming out to family and society
became as much a rite of passage as coming out itself. Sustenance
was suddenly available and encouraged in the form of an accessible
gay culture that included books and our own politicians, dances and
our own church. We became a people, a sometimes romanticized and
ennobled tribe. We claimed our place in the sun.
And then we got swallowed up; lesbi-gay businesses are slmtting
down one by one. There's a lot of talk about assimilation these days.
About how we've made it into the mainstream and have become so
complacent that we don't support the very institutions which got us to
this place. And it's all true. Many of us don't have to struggle today.
For every ten lesbian teachers who play it cool in school, there is one
who teaches gay lit to her English classes. Which of them is more
invisible? Which of them is most likely to buy a book at the Oscar
Wilde? Ironically, neither.
And that's why I, at times, intensely dislike hets. Either way
they're still calling the shots. Whether I'm scared and suspicious of
them (I'm both) or basking in their acceptance and approval (I want
both). It is not time to let go of the infrastructure that has given birth
to a fearless generation any more than it is time to give up an inch of
the bloodied ground we have gained.
Some highly visible non-gay people may accept us, but that doesn't mean they've let go of seeing them.selvesas the norm and gay people as deviant. They may invite us to their parties and give us domestic partner benefits, but that doesn't mean they want their kids to
come out. I am so tired of their arrogant chauvinism, their assumption
of having the correct sexuality - of their sexual imperialism.
It's hard for a marginalized people to reject the crwnbs of safety
and privilege tossed by those who haven't let go of an ounce of
power. It's hard not to leave icons of struggle like the Oscar Wilde
behind. It's hard to resist the seductiveness of the unwitting benevolent despots we call family of birth or straight friends or accepting coworkers. We probably won't. It'll take inevitable het betrayals before
we understand that assimilation is just another closet. We can reverse
our losses - and our deceptive gains - by taking back our culture
before we lose it too.fl
CJ Lee Lynch2002
9
en ~acr~d ground
r
by Joy Parks
Future Tense
I'm not a fan of science fiction. I don't usually review sequels.
And if I do, it would take an incredibly rare and special book to warrant an entire column. But that's exactly what Katherine V. Forrest's
Daughtersof an AmberNoonis: incredibly rare and special.
Eighteen years ago, Forrest published Daughters of a Coral
Dawn with Naiad Press. It offered a utopian vision of a secret female
society organized on women's tenns. And it was right for the times.
During the renaissance of lesbian culture in the early 1980s, many
lesbians were turning their backs on the pressures of urban living and
a heterosexist world-view, moving "back to the land" to create
women-only spaces and communal societies. Lesbian separatism was
a common theme in conversation and an economic andsocialideal for
many dykes. For those ofus who couldn't make a full break with the
"straight" world, we turned off the TV, patronized women-run businesses and arranged our social and work lives to deal as little as possible with the patriarchal mainstream. Forrest's woman-centered hidden
society was definitely inspiring.
Fast forward nearly two decades. The world is a different place.
On the surface, claiming our lesbianism may feel like less of a taboo,
but lesbian- or women- only spaces are now rare. Our bookstores,
presses and other cultural institutions are disappearing at an alarming
rate; it would seem acceptance has softened our politics and dulled
our defiance. Few of us speak of separation any more and if we do,
it's quietly, to each other, as part of remembering back when. Now
more than ever, we need to be inspired by a story of women taking the
future in their own capable, loving hands.
Daughtersof an Amber Noon begins the day after the majority of
the women who were part of the hidden Unity have left the earth to
colonist the planet Matemas. This is the story of the women who were
left behind The earth they inhabit has been destroyed by biological
and chemical warfare, most of the population complacently carries out
their orders in a narcotic haze, the land is dying and those in power
have secured a cruel, militaristic and misogynistic dominance over the
globe.
Reading Daughtersof an Amber Noon right now, at the end of
the year 2002, is a chilling experience. Every night, the evening news
10
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warns us of the kind of horror that could be wrought by chemical or
biological terrorism. The term "Weapons of Mass Destruction" has
become part of our vemacular. We are on the verge of a war that
poses consequences we can't yet fathom And the current administration's "With Us or Against Us" policies suggest a Pax Americana
future that could result in decades of conquest, counter attacks and
colonization. Add to this, the right wing's hard line on the Kyoto Accord, corporate America's general dismissal of environmental protections and the damage that biological and chemical toxins could pose
to an already frail ecosystem. Suddenly, the dark, dead future world
that Forrest speaks of doesn't seem so far away or fantastic. It seems
inevitable.
Which is why the hope that shines at the end of this book is so
important right now. It's a small hope, and to say more would be to
give away the plot But it's hope just the same. And too, Daughtersof
an Amber Noon is beautifully written, there's a maturity in the prose,
a quiet, calm, deeply emotional style that wraps around the reader and
gently coaxes them along. One can't help but be impressed by the
vision of women we are given in this book. It's a reminder of our
strength and our wisdom and what might be possible if we, at least
philosophically, come together to support each other once again. I
want to believe that Daughtersof an Amber Noon is, like the best
science fiction, an allegorical commentary on the state of affairs and
also, some suggestion of how to cope. Once again, Katherine V.
Forrest is at the right time, writing about the things that we need to
hear. It's an amazing story and one that I hope isn't quite finished yet.
(Daughtersof an Amber Noon, by Katherine V. Forrest, Alyson Publications, $13.95) Sacred Classic: Daughters of a Coral.Dawn, by
Katherine V. Forrest While it isn't necessary to read Daughtersof a
Coral.Dawn to be moved by its sequel, it's a good way to familiarize
yourself with the concept of the Unity and understand some of the
background infonnation that adds meaning later on. As usual,
Forrest's prose is powerfully poetic; her descriptions of the beauty of
a woman's face or a landscape are equally moving. There's a wonderful eroticism in this book has well, that will surprise and enchant readers. Read it and you'll see immediately why it's a classic.
Sacred Classic. (Daughtersof a CoralDawn,by Katherine V. Forrest,
Naiad Press, $7.95, original price)
02002JoyParks
Ask for these books at your
local feminist bookstore.
"··•:·
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On the &aclPorch
I,~ l:.ufie.McGirf
About Voting
I'm in shock!
I've been in shock for some time now. Well, ever since I
returned to this country a few weeks ago and found that
Republicans had pretty much swept the elections. I went on
holiday and my partner and I arranged to vote absentee ballots before we left. In fact, if going on holiday meant we
couldn't vote, we wouldn't have gone. Voting in this election was very important. I thought everyone knew that.
I was positive that Democrats would prevail and sweep
the rogues in power: those close friends of Kenneth Ley,
those rich and powerful "trickle down" economic wiz.ards
who gave tax cuts to the wealthiest people in the nation after 10 years of staggering profits and prosperity, the gu~s
who engineered an electricity shortage and black outs m
California.
I just knew there was no way America would forget and
that they would be punished in the elections, but I was
wrong.
And now all I can think about is "why?" What happened? And I've come to this conclusion - the right wing is
extremely motivated. The conservative right is motivated by
some of the most powerful emotions in the human psyche
- fear and anger, and more often than not a lethal cocktail
of the two called hatred. And a person on the left, in general, is not. In fact, I fight to avoid falling too heavily under
the influence of those emotions. But today I have to ask myself, is that wise?
And I have to admit fear and anger got me to the polls,
got me to make sure my ballot was cast. From Enron to
Ashcroft, if a healthy liberal isn't feeling a bit shaken, then
she must be brain dead. If she isn't angry, then she hasn't
got a pulse.
The right is also organized. Their people are like sheep.
They like to gather in groups and have someone tell them
12
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what to do. The right gets their message out at least once a
week in conservative churches across the country. Congregations of god fearing people more concerned about the after life than the present state of the planet get their political
consciousness raised on Sunday a.m. from the pulpit. It's
politics ordained by god, so they can't question it. They get
one message loud and dear - "make sure you vote!" And
they do.
So you tell me. I suppose there are many who feel overwhelmed, disappointed and a little complacent. An "I don't
care" attitude is maybe easier to handle. Liberals like myself
have an aversion to feeling angry and scared. Perhaps with
good reason - we're not always at our best when these
emotions take control. But before we throw the baby out
with the bath water, I'm now going to suggest that emotions
such as these might be just what are needed now. After all,
these emotions evolved for a reason and may have been integral to our success as a sped.es.
And likewise, there's a generous amount of these emotions at play during great heroic acts of love such as stopping a child from running in the road, or racing into a burning building to save lives. In other words, fear/anger are
not all bad. These are the emotions that make you ACT
when there's no time to think. The thinking's already been
done. The course of action is obvious. Go! Get to it! Don't
hesitate! The house is burning, a car is coming!
And when there's an incredibly important election, GO
VOTE!Vote as if your life depended on it because it does. If
you are feeling hopeless about the state of the planet, then I
would challenge you to take on a healthy measure of outrage. If you're feeling a little complacent, check out some
fear. It's o.k You can handle it Just do whatever you need
to do to get yourself and maybe a friend or two to the polls
next time there's an opportunity to vote against the current
climate of conservatism that's taking control of our country.
© 2002 LesterMcGirl
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ti' •••••
OBUPride Chartered
In the September23 issue of U.S. News & World Report, the
magazinereleased its annual ranlcjns,cJfAmerica'sBest Colleges,
and for the ninthc:omecutiveyear, OklahomaBaptistUniversitywas
listed second among "ComprehensiveColleges-Bachelor's'for the
westernregionin the 2003 rankings.Aboutthe sametime, 12 OBU
alumni gathered at a De8lbyrestaurantto charter an orpniwfon
whose mission.wouldcba11eogeOBU's long-standingpolicyagainst
gay,lesbian,bi- and transgender(GLBT)studentsand theirallies.
The group calls itself OBUPride,and its missionis "to provide
advocacyand supportto GLBT1and alcompassion,undentandin&
lies who have been associatedwith OklahomaBaptist University."
The orpnimion also providessupport to GLBTAwho have been
adverselyaffectedby the influenceof religiousteacNnp and policies;
providesinformation
andeducationalrcsoun:es
to members;provides
a voice for the mil inclusionand acceptanceof GLBTA; works towardsendingdiscriminatoly,anti-glbtpolicies;and protectathe anonymityof personsinvolvedwith OBUPridewho are not yet comfortablewithbeingcm."
As word about OBUPridec:ootinuesto spread,more and more
GI.BT alumni havebegunto join the o.-poimion and sharetheirstories withother members.OBUPridemembersbelievethat it is an act
of emotionaland religiousviolenceto U1Cpersonalscriptureinterpretation to condenmgay. lesbian,bisexual, and ttaosgeoderpersons.
The groupalso-believesthat it is an act of spiritualviolenceto fon:ea
gay, lesbian.
bisexual,or transgeoderpenon to participatein reparative therapy,whichthe AmericanPsychologicalAssociation,American PsychiatricAa>ciation,and AmericanMedicalAssociationhave
judgedunprovenand potentiallybamftil.
Membershipis opento all penoas in the GLBTcmunuoity who
havebeenassociatedwithOklahomaBaptistUnivenityu studentsor
employees.Checkit out at www.obupride.org
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