Newsgroups: bit.listserv.gaynet
Date:         Sat, 25 Jul 1992 19:17:03 -0400
From:         gaynet@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Subject:      GayNet Digest Volume 5 Issue 577

In this issue:
                             phobic letters
                          Letter to The Editor
                      sigfiles and WIld at Heart.
                        2 steps forward, 1 back
                              News: Tracy

Please send messages for the entire list to gaynet@ATHENA.MIT.EDU,
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: awerling@NMSU.Edu
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 92 07:28:12 MDT

Will someone be so kind as to tell Mark Hertzog that I'll be out of town
until August 16 without email access?  Thank you....

Andrew Werling   awerling@nmsu.edu   Ambassador of Planet Yip
To get on the Planet Yip Junk Mail List, write to me.

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

Date: Sat, 25 Jul 92 10:49:42 EDT
From: Tim Pierce <twpierce@cs.amherst.edu>
Subject: phobic letters

Graham Wolff Christian <GRAHAM%HARVARDA.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu> said:

> One queer (we
> presume--why did The Post volunteer his professional affiliation except to
> "out" him?)

What is the Whitman-Walker Clinic?

> speaking in self-defense;three men bursting with hatred;
> one (perhaps)
> deaf woman saying, in effect, "Don't tell me about your oppression. I've got
> my own oppression."

Are you sure about that?  That she is concerned about stigmatization
of the deaf -- rightly, I think -- does not mean that she is
unconcerned about gay rights.  How is her response any different from
when we castigate authors for identifying "minorities" as women,
Blacks, and Asian-Americans, without mentioning queers?

> I am
> astonished that these gentlemen, who seem to read Book World with some atten-
> tion, should not be able to understand that their contributions so closely
> match (shocking) denunciations made, over the past two or three hundred years,
> against women, people of color, immigrants, Jews, and the left-handed.

I'm sure that they do understand this; more to the point, they
understand that their contributions closely match denunciations of
child molesters and axe murderers.  As far as they are concerned,
willful hatred of homosexuals is a reasonable thing because
homosexuality is as inherently "wrong" as rape or murder.

> #4 explicitly (though unconsciously,
> I would guess) brackets homosexuals and women.

The juxtaposition is not unusual.  Lesbians are often described as
"mixed-up women" or simply "weird women," and many people think, quite
simply, that gay men are "not men," though in what bizarre biological
sense that might be true I can't possibly fathom.  The author of that
letter probably does place women and gay men in similar conceptual
categories.

-
____ Tim Pierce                / The Queer Resources Directory: access via
\  / twpierce@cs.amherst.edu   / anonymous ftp at nifty.andrew.cmu.edu in
 \/ (BITnet: TWPIERCE@AMHERST) / directory /pub/QRD.

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

Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 11:31 EST
From: GANDERSON@vax.clarku.edu
Subject: Letter to The Editor

Thought folks might be interested in a recently published letter to The Editor
I wrote in response to an editorial about The Democratic Platform in The
Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Well Here it is...
Jerry Cheney
69 Monadnock Road, Worcester, MA 01609
(508) 755-0005 Home: Voice/FAX, (508) 756-7123 Work -Voice,
(508) 756-8922 Work-FAX

July 17, 1992

Editor
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
P.O. Box 15012
Worcester, MA 01605
FAX #: 793-9281

Dear Editor,

        I am writing in response to the July 16th editorial on the democratic
platform.  In your editorial is a litany of  alleged "goodies" that the
democrats had proposed but not planned how to pay for.  Stuck in the
middle of this litany was the phrase, "special rights for homosexuals." The
inclusion of this phrase is gratuitous and homophobic.

        The democratic platform does not specify "special rights" or
affirmative action for lesbians and gay men but only equal civil rights.
Just substitute any other minority group in place of "homosexuals" in
your phrase and it's bias becomes clear, (as in "special rights for Jews").

        If your worried like all of us about wasteful spending, consider that
our military has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on witch hunts
against lesbians & gay men.  These brave women and man, whose only
crime was loving someone of the same gender, we're willing to fight and
die for a country that treated them like second class citizens.  Think of all
the lost talent of lesbians and gay men excluded from contributing to our
society because their sexual orientation.  The time for divisiveness is over.
As Bill Clinton said in his acceptance speech we are not "them gays" we
are part of the "us" that binds us together as Americans.

                                                                Sincerely,
                                                                Jerry Cheney
                                                                Jerry Cheney
C/O IN%"GANDERSON@vax.clarku.edu"

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

Date: 25 Jul 92 12:34:33 EDT
From: Thanalakshmi.Subramaniam@Dartmouth.EDU
Subject: sigfiles and WIld at Heart.

*re the rebecca west sig file- hello? what a condescending suggestion to
*calm down* and be positive. *no more nice girl*, i say! that is the classic
feminist quote, one i remember from when i was a teenager, it totally *speaks
truth* as derrick puts it.
*Wild at Heart- nothing misogynist abt this movie? well, remeber the scene
where willem dafoe terrorises Laura Dern, puts his hands all over her, and
makes her, in effect, *ask for it*, then leaves? i was so outraged by this,
that i was shaking. it was the classic mushing of *she wanted it* , she
*asked for it*, * rape is just rough sex* classic rape excuses. at least in
my *non-positive* feminist opinion. this may not make the entire movie
misogynistic, but that scene was nothing if not that.
:)
shimi

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

Newsgroups: bit.listserv.gaynet
From: cbe@unlinfo.unl.edu (cbe)
Subject: Re: 2 steps forward, 1 back
Organization: University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Distribution: local
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 18:09:48 GMT
Apparently-To: bit-listserv-gaynet@uunet.uu.net

Graham Christian in a presents homophobic comments published in The
Washington Post Book World which were apparently prompted by an issue
with focus on gay writers.  Graham is shocked by the homophobia which
does not appear to be religiously based and cannot fathom why the
writers care.

I would venture that they just may not have presented the religious
argument.  It is so obvious to them that homosexuality is wrong that
no justification is needed.  Also, the unrelieved homophobia of our
culture is such that it is easily assimilated even without religious
rhetoric.  The unrelieved hatred and irrationality that homosexuality
engenders in the straight population seems way out of proportion to
any real effect it has on that set.  Whatever is at work, it must be
at some deep psychological level and the old saw about it being a fear
of what is already there may have more validity than one suspects.
Indeed, it is arguable that males especially may have a rather
undifferentiated sexuality and that bit of them that finds members of
the same sex appealing is the root of great fear.  However, I suspect
that the cause is really the deep misogyny of this patriarchial
culture and that somehow homosexuality represents feminization of the
male to these macho primitives.  Whatever the cause, it is clear that
homophobia is a deep-seated problem.

Colburn Eigen                    H|u> = E|u>

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

Date:         Sat, 25 Jul 92 12:28:52 MST
From: Melissa <MHERBERT@ARIZVM1.ccit.arizona.edu>

Just a few thoughts -

1. I love the Rebecca West quote; I HATE the reference to "fish," etc.

2. Go for the security clearance.  There have been more than a few cases in
which folks (civilians) have won this point.  BTW - as I recall, even DICK
(how apropos) Cheney suggested re: Pete Williams that the security worry was
history.

3. Sorry, but there is still no way I would ever stop for anyone on the hwy.
Call me paranoid, but. . .  What I will do is pull over down the road, hook up
my portable CB and put in a call for you.  I also carry it so that I don't have
 to depend on someone stopping to "help" me.

4. In the wake of Tracy Thorne, another gay man (SSGT Pannicia - sp?), this
time Air Farce (typo intentional) has come out via tv - on Good Morning
America.  He is stationed here in Tucson at Davis-Monthan.  I made the
acquantaince of someone at D-M last year who was thrown out for being a lesbian
 when an old lover's (in another state) belongings were searched and they found
 a few letters.  That was the extent of their evidence.  Of course, her awards,
 etc. were irrelevant.  This really pisses me off!!!!!!!!!!!

5. Guess that's about it.  Oh - did anyone watch the first installment of
 Portrait of a Marriage?

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

Date: Sat, 25 Jul 92 20:47 GMT
Subject: News: Tracy
From: An Anonymous Sender

WP   07/25       Gay Aviator's Plea Rejected; Navy Board Unmoved ...

Gay Aviator's Plea Rejected; Navy Board Unmoved by Lieutenant's Emotional
Defense
By Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writer

   OCEANA NAVAL AIR STATION, Va., July 24 - He thought he could hold back the
rage and pain, as he has through weeks of interviews in the hot glare of
national attention.
   But when Navy Lt. j.g. Tracy W. Thorne stood up today before a Board of
Inquiry, he held back nothing. Emotion thickened his voice and shook his lean
frame as he addressed three superior officers, undisguisedly judging his judges.
   "I had hoped that you would hear me," said the 25-year-old aviator. "I had
hoped that you would realize that I was just like you. . . . But all you want to
know is that I am a homosexual."
   At the close of a wrenching two-day hearing, the board formally recommended
Thorne's expulsion from naval service. Thorne's personal trauma, and that of his
family, stood out starkly against the panel's studied dispassion.
   By publicizing his case with appearances on national news programs, Thorne
had already added momentum to an election-year assault by gays as well as some
lawmakers on a 48-year-old military ban on homosexuals in uniform.
   Roughly 1,000 men and women a year are expelled under the ban, and the
introduction this spring of a House bill to end it has been accompanied by a
loosely coordinated parade of "self-outings" by highly successful military men
and women.
   Thorne's military record was exceptional. Three times the young
bombardier-navigator ranked at the top of his class in jet school (for primary,
intermediate and advanced syllabus). He became the youngest flier in Attack
Squadron 65, the "Fighting Tigers." His picture hung in Pensacola under a plaque
that said "Top Gun."
   On May 19, he sent a letter to his skipper acknowledging that he is gay.
Cmdr. T. J. "Gator" Ross summoned the squadron for a meeting that "almost felt
like a funeral," according to one flier who was there. That night, Thorne told a
national audience on ABC's "Nightline" that the military's ban on gays in
uniform "is wrong and it's time to change it."
   Within two days the Navy revoked his security clearances and put a coat of
gray paint over his name on an A-6 Intruder attack jet. Removed from his
squadron and assigned to a previously nonexistent job, Thorne has been asked to
do nothing but organize a "chili cook-off" so far.
   "He was disappeared," said a member of his squadron this week. "Just like (in
George Orwell's novel) `1984.' "
   According to Thorne and several fellow fliers, members of the squadron at
first expressed support for Thorne's courage, although only five or so of the 35
officers are said to favor an end to the ban on gays.
   But when word got out that Ross had told Thorne he too was proud of him, Vice
Adm. Anthony Less, commander of Atlantic naval air forces, telephoned Ross and
exploded, according to sources friendly to Thorne. A spokesman for Less said no
such call took place.
   Thorne's friends have since been summoned for questioning, and some have been
asked about their sexuality. Other squadrons have taken to sending flowers to
Thorne's old wardroom in a gesture of disdain, and have amended the squadron's
nickname to "Flaming Tigers." Some fliers have found new ridicule in Thorne's
airborne call sign: "Zipper."
   In the administrative hearing here, Navy legal officials tried to foster an
atmosphere of routine procedure and prevented Thorne from offering 79 witnesses
and exhibits, deeming them irrelevant to what Navy attorneys said should be the
only question at hand.
   "If you find he is a homosexual, then you shall separate him," Lt. Julie L.
Tinker, a Navy lawyer, told the board.
   When his turn came, Thorne leaned forward and gripped his chair.
   "You are naval officers," Thorne told the three fellow fliers in his
24-minute statement. "You wear wings of gold. You are leaders of men. You are
not machines. If you allow yourselves to not question a policy that is based on
ancient hatred and bigotry and not based on reality, you are allowing yourselves
to be machines."
   Thorne, choked with emotion, had to stop four times when he tried to repeat
the oath he swore on Sept. 13, 1988, to "support and defend the Constitution of
the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
   Two fellow junior aviators testified Thursday that Thorne is an outstanding
bombardier and that they perceived in him no threat to "discipline, good order
and morale," the principal remaining justification for the official military
ban.
   One of the aviators, Lt. j.g. Todd A. Suko, also signed a sworn statement
alleging that Tinker tried to intimidate him from testifying by saying Suko
"might be perceived by the media and others to be a homosexual" and would "bring
discredit to his name." Tinker denied the allegations, and Rear Adm. Paul W.
Parcells, who heard testimony from neither officer, ruled that Tinker was
telling the truth.
   Thorne and his lawyers, Patrick W. Lee and Luther Zeigler of the D.C. firm of
Crowell & Moring, said they will appeal today's recommendation through a Navy
Board of Review and ask acting Navy Secretary Sean O'Keefe to use his discretion
to keep Thorne in the service. Failing that, they said they will challenge the
Navy's action in federal court, asserting Thorne's 14th Amendment right to equal
protection of the law.
   Thorne sent a hand-delivered letter Wednesday to President Bush, a former
Navy aviator, asking his commander in chief for a hearing known in the Navy as a
captain's mast.
   Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton has declared his support for an
end to the gay ban, and public opinion polls show a growing majority - 81
percent in one April survey - favoring that position. But Bush, with his
campaign focused thus far on "family values" and intent on appealing to
conservative swing voters, is considered unlikely to grant Thorne's request.
   Thorne's father, a West Palm Beach orthopedic surgeon named Roscoe Thorne,
today gave the board a rambling and emotional account of his own long journey as
a southerner to come to terms with racial prejudice. He said he hoped the
officers would admit to themselves, if not in public, that they were shamed by
expelling his son.
   The elder Thorne, according to family members, became deeply depressed when
he learned his son was gay and has had difficulty speaking to him. "Until I
heard this man right now," he told the board after his son spoke, "I didn't
really know what a great man was given to me."
   Outside in a narrow corridor, the two men wept and embraced.

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

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