Newsgroups: bit.listserv.gaynet
Date:         Fri, 21 Aug 1992 22:07:00 -0400
From:         gaynet@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Subject:      GayNet Digest Volume 5 Issue 646

In this issue:
                                Louganis
               Washington Post article on GOP gay-bashing
                             GOP Convention
                           B of A/ Convention
                       Flag Burning and Idealism
              Official Travel for 1993 March on Washington
                               Nellie...
                            Issues 629 & 630
                           Nobody Walks in LA
                                  test
                             The Living End
                         Freedom of Expression
             GayNet Digest Volume 5 Issue 645 to anonymous
                             First time...

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

From: "The Crazy Cavalier [K. Ritz]" <klr7a@uva.pcmail.Virginia.EDU>
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 12:09:01 EDT
X-Pcmail-Return-Receipt-Requested: klr7a
Subject: Louganis

To Richard Foster:

Yes, I'd like to know about Greg Louganis' nickname, and any other info you
have about him.  Thanks!  :-)

Peace and love,

Kevin L. Ritz, klr7a@virginia.edu
 Information is better than ignorance!
 -K. Ritz, March 1991, at the beginning of my coming out process

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

Date:         Fri, 21 Aug 92 12:10:20 EDT
From: "S.C. Richardson" <SRICH@VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Washington Post article on GOP gay-bashing

Excerpted from the 8/21/92 Washington Post; article on page 1, above
the fold, next to a picture of J. Danforth Quayle the Unspeakable.

- ---------------------------------------------------
Voters Decry GOP 'Gay-Bashing'
Rhetoric Seen as Desperate, Ugly--but Maybe Effective
-----------------------------------------------------
...[several paragraphs deleted]

The Republicans appear to be latching on to anti-gay sentiment as a way
to differentiate themselves from the Bill Clinton-Albert Gore Jr.
ticket, which has expressed unequivocal support for the protection of
gays' civil rights.

Former presidential candidate Patrick J. Buchanan began the attack
Monday night in Houston, telling a cheering crowd that while the
Democrats would not let Pennsylvania Gov.  Robert P. Casey speak at the
Democratic National Convention because he opposed abortion rights,
"a militant leader of the homosexual rights movement could rise at that
convention and say 'Bill Clinton and Al Gore represent the most
pro-lesbian and pro-gay ticket in history.'  And so they do."

The GOP platform this year opposes civil rights protection for gays.
And signs reading "Family Rights Forever/Gay Rights Never," have been
waved for the television cameras at the Astrodome.

The potential effectiveness of the tactic-which homosexual groups have
declared the Willie Horton issue of 1992-is unclear.  Also uncertain is
the length to which Republicans will pursue the issue.  Already gay
rights has been raised against the Democrats on some religious
television and radio broadcasts.  And Democratic operatives say they
expect the Republicans to target evangelicals and other conservatives by
mail and broadcast ads.

Polling experts agree with some of the people interviewed [in the
article]: The strategy may be negative, but it also might work.

Murray Edelman, the director of the exit polling consortium Voter
Research & Survey said that the issue offered "a real potential for a
fear campaign."  Polling numbers on gay issues are "soft," he said.  If
"the right buttons were pushed," the Republicans could elicit a lot of
anti-gay sentiment.

A Gallup Poll in June showed that 74 percent of Americans said that
homosexuals "should have equal rights in terms of job opportunities."
However, that number sank considerably when certain specific jobs were
mentioned.  The overwhelming majority thought gays should be allowed to
be sales clerks, but 54 percent said they believed homosexuals should
not be hired as elementary school teachers.

An even lower number, 38 percent, said the homosexual lifestyle was
"acceptable."

"It is in this area between nondiscrimination and promotion of the
lifestyle that a campaign can be waged," Edelman said.  "And it can be a
campaign based on fear."

In the 1970s in California, a similar anti-gay tactic was tried when a
statewide initiative to ban gay and lesbian teachers was on the ballot.
Initially, polls showed that initiative would win, but it was defeated
after officials spoke against it.

Andrew Sullivan, editor of the New Republic magazine who is gay, said he
fears the GOP strategy could draw votes.  "It's still true that
homosexuality remains a taboo in our culture and as long as [the
Republicans] associate the opposition with it they can manage to create
a wedge to benefit themselves," he said.

"We may be at a watershed," Sullivan said, talking of the departure this
year from the far subtler anti-gay Republican rhetoric in the past.
"This battle is finally joined," he said.  "The test is whether you can
publicly denounce people for something they cannot help."

While Buchanan has said he would not rent his beach house to gay men and
that homosexual rights should not be "abided in a nation we still call
God's country," Bush generally has avoided explicit mention of the
issue.  But pressed in an interview last week he said that he believed
that the homosexual lifestyle was not "normal."

Massachusetts Gov.  William F. Weld is one of the few Republicans who
has spoken this week in support of gay rights.  "It's a live third rail,
people don't want to touch it," he said in an interview.

Walter Williams, an anthropologist at the University Southern California
who studies societal attitudes on sexuality, said he believed the public
is "too sophisticated in their understanding of sexual diversity" for
an anti-gay campaign to work in 1992.

They are out of step with the country, Williams said.  "It may have
worked two decades ago," he said, but as more people have come out of
the closet, more people are related, work alongside or are friends with
a gay person.

Just how many people are homosexual is unknown and long a matter of
controversy.  Estimates have ranged from 2 percent to 10 percent, with
the higher number being considered the more reliable by gay groups.

[more paragraphs deleted]...

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

Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 12:23:49 EDT
From: (bmcconne) <bmcconne@vtserf.cc.vt.edu>
Subject: GOP Convention

If ACT-UP/QN et al. wanted to make a positive contribution to the GLB
rights movement, the best thing they could have done would have been to
avoid the GOP convention. For that matter, for all of us queer folk to have
avoided the convention like the plague. Why? They need a Willie Horton for
1992. If we were absent, we would have been only an abstract presence, not
an in-your-face threat to the fundies.

All I am saying is that they're gearing up for KKK style attacks on us in
the campaign. What's the best way to combat that? We don't have money so
confrontation won't work because we can rebutt everything they say. Just do
what they did in Skokie, IL and deny them of the confrontation they so
badly need to scare people into supporting them.

Brian
Brian S McConnell
1104 Ascot Lane
Blacksburg, VA 24060
REPLY TO !!! -> bmcconne@vtssi.vt.edu

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

From: "Mac Phillips"  <MAC@hup.ucla.edu>
Organization: UCLA Honors & Undergraduate Pgms
Date:         21 Aug 92 09:33:04 PST
Subject:      B of A/ Convention
X-Pmrqc:      1

Just called the B of A number previously posted.  The correct person
to contact is:

                Betty Riess @
                (415) 622-6397

                I was told the decision was based on B of A's
president's conversation with BSA's president during which B of A was
assured that all boys are welcome.  I questioned the scouting
interpretation of "morally straight", at which time she offered to
pass on my views.  Keep calling.  I also gave them a deadline of next
Friday to reverse the decision before I pay-off and cancel my credit
card and B of A accounts.
______________________________________________________________________

    My mother called me late last night in tears to tell me she was
voting for Bill Clinton!  My mother and I avoid talking politics.
One of us always ends up hanging up.  She is a litmus test for
conservative republicanism.  It's over as far as I'm concerned.  You
can stop the polls.
___________________________________________________
    Indeed, I got a kick out of "The Best of Times Is Now" being
played at the convention.  At first I couldn't believe it.  Was it
infiltration?  Too bad they didn't push it with, "Put A Little More
Mascara On".

___________________________________________________
    I don't usually go for guys under 20 (cough, cough), but I'd make
an exception for Trevor(?) Quale.  Sweet, tall, blonde, 18, and I've
got just what that little christian scowl needs.

Mac Phillips   *    "And her eyes.  Such a lovely shade of violet.
UCLA           *    And such even teeth.  A rare, fair feature even
(310) 206-1694 *    teeth.  Of course she smiled to excess, but she
                    chewed with real distinction."
                                -Kate in "Lion in Winter" 1964

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

Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 09:38:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: Loren Meissner <lmeissne@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Flag Burning and Idealism
Mime-Version: 1.0

To The Idealists:
Warning: Your idealism may be used against you.
The Bush campaign is waiting in the wings to make the GLB's
(Gay/Lesbians/Bi's) the Willie Horton of 1992.
So be careful- while you may idealistically have the theoretical "right"
to burn the flag, the results of your guerrilla theatre may be the exact
opposite of the goals you desire.
So enjoy your role on the stage of guerrilla theatre and national
politics, but if you play your role too strongly, you will play into the
hands of the Bush campaign and the Religious Right and we will have four
more years of Bush. You will probably argue that you don't like either
Bush or Clinton, but as a pragmatist, I sure feel Clinton is the lesser of
the two evils, and is more inclusive of GLB people and their issues, even
to the point of taking heat from Bush and the Religious right for it.

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

Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 09:26:58 -0700
From: Jessea N. R. Greenman <jnrg@ocf.Berkeley.EDU>
Subject: Official Travel for 1993 March on Washington

I typed this in several days ago but it never appeared in the issuea
I saw, so here goes again, and presumably some of you good people
will save this file and also put it in QRD.  What follows is verbatim
in its entirety.
"PRESS RELEASE    MARCH ON WASHINGTON    PRESS RELEASE
The 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi. Equal Rights
and Liberation, POB 34607, Washington DC 20043-4607; 800-832-2889

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Gypsy Tucker at 510-437-2163
July 1, 1992

OFFICIAL HOUSING BUREAU AND TRAVEL AGENTS SELECTED FOR THE
APRIL 25, 1993 March on Washington

The Committee for the March on Washington, Inc. has agreements with one
hotel accommodations agency and three travel agencies for the 1993
March on Washington.  A percentage of the gross revenue for travel
and hotel rooms booked through these agencies will benefit the
national March on Washington committee.

The official March on Washington housing bureau is:
	WASHINGTON D.C. ACCOMMODATIONS; contact: Patricia Joan Endel
	phone: 800-554-2220; phone: 202-289-2220; fax 202-483-4436

The official March on Washington travel agencies are:
	FOR THE MID-WEST AND NORTHEAST:
		Capital Travel, 271 Lark St., Albany NY 12210
		Contact: Jon Boyle. Phone: 800-800-9009

	FOR THE SOUTH AND SOUTHWEST:
		Reservation Desk, 3500 Maple, Suite 120, Dallas TX 75219.\
		Contact: M. Baird and D. Taffet
		Phone: 214-522-5106. Fax: 214-522-5106.

	FOR THE WEST AND MOUNTAIN STATES:
		Confident Travel, 1499 Bayshore Hwy, Suite 126
		Burlingame CA 94010
		Contact: Jean Shaw; Phone: 800-872-7252.

We chose DC Accommodations because of their experience and excellent
reputation.  They know the hotel business in Washington and will
fight for the lowest rates possible.  DC Accommodations booked
hotel rooms for the 1992 NOW March and is the official housing
bureau for the 1992 Names Project Display.

'With three official travel agents, everyone in the country can
purchase their plane tickets through a lesbian/gay/bi owned and
operated agency.  You don't have to live near the official
travel agents to use their services.  Remember, using these official
travel agencies will financially benefit the March on Washington.
We hope that other travel agents who make a profit from selling
plane tickets and hotel rooms to people coming to the march wil
(OOPS, will) also make a donation to the national committee.'
Gypsy Tucker, Executive Committee member and Travel liaison for
the 1993 March on Washington."
####end of release####

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

Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 12:08:17 EDT
From: SECSI003%SIVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Nellie...

I may be hopelessly out of date, but way back in the 70's I read that Nellie
was a stage of effiminacy in men that was more than swish, but less than
queen. I've long since forgotten the characteristics of each, but that's what
I recall. If that's right, I hope that helps!
                                             Steve Smith

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

Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 12:44:16 EDT
From: SECSI003%SIVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Issues 629 & 630

To Mike!

I have printouts of the above issues. If you'd like, I can fax them to you
as you have a fax number. I could mail you a copy, or (please say no!) I
could retype them in. If someone else can E-mail them, go for it. But I'll do
any of the above if you ask.
                             Happy, Happy! Joy, Joy!
                                Steve Smith

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

Date:    Fri, 21 Aug 92 12:32 PDT
From: Ron Biduk                            <ECZ5RAB@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU>
Subject: Nobody Walks in LA

For those of you in the LA area or plan to be here on Sunday, September 20,
just wanted to pass along some info for our AIDS WALK.  Monies raised will
benefit AIDS Project Los Angeles.  This is always a major fundraising event
for the agency and brings out people in droves.  Last year the event raised
over $2 million and there were over 15,000 walkers.  Here's all the "411"
I have thus far:



                      AIDS WALK LOS ANGELES
               Date:  Sunday, September 20, 1992
              Place:  Paramount Studios, Hollywood
               Time:  9:00 a.m. Sign in
                      9:30 a.m. Opening Ceremony
                     10:00 a.m. Walk begins

            For more information call:  (213) 466-WALK

Will keep you posted should I receive any additional info.  Hope to see the
Net well represented.

Best,
Ron Biduk

"Get informed, get involved, make a difference"

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

Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 12:09:19 -0700
From: crsdept@nature.berkeley.edu
Subject: test

testing new system

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

Date: 21 Aug 92 07:58:37
From: CJones <CJones.MAILROOM@wylbur.kines.ucla.edu>
Subject: The Living End

                      The Living End
Regarding Ron Buckmire's invitation for a "The Living End" party:

The cover story of this week's LA Weekly is on Gregg Araki, the producer of the
film.  There is a lengthy review and an interview.  The film is dedicated to
"the hundreds of thousands who've died and the hundreds of thousands more who
will die because of a big white house full of republican fuckheads."  Since I
have neither the time nor the typing prowess to reprint any more here,  I'll
let those of you in LA get your own copy.  (It's free!)

I just called the NuWilshire theater for location and showtimes.  It's located
at 1314 Wilshire in my hometown of Santa Monica, between 14th and Euclid,
across the street from Vons.  Showtimes are 5:30, 7:40, and 10:00.  Saturday
and Sunday matinees are at 1:10 and 3:20.  Sorry, but I forgot to get admission
price, which is important for us public employees.

And, BTW, "this film has not been rated."

Chad Jones
UCLA Dept. of Physiological Science
cjones@kines.ucla.edu
"Eheu, horsem venit vir qui fet locustas!"

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

Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 16:22:42 -0600 (MDT)
From: WERLING <awerling@nmsu.edu>
Subject: Freedom of Expression
Mime-Version: 1.0

> Date: Thu, 20 Aug 92 22:45:21 EDT
> From: Tim Pierce <twpierce@cs.amherst.edu>
> Subject: Re:  GayNet Digest Volume 5 Issue 643
>
> I'm really not interested in the opinions of people who view the
> American flag as so sacred that burning it should put you in prison.
> You might respond "but then you'll never get your rights."  If that's
> so -- that the U.S. is politically dominated by people to whom the
> flag is a sacred idol -- we've got much more basic things than queer
> rights to fix.  (And I don't say that lightly.)  Freedom of expression
> is high on that list.

I'll exclaim a half "amen" to that...it seems that the freedom to be who
you truly are (i.e. gay) would be intimately connected with the freedom of
expression...the two things are mutually inclusive.

To be gay is a right I have because I am gay.  But this country isn't
ready to allow me to BE.  To express an opinion seems to be a
more-protected right than the right to be.  And indeed, to express is to
be, but to be is more than simply expression.

(Could I possibly get more vague than that?)

Andrew Werling   awerling@nmsu.edu

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

From: jsol@Athena.MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 20:10:31 -0400
Subject: GayNet Digest Volume 5 Issue 645 to anonymous

I think that every Cop and Sheriff should understand the constitution and
the bill of rights. Judges deal in interpretations. If the women who wanted
the vote made enough of a stink they could have gotten the right to vote
withoiut an amendment, and now every women seems to want an amendment for
anything because they (apparently) think that they will be able to do something
that they tout is none of the men's business.....

agreed. the constitution is not clear on the women's right to vote.
You are experiencing the "loophole finder". When they find it, they
exercise it on others. There are ways, new jobs (at places where we
aren't a problem), welfare, state or federal aid (for those who can't
fight in court for what is rightfully theirs), courts. The trouble is
knowing which one is which and how to deal with it. The guy who fired you
or the guy who spotted the hole in the law who told them to do it may be
long gone bi the time you come back, so that's an even deeper hole.
(the persons who did may be slandered by the company if you take it
to court). anbd of course Unemployment Compensation while you do this.

- python

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

Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 21:04:18 -0500
From: mclaughlin%lock.dnet@aio.MIT.EDU
Subject: First time...

    Ola, Gaynetters!

    I began reading Gaynet a month or so ago and it's toooo much fun!
    And...(drum roll please), I've decided to post!  Please, please, contain
    your excitement.  Hope this works...
    Living as I do, only 3 blocks from the Astrodome, I thought I'd share some
    of the events of the past week.  I attended as many rallies as I could
    (Houston rarely gets excited about anything) e.g.; Pro-choice, ACT-UP,
    WAC...  The most interesting was the ACT-UP march.  Actually, I skated
    behind the march as it went through the Med Center area (several hospitals)
    and then ahead of it (since police had the street blocked off).  Wearing my
    "safe sex" T-shirt, I zoomed through pedestrians watching the march and
    listening to the chants.  The marchers were all (I think greater than 500)
    loud, tightly together, and very serious about the task at hand.  Onlookers
    seemed curious but serious too; none thought that this was just some parade
    of activists.  (Most of the onlookers were involved in health care, I
    assume.) Well, this took a long time to get all the way to the dome and
    since I was on skates and worried about cars on the way home, I left as the
    march left the Med Center area.  You all know what happened when they got
    to the dome.  A friend who marched to the dome (and had never been chased
    by police on horseback) described the brutality of the police, the fervor
    of the demonstrators...you saw it all on the news, I'm sure.
    The whole week was made fascinating as I or friends would run into a rally
    in one part of town, or meet activists as they protested outside of an
    office building downtown...the actual convention was pretty boring by
    contrast.  I know all the right-wing speeches were hard to stomach, but I'm
    sorry its over so soon; sure made life here more exciting.

    Peace to all of you,

    Tom (no I don't have a cute sig file, yet; and I'm working late on a Friday
    night waiting on a project to be finished (sigh), but it is after working
    hours so your tax dollars are not being wasted)

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

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