| Transcript |
Some Gays Outfront in Anti-Nuke Movement
Br. Ernie Potvin
V a Gay Pree• AaM>Ciation Wire Service
LOS ANGELES-Seven thousand people
marched in the Parade for Peace in El
Segundo, a suburb of Los Angeles, last
month, on the International Day of Disarmament.
It was one of many demonstrations
across the country, and in Southern
California, like the others, a good number
of gay people were actively involved.
The Gay Press Association was at the
rally following the march and returned to
El Segundo the following Monday morning
when 160 people engaged in acts of
civil d1Bobedience to block the entrances of
six industries engaged in the nuclear arms
race. There were gay men and women
involved in that activity as well. We spoke
with some of them and with an elderly
woman in a wheelchair who prominently
wore her Parents and Friends of Gays button,
which she swore she never takes off.
The march and rally was sponsored by
four major groups, the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, which is a multiethnic
and ecumenical organization; the
Southern California Nuclear Weapons
Freeze Campaign; the Interfaith Cent.er to
Reverse the Arms Race; and the Alliance
for Survival, a grassroots educational
organization working to stop the arms
race.
Don Tait is a staff member with the
Alliance for Survival. He told us he is one
of several openly gay people staffing their
Los Angeles office. At the rally, he was
acting as an official media spokesperson
and fielding the questions from more than
a dozen newspa!)('rS and television and
radio stations.
The organizers were obviously pleased
continued page 5
THE STAR
AUSTIN* SAN ANTONIO
Nov. 25, 1983 • Issue .2 • Published Every Other Friday
The Sons of Gypsy Rose Lee
By Ed Martine7
Erotic fanta&1es lurk tn the air along with
the smoke 1'his is a gay bar, and the program
for the everung is strippers, striptease
dancers, male ones, guys with
gorgeous bodies and exy looks taking it
off, taking it ALL off-well, almost all,
anyway.
From a fod in non-gay bar that has
attracted national publici t y-malt·
dnnct'r& who take off their clothes for the
titillation of ladies-the practice has
finally migrated to gay bars. Unlike many
societal trends that begin in the gay subculture
and then get translated into nongay
society, this number went the other
way.
Tonight, the Crossing, one of Austin's
more popular bars, will host an evening of
male dancers under the guidance of, and
emcee'd by the manager, David Dauber
By tripling the business at the Crossing in
the last eeven months, David proved his
ideas-ideas gained from his experience
as manager of bars in San Francisco, such
as the R,,ndezvous. There, David was the
first to introduce the use of DJ's in gay
bars, and he lived and worked there for 10
years off and on.
The Crossing stages these evenings of
terpsichore and burlesque on the average
of once a month, and tonight's the night.
The dancers are recruited by means of ads
in such periodicals as the STAR, TWT and
The Daily Texan, UT's student paper.
As curtain time approaches, the bar begins
to move from comfortably full, to
crowded, then to packed, with anticipation
and eager customers anxious for the
show to begin.
The dancers tric.kle into the office where
David waits to give them their last-minute
instructions and !)('p talk. Some have
never done this before in their lives. Some
have done it only in non-gay clubs. Some
have not only done it in gay clubs, but are
repeaters in the Crossing's shows.
These are truly the heirs of the tradition
started by female strippers, the Gypsy
Rose Lees the Sally Rands, women who
dared to bare their all for the customers,
for fame for money, and, not least, for the
sheer thrill of having people lust aft.er
their bodies, the incredibl_e burst of egotism
that comes from knowing that the people
out there would love to pos~ss. the!r
bodies. Male or female, the movttatio!1 ~s
the same and the emotions are, too. This 1s
going to be a night to remember, both
onstage and off.
Texas law prohibits male dancers from
displaying their genitals, but buns are
okay, and, occas1onally, garment, have
been known to fail unexpectedly, for whatever
reason, showing something that,
while illegal, could hardly be considered
deliberate-or at least could not be proved
deliberate_
As the dancers stroll in v.ith overnight
ba ont i1un thei~ co tum , the c.hnt
among tht"m&eJves
Tiger Joe is 20, originally from Austin
but raised in Michigan, where he became a
gymnast, a skill he uses in his dancing.
He's danced and stripped in San Antonio
and Austin and is entered in the Mr. Gay
Texas preliminaries in Austin.
Ken is from San Antonio and worked as
a dancer m Killeen, Tex., before moving to
Austin Also 20. Ken starts his act in purple
spandex and works his way down to a
T-bag or G-stnng.
Both Tiger Joe and Ken look like the
"boy next door," boyieh, attractively
friendly, honest and unashamed of what
they are doing.
0.J. is a profess1onal dancer, he's 24,
and he seems 11upremely confident.
Obviously talented and trained in his art,
he enjoys what he's doing and is looking
forward to the show.
By now the tiny room into which the
young men, none older than 25, have
crowded is packed. David asks for quiet
and l(~l" it Tnnight the dancers, eight of
them, winnowed from a field of perhaps 30
upplicants, will compete for the first prize
money of $100. There's no consolation
prize. The dancers dance strictly for tips.
which are unsually placed provocatively
in the dancers' skimpy shorts and Gstrings,
leading inevitably to semi-sexual
encounters between them and the customers.
Still, this can be serious business-money
business. The prize money goes to
the dancer selected by audience reaction.
applause, applause.
David explains the physical setup that
will be used during the show. The dancers
will work first on a main stage with their
own music, then will move to a small stage
in another room where they will dance to
the succeeding dancer's music, thus giving
the customers throughout the bar their
money's worth.
"Be provacative, you guys, tum the
crowd on. You can get as provocative as
you want. If something shows, I wouldn't
mind a bit. I have the microphone, I'm the
bitch with the switch, so get out there and
stripping for the thrill of ,t
do it," David advises with a grin. The
young men take it with good humor.
Finally, the meeting is over, and the
guys start to change into their costumes.
Satin, spandex, sport clothes, cowboy
boots-the range is wide_ As David turns
to leave, he asks one of the new dancer,,
'"What do you do for pleasure?"
"Make it!"' the hunky dude answers,
then laughs with the other guys in the
room. They are JURt about ready to get
their act together and put it on the stage_
David takes the microphone and warms
up the crowd with teasers about the guys
that will soon strut their stuff. The crowd
loves it, and the sounds of anticipation are
all over the room. The lights focus on the
first dancer, the music comes up, and suddenly,
there, live in the flesh, is one carnal
pleasure aft.er another, dancing, snaking
around the dance floor, weaving sensuously
nearer and closer to the audience,
teasing and pleasing the guys m the room,
Good Taste and
Why Not?
Allen Young, p.9
Gays in
Smaller Cities
Now Having
Election
Impact
Newa,p.8
21.06 Plantiff
Among Those
to Get Gay
'Academic
UnionAward
Newa,p.8
£0 MA~T ~ STAR PHOTOS
giving them what they came for This 1s it,
this is not pornography, this isn't a porn
movte, this is real, these guys .are right
there, you can, and do, touch th~m.) ou put
dollars bills in their dra" ere, it's the real
• McCoy_
One dancer follows another,
interspersed with patter and suggestive
banter from David. Finally, the moment of
truth, the winner 1s selected, and ~he
crowd loves it, the customers go wild,
caught up in an erotic frenzy that is what
burlesque is all about. No one really and
truly expects to fulfill those fantasies.
They know they won't go home with any
of the dancers. But just for a few minutes,
or hours, they might, just maybe, perhaps,
it could happen. And even though that is
outside the realm of reality, all those mental
images, those flesh dreams, come true,
will remain, always, m living color and
live delight, to keep them warm for many
cold nights.
. - .. ~ . ... '. - --. ;:. ~ - . - -
2 THE STAR/ Nov. 25, 1983
Commentary
Bless, Oh Lord, These Gifts
By Peter Harrison
So Car as I can tell, we Americans were the
first people in the world to set aside a
national holiday for giving thanks for the
benefits we have received. Perhaps that',
because we're so amply supplied with
things that no one else has.
I was thinking about that the other day,
when I realized that even the Russians
have refrigerators and indoor plumbing,
two things that would confound the
BUpremacist ideas of Richard Nixon and
Earl Butz. It only takes a little thought,
though, to come up with a myriad of gifts
that we American, should give thanks for
in this year of grace.
Here's a list of the people and groups I
want to remember this Thanksgiving
Day. Somehow, sitting down with a turkey
on the table makes recalling them all the
more appropriate. I will fold my handa,
bow my head and pray:
"Dear Lord, thanks for the many gifts
you have bestowed upon us. You have
given us the miraculous gift of Hollywood,
that never-never land where even a lowly
8-grade movie star can rise above all else
to become President of the United States,
thereby giving us a view of the future. In
years to come. we can expect Tab Hunter
in that exalted position of guiding our destiny,
to be followed by such luminaries as
the Fonz or perhaps Donny Osmond.
"You have graced our PrMident with a
sense of humor. Not only can he see the
humor of the position of women and their
value in taking us away from our caveman
values, but his wit is also subtle.
"He named a secretary of the interior
whose zany charm included stripping the
country of its interior, and a director of
environmental protection who refused to
protect the environment.
"He has given ua a surgeon general who
disregards the health of IO percent of our
population, and a aecretary of qriculture
who lets starving people aee pictures of
mountains of surplus cheMe, in the belief
that their hunger pangs will be thus
auuqed without having to eat the real
thing.
"He bu mercifully named John Gavin
to be ambueador to Mexico, thereby eav•
ing us the embarruament of having to
watch that bad actor on television show••
THE STAR
Ctrcutallld In Austin. Sen Anton.o end Cor'pu1 Chr•ti
Published every other Friday
3008-A Burleson Road
Austin, TX 78741
Phone Austin (512) 448-1380
Mon.,_VobPubl.,.ngCO
CIRCULATION
Tho Star. 4,000 _._ t.w""ly
MonlloM V_. CHoul10n) 11,000 _.. -ly
Del• 0..,, - 1.000--ly
lO&II Tuu .,.., 11.000 C0PfiN ....._., •"G ~- 3.117 MonirON 8Mf r.J0e Howton. TX 77008 (713) S29-G822
Contents copyright •198;>
Office hours: 10am-5:30pm
Henry MCCiurg ,,.,,,,._,
,Ed Martnez - eddOr
l Y!_ Harns ••KCJtive MN•f!'•'!!!J.... dir•ctor
Rico Yo,mg Srar -!"!2. dnctor
Acel Clarto •n d,tecro,
Jeff Bray g,opna
Sonny Dav,.s accounting
,.,_ GayP,,-Auocmc,n
--·-,__,a.,,,_.,._ Pociflc- $yndlCMed , .. ,u,.. $MY,cM ti Wr#.,. Jeftr9Y Wu.on. Randy
Attrect Sfoneiw-1N FNtur• Syndbte. Bnan ~cNaugnt. Joe
Bakw
l'OSTMMT£~ Send - ..,,,_ ID 3317 Mont!OM
•301. --TX 7700e
SubM:r,pllon tale ,In US in aNJ«/ ~ $-41 "'yMI (5,2
...... $21pe,1u1montt'l1(21uueit),Of$125Pl't'WNk(_.
lhan 29 luuN BaClo - $2 00 _._
Nat~ _,.,.,,.11'19 ,.pr__,,_,,.,,. Joe 0.sabalO, Rhren6liU
--eM eu, .._ - Yon 10011, 1212) 242-88&3
A_,,."'11 __ ....-,-r-530pm fot lAuo
-.-,ng Friday ..... ng
NofiU kJ ~ Loa1 ~ ratelCheduteOnewn
--11 1983
AespoM,bl;ty '7he ~ dON not uaume rNponsitM11ty t0t
~ dalma Reederl 1tiould ~ -The SU,.. to any - ~
Allow, oh Lord, our President to see the
merit of sending Bob Hope on an official
mission to Zambia before that wizened
comic can again bring tits and ass to a
Christmas special.
"And Lord, thank you for NBC, which
has brought Freddie Silverman to net•
work TV in an effort to show us again
what the lowest common denominator of
entertainment is. And thank you for
allowing that same network to give us Mr.
Smith. We had existed so long without an
ape that talks.
"And thank you, Lord. for the people of
the U.S., a million of whom called that ape
on a toll-charge number to hear him res,d a
promo for his show. We worried about the
health of Ma Bell, and those calls made
her a half-million dollars richer.
"Lord we are most pleased with our
First La°dy, who, as the secretary of agriculture
works to get rid of food stamps.
joins in to take away the people's sinful
dope and drugs. Help her, we pray, to get
rid of the high-fashion monkey on her
back.
"We are humble in the examples you
have given us of those stricken with great
infirmities who prevail. Thank you for
Howard Cosell, who has learned to
speak-incessantly-with his foot in hie
mouth, and for Elizabeth Taylor, who continues
to look for a husband, even though
she puts on 50 pounds after each marriage.
"Thank you for the gay sense of style
that allows us fags to worry more about
what color hankie to wear in our pockets
than if the bar we're going to visit is going
to be raided and makM our leaders happ•
ier with a Gay Pride celebration attended
by eight people in three-piece suits than
10,000 in drq.
"Thank you for the invaluable example
of all the Semites-Arabs and Jewswh08e
fratricidal fighting makes our family
quarrela - 1-threatenins.
"Thank you for the invention of the term
'advisor•,' which allows us to get into
more trouble more places faster than ever.
"Thank you for the Ruuiane, whose
ungodly behavior serves as a great em~
kescreen hiding our own injustices.
''Thank you for the institution of Your
Own Son's crucifixion, which gives a
model for bom-qain Christiane to use on
those who don't agree with them.
"And finally, Lord, thank you for Jerry
Falwell. With Anita Bryant buay selling
Your •unglaues, his loud voice is the only
one that 9ee111e strong enough to unify the
gay movement.
"For all thMe many gifts, Lord, we
thank You. And Lord, by the way, you
needn't be quite eo generous in 1984."
Harri.on live• in New Jersey. His column
appear, here and in other gay publica•
tums. rJJ983 Stonewall Feature• Synd,cate.
'Gentlemen's
Quarterly' Declines
Gay Ad
Gentlemen•• Quarterly, the national
Cashion magazine probably found in more
gay homes than non-gay, has declined an
advertisement for Gay Housing LA '84,
the only firm to win approval by the California
Real Estate Department, reports
the firm·• nl'WS release.
The firm, which recently embarked on a
worldwide ad campaign, was flatly
refused when they approach G.Q.
"It was made perfectly clear by G.Q.
that the word 'gay' never appears on the
pages of their mqazine. They claimed
that they had no idea (or interest in know•
ingJ if any of their readers were gay," said
Philip Twichel, president of Amber-Gold
Media in Los Angeles. "We wonder what
would happen if everyone who subecribed
let them know."
A Full-Service
Travel Agency
for the Gay Community
Houston Phone 529-8484
Texas Toll Free 1-800-392-5193
Plan Now to Attend the
Gay Press Association
Southern Regional
Conference
cttl GAY PRESS ASSOCIATION
January 27-29
Hotel Savoy
Houston
Workshops, Speeches,
Entertainment
If you are working in the gay media or are a ~ay person
working in the non-~ay media ( either journalism. advertising
or administrative), plan to join your colleagues in
Houston.
Also, for officials of gay organizations who are NOT in the
gay media but who would like to learn ho.v to better
Influence the gay media, local and national, we'll have
a special workshop.
To Henry McClurg, vice president
Gay Press Association
3317 Montrose #306
Houston, TX 77006
Enclosed Is my $25 registration fee for the Southern
Regional Conference. c I am in the gay media. D I work
for the non-gay media. o I do not work in the media but
would like to attend the workshop on influencing the gay
media and other events of the conference.
Name ______________ _
Address
Phone(s)
o I am a member of the Gay Press Association Cl I am NOT
a member of the Gay Press Association
(If cm,,,ing In Houston b'(pla\e. Iron or bus. iet us knowyoortimeofom11olondwewlll
pick you up at the 01rport or depot.)
When we receive your form. we'll send you a conference sc~le
and a brochure on the Sa.lCl-f Hotel so you con make rese,vations
(You do not have to stay, at The SavCJy to attend the confer~e )
The Sa.lCl-f is within walking distance of several gay, clubs. Addlt10nally,
busses will be a,.,ailable for tours of Montrose nightspots Your
registration fee will include tickets fOf free and dtScounted admissions
to several clubs
21.06 Plaintiff Among Those Receiving
Gay Academic Union Awards
Nov 25, 1983 / THE STAR 3
The Gay Academic Union, Inc. will present
special awards to 11 individuals and
two organizations at an awards dinner in
San Diego, Saturday, Nov. 26. The dinner,
a fund raising effort for the National GAU
Scholarship program, is part of GAU-9,
the Ninth National Conference of the Gay
Academic Union on the campus of the
University of California at San Diego.
This is the fifth presentation of annual
awards by GAU, an organization of lesbian
and gay academics and profeRsiona
ls with chapters and members
nationwide. The awards are designed to
recognize and honor the achievements of
individuals in various fields who have
made significant contributions to gay
scholarships and understanding and the
enhancement of the gay experience.
Previous recipients have included such
individuals as Abigail Van Buren of
"Dear Abby" fame, former presidential
advisor Midge Costanza, writer Chris,
topher Isherwood and former California
Gov. Edmund G. Brown, Jr.
The Humanitanan Award for demon
strating exceptional understanding, compassion,
courage and commitment to
human rights in work that had direct
benefit to the gay community this year
will be presented to Paul Popham and the
Gay Men's Health Crisis, Inc. in New York
City for efforts at raising funds to meet the
major health crisis of this decade
The Evelyn C. Hooker Research Award
for gay-related research that demon•
strates in its design and implementation
tht- standards of exct>llence that have
characterized Dr. Hooker's own work will
be presented to Rhonda R. Rivera, Esq.,
Associate Dean for Clinical Programs in
Ohio State University College of I.aw for
her monumental analysis in HastinRB
I.aw ,Journal of nearly every gay-related
court case. Her 200-page article was cited
in the dt'Cls10ns wl11ch invahdat,'<I the IIOd
omy laws of New York and Texas and provides
the basic legal position for civil
litigation on behalf of gay and lesbian
clients.
The Throry Development Award is for
work-in-progress on the development of
social theory promising to contribute significantly
to an underslllnding of gayrelatrd
issue.s. This year's rt>cipient is thi,
team of Dr. David P. McWhirter, MD, and
Andrew M. Mattison, PhD, oftheClinical
Institute for Human Relationships in San
Diego, for their exhaustive study of gay
male couples to ht• published this fall.
Tht> Performing Arts Award 1s for outstanding
achievement in a theatrical
medium that snves to inform and
enlighh•n the public's view oflesbians and
gny men. This year 1t salute.s the unique
contribution madt• by Harvey Fienstein to
the growing field of gav theater and its
crossover mto wider acceptance by a non
gay audience ns t•xempllfied by his Tony
Award-winning play Torch 8on,: Tri/o,:}
and his book for the current Broadway
musicul hit I.a Cane aux Fol/es. Ironically,
last vear's award was to ,John Glines, pro•
duccr of Torch Song Trilogy which had
Just made the transition to Bro11dway
from Grt,enw1ch Vill111:c.
This year's GA{' Uterature Award for
published work with n guy related theme
that articulates with unusual l>l'auty
issues of importance to lesbians and gay
m,•n 1s hemg presented to Alice Rloch,
author of J,,f, timeUuarantce(Perlll'phone
Press, 1981 ). Her new novel, The I.aw of
Return being published this fall by Alyson
Publications, 1s descrihod as "the rich
sensual story of a woman claiming her
voice as a ,Jew, a leRbian and a woman"
which is winning pra1s~.for "its vibrancy
and sense of revelation.
Th,• 198:J GAU Fine Arte Award for
achievement that illuminates in an excep
tional way the quality of the gay experience
got>s to David Hockney, a
distinquished artist whose career has
embraced not only pointing but theater
and opera dt>sign .
The Journalism Award is d<'81gned to
recognize the uniqu«i contributions which
Don Baker
reportage about gay men and women and
their lifestyles makes toward greater
knowledge and understanding of the gay
conditon. This year itis being presented to
The Body Politic Collective in Toronto
which has made a valiant effort to pub•
lish, despite the concerted efforts of Canadian
authorities to shut down the paf"'r,
The President's Award for unusual diligence
in overcoming anti-gay prejudices
and increasing understanding and acceptance
of gay people in the community at
large will be presented to two individuals
this year. Virginia Appuzzo. as Executive
Director of the National Gay Task Force,
has become one of the most effective spo•
kespersons for gay men and lesbians,
their concerns and their lifestylea, before
Congressional committees, with White
House aides and in the media. Emery
Hetrick, MD, who helped develop the Cau•
cue of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual
Members of the American Psychiatric
Association and iR" a founder of Goy Psy•
chiatrists of New York and New York Physicians
for Human Rights. has also been a
frequent spokesper,;on on televiS1on and
in print for the gay community.
In addition to these honors, two Special
Recognition Award for actions signifi.
cantly contnbuting to the ad, ancementof
the lesbian and gay rights movement will
be given .to Jeanne Cordova of Loa
Angeles and Don Baker of DallaR.
During the decade she published The
Lesbian Tide, Cordova provided a sorelyneeded
voice for the lesbian community.
She was a political force successfully
pushing for a lesbian platform at the
International Women's Year Conference
in Houston. More recently she has written
for a variety of publications, including
Gay Commumity News, The AduOC'ate,
Update, Frontiers and Off Our Backs.
Baker i the former Dallas school
te.acher who was plaintiff in the successful
suit to strike down the Texas sodomy law.
He headed the Dallas Gay Alliance for
thre(' terms. The awards to Cordova and
Baker recognize their long-standing commitment
to gay and leabian rights and
their willingnesb t.o put themselves on the
line to achieve those right,;.
The awards dinner will be held at the La
Jolla Village Inn in San Diego beginning
at 7:30 p.m , Saturday, November 26.
Jesse Jackson Sees Gays as Rich, Influential
B;r Ernie Potvin
Via GPA Wire Service
Last September, a black-tie crowd of 1000
gays heard Reverend Jesse Jackson, the
prime spoke,;man of today's black move•
ment, ask for gay people t.o join blacks and
other minorities in a political alliance. The
event was the .. econd annual dinner of the
Human Rights Campaign Fund at the
Grand Ballroom of New York's Waldorf•
Astoria Hotel.
Jackaon was fiery and evangehcal in
his delivery and sounded as ifhe had done
some homework on gay issues, but probably
not enough. Although well received,
the possible presidential candidate was
still perceived to he lacking in undt>rstanding
of gay lifestyles and agenda.
Harvey Fierstein, writ<•r of the hit musi
cal La Cage aux Folle, and the evening's
M.C .. politely correctro Jackson on a cou
pie of his comments following his keynote
address. Jackson had Raid "Sexuality is a
private thing and was not other people's
business." Drawing a burst of applause,
Fi<•rstein later said, "I would like to let you
know that my sexuality 1s NOT a private
thing, and I would like to be able to walk
down the street and kiss my loverin public
as freely as you can with your wife."
In a litany of observations, Jachon had
Raid, "Sex is a thrill, but so is gettmg the
voting rights law passed in the 60s. Sex is
a thrill, but so is unscrewmg all the
nuclear heads off all those misRles. Sn is a
thrill, but so is passing the ERA." To that
Fierstrin commented, •·YN, sex is a thnlJ,
but being gay is a lot more than being just
a sexual person," and the ballroom went
wild for a second time.
Jackson noted that the gay community
represented something totally unique in
minority communities in that among the
gay population is a white, middle dass,
privileged economic group of people with a
very high number of registered voters and
a large voting turnout, which he said was
quite the opposite of the black and
women's communities. He ,;ewed gay people
as being a rich and influential minor
ity, one which could be v~ useful withm
the Rainbow Coalition oflabor and minor•
ity groups he had been actively pursuing.
"You have power if JOU u,e It," he told the
audience. To illustrate h1• pomt of building
coalitions, Jackson read off a list of
black legislators supporting gay right,;
bills in Congress
Prior to his appearance nt the HRCF
dinner, the Neu fork Natwe editon.slly
wondered if he might talk with the two
black at) councilmemhers who have consistently
voted against a New York oty
gay right,; ordinance and elicit their future
backing. The question of the illusive ordinance
was not addressed. Conspicuously
absent from the dinner was :-;ew York
Mayor Ed Koch who was nowhere to be
seen. He did send a telegram though,
which was read aloud and soundly booed
by the entire tuxedoed crowd.
Entertainment was provided by La
Cage aux Foiles star George Hearn who
sang " I Am What I Am." and by Pattie
LaBelle who performed six number~
which tore the gathering apart.
It was a Ball ...
a Military B1111. that is, at Back Street Buice earlier thi,i
month. Star Photos by Ed Martinez.
4 THE STAR/ Nov 25, 1983
AIDS Update: No Longer Gay White Man's Disease
By Dion B. Sanders
Via Gay ~eH Aaooriation Wire Service
SAN FRANCISCO-Shattering a
widely-held belief that AIDS is a "white
gay man's diseaae,"
previously-unpublicized data compiled by
the national Center for Disease Control m
Atlanta show that more than a third of all
AIDS patients in the United States are
from racial and ethnic minorities.
Moreover, a doctor's report pubhshed m
a leading medical journal says that while
a significant percentage of black and
Hispanic AIDS patients-not counting
Haitians-are intravenous drug users, an
equally-significant percentage of them are
upfront gays.
In a telephone interview from Atlanta.
Dr. Richard Selik, director of AIDS
information at the CDC, reported that as
ofOct. 19,out ofa total of2513 AIDS cases
nationwide, only 57.9 percent are white.
Blacks (including Haitians), Hispanics,
Asians and Native Americans make up a
combined 40.9 percent, Selik said, with the
remaining 2.2 percent of undetermined
ethnic origin.
For months, news media reports have
repeatedly stated that AIDS patients are
primarily gay men, IV drug users,
Haitians and hemophiliacs receiving
blood transfusions. Gay men account for
71 percent of all AIDS cases nationwide.
The belief that AIDS is a "white gay
man's disease" stems from a long-held
perception of the gay community by the
general public-especially by minority
communities-as being exclusively white,
despite the emergence of gay and lesbian
people of color into the public eye in recent
months.
(In San Francisco, this perception has
led to charges by some minority
commwrity leaders that public funds
being appropriated for AIDS are being
taken away from exiRting health
programs for the poor-a disproportionate
percentage of whom are black and
Hispanic, according to local press
reports.)
As of Oct. 19, there have been 1048
deaths, for a mortality rate of 41.7 percent
nationally, Selik reported.
Providing a breakdown of nationwide
AIDS figures by ethnic group, Selik
reported that blacks make up 21.1 percent,
AIDS CASES IN THE U.S.
BY RACIAL/ETHNIC ORIGIN
AS OF OCTOBER 19. 1983
•thn,c number pctg
group of case.s of case,
White 1456 57.9%
Black (Non-Haitian) 648 211%
Haitian 117 4 7%
Latinos 354 14 1%
Asians 8
Native American 3
Other Ethnic Orrgrn 47 2~
TOTAL 2513 100.0%
'Less than 1 percent
Source Center lor Disease Control. Atlanta, Ga
"with the figure rising to 25.8 percent
when Haitians are included.
"Hispanics make up 14.1 percent, with
Asians and Native Americans combined
comprising approximately 1 percent,"
Selik said.
"The remaining 3.2 percent of AIDS
patients are of undetermined ethnic
origin," he reported.
The proportion of blacks and Hispanics
among people with AIDS is striking in
that it is nearly double the proportion of
blacks and Hispanics in the US.
population as a whole.
Even more striking is the fact that as of
OcL 19, there have been only eight cases of
AIDS reported nationally among Asians
and only three among Native Americans.
No nationwide city-by-city ethnic
breakdown was available from the CDC,
but according to figures compiled by the
San Francisco Department of Public
Health, out of a total of 288 cases in the
Greater Bay Area as of Oct. 18, 90.3
percent arewhite,4.9 percent are black,3.8
percent are Hispanic, and a fraction of 1
percent are Asian or Native American.
In sharp contrast, 50 percent of AIDS
cases reported in Philadelphia as early as
last July are black. according to that city's
health department, prompting the
creation of an AIDS education program
aimed specifically at black gays in that
city.
Philadelphia, Atlanta and Washington,
D.C. all have sizeable black populations,
with blacks an overwhelming majority in
the nation's capital.
Asked what percentage of the non-white
AIDS cases are gay and what percentage
are IV drug users, Selik quoted figures
from an article by Dr. Harold Jaffe
published in the Aug, '83 issue of the
Journal of lnfe~tious Diseases (Vol. 148, p.
339).
The article, based on CDC reports of
2000 AIDS cases nationally as oflast July,
reported that among non-Haitian blacks
who had AIOS, 17 percent were upfront
gays, 46 percent were IV drug users. and
37 percent were of undetermined risk
factors.
(A similar breakdown of Haitian AIDS
patients by the Jaffe article has been
rendered unreliable because of recent
news reports disclosing that many such
Haitians were gay, but were unwilling to
admit it, because of severe taboos against
homosexuality in Haitian society, Selik
said.)
Among Hispanic AIDS patients, the
Jaffe article reported that 11 percent were
upfront gays, 33 percent were IV drug
users, and 55 percent were of unknown
risk factors.
The Jaffe article contained no report on
Native Americans and Asians with AIDS,
because there were no reported cases
among them at the time the article was
published, Selik said.
Nor did the article contain information
on the number of AIDS patients who were
women.
In the San Francisco area, only thr~
cases of AIDS among IV drug users have
been reported so far, according to Pat
Norman, coordinator of lesbian/ gay
health services for the city.
Two are white; the third is black.
Norman noted that whereas 71 percent
of AIDS cases nationally are gay, the
figure rises to 90 percent in the San
Francisco area, as there are " only a
handful of Haitians," living here.
Locally, there have been 96 deaths. for a
mortality rate of approximately 35
percent.
Norman attributed the disparity of the
national and local mortality rates to the
near-absence of IV and Haitian AIOS
cases here.
Selik reported that the percentage
ethnic breakdown "has been fairly
constant for more than a year." A"ked
why the ethnic data had not previously
been published by either the gay or the
mainstream media up to now, Selik
responded, "Perhaps they (editors) for
some reason thought that it wasn't
newsworthy"
Set The Late1t Bag
Communitg New,
Ere,g Otbe, F,idag
in The Star
Ere,g Ot6e, F,idag, T6e $ta, Sire, gou t6e late1t
local and national aa, oommun,tg new1-t6e erent,
t6at made t6e new, du,ing t6e pa,t two week,. Looi<
lo, u, at olu61 and 16op1 ,n Au1tin, $an Antonio and
Co,pu, C6,i1ti
Nov. 25, 1983 / THE STAR 5
Some Gays Out Front in Anti-Nuke Movement
from page 1
with the turnout. They later learned it was
the country's largest that day.
The message from the crowd, and from
the speakers on the platform, was loud
and clear. They demanded a halt to the
deployment of the Cruise and Pershing II
missiles in Europe, a freeze on the production
of nuclear weapons and the dismantling
of existing stockpiles in a verifiable
plan with the Soviet Union.
On the platform, acting as M.C. for the
program of speakers and entertainers,
was Midge Costanza, a former White
House advisor to President Carter and a
staunch supporting activist for the gay
righta movement. Today, with her own
brand of biting political humor, she kept
the program moving. Among the half
dozen speakers was Irene Eckert, a West
German from the Women'• International
League for Peace and Freedom, who spoke
on the dangers of the Euromissiles and
what the European peace movement is
doing to prevent their installation. And
that particular weekend, the movement
was very visible indeed.
Several million people took to the streeta
in European cities to protest the introduction
of the missiles to their continent.
There were reporta of 200,000 in London,
Paris and Madrid, 175,000 in Rome and
Brussels, and an incredible 300,000 in
Bonn, West Germany's capitol, where it
was said one could hear a pin drop when
they called for silence in memory of the
atomic bomb victims of Hiroehima.
Following the rally in El Segundo, we
talked with two gay women who -played
key roles in the success of the event. Ellie
Cohen is co-director of the Southern California
Alliance for Survival.
"I've been with the Alliance for four
years," she said, "but this is my last rally
with them. I've been hired by the national
freeze campaign aa a field organizer, and
l'11 be starting there in two weeks. This is
kind of a going away party for me. To
promote today's parade and raJly, I did 27
interviews in total, an issues media outreach,
including a bunch of radio stations.
We also distributed 160,000 flyers, 60,000
of them door-to-door. It was mostly graBS
roota.
"There are a lot of gay people working in
the peace movement who are not necessarily
working the gay community," she
added. "Some are in the closet, and some
are reaJly out there. They're all against
first strike weapons, though. Now I don't
go somewhere and start out with, 'Hi, I'm
Ellie, I'm against the nuclear buildup, and
I'm a lesbian, but I don't hide it either."
While Ellie talked, the speaker's platform
was being dismantled a few feet
away. and a red-headed woman kept run•
ning by taking care of what must have
been urgent business. When that woman,
Mary Sullivan, stopped to talk, we disco·
vered a lovely gay lady and a dynamic
grass roota organizer.
Mary shares a house with a number of
other peace movement volunteers who
organize mtttings in other people's homes
where friends are invited to discuss the
i118ues surrounding nuclear disarmament.
She quickly explaim'<i how house mtttings
work and how groups in other cities
are picking up on it, then poeed for a picture
with Ellie and split to get back to her
duties.
It would appear that more gay women
than gay men have become involved with
the movement. At least that was the observation
of Mark Hallahan, a gay man who
has been involved in training people on
what to expect when participating in civil
disobedience. Throughout the crowd at the
rally, one_ coul~ pick out many people
wearing pmk tnangle lapel buttons and
lambdas.
"I think gay men, in a lot of ways, are
stiJI stuck to the whole bar syndrome, and
that's very much the ~nter of their lives,"
said Mark. "I'm afraid we haven't gotten
much beyond that. It'• going to take a real
effort to get gay men involved in the peace
movement."
Following the rally, people started walk,
ing back to their cars over the half mile
parade route along busy El Segundo
Boulevard. As they walked, they were confronted
with dozens of anti-peace movement
and anti-gay slogans freshly
painted with stencils on the sidewalks.
They were obviously done during the rally
when hundreds of police and sheriff deputies
were swarming the area. How they
were painted, undected by the police, is a
mystery. The meBSages read: Peacenik
fags desire Yuri's warhead, and Peacenik
dykes open wide for RuBSian SS-20 dildos.
Some people thought it might have been
the same group who circled the rally
dressed in Russian army uniforms and
carrying a banner reading "Soviet Peace
Contingent."
After the rally, GPA was notified that
on the following Monday, Oct. 24, there
would be more than a hundred people
returning to F.I Segundo to engage in acts
of non-violent civil disobedience in front of
the facilities of five military contractors
and the Air Force. All of the gay friends we
had met said they would be there.
It was still dark at 6:00 a.m. when the
protestors started arriving at the staging
area in a tiny park. Small groups stood in
circles, holding hands, praying and singing,
160 people in all. Some would have to
walk over a mile to reach their destination.
Their targets were the entrances to the
U.S. Air Force Space Division where
"space related defense satellite systems
are developed; Northrup Corporation
which manufactures key elements for the
MX missile's guidance system; McDonnell
Douglas which has contracts for the
Cruise missiles; Consolidated Controls
which manufactures the impact fuse for
the Cruise miBSilee; Hughes Aircraft
which has contracts for the Trident missile;
and Rockwell International, a prime
contractor for the Bl bomber and five different
missile systems. A protest flyer
being handed out called El Segundo the
"'heart of the arms race."
Tim Carpenter is an active member of
the gay caucus of the state Democratic
party. He is also an employee of Robert
Gentry, the openly gay mayor of Laguna
Beach. Tim is involved with the Orange
County Citizens for National Security. It
was his group that would attempt to bl~kade
the main driveway of Hughes with
half their numbers, while others would
walk onto the property in an attempt to
place management under citizen's arrest
for the production of first strike nuclear
weapons, a violation of International law.
Several police vehicle, were parked
across the street from the Hughes
entrance when the protestors spread their
banners across the driveway. A dozen care
stopped in their tracks or turned away as a
traffic snarl started forming. Then a stati•
onwagon rammed its way through the
people holding the banner, and a man
holding an American flag was carried
along a short distance. At that point, the
police arrived and started arresting and
handcuffing people to cart them off to jail.
All the while, Tim was shouting out tactical
instructions to hold their ground or run
another banner behind the first. There
was no violence, and no one waa hurt.
Similar incidents happened at the other
locations. All toll, 72 people were arrested
and most spent three days in jail. Tim
explained how many of the protestors
were prepared to be arrested and had been
briefed on what to expect. Mark told GP A
of two gay men he believed had been
arrested at one of the other facilities. They
had discussed civil disobedience training
with him and had expressed their concerns
about being thrown into jail and
revealed to other prisoners as being gay.
"I assured them it's not dangerous as
long as they weren't blatant," said Mark.
"I was arrested August 9th for the Nagasaki
demonstration at Rockwell," continued
Mark. "I was concerned about
being sent to the county jail and facing
harassment or the danger of rape. Fortunately,
I stayed in El Segundo jail, and it
didn't become an issue," said Mark.
"The thing to do when you're arrested is
to blend in with everybody else, but stay
close to the group of men you are arrested
with and play it cool."
Mark wasn't back at Rockwell this
morning, but others were. Most were from
the Unitarian Church. and among them
was Betty Rottger, the elderly woman
with the Parents and Friends of Gays but•
ton. Betty, who has a life-long history of
involvement in activist causes, was carrying
a sandwich-board sign draped over
her wheelchair.
"My son's gay," she told us. "He'• a
playwright, and he's the one who made
my sign for me."
For more than an hour, Betty and her
friends put their bodies in line across the
I
I
front of Rockwell's tower headquarters,
blocking the entrance and singing peace
songa. A dozen policemen and a district
attorney stood by without moving on the
protestors. Rockwell guards i>E-gan sending
people around to another entrance,
and arrests were never made. Betty had
been prepared to go to jail, and was possibly
a little diaappointed that they didn't.
In all six locations, volunteer laywers
were standing by, observing, taking notes
and ready to act if needed.
Over at Northrup, Randy Grant, a
member of the Harvey Milk Democratic
Club, and another gay friend also were
prepared to be arrested but were not.
Maybe the El Segundo jail was full.
Randy said, "l spread my activism
between three movements, disarmament,
environment and gay rights causea."
He also remarked how pleased he was to
have had gay rights mentioned several
times by sepakers at the rally. It was
anotber indication of how gay men and
women are openly accepted in the peace
movement.
The recent issue of The Advocate (No.
380) had several artic~e about anti-nuke
gays. One is a first-hand account of a
blockade of the Lawrence Livermore
Laboratories in Northern California, and
a gay man's subsequent incarceration in a
makeshift tent-jail for 500 arrestees.
Another is about Peter Adair, the film•
maker who produced Word Is Out and is
now working on a documentary about
civil disobedience for peace. A third deals
with proposed legislation by California
Assemblyman John Vasconcellos, a
major gay rights supporter, which outlines
some very innovative ways to start
building toward world peace.
Among others things, Vasconcellos proposed
student exchange programs with
the Soviet Union, the establishment of a
ational P ce Academy and a program
called Soldiers for Peace, wherein a
hundred thousand citizens from both the
U.S. and the U.S.S.R. would be inVlted for
a yearinto the homes of the other country.
The time has come for the creative
thinking that has gone into making new
weapons to be matched by the creative
thinking needed to build world peace.
Inasmuch as gay people are not wanted by
the military, it might just be time to join
the peace movement where we are.
\ 11
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6 THE STAR / Nov 25. 1983
Robert Sullivan: Gay Man on Death Row
By John Kyper
Via Gay PreH Auoclation Wire Service
Robert Austm Sullivan is used to waiting.
For a decade-longer than any other pri•
soner in the United States-he has been
waiting on death row at Florida State Prison
and fighting for his life. He stands
convicted of a 1973 murder, a murder he
says he didn't commit.
His wait almost ended in 1979. He came
within two days of the electric chair. He
probably would be dead today were it not
for the energetic support of a volunteer
attorney and a few hundred people who
have contributed to a defense fund.
It all began on Sunday night, April 8,
1973, when Donald Schmidt, the night
manager of Howard Johnson's Restau•
rant in Homestead, Flonda, disappeared
with $2700 of the restaurant's money after
locking up for the evening. His body was
found two days later at a target range 19
miles away, with two shotgun blasts to the
head, said the coroner.
His wrist watch was missing and so was
his wallet and Mastercard. The card was
used in the next few days, and police soon
tracked down the user: Robert Sullivan, a
former manager of the restaurant who
resigned the previous year after an embez•
zlement investigation.
Sullivan contends he was set up for the
murder rap and that he blundered into it.
He had just arrived back in Miami after
a trip to New England and was staying in
a motel with a traveling companion
named Reid McLaughlin, whom he had
met at a gay bar in Boston.
Relations between the two deteriorated,
however, when a messy triangle developed
with John Lucheck, a former
employee at Howard Johnson's. Things
got even won,e when Gilbert Jackson, who
both Sullivan and McLaughlin knew in
Boston, flew in to spend the Easter vacation.
One day, McLaughlin showed Sullivan
a Mastercard issued to a Donal Schmidt
and said that Sullivan could use the card
to repay expenses. McLaughlin said he
had been going out with Schmidt and had
borrowed the card.
So Sullivan took the card and bought
clothing He also took a watch that
McLaughlin lent him because his own
watch was in for repair. Those were the
worst mistakes he ever made.
The following day, Sullivan saw an
account of the robbery-abduction-murder
m the M1am1 Neu a. Angnly he confronted
McLaughlin, who finally confessed.
Among his versions, McLaughlin claimed
that he had committed the crime with
Luchek. They had borrowed the shotgun
and shot Schmidt twice. He was later to
tell various cellmates that Jackson was
the actual murderer.
Sullivan and McLaughlin were arrested
on April 16 while driving home from a bar
in Borward County. The car was searched
even before they were read their rights,
revealing a shotgun in the trunk a'!d a
pistol in the glove compartment. Police
also found the Mastercard and what they
claimed was the victim's watch on Sulli•
van His protesls of innocence and
repeated requests to call an attorney,
whom he had left only momenta before at
the bar, were ignored.
Police ~lied Sullivan for more than
eight hours before booking him. and he
confessed.
Meanwhile, McLaughlin signed a statement
that named Sullivan as the killer.
Gilbert Jackson was released at the arrest
scene after a brief questioning and was
never brought to the police station or
called as a witness.
Sullivan was pitifully naive, believing
that his confession would be thrown out of
court and that he would get a fair trial. But
his father, a surgeon, refused to hire a law•
yer. Instead, Sullivan ended up with a public
defender, Dennis Dean, who never
contacted five people whom Sullivan said
could testify that he was 40 miles away at
the Broward County bar at the time of the
crime.
After his arrest, Sullivan had deliber
ately stated that he had beat Schmidt m
~
the head with a tire iron and shot him four
times, knowing that these statements
would be contradicted by the autopsy
report, Sullivan says Dean neither con•
tacted any of the alibi witnesses nor
exposed contradictions in the confession
and in police teetimony. He failed to note
that the defendant's feet were larger than
the footprints found at the scene. Dean
says he tried to contact the witnesses, but
admitted to a Rolling Stone reporter that
his enthusiasm was dampened by the
belief that he was defending a guilty man
who had failed a lie detector test. In court
papers, Dean has been accused of provid•
ing an inadequate defense.
At his trial, Sullivan was portrayed as a
cold-blooded killer wanting to commit the
perfect crime. Then why, one wonders,
would he have used the credit card of
someone he had just murdered? He was
quoted as saying during the interrogation,
"I always wanted to commit a murder," a
remark he denies he ever made.
One of those testifying against him was
McLaughlin, who slipped during cross
examination and admitted, "My sentence
will depend on my testimony." (He
received life with the possibility of early
parole and was released in March 1981.)
Dean did not pursue the slip, asking few
questions of the state witnesses. He also
neglected to reveal that McLaughlin had
failed four out of seven lie detector ques•
tions.
The police, prosecutor, judge and jury all
knew of Sullivan's homosexuality, and
the prosecutor made repeated comparisons
to Leopold and Loeb. But there was
no Clarence Darrow to get him off. He was
found guilty and sentenced to die.
Robert Sullivan was the seventh person
sentenced under Florida's new law. He
has lived on death row since November 14,
1973. He first appeal, automatically
granted by the statute, was to the state
supreme court, where his death sentence
was the first one to he upheld by a 4·2 vote.
In 1976, during the week of the Bicenten•
nial, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled death
penalty Jaws in Florida, Texas and Georgia
constitutional and shortly thereafter
declined to hear Sullivan's direct appeal.
(Theoretically he still has one more
chance at the USSC before exhausting all
appeals, provided he is not executed firsl)
State legal aid is provided to capital
cases only through the first appeal, and
Dennis Dean officially withdrew from the
/
~/
case in October 1976, leaving Sullivan
without representation. Friends. shocked
by the realization that Sullivan was being
left to face a severe predicament alone,
formed a defense fund. Through the
NAACP Legal Defense Fund, an organi•
zation that repreeenta indigent death row
clients regardless of race, he met Roy
Black of Miami. the first attorney to take
an active interest in his case. He is volun•
teering as lead counsel, assisted by
Anthony Amsterdam of New York Uni•
versity Law School, the nation's foremost
authority on capital punishment. Black
wants to get a new trial for Sullivan, but
his most urgent task has been to keep him
alive. Sullivan's case was presented to a
clemency board in 1977. The ruling was
negative, and Governor Robert Graham
signed the death warrantonJune 19, 1979.
Execution was set for 7 a.m. on June 27.
Sullivan was taken to the superintendent's
office to be informed of his new sta•
tus then taken to a cell behind the
ex~ution chamber. He began to plan his
own funeral and burial arrangements.
Roy Black left his sickbed to argue for a
stay of execution before the Florida
Supreme Court on Friday the 22nd. A stay
was refused by a four-to-three vote. In a
bitter blow, Justice Boyd, who had voted
for Sullivan in his 1974 appeal, had
switched his vote. Yet Chief Justice
Arthur England's vigorous dissent was
adopted by the U.S. District Judge Jose
Gonzales three days later when he
granted an indefinite stay 38 hours before
Sullivan was to die.
Sullivan had survivE'<I the week with the
support of many friends who wrote him
and a few who visited him every day. "It
was not easy to preserve the balance
between having hope and yet also prepar·
ing for the worst," he wrote just after his
stay had been granted. Cardinal Hum•
berto Medeiros of Boston and a number of
other bishops sent telegrams on his behalf
to the governor.
In a way. the signing of the death war•
rant proved beneficial for Sullivan. As a
result of the nationwide publicity brought
by his plight, two new witne88es, William
Harlow aad Peter Tioighe, came forward
to sign sworn statements that Sullivan
had, mdeed, been at the Broward County
bar at the time of the murder. They were
among the names he had given his public
defenden, to contacl Harlow had good
reason to remember that night: it was his
18th birthday, the first time that he could
legally drink in Florida.
And there have been new developments
concerning evidence in the case. The adhesive
tape that had bound the victim's
wrists had two fingerprints that did not
belong to either Schmidt, Sullivan or
McLaughlin. When examining police evi•
dence in 1978, Roy Black discovered that a
clerk had destroyed the tape. And
recently, Black's private investigator, Virginia
Synder, has ascertained from the
victim's family that the Waltham watch
found on Sullivan at his arrest was not
Schmidt's, as had been alleged by both
McLaughlin and the police. His watch,
they informed her, "was very definitely a
Timex."
Snyder also has succeeded in locating
several more alibi witnesses. But one-the
man at the Broward County bar who
claimed to be an attorney-has refused lo
talk.
Other obstacles have arisen. Five days
after being contacted by Black in August
1978, Gilbert Jackson was found murdered
in his Winthrop, Massachusetts,
home. The late David Brill, reporter for
Boston's weekly Gay Community News,
was also investigating the Sullivan case
and believed in his innocence. Not long
before his mysterious death in November
1979, Brill's car was broken into and his
briefcase taken. When the briefcase was
recovered, the only file missing was Sulli•
van's. In the four years since the death
watch, attempts to obtain a new trial have
met with a series of legal setbacks in the
federal court system. At the beginning of
1983, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta
unanimously rejected his appeal. In May,
the full court refused to reconsider the
rejection.
The next step is to appeal to the Supreme
Court. If he loses there, the governor of
F1orida would sign another death war•
rant With all appeals exhausted, Sulit
van 's execution would be virtually certain,
possibly before the end of the year- unless
his lawyer could produce new points of
appeal to persuade a judge to issue a stay
Contributions for his defense may be
sent to the Robert Austin Sullivan Defense
Fund, Ralph J acobs, director, 53 Leice,5ter
Road. Belmont, MA 02178.
Gay Man's
Execution
Again Scheduled
By Chris Church/Nite S.,ene
Via GPA Wire Service
TALLAHASSEE-Florida authorities, in
response to a second death warrant signed
by Gov Bob Graham, have scheduled the
execution of condemned killer Robert A.
Sullivan, 36. for 7:00 a.m. Nov. 29.
Sullivan, who has spent a record 10
years on death row for the shooting of a
Dade County (Miami) restaurant man•
ager, received a stay of execution from a
federal court in 1979. He presently has an
appeal pending in a Miami circuit court.
Love is a Drug
A Minnesota group called "Sex Addicts
Anonymous" sounds like a joke, but it
isn't. Founder Patrick Carnes says people
get hooked on sex just as easily as drugs or
alcohol, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Sex addicts, he says, come from all
walks of life. They often start off as high
achievers who end up squandering their
money, time and self-esteem to support
their habit.
Carnes says he treats sex addiction
much like alcoholism: the first, crucial
s tep. he says, is getting victims to admit
their desire for sex is making their lives
unmanageable,
National Gay Pride
Committees
Coordinate
'84 Plans
B;v Ernie Potvin
V,a GPA Wire Service
Sixty conferees repreaenting gay pride
organizations from 18 American cities
met in San Diego in October to exchange
information and coordinate plans for next
year's celebrations. It was their second
annual conference, and participation was
three times greater than last year's gathering
in Boston.
Eighty-two cities are now known to hold
some form of gay pride event, be it picnic
or parade, carnival or concert. Ten ofthoae
citiea have gay marching bands, and all of
them have agreed to come to Los Angeles
next year to participate in that city's
parade as well as in a combined concert in
the 18,000-aeat Hollywood Bowl. The 1984
activities will mark the 15th anniversary
of the Stonewall rebellion.
The weekend conference was hosted by
San Diego Lambda Pride and was held in
San Diego's big, new MCC church. Two
days of useful workshops on a variety of
topics occupied most of the conference
time. Topping off the weekend was a wellattended
dinner in Balboa Park, to which
the community in general was invited.
The workshop sharing of ideas and
experiences on such subjects as securing
permits and dealing with police and
government agencies was extremely helpful.
The Boston and New York committees
reported on the succeas ofhavin~ incorporating
suggestions offered last year by Los
Angeles, including the handling of security
and the reversing of New York's
parade route. Wichita introduced an
innovative button promotion which
intrigued the Los Angeles committee,
among others, and may be taken under
consideration by several cities next year
For the first time a single national slogan
was agreed upon by the various pride
c·ommittees represented The option of
also uRing It for local celebrations, or
creating one's own, was left to each individual
city Los Angeles has already
agr!'Cd to adopt the na tional slogan for its
1984 parade and fl'stival. Olympics and
I.A. is extending an invitation to the
en tin• country to Join them in making it a
massive affair. The national slogan is
"United & More in '84."
A uniform poster for national use will be
designed to incorporate the slogan, and
the I.as Vegas committee has offered to
handle its printing and distribution. Las
Vegas holds its gay pride celebration in
May and has also extended an invitation
to others to come to "fun city" and join
them.
At the San Diego gathering, a stirring
welcome address was delivered to the conferees
by Harry Hays, the founder in 1953
of the early homophile organization the
Mattachine Society_ He spoke of the ~eed
to recognize that we are a "separate people"
with a special gift with which to celebrate
e':'ch other. A radical gay who
speaks hke a poet, Hays left his audience
in standing applause.
San Fransico writer Armistead Maupin
was the guest speaker at the closing
dinner, along with Barbara Cameron an
Indian and gay activist from the Si~ux
nation. Entertaining were singer Kate
Beck and Romanovski and Phillips on
piano and guitar
Of all the gay pride organizations
Christoper Street West of Los An geles i~
the only one to belong to the International
Festivals Association (for five years)
which includes the Tournament of Rose~
Parade, Kentucky Derby Parade and New
Orlt>nns Mardi Gras organization, among
others. CWS had two representatives at
IFA's recent convention in Phoenix where
they set up a display and introduced the
several hundred delegates to what a prideful
gay celebration is all about. The
response was very positive, and two other
IFA members e.xtt'nded an invitation for
I.A.'s Gay Freedom Band to participate in
their nationally tt>levised parades in Milwauk!'
C and Atlanta.
Nov 25. 1983 / THE STAR 7
. , . , '-t!~-.,.,,. 11r•- · · !~ Dallas Benefit Nets
••~ ·-}~ -~--~~-tl..1. 1.1.1 $20,000 for t -.. Gay Groups
i.~ ~
:.·,j~l~~ • --.~ ,.. -e ,;;?,:;_ By Joe Ba.ker/ Dallu Gay New• DALLAS-Two hundred and forty-eight
/I: gay men, lesbians and friends shared an
!>. _ { I/ evening of "Visions" last Saturday night
~~.,_._ A San Antonio Tradition .,. ~· ~ ·. to benefit the Human Rights Campaign
106 N S A 223 Fund and the National AIDS Lobby Pro-
8V8rrO an ntonlo -7177 ject. More than $20,000 was raised.
The El Jardin opened in
the early 40's and has
improved with time like
all great masterpieces.
Now a San Antonio
tradition, but better than
ever.
We will be open
Thanksgiving Day from
noon to 2am.
Nellie Hour 12 to 7pm
every holiday and Sunday
with 75¢ Bloody
Marys, 75¢ Screwdrivers
and 75¢ Beer
,. ,'CA-A t .
PLACE
Monday-Pitcher-$2
Tuesday-Draft-25C
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Sunday-Beer Bust 8-10-$1
OPEN 2 TIL 2
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2015 SAN PEDRO 733-3365 SAN ANTONIO
The Dallas Dinner Committee's second
annual black-tie dinner at the Fairmont
Hotel attracted 100 more people than last
year's affair.
Attending the $150 per person dinner
were gay rights leaders from throughout
Texas and the country and several elected
officials, but most of the guesta were "just
plain gay folks" who were committed to
advancing the cause of human rights.
Tue evening was entitled "Visions."
Helping guests to share their visions were
keynote speakers U.S. Congressman Bill
Green (R-N_ Y.) and Virginia Apuzzo, executive
director of the National Gay Task
Force.
"The cause of gay rights is not a 'them
versus us' situation," Green said in his
address. "Gay righta is human rights. A
government that permits discrimination
of gay men and lesbians endangers the
human rights of all."
Green, one of the earliest supporters of
gay righta and presently one of the
staunchest and most effective supporters
of AIDS funding legislation, told his
audience that both lobbying and educating
are important in furthering the cause
of gay rights.
He said elected officials and the public
have a lot to learn, but stre86ed that
"America i1 learning."
"We are talking about a human rights
matter, and that is how it should be preeented.
I know there is still a lot of misunderstanding
and prejudice, but we can
succeed."
Green, who repeatedly Wied the pronouns
"we" and "us" when discussing the
fight for gay nghts, called the Human
Rights Campaign Fund one of the more
powerful political action committees in
the country
He urged gay men and women not to
ignore the Republican Party m their struggle.
"Progrl!ll8ive Republicans are rebuilding,"
he said. ''There are candidates who
deserve your support and contributions.
Let them know you are prepared to help
them if they help you. Hold them accountable."
Green said human rights legislationgay
rights-should be supported by both
progressives and conservatives in all the
political parties.
"Thia 1hould be an issue especially dear
to conservatives who believe in less
government interference," he said.
"Government has no business legislating
in anyone'• bedroom."
Apuzzo told guests that it was an act of
courage for them to attend the fundraiaing
dinner, and noted a lot of them
were at different steps in their personal
involvement for gay rights.
"We are making history," she said.
"Thirty ye1m1 ago we were told that we
were unemployable and that even one of
us would contaminate a work place."
"Well. we have made a lot of progress.
Today we are not 'criminals' and not 'mentally
ill.' We have come a long way."
Apuzzo praised the DallaB gay community
for its leadership in the gay rights
movement, and said she was inspired by
the local involvement.
She said the primary mission now of
national gay leade~ is to galvanize a
vision . .. Our mission must be be to work
for all ofthose\l<;thout privileges. We must
struggle to bring honor,justice and reasor
to politics. We have to make governmen
more reeponsive to our lives."
8 THE STAR/ Nov. 25, 1983
Gays' Dress
Influencing
Nongay Men
Smaller Cities Felt Impact of Gay Vote
Br. Ernie Potvin
International Gay New• Atrency
The gay movement "has had an extraordinary
influence" on male fashion, accordmg
to designer Lee Wright, who recently
agreed to do an exclusive collection of
menswear for J.C. Penney.
Wright says that there has been a gradual
revolution in the way men dress themselves.
Traditionally men would shop for
themselves after the entire family was outfitted.
Now, more and more males are
thinking about their image and taking
time to shop for themselves.
Wnght attributes this change to the gay
movement. "It's a known fact that gay
men have a more estheticsensibility about
them, and it carries over into the nongay
community," Wright said.
Wright is the third well-known designer
to join the Penney team. Halston and
Cathy Hardwick are already creating collections
for the store that are geared
toward the Middle America customer-in
other words, the budget-ronscious consumer.
V a Gay Pre•• Aa•oclation Wire Service
In November's municipal elections across
the country, theimpactofthegayvotewas
felt in several cities.
Also noteworthy was the fact that many
of the mayoralty winners were liberal
women and blacks who sought and
received the support of the gay community,
Big city gay political clubs supported
and helped reelect mayors Diane Fein•
stein in San Francisco and Kathy Whitmire
in Houston. They were also deeply
involved in the election of Philadelphia's
first black mayor, Wilson Goode.
Yet another interesting story was taking
place in much smaller cities where
young gay political groups were making
an impact.
In Sacramento, the gay community's
six-month-old River City Democratic Club
was the city's only political organization
to support Anne Rudin for mayor in the
primaries where she won a second place
runoff spot. They supported her again,
along with the local gay press, in the Nov.
8 general election where she narrowly won
the city hall race by less than a thousand
votes.
Her opponent, Rosa Relles, did take the
opportunity to do some gay-baiting during
the last days of the campaign. He pub•
lished a widely distributed flyer which did
not receive prior approval from the elec•
tion board, and included a brief, edited
and misleading list of her backers. It was
limited almost exclusively to gay, feminist
and environmentalist endorsements. The
River City Democratic Club, for example,
was listed as the River City Gay and Lesbian
Democratic Club, and her only press
endorsement on the list was shown as
Mom. GIU'ss What (a gay newspaper.
In the Sacramento Bee, the city's major
daily, Rudin said, "Ross Relles' list of
endorsements is woefully incomplete and
purposefully so. They were intended to get
knee-jerk reactions from voters." .
Prior to the isauance of the controversial
flyer, Relles was believed to be leading !n
the race. Whatever its effect, Anne Rudin
would not have won the mayor's seat without
the strong support she received from
the gay community.
In Charlotte, N .C., a city of 300,000, the
small but influential Lambda Political
Caucus helped elect Harvey Gantt, that
city's first black mayor. The Lambda Caucus,
which boasts less than 12 members,
staged three candidate nights before a
larger gay men's social/educational
group called Acceptance. Each mayoralty
candidate appeared separately to answer
questions and state his position on gay
:ivil rights.
Democrat Harvey Gantt said he would
work to add sexual orientation to Charlotte's
nondiscrimination ordinance,
while his Republican opponent, Ed Pea•
cock, felt it was not needed.
Also appearing were eight candidates
for 11 city council seats. Don King, of the
caucus, said it was the best turnout
Lambda Political Caucus ever had in their
three-year history.
Electing a liberal black mayor in a state
that has become increasingly conserva•
ti ve in the last 20 years is no easy feat,
especially in a city like Charlotte, where
whites outnumber blacks by three-to-one.
Gay Events Get Noted in the Non-Gay Press
Br. Jim Kepner
The Lambda Caucus met early with
Gantt at a breakfast strategy meeting,
they did widespread leafletting for him
during both the primary and general election
and finally they set up a telephone
bank to make a thousand calls to potential
gay supporters and their friends.
Gantt, a Democrat, won by 4000 votes
out of 80,000 cast. It can be safely assumed
that many of them were gay people. He
had been the first North Carolina candi•
date to take his campaign into a gay disco
and discuss gay isaues.
V a Gay Pree• Aa•oclation Wire Service
In a scattering of local elections which
saw pro-gay candidates elected in several
cities (and homophobe Kathy MacDonald
defeated in Georgia by a 3-2 majority), the
New York Times ran an Oct. 8 feature:
"Increasing Political Influence of Homosexual
Citizens is Sensed Acrosa U.S."
A quarter of the half-page story dealt
with Rich Eychaner, Republican cndidate
for Iowa's fourth Congressional seat.
including Dea Moines. Eychaner, challenging
a solid Democratic incumbent,
calls himself "a qualified person who
happens to be gay."
He is a Methodist Sunday School
teacher, owner of the state's largest mov•
ing van company, a baseball team offirer,
a TV talk show host-and popular instate
GOP circles.
The Times article, by Dudley Clendinen,
traced the close relationship between the
gay community and Washington, D.C.'s
Mayor BalTY, Houston's Mayor Whitmire
(reelected) and other• office holders in
Sacramento, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia
and Key West, where businessman
Richard Heyman this month became
the third openly gay mayor to be elected in
the U.S., joining mayors of Buncetown,
Mo., and Laguna Beach, Calif.
The article (cramped by the Times' refusal
to use the word gay except in quotations)
discussed how often gay voters
support black candidates and spoke of the
growing "rainbow coalition " It noted
former gay-baiters who now court gay
votes and discussed victories and plans of
the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the
r-iational A880ciation of Gay and Lesbian
Democrats and the National Gay Task
Force. Granting that homo~exual efforts
to assert their political influence proceeds
"by fits and starts," the article rounded off
on college instructor David Scondras' race
for the Boston City Council. Said Scondras,
"The age of bigotry is eclipsing, and
the age of coalition-building ii; beginrunir.''
The gay-baiting of l::!111 Allam, Mississippi's
Democratic gubernatorial candidate,
was labeled "dirty politics" in many
newspapers and in Newsweek-and by
the son ofWilliamSpell.oneofthe lawyers
who charged Bill Allain's sexual activity
with at least three black male prostitutes.
Allain denied the "damnable" charges,
taking a lie detector test-and won election
handily, proving again that gaybaiting
is no sure-fire tactic.
But gay political clout was nosed out in
Musach11Betta by a 19-18 Senate vote
sending the Gay Rights bill to the state
Supreme Court for an opinon-unlikely to
be ~e)ivered beforf the legislature
adjourns. The only attention this got out•
side the state was 10 lines in USA Today
(Nov. 3).
The Quincy, Masa.,Patriot Ledger (Oct.
Tl) quoted Rep. Gerry Studds saying that
being a closet gay is living hell: "I've been
in public life 10 years, having to deal with
everything from hysteria to irrationality
to hatred and plain ugliness ... having to
live most of your adult as a closet gay
person necessitates developing a very
tough skin, or you'd ... go stark, raving
mad.'' Several papers picked up bits of this
interview.
generation Californian, Broughtoi:i at 80
remains vigorous, witty and committed to
shocking his audiences, as he had early
tried to shock his conservative stepfather.
Seven days earlier, Guthmann did a fine
piece on gay Russian filmmaker Serge
Eisenstein, whose documentary Que Vwa
Mexico, left unedited at some 50 hours,
was slashed up by socialist "producer"
Upton Sinclair, who objected to the ~tlm•
maker's erotic treatment of Mextcan
youth.
In Charlotte, as in many similar cities in
the nation, some candidates are afraid to
go after gay endorsements, believing it
could harm them, but that attitude has
already begun to change. There appeared
to be a lot of cross-over voting in Charlotte
on Nov. 8, for not only did liberal Gantt
win but a good number of the city council
seats were won by conservative Republicans.
San Francisco columnist Herb Caen on
Oct. 29 reported on Don Jackson's St. Pria•
pus Church, whose slogan is ''Sex can des- +troy
evil." Jackson, who believes oral sex f is sacramental, launched the "December
'69" drive for gays to occupy underpopu•
lated Alpine County, Calif. A St. Ptjapus
Church is expected shortly in Los Angeles.
On Nov. 8, Caen reported that the gayoriented
Atlas Savings and Loan now has
a straight president-whose wife is named
Gaynelle.
United Press International on Nov. 5
reported a University of California/ Davis
study showiryr that 14 percent of the
women surveyed had been sexually
harassed, mostly by male faculty
members. One-point-one percent of the
men surveyed reported having been sexu•
ally harassed on campus. The study didn't
say by whom. Time on Nov. 14 reported a
more damning study released at Harvard.
The Los Angeles Times reported on Nov.
8 that four prisoners in three days had
died in local jail facilities, reportedly by
suicide or heart attacks. Three were in on
sex charges.
Gay news is rare in the newspaper business
sections, but the Securities and
Exchange Commission's action suspend•
ing trading of shares of Gay International
for 10 days, a San Francisco-based company
that publishes the Gay Areas D,rec
tory and owns several gay hotels, was
reported by the San Francisco Examiner
and the Los Angeles Timi's on Nov. I. The
SEC questioned the firm's financial eta•
bility and the accuracy of publicly di~sem•
inated information. Gay International
went public in April and took ove: the San
Francisco based telephone directory.
Their 1tock has since climbed from 35e to
$3. Company officials claimed hara88•
ment. They own extensive Utah and
Hawaii real eetate and are seeking to
acquire property in Idaho and California.
Edward Guthmann turned in a fine ret•
roepective on poet, avant-garde filmmaker,
incredibly elfin performer and
radical fairy James Broughton for the San
Francuco Chrorucle, ~ov. 6. A third-
• GAY NEW~• INPDRMATIDf' •
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Good Taste, and Why Not?
By Allen Young
"Good taste" is supposedly a matter of special
concern to gay men. When a gay man
lacks good taste, whether in his clothes,
hie home decor, his conversation or his
behavior, he is said to be "tasteless," a
word that in today's gay banter has
become a campy exclamation. (For some
reason, all of this seems less relevant to
gay women, which is why I refer ony to
gay men here.)
A friend of mine who writes for Fag Rag,
one tasteless enough to burn a Bible at a
Gay Pride rally, has on several occasions
expressed his mockery and disdain for
this gay male preoccupation. He see it, I
believe, as a kind of faggot snootiness, an
attempt by gay men to use esthetic values
to find respectability in upper-middleclaaa
heterosexual society. My friend's
Bible-burning must be forgiven if only
because it spurred much interesting discussion
about religion's role in gay oppression.
AB for his condemnation of faggot
You're Reading
THE STAR
America's Newest
Gay Community Newspaper
preoccupation with taste, I have been until
recently quite sympathetic with his point
of view. I am beginning to .r!istinguish,
however, between good taste that is
simply an honest appreciation of beauty,
and a fashion-oriented concept of taste
sometimes known as "piss-elegance."
Pies-elegance is something I find irksome.
The Qut>en's Vernacular (now published
by Paragon Books as Gay Talk)
defines a piss-elegant queen as "one equal•
ing wealth and style with real achievement;
one who lives in ham I gance." (A
second definition of the term says it is a
"jealous reference to a rich homosexual.")
Since coming out into the gay world, I
have met a few gay men who could be
described as "piss-elegant," and a few others
who manifest a self-conscious preoccu•
pation with taste, based on airs, manners
and fashion.Such men are not likely to
become my close friends.
But I have also met some fine artistsmen
(and women, too) with a welldeve
loped esthetic sense and a
commitment to creativity. The gay friends
and acquaintances have meant a lot to me.
They have opened doors for me to realms
previously unknown, and they have
taught me something about good taste. I
use that term in the moat positive way.
Twelve years ago, my main idea of
something attractive to put up on a wall
was a brightly colored Cuban poster showing
fists and guns, supposedly to express
solidarity with the people of a beleaguered
Store Owners
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and you'll find it
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issue. (Some locattons go through 400
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will be printed in the paper each issue.
Third World nation. In general, the idea of
having attractive surroundings was then
of little concern to me. That was before I
was part of the gay community. Ifl were to
list the things I have learned from my
involvement in gay life, I would have to
place at the top this newfound concern for
beauty in my immediate surroundings.
And why not? Our lives are enriched by
beautiful things, both manmade and natural.
This is one of my disagreements with
the radical left, which focuses so much on
negativity. There is often no room for
beauty in their world; they see most art as
"politically incorrect," for according to
them. we muet alway• be aware of suffering
and injustice. Frankly, I don't want to
look at fists and guns anymore, neither in
real life nor in posters on my wall. I feel
sorry for the oppressed artists who are victimized
by political commissars, whether
they are movement ideologues or Communist
party bureaucrats. For such commissars,
art is "bourgeois" unless it "serves
the interest of the working class," whatever
that is.
Some might claim that it is middle-class
privilege that allows me this concern for
beauty. But poverty and squalor are not
synonymous. When I lived among the
Zinacanteco Indiana in southern Mexico,
they manifested a strong desire for beauty
and excellence in their colorful clothing.
The Indian man I lived with, who was
weaving a new staw hat for an upcoming
festival, made it quite clear to me that he
had "good taste" and also that he felt a
certain disdain for men in the village who
did not take the time and effort to make
their hats beautiful.
All of this is really by way of introduc-
1 d1dn t like the way I looked when
my hair was falling out Then I found
out about the HRS Systems Process
ol hair replacement It added hair into
my bald spots and made my thinning
areas thick
tion. as I want to share with readers of this
column my appreciation for the work and
friendship of an artist I know, Gerard
Brender a Brandis, whose wood engrav•
ings are among the decorative items in my
home. Ger, a Canadian who lives and
works in Ontario, is one of several artists I
have met in the gay community. I was
introduced to hie work through RFD, the
country gay journal, which published
some of his engravings of rural architecture
and plants. Shortly after, a feature
article on him in Body Politic made me
aware that hie temperament and lifestyle
were much similar to mine. Eventually we
met, and we now have become friends. We
are now collabo.-ting on two booke. one
on Cape Cod, another a collection of quotations,
both to be published through Brandstead
Press.
Brandetead Press is Ger's own creation
and was established 11 years ago to produce
limited editions of wood engravings
and linocuts. It now has facilities to per•
form every stage of production of hand•
made books, from papermaking to
binding. Ger's primary work has been
botanical illustrations. but in recent
years, he has sought to bring his gayness
to his work, and the result has been two
volumes of illustrated gay poetry. But, as
Ger wrote me in a letter I excerpted for
publication in Lavender Culture, overt
gayness in art is not essential: "What is
more important is to realize that the pre••
ence in my life of interpersonal realtionships
nourish my entire being and spill
over into my creative processes. just as my
creative vitality makes me more capable
of contributing to another man ·s life."
Ger's work has won him significant
recognition; it is included in may public
By Brackenridge Park. 3-438 N St. Mary's
San Antonio 78212-(512) 736-9678
Nov. 25, 1983 / THE STAR 9
Commentary
galleries and university and library collections,
as well as in numerous private collections.
His dedication to his craft is
inspiring: imagine working a book from
start to finish, including weaving the
cloth for the cover, making the paper,
engraving the illustrations. handsetting
type and operating the printing press! Yet,
for all hie success. Ger does all he can to
keep from being "sucked into the suburban,
commercialized and consumerizedtoo
much a part of the trendy gay scene,
too much a businessman." He writes, "My
life and lifestyle appear too often relevant.
and yet there is no real alternative on this
planet." These are my feelings, for when I
leave the typewriter today, I will go into
the garden to plant carrots and eggplant,
spend some time in puttering around the
house to make it more pleasing to me, and
a little later, go to the bus station to pick up
an old friend whom I haven't seen in
years.
These pleasures-the manmade beauty
in my home, the natural beauty of the
plants in the garden, both the functional
beauty of vegetables and the "pure"
beauty of flowera. and the love of friends
in the gay community whom I have come
to cherish so mucb-help make life nch
and worthwhile.
I refuse to rob myself of these pleasures
just because I know that there is pain and
suffering elsewhere in the v.'Orld. My
appreciation for beauty does not undermine
a desire and hope for a better world;
in fact, the two are inextricable.
C/983 by Allen Young, author of several
books, including ''Caya Under the Cuban
ReL'Olution" and "Lavender Culture." Dutributed
by Stonewall Features Syndicate.
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10 THE STAR/ Nov 25, 1983
Star Classified
Fourteen-Day Calendar
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fn Sat
NOV. NOV.
25 26
NOV. NOV, NOV. NOV. DEC. DEC. DEC.
27 28 29 30 1 2 3
DEC. DEC. DEC. DEC. DEC.
4 5 6 7 8
For ~t10nal W'lfonna110n or phOne numbe:B for events ;ate<I beJOw ook for the aponsortng
organa• t10n unde, Orgat11Z•ttons n the The Slat's Ckrectory
Selected Events
First Week
• FRIDAY-SUNDAY: Gay
Acadenuc Umon 9th National
Conference "The Challenge of
1984. Together We Can Make a
Difference," San Diego
•sUNDA Y: 5th Memorial
Harvey Milk George Moscone
March, San Francisco
• TUESDAY: Austtn Lesbian
Gay Pohtical Caucus meets
7 30pm Nov 29 Commissioner's
Court, Courthouse Annex
• THURSDAY: First day of
Hanukah
Selected Events
in Future Weeks
• IN 3 WEEKS: Winter begins
at 4:31am, Dec 22
• IN 4 WEEKS: Chnstmas,
Dec. 25
• IN 8 WEEKS: NOW's
Lesbian Rights Conference,
Jan 20-22, Milwaukee
• IN 9 WBE.KS: Gay Press
Association Southern ~onal
Conference, Jan. 27-29, Houston
• IN 11 WEEKS: Uncoln's
birthday, Feb. 12
• IN 11 WEEKS: Valentine's
Day, Feb 14
• IN 12 WEEKS:
Washington's birthday. Feb 20
• IN 14 WEEKS: Mardi Gras
Fat Tuesday, March 6
• IN 16 WEEKS: SL Patrick's
Day, March 17
• IN 18 WEEKS: Apnl Fool's
Day,Apnl I
• IN 24 WJ::EKS: World's Fair
opens in New Orleans, May 12,
lasting to Nov 11
• IN 26 WEEKS: Gay Press
Association 4th National
Convention, May 25-26 Los
Angeles
• IN 26 WEEKS: Memonal
Day, May 28
• IN 29 WEEKS: 1964 Gay
Pride \\ eek begins 15th
anniversary of Stonewall
upnsmg national slogan
"Umtcd & More l.f 4 " June
15-24
• EARi,'}' JL'L'l': Lesbian and
Gay Bands of Amenca concert,
Los Angeles
• /l"i 29 "EEK : National
Gay Health Education
Foundation's 1st International
Lesbian Gay Health
Conference 'Toward
Divennty" New York June
16-19
• II\ 34 WEEKS: Democratic
~ational Convention, San
Franc co, July 16-19
• I.V 38 WEEKS: Castro Street
Fair, Aug. 19, San Francisco
• IN 39 WEEKS: Gay World
Series Softball Tournament
opens m Houston Aug. 28,
lasting to SepL 2
ANNOUNCEMENTS
8lG. E OWNEAS We li$1. rree eaeh weel: n
""'.,,_ c:on,muntty "'!l•nlzatons p1u9
~ ser,mo u drstnbution points for
THE STAA
i" nchcates Uus tSbng 19 • ST AA chstnbution
Poffll
DWELLINGS &
ROOMMATES
HISTORIC HOUSTON HOME
Outstanding opportun ty for gracious
living in a beautifully restored
V1C1onan Home n Houston In the
National Register and winner of the
prestIgIous TC Jester Restoration
Award, thls4000squarefoot 3-story
Houston Heights Home may be used
residentially or commercially Built
in 1905. It sits on a corner lot with
over 13,000 square feet of land, an
English rose garden, 2nd story deck
enclosed patI? quarters above a 3-
car garage, and room for a pool. The
home has 4 unusually large bedrooms,
2 baths, wrap-around veranda
leaded glass, an updated
country kitchen. high ceilings. hardwoods,
stenciled walls roomy formals
foyer, dramatic staircase,
sleeping porch 1 O tons of air condItIonong
(zoned) 2 fireplaces and
charm beyond descropt,onI For
further onformatIon call (713) 861-
9996 $239 500 subJect to prior sale
EMPLOYMENT &
JOBS WANTED
STRINGERS WANTED
"The Star" seeks free-lance news
writers In Austin and San Antonio for
assignments Send samples of your
Nork to Henry McClurg "The Star,"
3008-A Burleson Rd Austin, TX
18741
GAY BARS
AUSTN
e Baca Ml Bao -4511 E 7th 477"3391
• Boat Haute- ,,107 Cototado.-474-9667
• Chances -900 Red Rtvet _.77-82
• Otrty Sattys Apartment Z828 ~fO C..rande•
78--8782
e PQ'z,z "'°' :oaorao,,.. • 7.t 7003
e PrvateCettar 709E h- 4n..Q387
e Red River C.rossing 61 Red Aver 476-381 1
• Round Up Sa 705 Red R ver 4 7&-6806
CORPUS CHR -r
Oden Door 1003 Morgao Av -882-0183
e ty JI k 2 •13 Peoples
• Span Gaffeon- St 7 N Chapar"II -18 -0510
• Sandbar 408 ayto, 884-027
e Zod I '617 S Stapfes 883- 1753
UcAL E'I
eum,,e,o- OOPeca
Ourtys 1 N
Mad Box 200 N 2911"1
SANANUC 0
e Phase I 2226 herwOOd Way 942-9•88
e One NiQht Sa!.oon-11 5 fredenekaburg 736--
9942
• Our Place- t 15 Gen l<TUegll'f -3-I0-17S8
e R.a.~&LJGf'ltC:C,.. -2'315SanPedro- 734
3399
e San ~o M!ning co-826 S.r, Pedro-223-
020
• $nutty• Satoon ..a20 t>an Pectro-224-1739
e SunaetBoutev•rd lQONManAv ~
• Talk of the Town-3530 Broadway--826-9729
e ro15 Place------2015 San Pedro-7J3.-336S
ORGANIZATIONS
SELECTED NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS-Gay
Prnt Auodelion-P08 33e05 WHhlngton
DC :zoo:n.......(202) 387 2430
GavR11o1ritsN• t.10nall.Obtly-P081992 WattunglOn
DC 20013- (202} ~t1Ct1
Human Riorus Clfflpaign Fund P08 1396 W•h--
1ngton OC 20013-{202) 5,48.-20,25
Lambda Legat o.,..,.._,32 W 4Jrcl ,.._ Yon,, NY
10039~12) 9'4-NM
Meet • Fund for Human A.ghtt (Gay Prn•
Auoetation POB 33605 Wutungton DC
20033 (202) 387 2"30
...._,ion•t ~ or 8usaMU Coundla Boll
1514 Sanfr•nc.ilCO CA9411S- 41! fl8S-l.l63
Nall()Ma AdOdahOn of Gay ,& Lab&an Oemoc;rat c
Ouba 1142 ~ >,.v SE Wahington DC
20003- "702) M74104
N11K>NI Gay HNlth EduUtion FounOatM)no «> 8th
,.,., • 30& New van NV •0011 212 206-1009
National Gay Rights Ai,voeates 610 Cu1ro San
F-.nc:lSCO CA 94114 (41S 863-3624
NatiONI Gay Task Force ao 5th Av N..,,, YQrtl NY
•0011 (212' 741•5800
NGTF'1 Cr• st,,.. 800) 22 · 7044 (OUtstdll New
Y?rtl State)
Tex• Gayl'LMt»an Task Force POB AK Denton
715201 (817) 387-12•&
AUSTIN
AUii n Lesb an/Gay Pol t cal Caucus-POB 822
78767-t74 2717 meets last Tues 7 30pm
Comnuasaoner1 COurt CourthOUH Anne,;
CORPUS CHRISTl-
Gay Bartenders Anoe ation-c/o Zod ac
Lounge 817 Stapfes ~77S3
Metropo11an Commuruty Church--clo Un tar•
ian Church 3125 Home Rd-851'"9698
SANANTONIO
Alamo Human Rights Committee ~74
eM-5485
Otgnity 349-3632 meets Sun 5pm St Patnck1
Cl\urch, 1 35 near New Braunfels & Pine
Gay Switchboard 73,3,-7300
Lambda AA 1312 WyomlnQ 674-28Ht
Le,bian & Gay People In Meidletne- Box 290043
78280
San Antonlo (jay Alliance-Box 12063. 7821J
733-8315
Free Personals
Continue
Free Personals (up to 15 words) continue in THE
STAR. Send yours in today. See the form in the back
for details.
THE STAR
AUSTIN * SAN ANTONIO
;
You cannot ba serious! Nobody
attempts su,c1de with a Trak II shaver!
PERSONALS
DALLAS AREA COUPLE
will share home in exchange for
same 1n Austin for occasional visits.
Call (214) 660-2638
POLISH GAY MAN _ _
31, passive, black hair, hairy body,
wants friendship with active gay.
Would like to ImmIgrate to USA. Will
answer all. Andrew Hoszowski, UI
Warszawska. 15/6, 44-100 Gliw1ce,
Poland.
CONTACT, FANTASY, FUN
Wrestling & more 500 members
nationwide lnfopixpak $3. NYWC,
59 W 10th, New York, NY 10011
ByTycho
PRIVATE
GAY CLUBS
SERVICES, ETC.
AUSTlii=
The Star -448-1380
SANANTONIO
Ame<1c1n Male (hatr replacements)-3438 N St
Maryt-738-9978
V.111 Moflte Carto--N St Marya at Mulberry-
736-9698
Fortunes
For Friday evemng November 25, 1983. through Fr1d1y ev-,iing. December 9. 1983.
ARIES-The fire of Anes Is an electrical kind of lire, and this energy Is
as strong now as it has been in a long time. Creative sparks are flying.
and this energy that's been so strong for a few weeks is having a
powerful effect on others. Zap! You're a line conductor!
TAURUS-With some outside help In your relationship problem,
things are definitely taking shape end direction. Hazy and dangling
problems fell away under the shadow of the form your life is taking.
Maturity comes in stages, all through your life.
GEMINI-Sex comes home. and you're glad of it. Looking for it in
strange places was a drain on you. and you·re happier to be on an even
keel again. Bright and alert is how you're feeling, glad to wake up in the
morning to see who's beside you again.
CANCER-"Let me entertain you" Is your theme song. Who do you
think you are, a Leo? You've got this urge to perform, to really show
others what you can do. Quite a change for the homebody of the Zodiac!
Take center stage and have a great time doing itl
LEO-After feeling scattered end a bit thrown around, you return to
looking to yourself for answers. And it's likely that you'll find the ones
you're searching for. You won't be the life of the paty for a while. but
you'll be back to being yourstill again.
VIRGO-Somebody could trick you into believing the unbelievable.
This trick from a possible trick will not turn into a treat. so take heed'
Practical advice from someone who's older or who has more experience
in these matters could prove very valuable.
LIBRA-What looked like a light romance or a short affair may
become more serious. It may even change you idea of who you are and
what It's all about. There's something of a mystery involved that you may
not have yet recognized. When you do, you'll be intrigued
SCORPIO-Looking in the mirror and seeing someone you don't
recognize? Older and wiser, perhaps, but there's something else, too,
that you're just beginning to understand. Your image reflects your mind
Fill these days with new and fascinating ideas
SAGITTARIUS-Changing careers In midstream could be what
you're thinking of. And it could work. You'll probably be getting some
kind of offer that will seem hard to turn down. Think long and hard on
this one; retreat from the hustle and bustle and consider the facts.
CAPRICORN-Joining your life to that of someone else takes care,
but it can be as simple or as complicated as you choose. Now that the
flames burn bnghtly instead of roaring, you can look to the future and
use forethought. 'What are we doing?" doesn't have to be a confusing
question.
AQUARIUS-II you're not a student, you should be. II you're not
Involved in some concrete application of what you know, you're missing
the boat. Don't be lazy with your Intelligence. Tep in on your mental
resources and use them. Be smart.
PISCES-Obstacles may pile up in your path and block your exit. l.fs
going to take a combination of practical know-how and whimsy to
remove them so that you can get started so that you can get away Your
yearning for adventure is strong. Make it happen!
•1983 STONEWALL FEATURES SYNDICATE
BERNIE
OH ALAN1 LOOK lfT 1HE PUPPIES.
WOULO NT VOU Ut<E TO
HAVE ~E '?
Nov 25, 1983 / THE STAR 11
STAR CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS
ADVERTISING RATES
Placing a Classified other than a
Personals? Read this:
• ANNOUNCEMENTS
• CARS & BIKES
• DWELLINGS & ROOMMATES • EMPLOYMENT &
JOBS WANTED • FOR SALE, MISC.
• MODELS, ESCORTS,
MASSEURS • SERVICES
• TRAVEL
RATE: Up to 3 words in bold, $2.
Additional regular words 30¢ each.
Minimum charge $3.
DEADLINE: 5:30pm Monday for Friday's
newspaper.
LONG TERM ADVERTISING: Run the
same ad 4 issues or longer, pay the full
run in advance, and make no copy
changes during the full run, and you can
deduct 15%. Run the same ad 13 issues
or longer under the same conditions and
you can deduct 25%.
CHARGE YOUR AD: All classifieds must
be paid in advance OR you can charge
your classified to MasterCard or Visa.
We do not bill for classifieds.
PHONE IN YOUR AD: Only those who
will be charging to MasterCard or Visa
can phone in classifieds to (512)
448-1380 Monday or Tuesday, 9am to
5:30pm.
Placing a • PERSONALS? Read this:
RATE: Up to 3 words In bold and up to 15 total
words, FREE. (Additional words beyond 15 are 30¢
each.)
FREE PERSONALS apply only to individuals. No
commercial services or products for sale.
HOW LONG? Free Personals can be placed for
one, two or three issues at a time-but no longer.
To renew requires re-submitting the form.
BLIND BOX NUMBER: If you want secrecy, we'll
assign you a Blind Box Number. The answers to
your ad will be sent to us and we will then
confidentially forward the replies to you. Rate is $3
for each issue the ad runs but replies will be
forwarded as long as they come In.
ANSWERING A BLIND BOX NUMBER: Address
your reply to·the Blind Box Number, c/o The Star,
3008-A Burleson Rd., Austin, TX 78741. Enclose no
money. You·r letter will be forwarded unopened and
confidentially to the advertiser.
CHARGE YOUR PERSONAL TO CREDIT CARD:
All charges beyond the 15-word limit or Blind Box
charges must be paid in advance OR you can
charge to MasterCard or Visa. We do not bill for
classifieds.
PHONE IN YOUR AD: Only those who will be
charging to MasterCard or Visa can phone in
Classifieds to (512) 448-1380 Monday or Tuesday,
9am to 5:30pm. The Free offer does not apply to
Personals phoned in. You will be charged the same
rate as other types of Classifieds.
(up to 3 normal-size words in bold capitals)
(lree or 304/word) __ _
(free or 304/word) ___ _
(30C/word) ___ _
(30C/word) ___ _
(30t./word) ___ _
(use additional paper II necessary)
bold headline at $2 __ _
Name __________________ _
__ words at 30¢ each ___ _
Address _________________ _
Blind Box at $3 per issue ___ _
Total
Run ad _____ issues
---- Amount enclosed
(• check o money order, • cash In person • VISA charge
• MasterCard charge)
If charging by credit card:
# _____________ exp. date ___ _
Mail to The Star, 3008-A Burleson Rd., Austin, TX 78741
12 THE STAR / Nov 25. 1983
Back
Street
Basics
austin,tx
611 E. 7th 477-3391
25C
$2 Cover I
Watch for 1 -Anniversary
Dec. 8, 9, 10, 11 & 12
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