Newsgroups: bit.listserv.gaynet
Date:         Sun, 26 Jul 1992 21:17:02 -0400
From:         gaynet@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Subject:      GayNet Digest Volume 5 Issue 579

In this issue:
                    GayNet Digest Volume 5 Issue 576
                      A.D.A. against HOMOSEXUALS?
                           Your .sig file...
                          Gaynet news service
                          Rebecca West sigfile
                              Out of Sight
                         Defintions of "Queer"

Please send messages for the entire list to gaynet@ATHENA.MIT.EDU,
requests to be added or deleted to gaynet-request@ATHENA.MIT.EDU, and
personal replies directly to the other person, not the entire list.
Postings to GayNet are public communications.  If you must keep your
privacy, send your messages to gaynet-anonymous@ATHENA.MIT.EDU.

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

Comments:     Converted from PROFS to RFC822 format by PUMP V2.2
Date:         Sun, 26 Jul 92  10:21:52 EDT
From: "Leonard P. Hirsch" <INCEM005%SIVM.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
Subject:      GayNet Digest Volume 5 Issue 576

From: Leonard P. Hirsch
      Office of International Relations/Q-3123
      (202) 357-4788
RE: 2 steps forward, one step back, and outing Jim Graham, Director of the the
Whitman-Walker Clinic. Don't worry, Jim is as out as out can be. An openly gay
delegate to the democratic convention and one of the major spokespersons of
the community in DC. As for putting his affiliation with this letter, there
are two probable reasons, the major one is that he wrote the letter on clinic
letterhead, the other is that newspapers generally attribute known persons
with their organizations. If they had tagged him known Washington queer, we
might need to worry.

Hopefully, next week the Washington Post will have an article on the growing
numbers of lesbian, gay & bisexual organizations in federal agencies
(targetted for publication on Tuesday, but things always can change.

+-----------------------------------------------------+
|  Leonard Hirsch (202) 357-4788/FAX (202)786-2557    |
|  Smithsonian Institution  BITNET INCEM005@SIVM      |
+-----------------------------------------------------+

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

Date: 26 Jul 92 10:07:00 CST
From: "MSUVX2::CONLEY" <CONLEY%MSUVX2.decnet@memstvx1.memst.edu>
Subject: A.D.A. against HOMOSEXUALS?

	Hello all,

	 It's been a while since I've posted here, and it really
	takes alot of bull-$#!+ to get me pissed, but, guess what?
				WE'RE BACK!

	 In the Memphis, TN Sunday paper, The Commercial Appeal,
	dated July 26, '92 many articles pertaining to the new
	Americans with Disabilities Act could be found, (basically
	informing the general public some of the rules and guidelines
	about this act and it's effective date, Today!).

	 My reason for reading every "letter" of this information
	is that I am personally involved with deaf/HoH or simply
	hearing-impaired people.  My experiences with the deaf have
	been a "new life" for me because of the joy and excitement
	I have gotten from these experiences.  ('nuf said.)

	 Now, to my reason for posting.  The article, found in the
	business section, entitled "Educate, be aware, adivses
	manager", (and I quote) says:

		"Congress specifically excluded a list of
		 people or conditions from coverage; they
		 include current illegal drug users,
	         homosexuals, and compulsive gamblers."
                 ^^^^^^^^^^^
	 Excuse me, but how the HELL did queers get in this picture?!,
	unless of course, you are gay and DO have a disability.
	Does the government still consider homosexuality a
	disease or a disability?  (Obviously they've never been
	in my boudoir; and if they had, I would promptly tell them
	that those "swings" hanging from the ceiling are there
	for esthetic values only!).  (Yeah, sure!)
	OH, and the way this "male dog in heat" groups us with
	"illegal drug users" and "compulsive gamblers"?
	I truely hope that most people can see this "playing-
	on-the-mind" game.

	 Also, in another article in the same section of the paper
	and I quote, states:

		"The law goes well beyond traditional notions
		 of disability by including any person with
		 an impairment that substantially limits a
		 major life activity. It protects people with
		 AIDS, with cosmetic disfigurements, etc......"
                 ^^^^
	 Oh, I see.  If I'm "straight" and have AIDS it's OK.....
	but, if I'm gay and have AIDS forget it."
		(Things that make ya go WHAT!?!?!?!)  (FLAME OFF!)

         I also want to state to you readers, that these are not
	biased statements or comments from me, (meaning that I excluded
	other statements or comments in these articles that would
	only support my anger and/or my one-sided opinion; as I stated
	earlier, I read every "letter").  These comments weren't taken
	out of context for "our" enjoyment of reading.  This $#!+ is
	for everyone who reads the paper.

	 To make a positive and "balanced" note here, I hope to see
	everyone in Washington, D.C., October 9, 10, & 11;  the entire
	QUILT will be on display once again.  Maybe one day, these
	politicians will look out their front lawn. . .	. NOT!


				   Gotta go,

	Anyone got some WD40, . . . it's that damn swing again!

                                   Peace to all,
	                           Steve Conlee
				   CONLEY@MEMSTVX1.MEMST.EDU

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

Date: Sun, 26 Jul 92 11:05:54 EST
From: Mike.W.Miller.40@nd.edu
Subject: Your .sig file...

>|"It's better to have love a short man than never to have loved a tall" |
>|                                                                 Anon. |

Reminds me of what my ostensibly straight friend Marcus Adrian says:
  "It's better to have loved and lost -- much better."

Mike!

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

Date: Sun, 26 Jul 92 17:19:11 EDT
From: bmcconne@vtssi.vt.edu (Brian McConnell)
Subject: Gaynet news service

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone out there has contact information
for the Gaynet news service (not this list of course). We
are getting ready to launch a voice/fax/videotex travel
service for the gay/les/bi community, and want to be able
to include news and other information in the not so
distant future.

Thanks much!!

Brian S McConnell
bmcconne@vtssi.vt.edu
Tel:(703)951-4475

Disclaimer:" I don't know who I speak for!"

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

Date:         Sun, 26 Jul 92 16:27:35 MST
From: "Gabriel (in New Mexico)" <G9348712%NMSUVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
Subject:      Rebecca West sigfile

I found the Rebecca West quote worthwhile and informative; I liked the
perspective gotten by realizing that it was dated 1913.  And Kevin,
unlike your own objectionable sigfile, it did not call anyone else names,
did not gratuitously categorize millions of people, but only pleaded (or
at worst demanded) decent treatment for herself.

Gabriel

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

Date: Sun, 26 Jul 92 20:40:24 EDT
From: romickle@vassar.edu
Subject: Out of Sight

If you haven't got a copy of this week's _Village Voice_ GET IT!  There's a
lot of great (and *funny*) stuff (including the ads!), including this
article (typed here without permission):

OUT OF SIGHT
by Laurie Stone [comments by me]
(p. 47, _Village Voice_,22-28 July 1992)

Billy, 16, is a golden boy--a blond, protohunk swimming champ.  But his
heart is heavy.  His parents are bigoted snobs, and he's gay, he confides
to Reverend Andrew [Carpenter], a sensitive guy and full-fledged hunk [amen
to that one, sistah!].  In late June, on _One Life to Live_ (weekdays, 2
p.m., ABC), thus began a gay story line, the boldest to date on the daytime
soaps.  Two previous treatments--a lesbian shrink in 1983 on _All My
Children_ and a gay fashion designer in 1988 on _As the World Turns_--were
fleeting and tepid; the lovers of both characters lived in other cities.

This past year _OLTL_'s executive producer Linda Gottlieb and head writer
Micheal Malone goosed the soap genre with electronic music, pop-culture
references, campy comedy, and kinky sex.  Creating a gay kid is their
latest innovation, and the scenes in which he comes out, to Andrew and to
straight [sic] best friend Joey, burrow into the anxiety and the relief of
such ordeals.  As the story unfolds, Andrew is falsely  accused of
molesting Billy, and the mythical Llanview erupts in gay bashing, "from
faggot jokes to rock throwing and bomb threats," Gottlieb reports in a
phone conversation.  Andrew, who is sleeping with a woman, refuses to
brandish his hetero credentials as a defense, insisting on his right to
privacy.  Says Gottlieb, "The story is about everybody's freedom to love
the way they want."

Still, the only people getting nooky on this show are straight [sic].  Gays
on soaps have never so much as held hands, and Ryan Phillippe [--I'm sorry;
this name is *so* gay, esp. with a French pronunciation!], who plays Billy
and is himelf 17, tells journalists, with relief, that he's been promised
Billy won't have a lover.  On the phone, Jane Reilly, who covers _OLTL_ for
_Soap Opera Digest_, nails the terror ambient in serials: "Producers always
say their story is about homophobia, not homosexuality, but soap operas are
all about relationships, love, and sex, and until we see gays in bed
together the issue won't be addressed."

Sign of the times: abortion is the taboo soaps can't even whisper these
days.
[snap!]

End of Article
---------------------------------------------------------------------
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.

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

Date: Sun, 26 Jul 92 20:55:23 EDT
From: romickle@vassar.edu
Subject: Defintions of "Queer"

- -------------------------------------------------------------------
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?
---------------------------------------------------------------------

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

End of GayNet Digest
********************
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU