Newsgroups: bit.listserv.gaynet
Date:         Thu, 27 Aug 1992 03:17:06 -0400
From:         gaynet@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Subject:      GayNet Digest Volume 5 Issue 660

In this issue:
                               ross perot
                   Request for tape of Clinton speech
                STRATEGIC VOTING: Choosing Where to Vote
                            Gay Male Erotica
                          "Joys of our Lives"
                 UCLA Gaynetters: Lunch on Friday 8/28?
                        NYT OP-ED: Family Values
                 Pat Robertson's definition of FEMINISM
                     What's happening in Oregon???
                                 thanks

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

Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 16:08:12 -0400
From: info-25@info.umd.edu
Subject: ross perot

although the scenario set forth is pretty scary, and i really don't
have much faith in the electorate anymore, i still can't help
bu think that people just aren't that stupid. i mean, even if they don't
like bush or clinton, i think too many people felt too betrayed
by perot to support him now. besides, wouldn't he look like a
total ass to enter the race again? even if there wasn't much time, the
press could skewer him on that alone. i don't really know how one
would combat it. i am not a poly sci major, so i don't know
if it's possible to remove his name from the ballot without his consent.
i suppose one could always write lots of letters to different newspapers
with one's concerns, hoping they will get printed, thu alerting people
to the danger. all i can say is i am crossing every finger and toe
for clinton. also, i heard on the radio this morning that bush's
poll bounce was short lived--he's falling behind again! :):):)

paula, who thinks greg louganis is totally cool, regardless of any
nicknames or disagreeable personal habits

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

Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 16:49:23 EDT
From: flg <flg@lan.asc.upenn.edu>
Subject: Request for tape of Clinton speech

          If anyone has access to the videotape of Clinton's speech to
          a lesbigay group in LA (the one in which he talked about
          AIDS), I would very much appreciate a copy (I will pay
          costs). If I can get a copy of the tape in the NEAR FUTURE,
          I can put it to very good use in helping to undercut the
          republican's anti-gay campaigning efforts. I can't be much
          more specific at this point, but the tape would be areal
          help (and no, the Clinton campaign doesn't give out
          copies...).
          Larry Gross
          FLG@ASC.UPENN.EDU        215-898-5620

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

From: Mark Hertzog <mwh8h@uva.pcmail.Virginia.EDU>
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 16:50:31 EDT
Subject: STRATEGIC VOTING: Choosing Where to Vote

Howdy!  Because this Net carries a high percentage of transients--that is,
folks who live in one place most of the year (school) and another place the
rest of the year ("home")--the question arises: Where should I register and
vote in order to do the most good?
     If you're an in-state student, this is entirely up to you.  If you're an
out-of-state student, however, listen up.
     As noted earlier, the people don't elect the president; the Electoral
College does.  Each state has a number of electoral votes equal to the total
number of U.S. senators and representatives from that state.  Except in Maine
and Nebraska, the ticket getting the largest number of votes in the state
wins *all* of that state's electoral votes.  Whoever gets 270 electoral
votes, an absolute majority, wins.
     Therefore, it's important that college students who want Clinton-Gore to
beat the Ticket from Hell choose carefully the state in which they vote.  The
basic rules are:
     (1) If your home state is solidly Republican or Democratic, but the
state where you're at school could go either way, register and vote in your
school state.
     (2) If, vice versa, the school state is pretty well decided but your
home state isn't, register and vote in your home state.
     (3) If both the home state and the school state could go either way,
register and vote in the state with more electoral votes.
     For example: if you live in the District of Columbia (which is
absolutely guaranteed to go for the Democrats) but go to school and live in a
dorm in Maryland (which is a swing state), you should strongly consider
registering and voting in Maryland.  Your vote won't make a difference in
D.C.; it very well could in Maryland.  Also, D.C. has only 3 electoral votes;
Maryland has 10.  If, on the contrary, you live in Maryland but attend school
and reside in a dorm in D.C., stay registered in Maryland.
     Remember also:
     (1) If you plan to register at home, do so BEFORE YOU LEAVE FOR SCHOOL.
     (2) Just because you voted once before doesn't necessarily mean you're
still registered; the books are purged every 1 to 4 years to clear off voters
who've moved away or are now in the Great Beyond.  Double-check with your
local voter-registration office to make sure you're still on the books.
     (3) If you are registered at home, you'll need to apply for an absentee
ballot.  Again, call your local voter-reg office and arrange for this BEFORE
YOU LEAVE FOR SCHOOL.  Make sure they get the form in AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
     (4) In most states the voter registration deadline is *30 days before
the election.*  This isn't uniform; Arizona, at the outer limit, is 50 days
before the election (that is, mid-September).  DO IT NOW BEFORE YOU FORGET.

     And if you don't think your vote matters, the fundies do.  If you do
nothing else for the cause but cancel out some homophobe's vote, that'll be
well worth the effort.

     If there is any interest I'll post a list of states by electoral-vote
count and likelihood to go for Clinton or for the other bozo.

Mark, Proud to Be an American Queer

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

Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 15:54:19 EST
From: Jeffrey.T.VanderWilt.1@nd.edu
Subject: Gay Male Erotica

There is a very nice little book (with a lovely pink and lavendar cover)
published by Alyson Pubns.  Entitled, "How to Write Gay Men's Erotica," it is
sort of a "Strunk & White," "Elements of Style," for the writer of gay
male fiction.

It has lots of tips and pointers about how to write vivid and lively
erotic fiction.

It also gives the low-down on how to find a publisher for your work, what
to expect for it and how to finesse a deal.

It's a good read.

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

From: <DONIZETI@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 26 Aug 1992 16:15:31 CDT
Subject:   "Joys of our Lives"

    Did I read the posting of B_Blumberg of Lou Sheldon's
  correctly--did he actually say the no-no soap was "Days of
  our Lives"--delicious--I can see all the faithful sitting
  in front of the TV with paper and pencil in hand--or those
  who have been following OLTL faithfully---
   For some reason--all week after having read the article
  and continuing thinking--maybe I can get rid of it thru the
  network--The Article is in the Nat Hentoff column called
  WHO"S ON FIRST--Freedom of speech of course--it is n the
  September issue of The PRogressive.
  The quotation(s) are "from Nan Hunter, now a professor of
   Law at Brooklyn College, and New York University law professor
   Sylvia  Law wrote a brief in opposition to Catharine MacKinnon's
   Indianapolis anti-porn ordinance.
   ----Men are not attack dogs."they wrote. "but morally responsible
       human beings. The ordinance reinforces a  destructive sexist
       steretype of men as irresponsible beasts, with 'natural
       physiological responses' which can be triggered by sexually
       explicit images of women, and for which the men cannot be
       held accountable.....
   They went on to argue that
   ----the range of feminist imagination and expression in the realm
       of sexuality  has barely begun to find voice. Women need the
       freedom and the socially recognized space to appropriate for
       themselves the robustness of what traditionally has been male
       language. Laws such as the one under challenge here would
       constrict that freedom...We fear that as more women's writing
       and art on sexual themes emerge  which is unladylike, unfemi
       nine, aggressive, power-charged, pushy, vulgar, urgent,
       confident, and intense, the traditional foes of women's at-
       tempts to step out of their 'proper place' will find an
       effective tool of repression in the Indianapolis ordinance.'
  And in the many anti-free-speech ordinances to come.

There now, it's gone---Merle

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

Subject: UCLA Gaynetters: Lunch on Friday 8/28?
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 18:59:28 -0500
From: Ron Buckmire <buckmr@rpi.edu>

Hey UCLA Gaynetters:

Ron Biduk, CJones and I have been trying to get together for lunch sometime
this week and looks like Friday will be it. I presume we'll eat on campus, at
noon. Send email or call 310-479-7037 [My boyfriend Dean's number] and we'll
see ya there!

- -
RON BUCKMIRE, 11 Colvin Circle, Troy, NY 12180-3735. ``D.C. in '93!''
vox:(518)-276-8910 fax:(518)-276-6920 buckmr@rpi.edu buckmr@rpitsmts.bitnet
"After abortion, birth control is next." -former President of NJ Right To Life

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

Subject: NYT OP-ED: Family Values
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 19:16:58 -0500
From: Ron Buckmire <buckmr@rpi.edu>

Rod Williams posts to soc.motss:

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

                 A FAMILY LIFE MUCH LIKE YOURS
       by Cindy Rizzo (associate director of development
           at Fenway Community Health Center, Boston)

I read my son a fairy-tale called "The Duke Who Outlawed
Jellybeans."  In the story, a young duke takes over a kingdom
while its rulers are out of town.  He starts issuing extreme
decrees, telling his subjects they can't have jellybeans
because he doesn't like them.  This culminates in a final
order: the rounding up of children who do not live with a
mother and a father.  "Since *I* grew up with a mother and a
father," he reasons, "I decree that this is the best kind of
family to grow up in."

A lot of politicians seem to be acting like the duke.  In the
guise of protecting our values, they are deciding which
families are worthy of praise -- and which are immoral.

Like most parents, I used to be concerned about how my
children would respond to violence and sexism on TV.  Last
week, I was more concerned that when my oldest son went
"channel surfing," he might stumble on the Republican
convention.

As lesbian parents, my partner and I try to make our children
understand that people may judge them on the basis of their
family.  Because they are very young, we are able to function
as their "advance people," making sure that the day-care
centers and schools we send them to are places that value
diversity.  But we also know that we have to prepare them for
the day when they will run into the Pat Buchanans and Dan
Quayles of the world, the grown-up versions of schoolyard
bullies or the real world jellybean dukes, who will try to
make them feel they are "less than" other kids.

Why do those who presume to value the family want to hurt my
kids?  Why do they want to tell them that their parents are
inferior people, undeserving of rights and unequal in the eyes
of God?

If I give these people the benefit of the doubt, I might say
that they hate us because they don't know us.  Often,
familiarity can breed tolerance and not contempt.  Perhaps if
they got to know my family, they'd see that in many ways it is
much like their own.

My partner and I have been together more than 14 years.  We
work full time and are rearing two sons, ages 6 and 6 months.
We rise early to get our older son ready for school.  We
change, feed and dress the baby and pack his bottles and
clothes for his day at child care.  We then go off in
different directions, each with a child.

After work, we pick up the kids and stre into the refrigerator,
wondering how we can construct a nutritious meal.  We play and
read to our kids before they go to bed.  (The baby will wake
up during the night for a feeding.)  After they go to sleep,
we do laundry, pay bills, unclutter the house and sometimes
watch TV.  (I confess, we do watch "Murphy Brown.")

Our weekends are spent shuttling our oldest to piano, soccer,
Sunday School and play dates.  We buy clothes and see movies
and sometimes get a babysitter and go out.

We also care about our community.  We go to meetings of
organizations (from the P.T.A. to the lesbian mothers group).
We see friends.  Our oldest son is in an overnight babysitting
group with the children from three other lesbian couples.  In
this way, he has made friends with children in similar
families.  He has learned that he is not the only kid with
lesbian moms.

In a world filled with violence and intolerance, it is hard
enough to rear children when you have to worry if they're
going to be safe each time you let them out to play.  You
wonder: Can I save enough money so my child can go to college,
have proper health care, travel when he's older?

These questions preoccupy most American parents, no matter
what their gender or sexual orientation.  Why, then, would
right-wing politicians be eager to impose an even heavier
burden on us?  Please now that you've gotten to know us a
little better, can you give my family and those like it a
break?  Do it for the children, if nothing else.

- -
RON BUCKMIRE, 11 Colvin Circle, Troy, NY 12180-3735.  ``D.C. in 93!''
uunet!rpi.edu!buckmr||buckmr@rpitsmts.bitnet||buckmr@rpi.edu||+1 518 276 8910
"...and monkeys might fly outta my butt."  -- MADONNA, in a S.N.L appearance

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

Subject: Pat Robertson's definition of FEMINISM
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 19:21:54 -0500
From: Ron Buckmire <buckmr@rpi.edu>

Taken from "The Globe And Mail" newspaper, Toronto, Wednesday, August 26, 1992

Page A14

SOCIAL STUDIES
  - A daily miscellany of information by Michael Kesterton

...WORD WATCH
  ...Feminism: is described in a fund-raising letter by U.S. evangelist
               Pat Robertson as "a socialist, anti-family political movement
               that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their
               children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and
               become lesbians."
---
RON BUCKMIRE, 11 Colvin Circle, Troy, NY 12180-3735. ``D.C., April 25 1993''
uunet!rpi.edu!buckmr||buckmr@rpitsmts.bitnet||buckmr@rpi.edu||+1 518 276 8910
"Jane." --Lily Tomlin, when asked "Who's your family in LA?"

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

From: "Ellen Galloway" <henley@psy.psych.nova.edu>
Subject: What's happening in Oregon???
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 23:38:23 EDT

> Is there anyone out there who can tell me what is going on in Oregon?
> I just read an article in the paper stating that Oregon has a law
> proposed which is even more stringent than the one which Colorado is
> fighting.  I am quite concerned.  I am an Oregonian getting my
> eduication in another part of the country and I don't want to have to
> worry about whether it is safe for me to move back homewhen I am done.
> If there is someone on the net from Oregon I would also appreciate
> the address to the Oregonian so I can sent them a letter to the editor.
> Thanks in advance.  In order to avoid clogging the net you could write
> me personally at Henley@psy.psych.nova.edu     Again, Thank you!!
>
>
>
 *******************************************************************************
 *
>             /^\ - /^\        Ellen Galloway
>            (   lxl   )       Henley@psy.psych.nova.edu
>             \ /l l\ /
>                l l           A mind is a terrible thing to waste
>                l_l
>
 *******************************************************************************
>
>

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

Date:         Wed, 26 Aug 92 23:15:46 MST
From: "Gabriel (in New Mexico)" <G9348712%NMSUVM1.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>
Subject:      thanks

Thanks to those who have written in responses to my story, whose next
version will probably be titled, "What goes around..."

Gabriel (in Las Cruces)

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

End of GayNet Digest
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