The Alabama Forum, October 1988

Pagc 6 Alabama Forum October 1988

OPEN SUNDAY The experience continues... Cafe LeNetta 2323 1st Ave. No. Afternoon & Evenings Wine by the GlassEntrees® Salade Seafood Sandwiches Soup of the Day

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Excerpt from the Biography of Leonard Matlovich

For most of the half-million people who attended the weeklong schedule of events surrounding the October 1987 March on Washington, the highlight was the march itself. For Leonard Matlovich, however, the highlight was a project which he initiated and organized, the Never Forget Project Like the project he initiated to honor gay Vietnam veterans, once again Leonard was concerned with the creation of memorials for gay people. This time the focus was his former political antagonist, Harvey Milk.

"I was talking to Harvey's lover, Scott Smith, one day and found out that there isn't any memorial to Milk outside of San Francisco. In San Francisco, a library, a community center, and a public plaza are all named after him. But even here, there is no one particular spot that people go to pay their respects to Harvey Milk. I thought that was shame, for people need to have a place to pay homage to a person they feel has made their lives better.

"Later, when news of my oun tombstone hit the press, a friend suggested that might do the same thing for Harvey that I did for gay Vietnam vets like myself...create a permanent memorial in public cemetery. The idea for Never Forget evolved from that. But what really gave me the commitment to go through with it was remembering my visit to the cemetery where Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein are buried in France. I was incredibly moved that Toklas and Stein, who were lovers, put their names on the same tombstone. I realized again that in this country we have nothing similar, and I was determined to do something about it.

"I established Never Forget in order to create kind of gay Arlington Cemetery, a place to bury and honor our heroes. And I chose Harvey Milk as the first of our leaders to honor because he did so much to inspire and motivate others. He was the movements first true martyr. Even though Harvey never lived in Washington, Congressional Cemetery seemed like a logical place for the memorial because he was one of the first openly gay officails in the nation, and Congressional Cemetery is a place for national leaders. Besides, we'll never know, but had he lived, Harvey Milk might very well have been elected to Congress. In anycase, when people visit San Francisco, they don't do so with the idea of honoring the dead. Yet in Washington, it's part of the psyche to visit national cemeteries.

"Because Harvey's ashes were scattered on the Pacific Ocean outside the Golden Gate Bridge, there was no permanent grave sitc anywhere, so we felt free to buy a plot for him in Washington. His lover, Scott Smith, had saved some of the ashes, so we placed them in an urn for Harvey, along with part of his pony tail, a love letter from him to Scott, a piece of his official stationary from City Hall, a copy of one of his speaches, and a photographic negative of him. On Saturday morning, the day before the march, we held a ceremony which was incredibly moving for me. Hundreds of people gathered to honor Harvey and to hear Troy Perry, Frank Kamny, Harry Britt, Morris Knight, and myself speak. Then we all filed by the grave site and laid flowers in front of the urn itself. Many people cried openly.

"I suppose it is somewhat ironic that I was the one who organized the ceremony for Harvey, since we had our very major differences. However, like I said before, had Harvey Milk lived, I think he and would have become friends. Besides, perhaps was fitting for him to be honored by someone he once regarded as a rival. For Nixon to go to China made the gesture more valid than for a liberal Democrat to have gone. Maybe having a conservative person see the importance of what Harvey represented makes the memorial more significant. "Now I hope other gay leaders will choose to be buried in Congressional Cemetery as well. I'm excited about it becoming our Arlington. Think what it will be like a hundred years from now for the young kid from Altoona, Pennsylvania, who Harvey always liked to talk about, to visit the graves of his gay role models.

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FED UP WITH THE REPUBLICANS? HAD IT WITH THE DEMOCRATS? Your are not alone! Millions of Americans-including many of your neighbors-are switching to the Libertarian Party this year. The LP stands for the American ideas of tolerance, individual liberty and responsibility and voluntary solutions to problems. For a free information pack, write:

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Page 7 Alabama Forum October 1988 [Column 1] CALENDAR

Sundays: Worship Service, MCC-Mobile, 7p.m. Birmingham Covenant - MCC, Worship Service, 11 a.m.; Softball, George Ward Park, Birmingham; 2p.m. Live & Let Live, Gay AA, Unity Church, 6 p.m. (28th St. and Highland Avenue)

1st Monday: Lambda Board Meeting, 7 p.m. Montgomery - AIDS Outreach, Montgomery Health Department 515 W. Jeff Davis Ave., 7:30 p.m.

2nd Monday: Covenant - MCC Board Meeting, 7 p.m. Call 326-8529. AIDS Task Force of Alabama 4:45 p.m., Jefferson County Health Dept.

3rd Sunday: Lambda Membership Meeting, 7 p.m.

1st Thursday: Potluck Supper - UUGLC, The Unitarian Church of Birmingham, Cahaba Road, 6:30 p.m. Call 879-5150.

1st Friday: Potluck Dinner & Movie Night, MCC - Mobile, 7:30 p.m. Bible Study, MCC - Mobile.

Monday: Meeting for Adult Children of Alcoholics (and other dysfunctional families) for gays/lesbians and bisexuals. 7 p.m. Lamba Resource Center.

Tuesday: Choir Practice, MCC - Birmingham, 5:45 p.m. Overcomers, MCC - Birmingham, 7-9 p.m. Alpha Lambda Omega Meeting, Auburn, 7 p.m. Gay/Lesbian Support Services, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. Rm. 207, Manly Hall 7 p.m.

Wednesday: Rap Group, MCC - Mobile, 7-9 p.m.

Thursday: Live and Let Live, Gay AA, Unity Church, 7 p.m.

Friday: Fellowship Night, MCC - Birmingham; Movies, Games, 6 p.m.

Saturday: Live and Let Live, Gay AA, Unity Church, 11 a.m.

Thurs., Fri., Sat.: Coffeehouse, Lambda Center, 7 p.m.

Sept. 6-Oct. 14: "Golden Heritage", exhibition of distinguished Artists & Craftspeople, Alabama Artists Gallery, One Dexter Ave., Montgomery

Oct. 4: Lodestar Books' Esoteric Wednesdays: Development and Awareness, 7-9 p.m.

Oct. 11: Lodestar Books' Esoteric Wednesdays: Astral Travel, 7-9 p.m. National Coming Out Day

Oct 17: Randy Shilts, author of And The Band Played On, UAB Arena, 7 p.m.

Oct. 18: Lodestar Books' Esoteric Wednesdays: Love, 7-9 p.m.

Oct. 25: Lodestar Books' Esoteric Wdnesdays: Lightening!!!, 7-9p.m.

CLASSIFIED

[left column] AFFIRMATION: United Methodists for Lesbian/Gay concerns wants to expand its organization efforts. Contact Affirmation, P.O.Box 1021, Evanston, IL, 60204. __________

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[right column]

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Alabama State Bar regulations require following on all attorneys' ads: "No representativeis made about the quality of legal services to be performed or the expertise of the lawyer performing such services."

[Column 2]

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Page 8 Alabama Forum October 1988

LETTERS

Dear Editor,

The American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFar), nationally chaired by Elizabeth Taylor, is the only national privately funded organization devoted to AIDS research. AmFar is the primary source in the United States of private funding of grants for research on AIDS.

Elizabeth Taylor, as national chairperson, has spearheaded efforts which in two short years have raised over ten million dollars and provided 130 grants for rescarch on AIDS in an effort to find cure and improved drug therapics.

AmFar fills the gap in research. It does not duplicate the efforts of the government. Am Far provides research scientists seed moncy to test innovative ideas and develope new mothods. In this way, AmFar broadens the research parameters, funding projects that might lead to breakthroughs in AIDS research. AmFar can put money into the hands of grant recipients within 60 days of recieving their applications. By contrast, the government takes 12 to 18 months to fund AIDS research proposals. In this emergency, time saved may mean lives saved.

If you share the view that research offers the best solution which will help end the suffering and further destruction caused by AIDS, then please jion caring people with support for AmFar. Contributions and requests for additional information may be sent to:

AmFar 40 West 57th St. Suite 406 New York, New York 10019-4001

Recently I recieved a copy of the Forum from friend who lives in Birmingham. I hope you can print my letter as I think this is an important organization in the area of research. am not affiliated with AmFar except as a private contributor.

Sincerely, Gary Johnson Kansas City, MO.

Dear Forum: Enclosed please find the two Sept. 88 writeups that impressed me so very much.

Number 1: "Rushton Park Not Safe" (Letters, pp.3): This is important. Let's all work to help make Rushton Park safe. This park has helped me so very much in the past. Ten years ago I came to Birmingham, Alabama from Delaware-So. Philadelphia, Penn. Rushton park was where I would go to be with my people.

I would "write to my parents" or just "think". I was long way from home, but my people were all around.

Please help us. "the Gay People" in Birmingham, to keep safe and be free to go to Rushton Park safely.

Number two, Coming Out (Stories, pg.4): Thank God! Your "Coming Out" stories may help lots of people. I know have one or twO special friends who are married straight but like sex with men. They have not come out, but hopefully someday they will.

Thank you for your help. Please, let's fight back for our freedom and Rushton Park.

Sincerely, Gary J. Walls

the OUTREACH AIDS HELPLINE 322-0757 Birmingham AIDS Outreach P. O. Box 550070 Birmingham, Al. 35255

Why They Have Power

(Continued from pg. 2)the "system", and that you must "work with" the system to advance your cause. But they also work to persuade you that you must be like them to get into the system, to become a part of the system yourself in order to bc able to "work together" with them. And because they have the power of the system, they can co-opt (buy or hire) you, if you want what they have. That is, you don't co-opt yourself first.

They have power over us because they represent, they are, the system that has the only power most of us were taught to recognise: the power of physical force and the power of the dollar, the power of the law to punish and prohibit, and the power of the jail cell to confine. And of course the context was also projected to include the power of the Supreme Ruler, outside nature and people, to save or damn us according to whether we are "good" or "bad". The system has what we believe we nced to survive, and it can withhold it or take it away. It can confer or deny legitimacy and "legality" on our lives and our unions. And it can deny uS the very protections we fund it to provide us.

They have the power over us because so many of us are trained to respond automatically to the "authority" of the "law', the "state", the dollar, the jail cell, and of course, the gun. Because again and again we accept the context without question. And because our training has taught us to use that power, if and when we get it, over each other. They have power over us because they've taught us to accept their fear of diversity, of nature, of sex, of themselves, and of life itself.

They have power over us because they can weaken us from within. They have power over us because they are us.

You have to decide if change is possible. If you want it.

The 100 th Lesbian by Kay Crutcher

October! What a wonderful month to be queer Halloween and National Coming Out Day! I've just been reading from Judy Grahn's 'Another Mother Tongue", and I am struck by the following connections between Hallowe'en and coming out. On All-Spirit's Eve, the Witches' New Year, we are allowed to ask, "What do I want to be?", We impersonate aspects of ourselves that we might not reveal the rest of the year. According to Grahn, the ancient Celtic Hallowe'en, for "Sarnhain (pronounced "Sah-wan")...was the most important of their holidays. It is the time when the New Year begins, and therefore the time when two different worlds come together.....The qualities of impersonation and the dangerous business of crossing over from one world to another help explain why (it) is the most significant Gay holiday."

When we come out, we reveal ourselves clearly as Gay or Lesbian to someone who has not previously acknowledged that reality, we walk the same dangerous and exciting line. We all live in two worlds (to varying degrees) and coming out is magickal act of slipping "between the worlds". We reveal the presence of one world to an inhabitant of the other. Or perhaps we reveal our residence in the Gay world to someone clse who lives here, but has been hidden from us. At the same time we unmask ourselves, we make our daily charades dangerously obvious.

On All Hallows, our masks serve to mock our ordinary, daily disguises. When we come out, we challenge the others' perception of those same disguises. But in the process, we destroy the old mask. It will no longer fit. It is singularly irreversible action, one to be undertaken with as much awareness. self-respect and humor as we can muster.

In this important October, when there is a national conciousness of the spaces "between the worlds", would like to wish each of you an enlightening experience for Coming Out Day, and a very happy and lively New Year. Blessed be!

Kay Crutcher is a lesbian and a computer programmer, among her many other guises. Another Mother Tongue" by Judy Grahn is available at Lodestar Books.

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