Newsgroups: bit.listserv.gaynet
Date:         Sun, 12 Apr 1992 22:58:35 -0400
From:         gaynet@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Subject:      GayNet Digest Volume 5 Issue 276

In this issue:
                             H. Ross Perot
                             queer'n'asian
             Wilson Opposes Omnibus Civil Rights Bill in CA
            Insensitivity, Stereotypes, and the Handicapped.
                       News from Auburn, Alabama
                       Vermont's gay rights bill
                      Brown and Clinton on Choice
                              Randy Shilts
                      St. Elsewhere-AIDS episodes

Please send messages for the entire list to gaynet@ATHENA.MIT.EDU,
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Postings to GayNet are public communications.  If you must keep your
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Newsgroups: rpi.mail.gaynet
From: buckmr@rpi.edu (Ron Buckmire)
Subject: Re: H. Ross Perot
Distribution: local
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 19:44:06 GMT
Apparently-To: rpi-mail-gaynet

Mike.W.Miller.40@nd.edu writes:

>H. Ross Perot (and would you stop spelling it any other way!) was on CNN's
>Evans and Novak this morning.  Aside from showing that in general he doesn't
>have very well defined views on anything, he once again proved that he will
>definitely be no friend of gays and lesbians in particular, and oppressed
>peoples in general.

>   Let's talk about the (financial) benefits extended to married couples.
>   Would you support the extention of these benefits to unisex couples
>   who live together -- and love each each other.  (brief pause)  We've
>   just done that here in the District of Columbia.

Wow! Interesting that Evans and Novak know about the DC DP policy, even though
it hasn't become law yet since it has still to be ratified by Congress.

>I don't expect many LGB people will be tempted to vote for Perot should he get
>on the ballot in all 50 states and he decides to officially run, at least
>not the people who read and participate in GayNet.  But I do hope that he does
>decide to run, because it should fracture the Republican vote and help the
>Democrats in the fall if Perot is being taken seriously.
Well actually polls are showing that he takes more support from Clinton than
he does from Bush, so I hope he does NOT run... But the polls may be wrong
because they are basedon a populace that has little or no info no Mr. Perot.


>But then again, what do I know.  I still hope the Tsongas will win the nom-
>ination...
"wake up, girl!" :-)


-
RON BUCKMIRE, 11 Colvin Circle, Troy, NY 12180-3735.
vox:(518)-276-8910 fax:(518)-276-6920 buckmr@rpi.edu buckmr@rpitsmts.bitnet
"If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door."
                                                                 -Harvey Milk

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

Newsgroups: rpi.mail.gaynet
From: buckmr@rpi.edu (Ron Buckmire)
Subject: Re: queer'n'asian
Distribution: local
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 19:50:32 GMT
Apparently-To: rpi-mail-gaynet

Thanalakshmi.Subramaniam@Dartmouth.EDU writes:

>hi, i'm trying to figure out if anyone knows where and how  i cld order one
>of those "queer'n'asian" t-shirts. i live in new hampshire, if that wld
>narrow down mailing options. oh, and cld someone mail me a copy of the
>article on the pink angels that got posted recently?
Hmm, the Queer n' Asian T-shirts can probably be obtained from either QN/SF or
QN/NY. The addresses for QN/NY in the QRD are below:


Queer Nation / NY
P.O. Box 1524
Cooper Station
New York, NY  10003

Queer Nation / NY
190 Norfolk #3
New York, NY  10002


Queer Nation / NY
245 E. 77th Str.  #6FE
New York, NY  10021


For QN/SF below...


Queer Nation / San Francisco
Box 34
3543 18th Str.
San Francisco, CA  94110

Queer Nation / San Francisco
520 Scott #7
San Francisco, CA  94117


Queer Nation / San Francisco
534 Clayton
San Francisco, CA  94117


>shimi
>"the police claim that the unarmed patrols have actually made the streets
>saferbut we wonder how anyone could feel safe with flaming thugs prancing up
>and down the street all night?
>the dartmouth review on the Pink Angels

The Pink Angles story is on the QRD in /pub/QRD/qrd/text/pinkangels-nyt4.7.92.
I can get it for you if you want.


-
RON BUCKMIRE, 11 Colvin Circle, Troy, NY 12180-3735.
vox:(518)-276-8910 fax:(518)-276-6920 buckmr@rpi.edu buckmr@rpitsmts.bitnet
"If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door."
                                                                 -Harvey Milk

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

Subject: Wilson Opposes Omnibus Civil Rights Bill in CA
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 92 16:07:11 -0400
From: buckmr@rpi.edu

***posted to soc.motss by Chris Thomas***

A report Thursday states that the Wilson administration is opposed to
AB 3825, one of the bills in the California legislature that would
provide anti-discrimination protection to gays, lesbians, and bisexuals
(among many other provisions).

AB 3825 passed the Assembly Labor Committee on Wednesday, and analysts
believe that it will pass the Assembly with little difficulty.  A more
difficult battle is expected, however, in the conservative state Senate,
which in 1991 passed AB 101 by the slightest of margins.

Bonnie Guiton, Gov. Wilson's secretary for consumer affiars, said
Wednesday, "In its current form, we oppose the bill," adding, "But we
in no way see this as a closed issue."

At Wednesday's committee hearing, Assembly speaker Willie Brown brought
several persons who said they were victims of discrimination or
harassment, to reinforce the need to reaffirm the civil rights of all
Californians.

Nobody from the Governor's office attended the hearing.


-
Chris Thomas						(415) 694-5614
S4/7 b g+ l y+ z+ n+ o+ x-/+ a++ u v-/+ j++          thomas@acuson.com
---
RON BUCKMIRE, 11 Colvin Circle, Troy, NY 12180-3735.
vox:(518)-276-8910 fax:(518)-276-6920 buckmr@rpi.edu buckmr@rpitsmts.bitnet
"If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door."
                                                                 -Harvey Milk

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

Date:    Sun, 12 Apr 1992 14:25:05 -0700 (MST)
From: GARDNER@biosci.arizona.edu (I'm too sexy for my terminal)
Subject: Insensitivity, Stereotypes, and the Handicapped.

/sigh  Can we ever break the stereotype?  True, there are a lot of gay men out
there who can be insensitive, shallow, looking only at the outer husk, etc.
But not ALL gay men are that way.  It is all a matter of individuality.

As I wrote once before, the greatest love of my life was with Joshua.  He
was in a wheelchair, couldn't walk at all, but that didn't make a difference
to me.  Nor did it make a difference to any of my friends.

Some gay men are like little boys with new toys.  They just want to find
someone to play with.  It's unfortunate that they are only looking for the
pretty (societies definition of it anyway) ones.  Josh and I shared some
of the most wonderful, caring, loving moments of our young lives until
the drunk assholes who ran him off the road ended all that (his parents
bought him a special car, all hand instruments and such.  I don;t see
how he could have driven it, I certainly didn;t hae the coordination to
do all that with my hands.)  So, there is at least one gay man who
doesn't fit the stereotype.  Love is where you find it, not how it
looks.

-Ryan
(sig file abandoned until a decent quote can be found.)

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

Subject: News from Auburn, Alabama
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 92 17:35:24 -0400
From: buckmr@rpi.edu

From: Dale Prince <JPRINCE3@UA1VM.UA.EDU>
Subject:      More on Alabama


*** This was posted to the Queer Nation mailing list qn@queernet.org ***

The following is a reprint (without permission) of an editorial from The
Crimson White, the University of Alabama's campus newspaper.  Material marked
with brackets is my own.

SGA Senate following Auburn's lead on G/LA issue
Business as usual

If only we could come back from spring break to a clean slate, a campus free of
 political ebarrassments waiting to explode into lawsuits  (oops, I don't have
brackets, so these things will have to do.  Note that Auburn administrators
went mad and brought lawsuits against everyone involved in the AGLA contro-
versy there).

If only the SGA Senate hadn't gone so far out of its way to take a cheap shot
at the Gay/Lesbian Association.  (actually the "A" stands for Alliance)

But apparently the oppurtunity to indulge in some typically mean-spirited
legislation against a defenseless target was just too good to pass up.  The Sen
ate gutted the Financial Affairs Committee's recommended allocation  ($800; $23
5 more than last year) for the G/LA, the only group singled out for such treatm
ent.

The Senate was presumably aware that the director of the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay
Rights Project has said he is prepared to sue any state university that denies
funding or recognition to a homosexual group based on its sexuality.  But that
didn't stop the Senate from singling the G/LA out.  Nor did it prevent C&BA Sen
. Jeff Hand from explicitly stating that he voted for the cut on grounds of rel
igion and sexuality.  Hand, apparently letting his mother do his thinking for h
im (Hand told the Senate that his mother forbade him to vote in favor of the G/
LA)-didn't mention his constituents' wishes-but that's a minor point next to th
e fact that his moralizing was being taped for use in court. (as per the instru
ctions of the ACLU.)

The Senate's budget decisions now go before the faculty and student membership
of the Student Life Committee, which will make recommendations to Vice Presiden
t for Student Affairs Harry Knopke.  The committee, presumably to clean up the
Senate's mess before it's too late, is holding a special session Tuesday at 3 p
.m.

Hopefully the committee will recommend, and Knopke will decisively support, a r
eversal of the Senate's decision.  But this is no triumph; it is a pity. Becaus
e when we hope for this reversal, we're hoping the administration wil lstep in
to override a student government that can't be relied upon to do what's right.
When that reversal comes to pass, we will be in exactly the same position Aubur
n was in months ago when the president overruled teh student senate to extend a
 charter to the Auburn Gay and Lesbian Association.

Let's review how we came to be in this situation, and consider the role of good
old Machine-style politics (the Machine is a secret coalition of select fratern
ities and sororities designed to affect campus politics; for more information s
ee the most recent ESQUIRE and its article on The Most Powerful Fraternity in A
merica, an article which the UA SGA overwhelmingly voted to condemn, as if to s
ay "Begone, you have no power here.):

1)The 91-92 Senate passes a resolution asking state Attorney General Jimmy Evan
s to decide whether or not organizations like the G/LA can legally be funded, e
ven though the SGA has been funding the G/LA for two years.  The resolution is
authored by Legislative Liason Chad Green and Sens. Liles Burke, Todd Rich and
Chuck Hess (Hess is painted as a young Ralph Nader in the ESQUIRE article.  He
was nearly outed by members of the G/LA who regularly play pool with him at Mic
hael's, Tuscaloosa's gay bar.  Hess attempted to withdraw his support when he n
oted the looks being given him but Burke refused to accept the withdrawal.)

2)Then-SGA president Trey Boston vetoes the resolution. (I understand that his
mother is a um . . . patron of the arts, and that she demanded that he veto the
 resolution.) Later asked about rumors that the veto earned him the enmity of t
he Machine, Boston will only say he did hear from the group.

3)Green, on the night before the Senate votes to cut G/LA funding, says "Expect
 a surprise."  Green, whose service to the Machine has included carrying word t
o SGA president Mark Bain that he had the Machine endorsement, is now an Off-ca
mpus senator appointed by Bain.  (The SGA presidential race consisted of three
candidates, one of whom dropped out due to personal matters i.e. he is young an
d in the closet, although not closeted to me or my roommates, since being somew
hat visible, we --particularly my roommate Joey who recently had a novel publis
hed--tend to attract that uncertain crowd.  Another of the candidates was a you
ng black man who ran in direct oppositon to the Machine.  He later came out to
a friend of mine, but has come out to no one else.  The Machine candidate won.)

4)Green launches the move to cut G/LA funding.  A handful of senators, notably
new appointee John England, oppose.  A vote is taken after truncated debate and
 the motion passes.  It's a voice vote, of course, so the herd following Green'
s lead is able to remain safely anonymous.

Remember how nice it felt to think we lived on a more enlightened campus? If on
ly it were true.
*******End of Article

In fact the student life committee voted to give the G/LA the full amount origi
nally recommended, stating that the SGA will have to rebudget in order to fit t
he G/LA's funds into the picture.  Additionally, Vice-President of the SGA, the
 evil Jason Fair was thoroughly trashed by the faculty members of the committee
when he claimed that the SGA had not been discriminatory.  "We know why you did
it and you know why you did it, so stop pretending."  Fair claimed innocence an
d the G/LA president said, "Jason Fair!  Now you stop that! I have your speeche
s on tape!"  So the UA G/LA continues WITH increased funds in spite of a blind
and deaf SGA and a legalistically moronic attorney general.  End of Story. Hi,
Mom.
---
RON BUCKMIRE, 11 Colvin Circle, Troy, NY 12180-3735.
vox:(518)-276-8910 fax:(518)-276-6920 buckmr@rpi.edu buckmr@rpitsmts.bitnet
"I might be President by now if it weren't for this 'queer' thing" -Gore Vidal

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

Newsgroups: rpi.mail.gaynet
From: buckmr@rpi.edu (Ron Buckmire)
Subject: Re: Vermont's gay rights bill
Distribution: local
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 22:03:12 GMT
Apparently-To: rpi-mail-gaynet

John Kellermeier <KELLERJH@splava.cc.plattsburgh.edu> writes:

>The latest news on Vermont's lesbigay rights bill:  The bill has passed the
>Senate and is now in the House.  (To David in Gettysburg: Note this is
>opposite of what I said before.)  It has also made it out of committee.
>Last Friday there was a priliminary vote.  The vote was something like 71
>in favor to 55 against.  I'm not sure of the exact numbers but I do know
>that only four or five more votes are needed to pass.  The final vote
>should come on Monday.  The good news is that there were 20 legislators who
>did not vote on Friday to get those last four or five votes from.  The bad
>news is that those 20 legislators are all (or nearly all) Republicans who
>are tending to vote against the bill.  At the same time Barbara Snelling (
>the widow of the recently deceased Republican Governor Snelling) is
>campaigning *for* the bill.
Cool!

Please explain to me how this happens? Is Vermont a state where a bill must
get 50% +1 vote to pass? How many votes are there in the House? It would seem
from yur post that there are 71+55+20=146 members in the house. Meaning the
bill needs to get 73+1=74 votes to pass. So we need three more votes, not so?

Well, whatever. Let us know what happens on Monday...

>According to a Vermont Public Radio report last Thursday, one of the
>opponents of the bill said that if it passes "Thousands of unsuspecting
>Vermonters will be seduced by sodomy."  That's an image that kind of
>boggles the mind.
*Boggle*

:-)
--
RON BUCKMIRE, 11 Colvin Circle, Troy, NY 12180-3735.
uunet!rpi.edu!buckmr||buckmr@rpitsmts.bitnet||buckmr@rpi.edu||+1 518 276 8910
"I could not do it nearly as well as Kate Bush, because she is a Goddess."
                                                            --Sinead O'Connor.

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

Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 19:29-EDT
From: Scott.Safier@ISL1.RI.CMU.EDU
Subject: Brown and Clinton on Choice

Since Ron and Chris brought it up, here is NARAL PACs information on
Brown and Clinton with regards to abortion:

Both support Roe v Wade
Both support freedom of choice act
Both oppose a constitutional amendment outlawing abortions
Both support reversing the ban on abortion at overseas medical
   facilities
Both support overturning the "Gag Rule"

Brown supports medicaid funded abortions
Clinton, on the issue of medicaid funding, says "It is clear to me that
the Hyde amendment should be repealed to ensure, at least in the case of
rape, incest, or danger to the health of the mother, women will be able
to receive federal funding to pay for an abortion... Although I have
supported certain limited restrictions upon government funding for
abortion I would not veto any bill requiring Medicaid funding that
passed Congress."

Brown opposes mandatory parental consent/notification laws.
Clinton, on this issue, says, "I signed a parental notice law in
Arkansas because I believe, whenever possible, parents should help their
children work through the decision on abortion and its consequences.
The Arkansas law is a notice, not a consent law, and has a workable
judicial bypass provision which is essential to any parental notice
legislation."

Brown had this to add: "We know that we will not really be free until
the rights of every American are secured -- including the right of every
woman to control their bodies."

Clinton had this to add: "The government simply has no right to
interfere with decisions that must be made by women in consultation with
their partners, doctors, friends, and clergy.  I trust the women of
America to make the right choice.  A Clinton Administration will oppose
any attempts to weaken that fundamental right."

As far as I know, NARAL considers both candidates to be pro-choice and
endorses neither.

Scott Safier,
Steering Committee Member, NARAL-PA Pittsburgh Chapter

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

Date:         Sun, 12 Apr 92 17:53:17 MST
From: Gabriel <G9348712%NMSUVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
Subject:      Randy Shilts

Those who have commented on "The Mayor of Castro Street" have said implied
that it is unusually subjective for something that is supposed to be a
biography.  But the evidence they draw on is from Shilts' other book,
"And the Band Played On."  Do you have any information directly from
"Castro Street" in this regard?  (I am not trying to be provocative;
I read the book and liked it many years ago, but I was not in San Francisco
at the time of Harvey Milk's activities or death, so I have no way of knowing
how slanted the work is as biography.)

Gabriel

You know a society is in trouble when it says hate is normal and love is queer.

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

Date: 12 Apr 92 22:35:23 EDT
From: Fred Steffy <76040.1100@CompuServe.COM>
Subject: St. Elsewhere-AIDS episodes

Yesterday and today (Sunday)  Fox re-played the twin episodes that, amongst
the other story lines, showed the plastic surgeon that contracted AIDS.  This
surgeon, played by Mark Harmon, was a womanizer, lady-killer, and had no
trouble at all finding playmates.  Then, while preparing to have some minor
plastic surgery done on a scar on his face, he leaves some blood for the
operation which tests positive with HIV.

I must say that, when the show started quite a few years back, I watched it
avidly.  One of the reasons was Mark Harmon.  My introduction to him was of
his stepping out of a dressing room wearing only a low-slung towel.  The
fantasies that erupted (literally) from that was enough to keep me watching,
not to mention the storylines that were always interesting.

The show, which is quite dated now in terms of HIV knowledge, was very careful
to not allow their actors to really go into much about AIDS, rather they
allowed the fear of the disease to do all the work for them.  Some of the
sections in the episodes, while possibly positive in light of the times, did
little for the LGB population.

In one section, the surgeon "Bobby" is sitting in a blood transfusion couch
while another doctor is giving him one of the early AIDS treatment drugs
intervenously.  The other doctor leaves and, stating that "this is
ridiculous," Bobby pulls the IV out of his arm and leaves.  A confrontation
with his mentor doctor brings out the stigma of AIDS, as the mentor doctor
states, "I didn't know you were gay."  When Bobby vehemently denies being gay,
the mentor says, "It doesn't matter what YOU say..."  meaning that, if you
have AIDS, you must be gay.  Again, please remember how dated this show is.

In juxtaposition to each other, two scenes play with the AIDS angle.  The
first one shows Dr. Fiscus and a woman preparing for "Hot bunny sex-het
style."  The scene changes to show Bobby preparing an IV for himself at home,
filling a needle with curare, and preparing to kill himself.  He states, just
before the scene ends, "it's better to be dead..."  After a commercial, Fiscus
and the woman have started, but Fiscus calls it off, discussing his worry
about AIDS and "how they [whoever they are] didn't tell us there'd be a price
for the 'free-love' of the 70's."  Needless to say, they do not have sex, the
viewer being left with the idea that not having sex is a smart idea.
Meanwhile, in the act of killing himself, Bobby is interrupted by the teenage
girl upstairs who, after acccidently allowing the bathtub to run over,
frantically knocks on Bobby's door for help.

Meanwhile, Bobby has told Nancy, a woman that he'd slept with, to get a test.
Definitely a hard thing to do, yet Nancy is only thinking of herself, gets a
test and is negative.  Lastly, Bobby is back at the hospital, packing up his
office.  Yes, he's willingly leaving, unable to try again, so where's he
moving to?  California, where he will work in an AIDS hospice part-time (read,
until he dies) and take time to read all the things he didn't have a chance to
do because "the science got in the way."  The last scene of the second episode
is Bobby walking out the door of the hospital, after a camera pan of the
hustle-bustle of a major city hospital.

Now, while I think the overall concept of the episodes was favorable (they did
use a straight character to portray an AIDS victim, and they did attempt to
show "consenting adults" deciding, because of AIDS, not to have unprotected
sex, they did have to whip out the "AIDS=Homosexual" angle just to make sure
we all understood that.  I think that they could have left this out, or better
yet, had a gay character with AIDS in the hospital at the same time for Bobby
to talk to about what was going on with his "life."

I just don't think that "Hollywood" has done enough to really get people aware
about AIDS and the people it kills.  Yes, I have seen "Longtime Companion,"
and yet I don't think that this film, while an excellent film, did the trick.
It is great to see the number of actors/actresses that are "coming out for
AIDS," so to speak, and that support, even chair the various benefits,
organizations, etc.  I just think that the time has come to have the film that
will reach the multitudes that shows AIDS for what it really is, a disease
that EVERYONE can get if they do not practice absolutely safe-sex practices
(up to and including abstinence [yes, that dirty word, ladies! :)  or use
dirty needles, etc.

Sorry this was so long, "and took up bandwith" <--whatever that means, but
this show (one of the few I missed when the show was on) made me feel.

Ciao.

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

End of GayNet Digest
********************
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