HerlandVoice-1987-08-v4-no08_ocr.pdf
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- HerlandVoice-1987-08-v4-no08_ocr.pdf
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HERLAND SISTER RESOURCES, INC.
1630 NW 19, OKC, OK 73106
VOLUME 4, NUMBER 8
AUGUST 1987
LOOKING
TO
THE
FUTURE
by GLORIA STEINEM
W
hile working on this
Anniversaq Issue, I met with a
businessman for advice on economic
trends.
"You must be very happy," he said,
while h.i6 butler served us breakfast in
his elegant boardroom "The Women's
Movement has succeeded, and now you
C8ll go on to something else."
"'\\That makes you think it's over?" I
asked politely. After all, I was about to
t!ll.t tnis man's scrambled eggs.
"Why, I see women everywhere
llVW," my host explained. "They're workl$g in my bank, my investment house,
my ad agency-everywhere. I see more
of them all the time."
I thought about pointing out that
the women he saw were not anywhere
near his own level, and were certainly
not corporate presidents or other authorities he himself might report to, but I
thought he would just say that women
had not been "in the pipeline" long
enough; as if change were automatic and
talent would always be rewarded.
"Do you think," I asked mstead,
"that men are doing housework and raising children as much as women are?"
"My God, no," said my host, appalled. "Is that what you want? That will
never happen!"
I'm sure many of us have had some
version of this conversation. Now that
the idea of equality has entered the
mainstream and there are new legal
tools and visible women in many new
vlaces, resistance takes the more concealed form of assuming that enough
change has already happened. Of
course, that response is still a quantum
leap forward from 15 years ago when independence for women was ridiculed as
the unnatural idea of a few "bra burners." But now that public opinion polls
show most Americans, men and women,
to be in support of women's equal power
in everything from reproductive freedom to high political office, those who
oppose equality fall into two groups: active resisters (who still insist that
women's natural position is dictated by
biology or religion or Freud or something), and passive resisters (who admit
that feminism once was necessary, but
insist that it isn't anymore).
No argument is successful without
a germ of truth. Each of these groups
has one.
Active resisters, from the secular
right wing to religious fundamentalists,
are accurate when they point out that independent women undermine the patriarchal family, deprive the world of its
biggest source of unpaid labor, and
transform the masculine/feminine paradigm on which much of the world's
polarized thinking depends. The secular
George Gilder may sound naive when he
insists that man's only motive for planning and earning money is the support of
dependent women and children. (Which
is why independent women threaten
human progress. Try to get a grip on his
logic.) The fundamentalist Jerry Falwell
may be selective when he quotes the
Bible to prove that Jesus, an egalitarian
for his day, was really a prophet of
women's subservience. But collectively,
these charges that feminism will change
Western civilization as we know it are
only half right. With any luck, it will
change Eastern civilization, too.
s for the more
passive resisters like my friend t .e
businessman, they also reflect some
truth. There has been an amazing
amount of change, and this should make
us all rejoice. Women have transformed
the paid labor force in the 1970s and
.1980s, with an impact on both women
and conventional work patterns that is
still too futuristic to assess. Fifteen years
ago the few women in powerful positions, especially in politics, were widows
whose husbands had occupied those positions first. Now there are independently elected women in the U~f?: Congress. Even the WHITE MALE ONLY sign
has been ripped off the White House by
black and female pioneer candidates for
the top office in the land. That's a very
long trip for just two decades.
But those who use words like "postfeminism" are missing the realities of
most women's lives: the wildly disproportionate amount of violence directed
at females because they are females,
the "feminization of poverty" that simply
means most of the poor are women and
kids, the killing sexism . still taken less
seriously than racial o~ religious bias
that affects men, too, the double dose of
prejudice against females who are not
white, not heterosexual, not ablebodied, or not young- and much, much
more.
Passive resisters may seem less
dangerous because they don't preach a
return to the past as the activists do, but
their combination of inaction and unrealism can endanger the maintenance
of past victories and prevent future
ones. After all, they've only amended
Freud to read: "What more could
women want?"
The answer is: A lot. The truth is:
We've only just begun.
Think of historical precedents. The
suffragist and abolitionist movements of
the First Wave took more than a century
to win a legal and social identity as citizens and human beings for everyone in
this country who was not both white and
male. Now we are only in the second full
decade of an even more complex struggle for legal and social equality, regardless of sex or race. Especially for females
of all races- whose sheer numbers
mean we must transform the structures
around us, not just integrate themcommon sense tells us that we have at
least another 75 or 80 years to go.
So does even a hint of an agenda:
• In addition to filling jobs that already
exist, we have to create our own. If we
are to become more independent of jobloss fears that now govern our behavior,
accumulate economic power, and experiment with new values in the workplace,
we must initiate and control our own
economic structures.
Many new women entrepreneurs
have already begun this process.
Female-owned businesses are increasing at three times the start-up rate of
male-owned ones. The one-woman cateri.Iig or clothing enterprises of the
1970s have been joined by the femaleowned microchip, computer programming, or small manufacturing businesses
of the 1980s. Most recently, groups of
women have begun to accumulate capital communally, and to start jointly
owned enterprises that often spring
fro...rn community groups, women getting
off welfare, or women marketing their
own local products. "Economic development" and "economic empowerment"
are now phrases regularly heard from
feminists.
Of course, jobs are not an either/or
question. We need to be inside existing
economic structures as well as to create
our own. But conventional employers
still mass women workers at the bottom,
and allow only a few infiltrators at the
middle and top. Alternative, women-run
structures-with their greater chance
for independence and changed valuesare the trend of the future.
• Domestic violence against womenjust a wordless part of life until this Second Wave of feminism began-now has
names like "battering" and "sexual assault" that are against the law. We have
begun the lifesaving process of rescuing
victims. (For one example, see "We Are
Survivors ... ," page 88.) What we have
not begun to do is to find the life-giving
cures that can keep women from being
victimized in the first place. The original
cause lies deep within any definition of
masculinity that depends on violence,
aggression, and superiority to women.
Since most men are more aggressive
than most women, ~hould we use our
daughter-rearing patterns as a model for
raising sons? Should we run programs
for the most violent of men, who have
become so addicted to aggression that
they don't feel like "real men" without it,
just as we now run programs for other
addicts?
Even the questions are new. Their
answers lie in the future.
•Women have become more visible in
the media. Sometimes their images are
even diversified beyond the young-
pretty-white-thin stereotype. But there
are still four times more men than
women on television, and women's average age is still visibly younger.
Furthermore, "hard" news is still
defined as that which mostly concerns
men, and "soft" news as that which
mostly concerns women or children. The
female half of the country, in all of our diversity, is barely present in media policymaking: where are the women at the top
or in ownership positions? In movies and
advertising, it's still a triumph for women
to take "men's jobs" (and stay women).
Almost no men do "women's work" (and
stay men).
More
than any other democracy in the world,
this country behaves as if children did
not exist until the age of six, and public
health were a private responsibility.
Since childbirth means that women use
health care systems far more than men
do, and since society makes women the
main caretakers of children (as well as
the ill, the elderly, and any other people
who can't take care of themselves), the
female half of America has far more need
for both a national system of child care
and a national system of health care.
Those issues should not be futuristicbut they are.
In fact, there can never be reproductive freedom, or uniformly humane
policy toward new birth technologies,
without national policy and support that
makes childbearing choices real for all
women.
The truth is that far poorer countries than ours are meeting health-care
and child-care needs better than we are.
(See "What the U.S. Has To Learn About
Women," page 162.) If national budgets
are a statement of values, what vajues
are reflected in our distribution of national dollars?
• More than blacks, Jews, or Italians,
more than farmers or defense contractors, fundamentalists or manufacturers,
women as women are still supporting
politicians who don't support them.
I'm not suggesting that women's interests aren't diverse. Clearly, we an~ or
should be half of all the groups mentioned above. But there are overarching
concerns of equality that self-respecting
women of every race, ethnicity, profession, sexual preference, and age can only
ignore at their peril.
In preparation for a future as near
as the elections of 1988, every women's
center and rape hot line, every clinic,
battered women's shelter and professional networking group, every university, women's college and national association should be registering the
women it serves, making sure they know
the issues of special interest in every
election, and pulling out that vote on
election day.
We can't depend on any political
party to get out our vote, or any media to
properly inform it. If we want equality,
we must be able to deliver a reliable and
crucial margin of pro-equality voters. It
is this ability to deliver voters that has
served every insurgent group in this imperfect democracy.
• Okay, women can have their own first
names (no more "Mrs. John Jones"), last
names (even if some use their husband's
name for a total of three), and the use of
Ms. (which is now accepted U.S. government and private usage).
But what about children? Overwhelmingly, even in egalitarian households, children still have their fathers'
names.
In a future of computers, as well as
equality, children would be better identified by having both parents' last names,
thus saving millions of people-hours now
spent explaining, "This is my daughter
by my second marriage .... " At 16 or 18,
children could choose their qwn last
names, from their parents or otfierwise,
as part of becomi.l)g their own unique
selves.
• Yes, women are flooding into the
paid labor force, as my breakfast partner
pointed out. This is an event of such impact that even conventional economists
compare it to the Industrial Revolution.
But women will not have the revolutionary force economists predict-and
we'll never have real equality-if men do
not flood equally into the unpaid labor
force of child-rearing and homemaking.
Women will just contin'ue to do two jobs
while men do only one, children will continue to have too much mother and too
little father, and the cruel, guilt-producing impossibility of being Super Woman
and Super Morn will keep on robbing
the country of talent and women of
peace of mind.
Making men as much a part of the
private world as women are of the public
one: that's an agenda item that will take
several generations by itself. Even those
men who now want to be caregiving
fathers are unlikely to find the parental
leave, flexible working hours, understanding employer, or supportive male
peers to make that possible. And women
who need those structural changes in
the workplace are unlikely to get them
unless men become their advocates, too.
As long as children-related benefits are
seen as the price of employing women,
they will be used as arguments against
doing exactly that.
can't. next page
l.,
li't isju't a tangible
agenda. The internal voyages of psychological, sexual, and spiritual change
haven't even been symbolized here.
Neither has the international
agenda of peace and cross-cultural organizing that spread into the future from
every one of these domestic actions and
concerns.
We haven't seen anything yet.
But we will. Together.
•
Gloria Steinem is a founder and editor of
"Ms." Magazine. In the 1972 Preview Issue,
she introduced this new magazine u·ith
her article "Sisterhood."
Ms. July/August 1987
FESTIVALS
Thousands of wimmin will head north August
12-16 for the 12th annual Michigan Women's
Music Festival. There will be 3 music stages
featuring some of the best womyn musicians of
the day, plus 1-day intensive workshops with
Sonia Johnson, Amy Lee, Pauline Oliveros,
Rhiannon, Diane Stein, & more. The Womyn's
Village created at the site will include
support & networking for children, differently abled resources (DART), sober support,
over 40's, Francophone women, etc. Over 200
workshops & 200 crafts displays--and don't
forget the annual Lois Lane Run, after-hours
performances with tickets chosen by lottery,
midnight movies, etc. etc.! For info see
flyer at $?'s Library or write We Want The
Music Collective, Box 22, Walhalla, MI 49458.
* * *
Recovering from last year's cancellation
(due to withdrawal of permission to use the
Boy Scout campsite), the New England Woaen's
Musical Retreat (NEWMR VII) will be held
Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4-7, at the U of RI
Environmental Research Center. Concert
stage, open mic, dancing, workshops, crafts,
swimming, accessible & interpreted. Proceeds
to Women's Health Services. Womyn •s Library
or write NEWMR, PO Box 217, New Haven, CT
06513, or call 203-523-1268.
* * *
If you're headed west, check out the 8th
annual West Coast Woaen' s Music & Comedy
Festival, September 3-7 (Labor Day Weekend).
Schedule includes music, comedy, theater,
films, speakers, & dances every night. Located at a private camp near Yosemite. Info:
WCWMF, 13514 Hart St., Van Nuys, CA 91405.
up & coming
ANNOUNCEMENrrs
ANNUAL SUMMER YARD SALE
August l &. 2
Saturday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Last summer's sale raised over $500 for
Herland, thanks to all of you. Let's do
it again this year. All proceeds go to
support YOUR place, and help YOUR
collective to grow!!
You may still bring "stuff" to Herland to
sell as late as Saturday morning August I
so don't feel you've missed out on d'q~
nating something, if you have not done so
yet. See you there!!!
COLLECTIVE MEETING
August 23, 4:30 p.m.
at Herland
HERLAND SISTER RESOURCES. INC .
... a specialty center for women
Resource Library
Monthly Newsletter
Educational Public Programs
Books. Music. Art Sales
Cultural Events
SAT. 10-6. SUN. 1-6
1630 N.W. 19 ST. OKLAHOMA CITY
PUBLISHED BY: BERLAND SISTER RESOURCES
CIRCULATION: 600
PHONE NUMBER (WEEKENDS): 524-7108
GENERAL INFO: 733-9331
672-6459
794-'/464
1-353-6861 (LAWTON)
VOLUNTEER INFO: 672-4141
ADVERTISING: 495-4390
LESBIAN SCHOLARSHIP
:\L:Tl-!ot< fJ L ANS TP JP
What ~. s; i t 1 ike to be a lesbian
in the Ln~ cea States. today? This
is what author M~rtha Barron Barrett
wants to know and write about. She
has recently contracted with the
publishing firm of Wllliaru Morrow
and Company to write a book on
lesbian life in America. An accomp
lished writer, Ms. Barrett is the
author of two novels: Maggie's Way
(Signet, 1981) and God's Coun--1.LY
(Bantam. 1987).
To fulfill her objective, she is
in the process of soliciting and
collecting as many lesbian publications from all parts of the
country a~ she can find, including
the Harland Sister Resources Newsletter. H~r letter requesting OUR
NEWSLETTER arrived at Harland in
June. And, we have --- in the
spirit of our cohesive little, but
actively-growing community --dutifully responded by getting a
copy of it into the mail to her.
In addition to the printed materials, Ms. Barrett is making a crosscountry, data-collecting journey.
She plans to use this opportunity
to interview lesoians in various
parts of the United States to compile first-hand information for her
book.
Let us hope that at some point
during her travels away from her
Milbridge, Maine home, she finds the
road to Oklahoma City. For we have
HERE in our own back yards, in our
very own community, plenty of good
things for Ms. Barrett to write about.
KLL
SAY IT WITH CLOTHES
EAST LANSING - -- Michigan State University
Lesbian/Gay Council has fled a grievance against the local College Republican group.
When the gay group announced that students
who supported gay pride week should wear
jeans on a given day, the College Republicans initiated a counter-campaign called
"Straight Shirt Day", which called for students to wear shirts as a symbolic move to
"fight back against homosexuals."
by tal
Press Release
From Off Our Backs
The National Women's Studies Associa-t)_on, courtesy of Naiad Press, will he
offering its first $500 graduate scholarship ln Lesbian Studies in 1987. Candidates must be doing research for or writing
a Master's thesis or PhD dissertation in
Lesbian Studies.
From Feminist Bookstore News, and
Lesbian Connection (July/August, 1987)
HELP WANTED ....
A professor at Arizona State University
is looking for persons who would be willing
to
distribute and collect questionnaires for a study on violence in intimate
homosexual and heterosexual relationships.
The study hopes to identify similarities
and differences in the violence found among
same-sex and cross-sex couples. It is ,
'~
hoped that the results of this research
will dispel myths and stereotypes about
same-sex versus cross-sex relationships.
A primary aim of the organizers of the
study is to preserve the anonymity of the
participants and contact persons. Participants must have personal experience in an
abusive intimate relationship, either
current or past.
Those interested in the project or in
participating in the survey process may
contact: Gwat Yong Lie, PhD.,Arizona
State University, School of Social Work,
Tempe, AZ 85287, (602) 965-3304.
DUMP TRUCK EXCITES GIRLS
The idol and role model of thousands of
Japanese teenage girls is not the traditional elegant Geisha, but a 200-pound
female professional wrestler named Dump
(for dump truck) Matsumoto. In Japan,
women's wrestling draws more TV viewers
than competing shows. Lady wrestlers are
sought as talk-show guests and command huge
audiences, made up mostly of giggling,
chanting schoolgirls. "They're seeing
women do something they can't do," said a
social commentator. "It's something like
your women's movement in the United States.
The wrestlers are tough; nobody pushes them
around."
From San Francisco Chronicle-Examiner,
and Lesbian Connection (July/Aug. 1987)
Dear friends
I know how hard many of you have been
hit in these uncertain economic times.
Knowing this, I still must appeal to you,
those who benefit from the existance of
Herland. We are now in a severe struggle.
Our finances are extremely low and our
spirits are not much higher. Burnout has
taken many of us from the active roster,
and those of us who are left need your
help.
I ask you to reflect on the time when
there was no Herland, no newsletter, no
efforts to get you records and books, no
workshops, no spring and fall retreats,
no listings in national guides, such as
Places of Interest
to Women,
Gala's
Guide, and Gayellow Pages for a women's
center such as ours in Oklahoma Ci t y, and
no Herland library. If you find the time
before
to be no different than the time
now, then this appeal is not for you and
you need not read on. BUT, if you
are
aware of our efforts and find them worthy,
please help us with our growth.
Our shelves are bare and we are not
individually capable of handling
the
total financial load of operating Herland.
Herland is a non-prof it organization and
we volunteer because
we believe in the
cause.
So I ask you.
Do you want us to
continue, and will you help?
I know many
of you
have donated willingly of your
time as well as your money. For this we
thank you. Yet there are over 600 persons
receiving the newsletter. If everyone on
the mailing list would donate $12, which
is only $1 per month, we would be abl-;-t'Q
stock shelves, try new things, plan concerts, sponsor workshops, and move to a
place that is warm in the winter and cool
in the summer, and we could have a place
that we all would be truly proud of. Think
of it.
All we need to do to raise $ 7200
if for 600 people to
donate $12. Please
take us seriously and send
a check
or
money order today, or drop by on a Saturday
or Sunday with your donation, when we are
open.
Sincerely,
BC/llerland Collectiye
YES.' I wanl fo h~lp Her/and wifh
Your fdx-deduclible donal/on enhlles (IOU
lo use of fhe lend/119 /1bre1ry as well as
discovnls on sfore srock and concerf f/t:kels.
Herland is not able to forward
your newsletter unless you send
us a change of address (just
sending one to the Post Office
won't do it).
This form may also be used to
add a name to the mailing list.
Name:
Name=
an annut!l/ dona lion ol' I 12.
____ YES/ I wanf lo help lier/and wifh a
6-monrh donafion of I' 6.
Old Address=
llddress:
Cit~:
Sf3fe:
City:
State:
Phone:
Mat! To: Her/and Sisler Resources, Inc.
1630 Al. w. 19
OKC, OK 73106
THANKS.' (lier/and will send you a receipf
lor !fOtlr fa..r purposes.)
Zip:
New Address:
City=
---------
I
1
I
I
1
I
State 1
---
Zip=
------
AND THE BEAT GOES ON ....
Rainbow Productions sponsored its
second dance recently at the First
Unitarian Church in Oklahoma City.
A small, but enthusiastic crowd
turned out to rock to the music f il ling the air through an excellent
sound system and roll with comic,
Hillary Harris. Ms. Harris, a resi dent of Arkansas, is an up and
coming personality in the women's
entertainment industry. Her rather
irreverant humor, which was enjoyed
by guests at Herland's secnd re treat in the Spring of 1986, was the
highlight of a fun evening.
A variety of non - alcoholic bever ages was popular among the attendees
after an especially thirstprompting, foot-stomping gyration a round the dance floor.
Freshly popped popcorn rounded out the concession corner , and delighted those
who found something more ingenuous
to do with popcorn than , simply, eat
it.
Little May Avenue of the notorious
local rock-'n-roll group, the
Shartels, was on hand to ask for
contributions to a worthy cause :
bail money for the rest of the
Shartels .
It seems they have
managed to get themselves into a bit
of incarceration on a variety of
charges including sax offenses,
hubcap kleptomania, mouthing off at
the wrong folks, and hopeless
clumsiness.
Little May tearfully
explained that it is imperative that
bail be raised for their release before the September dance, for
without it, there will be no live
music to dance to.
If you wish to
respond to Little May's plea, you
may do so at the next dance, which
is scheduled for August 29, at the
First Unitarian Church.
"The dance looks like a monthly
event," said Helen, President of
Rainbow Productions, "We believe
this is a good opportunity for women
to meet other women, make new friends, and
have good times together. There's
something for everyone.
· .. music at its best.
.
concessions
HELP GIRLS COMPETE
New York, NY - June 19 - "Recent studies
show that girls and young women want more
opportunities for sports participation than
most communities provide," said Margaret
Gates, National Executive Director of Girls
Clubs of America, Inc. (GCA). "Through
sports, girls gain not only physical
fitness and skills, but confidence, selfdiscipline, and healthy social attitudes."
- Of the 281 events in the Olympic games,
179 are for men only, 86 are for women
only, and 16 are for both.
- It is estimated that ir ls represent
only 15% of the participants in organized after - school sports programs.
- Studies have shown that athletic
coaches treat girls differ ently from
boys, giving girls 1/8 the sports skill
instruction they give to boys.
co-hosted by Girls Clubs of America, the
National Association For Girls and Women in
Sports and the Women's Sports Foundation.
Both the Sports Resource Kit and New
Agenda II are part of Girls Clubs of Amer ica's ongoing national program, SPORTING
CHANCE. Designed and developed to provide a
comprehensive approach to sports awareness
and participation for girls ages 6-18,
SPORTING CHANCE builds on and enhances the
excellent sports program currently offered
by 99% of all local Girls Clubs.
Girls Clubs of America, Inc. is a
national not - for-profit organization serving 250,000 girls across the United States
through 240 Girls Club centers and various
outreach programs. For more information
write: Girls Clubs of America, Inc.,
National Resource Center. 441 West Michigan
Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202.
I
To assist and promote girls' partici pation in sports, Girls Clubs of America
announces that its Sports Resource Kit,
a comprehensive set of materials for planning effective sports programs for girls
ages 6- 18, is now available from the GCA
National Resource Center, 441 West Michigan
Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202. The kit,
prepared for youth workers, coaches, and
program administrators, includes sports
manuals, booklets and ax;" video, "Sports:
Beyond Winning," which promotes teen
women's sports involvement.
Some components of the kit, which sells
for $45.00, may be purchased separately.
These include a Sports Resource Guide,
written by GCA and sponsored by the
Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles,
containing an annotated directory of the
national governing bodies, major sports
organizations and sports support groups
available in the United States as well as a
reading list of recommended materials for
understanding issues related to girls in
sports. Other pieces available are On Your
Mark: A Complete Guide to Developing Sports
Programs For Girls ($10.00), a GCA manual
to help design and manage recreational
sports programs, and GCA's Ten Principles
of Girls' Sports Participation booklet
($3.50) and accompanying poster ($5.00),
provide ten research-based reasons to encourage girls' ~<lrticipation in sports.
The publication of the kit coincides
with the opening of New Agenda II, a
national conference on girls and sports,
WHERE'S THE BEEF?
•
I
'V
A college newspaper tried tb enter a
roast beef on a pair of high heels in the
Miss Georgia College Beauty Pageant. Officials refused to allow the entry, even ·
though the roast beef met most contest requirements: never married, never
cohabitated with a man, never had an abor tion, and had no plans to marry before the
end of its reign.
From Off Our Backs via Hag Rag, and
Lesbian Connection (July/Aug·ust, 1987)
SMARTER THAN WE THOUGHT?
Health researchers have uncovered a new
social trend in response to AIDS. While
discussing sex practices with college
students, researchers found a high percentage of young women were fearful of acquir ing AIDS through sex with men, and had decided to choose only women for sex
partners. During a follow-up session two
months later, researchers were taken aback
to learn that 85% of the young women had no
intention of returning to sex with men.
"We've already begun to see bisexual men
choosing only women for fear of AIDS, so I
can't say that I'm surprised that now women
want to avoid having sex with men. What
this means for men's social status and
sense of self- worth I can't even hazard a
guess", the lead researcher said.
AT IT AGAIN
A LESBIAN JUDGE
In another of its continuing attacks on
the lesbtan and gay community, Adolph Coors
Company specifically excluded same- sex
couples from entering the Coors Couple's
Run on Valentines Day in Portland, Oregon.
The race was held to benefit the American
Heart Association. Catherine Crooker ,
special events coordinator for the Heart
Association, explained that the event's design and promotion was prepared by Coors.
She added, "the American Heart Association
in Oregan does not discriminate against
gays or any other group. After all, heart
disease is non discriminatory." When the
race brochure was printed stating seven
times that same- sex couples could not participate, Catherine questioned the policy.
She was told that the set-up of the race
was not adaptable to same- sex runners be-cause two men or two women would not be
equal to a mixed couple in running
strength.
Press Release, Lesbian Connection
(July/August, 1987)
JESUS LOVES HER
Rose Marie Denman, a lesbian minister with
the United Methodist Church, has chosen to
face an ecclesiastical trial rather than
withdraw from the ministry or allow her
peers to vote on expelling her as a "selfavowed practicing homosexual."
Denman's trial will be an open challenge to
her church's controversial 1984 decision
explicitly banning gays from the ministry a decision which Denman herself supported
at the time. Ironically, only months after
she told Bishop George w. Bashmore that she
would consider leaving the denomination if
if admitted homosexuals, she herself
decideddecided to take a leave from her
pastorate to be with a woman lover. She
now characterizes her former stand as
"blatant, raw, fear-filled homophobia."
Denman will be tried by thirteen "openminded" clergy. She expects to be defrocked, she says, but plans to join the Unitarian Universalist Association in November, regardless of the trial's outcome.
From the Kennebec Journal (5/20/87),
Gay Community News (5/31/87), and the
Washington times (5/22/87),
(July, 1987) oob
SAN FRANCISCO -- Judge Mary Morgan, an open
lesbian, has been elected as the presiding
judge of the San Francisco Municipal Court.
She will be the first presiding judge in
the city and in the state of California to
be openly gay.
According to the Washington Blade,
the Bay Area Reporter quoted Morgan as saying that visibility made her role as a lesbian judge important: "I have an under standing of homophobia that no one
else has."
by tal
From Off Our Backs (5/29/87)
CLAIMING THEIR POWER:
".'
WOMEN-CHUB.CH WILL GATHER lN CINCINNAT!
Several thousand women, calling themselves
Women-Church, will gather at the Cincinnati,
Ohio, Convention Center on October 9-11, 1987.
Women-Church Convergence, a four-year-old
coalition of 26 women's groups & organizations
from the Catholic tradition, is sponsoring an
ecumenical, inter-faith conference entitled
"Women-Church: Claiming Our Power."
"Women-Church will gather in Cincinnati to
support each other and to claim our economic,
spiritual, sexual and political powers,"
stated Diann Neu, Conf. Coordinator. "We
invite church leaders to join us, to listen
to our concerns, and to act on our behalf
with courage."
Speakers will include Dagmar Celeste, 1st
woman of Ohio; feminist theorist Charlotte
Bunche; Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, world
renowned feminist biblical scholar; Asian
theologian Kwok Pui Lan; Dolores Huerta of
the United Farmworkers; Theresa Kane, spokesperson for No. Amer. nuns during the Pope's
last US visit; Prances Kissling, pro-choice
activist; NOW Pres. Eleanor Smeal, President
of NOW; Gloria Steinem of Ms.; America Sosa,
Salvadoran Co-Madre; and many others.
Participants in the conference include
women from various age, economic, lifestyle,
racial & ethnic backgrounds, women from religious congregations, local and national organizations, peace & justice groups, parishes &
base communities across the US. A large number of scholarships are available for low
incoae women. Men may also participate.
For more information on this coalition
committed to being "a discipleship of
equals," write Women-Church, 8035 13th St.,
Silver Spring, MD 20910, ph. 301-589-3150.
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