Newsgroups: bit.listserv.gaynet
Date:         Fri, 24 Jul 1992 18:00:58 -0400
From:         gaynet@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Subject:      GayNet Digest Volume 5 Issue 575

In this issue:
          The Great American Road Trip: Heading North and East
                 To Locke, the "Anonymous" Movie Critic
                  New Books To Look Out For (read/buy)
                  THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE PATERNALISM
              Security Clearance, is it difficult to get?
                    Scream it to the rooftops, Bill?

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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:         Fri, 24 Jul 92 15:15:01 EDT
From: Mark Hertzog <MWH8H@watson.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Subject:      The Great American Road Trip: Heading North and East

Howdy!  Thanks first off to Mike! W. Miller at Notre Dame for letting me use
his computer to write y'all with.  A lot has happened so this is gonna have to
be pretty cursory:

Friday: Touristed all day, 'coz the research came up nil, then did Middle
Eastern dinner w/Doug Strand and hit the Castro.  Almost got picked up in video
bar by cute, rather drunk thirtysomething in a flat-top haircut and with a face
like younger Jerry Lewis; got nervous, made tactical retreat to determine whe-
ther (a) I wanted to go home with a total stranger (answer: it depends) and (b)
he was interested in me per se or just in access to certain of my body parts
(answer: the latter, so "no go").  Later went dancing at Club Dekadence in
South of Market, where I ran into three guys I know from Charlottesville!  Two
medical students doing a rotation there, plus the lover of one of them (the
other left his lover home).  In addition to this freaky, wonderful happening,
there were incredible hulks dancing in g-strings on the bar and boy-porn films
playing on the video screen on the dance floor.  Mild-mannered political scien-
tist Doug Strand danced like the Tasmanian Devil let out of his cage.

Saturday: MISADVENTURE #1.  60 miles from the nearest town of any size in Nor-
thern California, the Brown Bomber (my car) cuts out for no apparent reason on
Interstate 5, just seconds after it hit the 150,000 mile park on the odometer.
Almost an hour and a few hundred vehicles later, a kind young woman gives me a
lift to a phone.  Thank the Great Spirit for AAA-Plus, 'coz I ended up being
towed on a Saturday night 110 miles (yes, 110) to Medford, Oregon, and had to
pay only for the last 10 miles.  It was the closest town where it looked like
anyone could look at it before Monday.  Car was dumped in gas station lot.  Had
nowhere to stay, motels in vicinity were booked, no transport, and didn't know
a soul.  But again, God provided: the gas station lady let me use their non-pay
phone ad libitum, a guy I never met at another service station called around
and got me a motel room across town, and I befriended a forty-ish straight
couple who hung out with me and carted me a couple of places around town the
next day.  I am *so* grateful.  It turned out to be a hopelessly burned-out
wire in the ignition switch which required its replacement; it couldn't be
bypassed.  Again, the repairman did a good, honest job at a reasonable price
and got me on the road by quarter to four Sunday afternoon.  Headed to Portland
that night, then on ther next day toward Montana.

I've hardly mentioned the scenery; if you've never been to the West, you must
see it.  If only I'd snapped a picture of snow-streaked Mt. Shasta, in the
shadow of which the car broke down.  Then those ultra-tall, ultra-skinny fir
trees from southern Oregon on through western Montana; the Columbia River gorge
east of Portland, where the sun streaked incredibly through the gray clouds
down onto the water, looking like a sharp, airbrushed painting rather than like
reality--but it was reality!  Then, inland, where the skies clear and the land
becomes flatter and drier in the great plain between the Sierras and the Rock-
ies; central and eastern Washington has some of the biggest skies I've ever
seen.  East of Spokane the westernmost slope of the Rockies brings you into
the high evergreen forests and lakes of northern Idaho, then into Montana.  All
that was just Sunday and Monday (except Mt. Shasta, of course).

Monday evening, got to Missoula and Bryan Spellman ("Homo on the Range"), who
lives with his lover Forrest in a gorgeous 90-year-old house.  Bryan took me on
a quick motor tour of the city and the surrounding hills; the last shreds of
daylight were disappearing into the dark in the west.  Had to leave next mor-
ning.  This was the one real drag of being stranded by the car: I'd hoped to
use Monday in Montana as an R&R day, and Bryan had wanted to take the day off
work and show me around.  Some summer I'll go back.

N.B.: Every GayNetter I've met so far on this trip has been as nice as can be;
not a jerk or an ax-murderer in the bunch--yet.  Feels like family, meeting all
these folks who, other than through a computer, I'd never known before.

Tuesday was off-and-on rain, with the wipers not working very well, but the sun
came out (sort of) by the time I hit Butte (which, for the record, is Jersey
City with a better backdrop) so I didn't replace them.  This led in part to
MIDADVENTURE #2 later that day.  The land east of the mountains is rolling
hills, mostly ranchland, punctuated by stray peaks and buttes on until you're
past Billings.  Wyoming was like nothing I'd ever seen: miles upon miles upon
miles of grass-covered hills, with hardly a tree and a sky stretching on
forever.  At near-dusk I made it to Devil's Tower (remember "Close Encounters
of the Third Kind"?), which unfortunately was half-socked in by clouds (the
picture may have been worth the diversion into the wild country).  This is in
the red hills country to the west of the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Now to MISADVENTURE #2: I figured on staying over in the Rapid City-Black Hills
area to see Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse and the Badlands before heading on to
Omaha on Wednesday.  *If you ever go to South Dakota, MAKE MOTEL RESERVATIONS
IN ADVANCE!*  No special events to speak of were going on, but there was not a
single lodging place to be had within three hours of Rapid City.  Result: at
a little after 3 in the morning, having been on the road 17 hours, I pulled in
to a rest area, yanked out the sleeping bag and took a five-hour snooze in the
car.  This would have been more tolerable if the car had a working heater and
if it hadn't been raining since I got into the state and had I changed the
wipers earlier and had the left headlight not gone out in South Dakota and had
the state of South Dakota installed any kind of reflectors on the road and had
the road not been under construction.  I could not see hardly to save my life.
The warm sleeping bag was the least unpleasant part of the night.

Wednesday: MUCH more pleasant.  I had to skip the Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore,
etc., but it was just as well as the weather SUCKED and I wouldn't have been
able to see a thing.  The nice part was that I was much closer to Omaha and
could take a little time to meander.  Had breakfast at a place that served
buffalo patties in lieu of sausage (evidently, buffalo ranching, like cattle
ranching, does take place with non-endangered critters in this part of the
world).  Then spent an hour in a Lakota (Sioux indian) museum in Chamberlain,
which only opened last year and was quite different from the ticky-tacky tou-
risty "museums" you see dotting the West.  East of the Missouri the land gets
flatter and tilled farmland and trees replace grassland.  Took the "scenic
route" from Sioux Falls to Sioux City, finding on a back-back road a marker
where the states of South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa meet.  (It was shaped like
an obelisk, so the obvious question is: What can you do with the obelisk, and
in which of the three states would it be legal?).  Drove 10 miles through the
very southwest corner of Minnesota just to say I'd been there, then through
small-town Iowa to Sioux City (which is the Jersey City of the Midwest and
makes Butte look pretty), then south to Omaha.

Tim Russell in Omaha is a young, blondish guy who is a computer person for the
corporate office of Godfather's Pizza.  We did not do pizza; instead, we had
fab Chinese in the renewed section of downtown Omaha, which they renewed by
restoring a lot of the old warehouses and factories and turning them into
offices and shops.  The old brick streets still are brick and, 'coz on-street
diagonal parking is allowed (that is, the streets haven't been closed to traf-
fic), it's convenient and still pretty.  Incredibly lovely parks, fountains,
etc., incl. a Union Pacific building taht looks a hundred years old but in fact
was only recently built, in later-19th Century style.  Wow!  Next morning, went
to the zoo, which has an huge indoor rainforest, a huge aviary, and big modern
buildings for the bigger animals.  Tim says it's ranked with the San Diego Zoo
as one of the best in the country, and I believe it.  I was oohing and ahhing
and oh-lookiting like a blithering six-year-old.  Ended this fabulous stop with
lunch at an authentic diner diner run by a middle-aged Hawaiian lesbian who's
apparently got a thing for Marilyn Monroe (okay, she's not necessarily a les-
bian, but M.M. in a see-through dress in the dining room?).  If any of you
Netters ever are in Omaha and want a look around, get Tim to take you.

P.S. to Jim Murray: Regrettably I didn't meet up with any of your Omaha friends
this time around.  I do hope to go back.

This is getting too long, so I;ll be briefer.  Clouds continued Thursday across
Iowa (all corn) into Illinois (also all corn).  Rob Ridinger at Northern Illi-
nois in DeKalb, about 60 miles west of Chicago, put me up, took me to a tiny
Thai restaurant with the best massively-spicy food, and showed and told about
the collection of, I think, 93 lesbigay periodicals from across the country,
mainly the Midwest, he's built up/building up at NIU.  I don't think there's as
much stuff anywhere else in the country as there is in this one place now, so
it's heaven for gay-studies research (in addition to San Fran and New York).

Today: shortest drive (3 hours) of the trip, to Notre Dame and Mike!; he's off
working now, but took his lunch to show me around what has to be the most beau-
tiful college campus I've ever seen, U.Va. included (although the U.Va. Lawn
remains the single best piece of a college campus!), then ate lunch and scoped
in the cafeteria.  After sending this note I'm actually getting some research
done; then tonight we do Indiana.

TOMORROW: Ann Arbor for lunch, then either Buffalo for dinner or on to Ithaca,
depending on whether I ever can get ahold of John Cereso.  Sunday in Ithaca,
then on Monday to New York for six nights.  Trip ends after then, as do space-
eating trip updates.

One last plea:
If you see people stranded by the side of the road, STOP FOR THEM!  (I had a
chance to do this Monday in western Montana for a lady and her two kids, sort
of to pay back or pass on the kindness done me by the woman in northern Cali-
fornia.)  It could be you next time.

Have fun,
Mark Hertzog, in Yankeeland

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 24 Jul 92 17:14:01 EDT
From: mike.w.miller.40@nd.edu
Subject: To Locke, the "Anonymous" Movie Critic

Locke,

As an aside, I agreed with most of what you had to say about SotL.  But the
real reason I'm writing (and fellow GayNetters, please forgive) is just to
ask if you work for the company in Texas which produces the Daedalus set of
software for collabrative writing?  If that's you, then I was the guy from
Notre Dame who spoke with you just before lunch today!  I don't know what
my point is, except to say hi and small world...

...but Greg Pratt, thanks so much for typing in all those OLTL summaries --
I can't watch the show when it's on for real, and I don't have the time to
watch it on tape.  Your summaries are splendidly done and great to read.

In Technofaggotry,
Mike!
______________________________________________________________________
\  Mike W. Miller                                                 \  /
 \  On location at DeBartolo Hall                                  \/
  ------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date: 24 Jul 1992 17:36:35 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Gary Klein, bear at heart" <GKLEIN@uoft02.utoledo.edu>
Subject: New Books To Look Out For (read/buy)
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT

     The 7/22/92 issue of THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION has an interesting
article on Page A-8:

"FROM MARGIN TO MAINSTREAM:  BOOKS IN GAY AND LESBIAN STUDIES"
'Presses show new interest in field once considered risky'
by Liz McMillen

     The article notes that "other presses are starting special series devoted
to the subject", and then goes on to talk about Duke Univ Press, New York Univ
Press and the "Chicago Series on Sexuality, History and Society" from the Univ
of Chicago Press.  Some authors, scholars, editors, and publishers are briefly
interviewed in this article.

     The article is a bit too long to retype here, but I will give you the
listing of "FORTHCOMING BOOKS IN GAY & LESBIAN STUDIES -- A SAMPLING" which
appeared in a sidebar.

(anticipated publication dates are in parentheses,
 sorry but no prices or ISBN#s  were mentioned)

     25 titles, all from academic publishers...


ANDRE GIDE: APPROACHING SEXUALITY
   Michael Lucey,  Oxford Univ Press (1993)

APOCALYPTIC OVERTURES: SEXUAL POLITICS AND THE SENSE OF AN ENDING
   Richard Dellamora,  Rutgers Univ Press (1993)

BOOTS OF LEATHER, SLIPPERS OF GOLD: THE HISTORY OF A LESBIAN COMMUNITY
   Elizabeth Kennedy & Madeline Davis,  Routledge (1993)

COMMUNISTS, COWBOYS AND QUEERS: THE POLITICS OF MASCULINITY IN THE WORK OF
 ARTHUR MILLER AND TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
   David Savran,  Univ of Minnesota Press (Sept 1992)

THE CONTESTED CLOSET
   edited by Larry Gross,  Univ of Minnesota Press (1993)

THE CORPORATE CLOSET
   James Woods,  The Free Press (1993)

DESIRE AND ANXIETY: CIRCULATIONS OF SEXUALITY IN SHAKESPEAREAN DRAMA
   Valerie Traub,  Routledge (Aug 1992)

DEVIANT SPECTATORS: HOMOSEXUAL DISCOURSE AND FILM/VIDEO
   Chris Straayer,  Columbia Univ Press (1994)

DUAL ATTRACTION: BISEXUALITY IN THE AGE OF AIDS
   Martin S. Weinberg, Colin J. Williams and Douglas W. Pryor,  The Free Press
   (1993)

THE FEMALE THERMOMETER
   Terry Castle,  Oxford Univ Press (1993)

FLAUNTING IT: LESBIAN AND GAY STUDIES
   edited by Cheryl Kader and Thomas Pinotek,  Indiana Univ Press (Aug 1992)

THE GAY AND LESBIAN LIBERATION MOVEMENT
   Margaret Cruikshank,  Routledge (Aug 1992)

GAY IDEAS: OUTING AND OTHER CONTROVERSIES
   Richard D. Mohr,  Beacon Press (Nov 1992)

THE HOMOEROTIC PHOTOGRAPH: MALE IMAGES FROM DURLEU/DELACROIX TO MAPPLETHORPE
   Allen Ellenzweig,  Columbia Univ Press (Oct 1992)

LAWS OF DESIRE: QUESTIONS OF HOMOSEXUALITY IN SPANISH WRITING AND FILM, 1969-90
   Paul Julian Smith,  Oxford Univ Press (Dec 1992)

LESBIAN AND GAY MARRIAGE: PRIVATE COMMITMENTS, PUBLIC CEREMONIES
   edited by Suzanne Sherman,  Temple Univ Press (Nov 1992)

LESBIAN CULTURE AND PHILOSOPHY
   Claudia Card,  Columbia Univ Pres (1994)

LESBIAN FAMILY LIFECYCLE
   Suzanne Flater,  The Free Press (1994)

MAKING TROUBLE: ESSAYS ON GAY HISTORY, POLITICS AND THE UNIVERSITY
   John D'Emilio,  Routledge (Aug 1992)

NEW LESBIAN CRITICISM: LITERARY AND CULTURAL READINGS
   edited by Sally Munt,  Columbia Univ Press (Nov 1992)

PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LESBIAN AND GAY MALE EXPERIENCES
   edited by Linda Garnets and Doug Kimmel,  Columbia Univ Press (1993)

SEXUAL SAMENESS: TEXTUAL DIFFERENCES IN LESBIAN AND GAY WRITING
   edited by John Bristow,  Routledge (Aug 1992)

SEXUAL SUBJECTS
   Paul Morrison,  Oxford Univ Press (1993)

TALK ON THE WILDE SIDE
   Ed Cohen,  Routledge (Sep 1992)

WRITING AIDS: GAY LITERATURE, LANGUAGE AND ANALYSIS
   edited by Timothy Murphy and Suzanne Poirer,  Columbia Univ Press (1993)


     Don't forget to ask for them BY NAME at a library or bookstore near you!
--
                                               "Librarian, Leather bound"
Gary Klein,   Business Librarian,  (Univ of Toledo)           * * * *
PO Box 12650                  Toledo OH  43606-0250            *   *
(w): 419-537-2629      fac2813@uoft01                            *
(h): 419-243-2740      fac2813@uoft01.utoledo.edu         B4 t+ w- g s+ k

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 24 Jul 92 17:51:20 EDT
From: romickle@vassar.edu
Subject: THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE PATERNALISM

>> "I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is.  I
>> only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that
>> differentiate me from a doormat, or a prostitute."   -Rebecca West, 1913
>
>Woah, chill out baby!  Nobody is callin' you a doormat or a prostitute!
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>I am not saying that discrimination isn't out there, but this sig file
                                                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>has a hard edge that is rather uncomfortable.  Can we be a little more
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>positive?

Uhm, EXCUSE ME!  This totally unecessary response is rife with reactionary
condescension and a paternalistic tone ("Now, now little girl, why ruffle
feathers with such a harsh sig file?")  What, I ask, is so uncomforting
about this sig file?  To me (and I'm sure many others on the net), this sig
file is an affirmation of woman's integrity and self-esteem--it *is* a
positive statement.  Moreover, it speaks truth. Think before you write.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
R. Derrick Mickle,  Vassar College________ BLACK, GAY, AND PROUD!
         romickle@vassar.edu      \      /  Box 2699, Vassar College
         romickle@vassar.bitnet    \    /    Poughkeepsie NY 12601
 "I wear black on the outside 'cos  \  /      (914) 451- 2031
  black is how I feel on the inside" \/
               -Morrissey , newfound black activist?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hell is other people."  _Huis Clos_, Jean-Paul Sartre.

------------------------------

From: mortis@wpi.WPI.EDU (Stuart Wells)
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 17:57:02 -0400
Subject: Security Clearance, is it difficult to get?

	I am in a strange situation.  I am interviewing with a company that
would require me to get top secret security clearance.  I have already
destroyed my chances with this company, by indicating that I am gay.  I
have been told from them that its about 95% chance that I would not get
the clearance, but I don't believe they are correct.

	Does anyone have Top Secret Security clearance out there?
What stage in the hiring processes did you tell the government
or the company about being gay with respect to the clearance?
I myself am glad its out in the open in this case, because I would
not want to risk being fired nine months later if I didn't get the
clearance.

	I can tell from the comments I've gotten at the company they would
rather not deal with the issue, but I don't think I will let them off
the hook easly.  Atleast I can force them to consider me since MA has
a non discrimination law, but realisticly they will reject me over this
issue for someone who is not gay, or in the closet enough to hide it.

Stuart Wells, WPI CS Department.

Sorry no .sig file.  Its being rented by my boyfriend.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 17:02 EST
From: XXHARK@INDSVAX1.INDSTATE.EDU
Subject: Scream it to the rooftops, Bill?

Greg Simerly wrote:

>As Clinton et al. were boarding the bus, we heard (but couldn't
>see) a group yelling "what about AIDS, Bill." I hope that the
>convention won't turn out to be the only mention of l/g/b
>issues.

I think I'd like to hear very little mention of lgb issues from
Clinton (I'd like to hear NOTHING of lgb issues from Bush, and
I'd like to hear NOTHING of anything from Quaile) during the
campaign. There are more serious problems to be faced, and I'm
afraid that B and Q will use "family values" (oh, my kingdom for
a reasonable definition of that term from their lips) as a
smokescreen to distract from their failures and to discredit
Clinton. Yes, it'd be a rush to hear about lgb stuff in the
newspaper, but I'd like to see Clinton get elected and then
quietly wave his administrative wand for us in the White House.
Let the religious right make themselves look like the loonies
they are. Is it necessary for US to attract their attention?

Or, just because Clinton's not pounding the table for lgb rights
doesn't mean he's changed his mind.

James Harkins -- XXHARK@INDSVAX1.INDSTATE.EDU

------------------------------

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