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June 15,1984 • Vol. 15, No. 24 750 Outside of D.C./Baltimore Areas
Pro rights
groups
launch
campaign
WA W lir dial -Auk 11 Is'Aft..Y.db. is mr.im.11 111111111 Lk
V V 1/17-. IL:111 Ell I 1 Ell IIP IN It MEI 1 a IMWM MN 1
MIL / ell 1•11 I ! 1 El 4.01111111 1111. MI 111,J I ill IL MINI.
by Pave Walter
ROCKVILLE—Gay and non-Gay
groups, at a news conference here Tuesday,
launched an education campaign aimed at
defeating an effort to repeal legal
protections for Gays in Montgomery'
County.
Spokespersons for the Montgomery
County Coalition for Human Rights, which
represents metro area Gay groups, and
Montgomery County Citizens forJustice, a
"broadly based citizens group," told
reporters that a major effort would be made
to publicize the facts about the county's
human rights law.
The measure, of which non-discrimination
protections for Gays are only
a part, was passedby the county counciland
signed into law by the county executive i'n
February. However, Gay rights opponents
prevented the law from taking effect last
month by collecting nearly 24,000
signatures on petitions calling for a
referendum on the Gay-related portions of
the law in November.
What the Gay rights supporters face is a
continuing campaign of anti-Gay rhetoric
conducted primarily by religious
fundamentalists. Citizens for a Decent
Government, a group headed by Rockville
Baptist minister Rev. Robert Crowley, has
been at the fore of the anti-Gay effort in
Montgomery County.
Wayne Lerch, a member of the Suburban
Maryland Lesbian/Gay Alliance and a
spokesman for the Montgomery County
Coalition for Human Rights, accused
Crowley, who has quoted the Bible in his
railings against Gays, of "bearing false
witness against thy neighbor" by making
false statements about the Gay rights
measure.
"Much has been said which is untrue,
misleading, if not outright malicious
regarding the purpose of thislaw," said Jim
chairman of the predominantly
non-Gay Montgomery County Citizens for
Justice and former chairman of the
Montgomery County Human Relations
Commission.
Crowley, in an interview Wednesday,
labeled those charges "scurrilous."
Rose Crenca, a county council member
who has strongly supported the Gay rights
provisions of the law, stressed at the news
Continued on page Ii
Carding bill passes 5
'In Gay Company' actor dies ____ _ 6
Mayor opens Pride art show ____ 15
N.Y. and D.C. choruses unite ____ 17
Sisterfire '84 is coming 18
GAA takes aim at G.U. with bond bill
by Lou Chibbaro Jr.
The Gay. Activists Alliance this week
called on Mayor Marion Barry and the D.C.
'City Council to amend a revenue bond bill
to prevent non-profit institutions from
receiving funds from city bond issuances
unless those institutions comply with all
provisions of the city's Human Rights Act,
including the act's Gay rights clause. If
passed, the amendment could deprive
• Georgetown University of $50 million
generated from tax-exempt bonds.
The GAA request picked up momentum
Tuesday when City Council member John
Wilson, chair of the Council's Committee
On Finance and Revenue, said he will "hold
up" the bill—known as the D.C. Non-Profit
Organizations Revenue Bond Act of
1984—until assurances can be made that no
institution that engages in discrimination
would benefit from the city bonds.
GAA President Steve Smith said that
although the requested amendment would
affect all institutions which apply for
benefits from city bonds, GAA's attention
*Ids driwiftethelthe when it noticed that
Georgetown University is one of seven non-profit
institutions included in that
le Aation.
student groups, with the support ofthe D.C.
Corporation Counsel, filed a discrimination
suit against the university.
The suit was eventually rejected by Judge
Sylvia Bacon, who declared that
Georgetown, in fact, was engaging in
discrimination but should be allowed to do
so because its First Amendment religious
privileges, she said, outweigh the Gay rights
clause of the D.C. human rights law.
The student groups are now appealing
Bacon's decision in the D.C. Court of
Appeals, with the city supporting the
students through an miens brief. If
subsequent decisions uphold Bacon's ruling,
the effectiveness of all Gay rights laws, say
2 some Gay rights lawyers, may be seriously
damaged.
_
Steve Smith, president of GAA, says his
group will pursue an amendment to the
city's bond hill that could cost
Georgetown University $50 million for
its discriminatory policy against Gays.
Georgetown University has refused to
grant official recognition to two Gay student
groups, claiming that its status as a Catholic-run
school dictates that it cannot sanction
official privileges to a Gay group. The
See Pride Guide '84—
Second section pullout
Smith is scheduled to testify today before
a round-table session of the Finance and
Revenue Committee along with officials
from Georgetown University.
Mayor Barry, meanwhile, said his
Continued on page 10
Clinic in good health on tenth anniversary
by Jim Marks
The nerve center of the Whitman-
Walker Clinic, Washington's Gay, publicly
supported health clinic on 18th Street, is a
small, neat office behind the clinic's
reception room. A large gray office mail box
stands against one wall, and stuffed in a
bottom pigeon hole is a rhinestone tiara,
somewhat worse for wear.
The room mirrors the organization,
which is basirally a business-like one, but
with a certain rumpled, queenly elan
gleaming foith. In its-10 years, the clinic has
knowit tough times and good. The Gay
Men's VD. Clinic, the forerunner of the
current organization, sometimes barely
managed to stay alive during its formative
years. A crisis hit in 1980, when runaway
costs threatened the organization's survival.
Another crisis, AIDS, challenged the clinic
last year, although the problems faced this
time were matters of personality and Gay
community infighting and never threatened
the operation of the organization.
Today, the clinic seems in good health.
Out of the V.D. clinic held in a church
basement, has come an organization with
five different other services. These include
an alcoholism program, run by Joan Smith;
the AIDS Education Fund, led by John
Hannay; counselling groups for both men
and women, led by Tripp Van Woodward
and Arleen Rogan; and the Gay Hotline,
which is currently in the midst of a volunteer
drive. •
The first phase of the clinic's history,
recalled by Howard Sanders in the program
Jim Graham, Whitman-Walker Clinic
administrator.
Of the banquet last month celebrating the
organization's 10 years, lasted from late
1973 until early January 1978. During that
time the heart of the clinic's current
operation, the Gay Men's V.D. Clinic,
started. A Saturday morning clinic held in
the basement of a Georgetown church as
part of the Washington Free Clinic, a
private volunteer clinic to provide low-cost
health services, the GMVDC screened
about a dozen people per week for syphilis,
gonorrhea, and other sexual communicable
diseases. Then as now, clients were asked
for a donation ($5 then, $15 now) to help
defray expenses, but no one has ever been
turned away because of lack of money.
By late 1977, the clinic had become
secure enough to expand its services to
include an alcoholism program and a
program for Lesbians, and to incorporate.
The expanded operation named itself after
poet Walt Whitman, and Dr. Mary Walker,
the rust woman surgeon in America and
began its second phase when it moved into
two floors of a townhouse on 17th St.,"
N.W., near Q Street.
But with growth came growth pains. The
biggest of these pains was with the clinic's
new headquarters. The space proved too
small. Soon there were complaints from the
women's group, the Lesbian Health and
Counselling Center, that men were barging
into their meetings. And it was too
expensive. In 1980 the clinic broke its lease
and moved into its present location at 2335
18th St, N.W.
In early 1981, Jim Graham took over as
the clinic's president, a post he held until
March of this year, when he became clinic
administrator, a paid staff position. When
he took office, Graham says, he "wanted
first and foremost to put the Clinic on a
sound financial basis."
"We'd had to escape the lease on 17th
Street virtually in the dead of the night
because it was destroying us financially,"
Graham recalls. -
After moving to affordable space,
Graham says, he also worked to improve
fund-raising and establish sound accounting
Continued on page 20
Object Description
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Transcript | June 15,1984 • Vol. 15, No. 24 750 Outside of D.C./Baltimore Areas Pro rights groups launch campaign WA W lir dial -Auk 11 Is'Aft..Y.db. is mr.im.11 111111111 Lk V V 1/17-. IL:111 Ell I 1 Ell IIP IN It MEI 1 a IMWM MN 1 MIL / ell 1•11 I ! 1 El 4.01111111 1111. MI 111,J I ill IL MINI. by Pave Walter ROCKVILLE—Gay and non-Gay groups, at a news conference here Tuesday, launched an education campaign aimed at defeating an effort to repeal legal protections for Gays in Montgomery' County. Spokespersons for the Montgomery County Coalition for Human Rights, which represents metro area Gay groups, and Montgomery County Citizens forJustice, a "broadly based citizens group," told reporters that a major effort would be made to publicize the facts about the county's human rights law. The measure, of which non-discrimination protections for Gays are only a part, was passedby the county counciland signed into law by the county executive i'n February. However, Gay rights opponents prevented the law from taking effect last month by collecting nearly 24,000 signatures on petitions calling for a referendum on the Gay-related portions of the law in November. What the Gay rights supporters face is a continuing campaign of anti-Gay rhetoric conducted primarily by religious fundamentalists. Citizens for a Decent Government, a group headed by Rockville Baptist minister Rev. Robert Crowley, has been at the fore of the anti-Gay effort in Montgomery County. Wayne Lerch, a member of the Suburban Maryland Lesbian/Gay Alliance and a spokesman for the Montgomery County Coalition for Human Rights, accused Crowley, who has quoted the Bible in his railings against Gays, of "bearing false witness against thy neighbor" by making false statements about the Gay rights measure. "Much has been said which is untrue, misleading, if not outright malicious regarding the purpose of thislaw," said Jim chairman of the predominantly non-Gay Montgomery County Citizens for Justice and former chairman of the Montgomery County Human Relations Commission. Crowley, in an interview Wednesday, labeled those charges "scurrilous." Rose Crenca, a county council member who has strongly supported the Gay rights provisions of the law, stressed at the news Continued on page Ii Carding bill passes 5 'In Gay Company' actor dies ____ _ 6 Mayor opens Pride art show ____ 15 N.Y. and D.C. choruses unite ____ 17 Sisterfire '84 is coming 18 GAA takes aim at G.U. with bond bill by Lou Chibbaro Jr. The Gay. Activists Alliance this week called on Mayor Marion Barry and the D.C. 'City Council to amend a revenue bond bill to prevent non-profit institutions from receiving funds from city bond issuances unless those institutions comply with all provisions of the city's Human Rights Act, including the act's Gay rights clause. If passed, the amendment could deprive • Georgetown University of $50 million generated from tax-exempt bonds. The GAA request picked up momentum Tuesday when City Council member John Wilson, chair of the Council's Committee On Finance and Revenue, said he will "hold up" the bill—known as the D.C. Non-Profit Organizations Revenue Bond Act of 1984—until assurances can be made that no institution that engages in discrimination would benefit from the city bonds. GAA President Steve Smith said that although the requested amendment would affect all institutions which apply for benefits from city bonds, GAA's attention *Ids driwiftethelthe when it noticed that Georgetown University is one of seven non-profit institutions included in that le Aation. student groups, with the support ofthe D.C. Corporation Counsel, filed a discrimination suit against the university. The suit was eventually rejected by Judge Sylvia Bacon, who declared that Georgetown, in fact, was engaging in discrimination but should be allowed to do so because its First Amendment religious privileges, she said, outweigh the Gay rights clause of the D.C. human rights law. The student groups are now appealing Bacon's decision in the D.C. Court of Appeals, with the city supporting the students through an miens brief. If subsequent decisions uphold Bacon's ruling, the effectiveness of all Gay rights laws, say 2 some Gay rights lawyers, may be seriously damaged. _ Steve Smith, president of GAA, says his group will pursue an amendment to the city's bond hill that could cost Georgetown University $50 million for its discriminatory policy against Gays. Georgetown University has refused to grant official recognition to two Gay student groups, claiming that its status as a Catholic-run school dictates that it cannot sanction official privileges to a Gay group. The See Pride Guide '84— Second section pullout Smith is scheduled to testify today before a round-table session of the Finance and Revenue Committee along with officials from Georgetown University. Mayor Barry, meanwhile, said his Continued on page 10 Clinic in good health on tenth anniversary by Jim Marks The nerve center of the Whitman- Walker Clinic, Washington's Gay, publicly supported health clinic on 18th Street, is a small, neat office behind the clinic's reception room. A large gray office mail box stands against one wall, and stuffed in a bottom pigeon hole is a rhinestone tiara, somewhat worse for wear. The room mirrors the organization, which is basirally a business-like one, but with a certain rumpled, queenly elan gleaming foith. In its-10 years, the clinic has knowit tough times and good. The Gay Men's VD. Clinic, the forerunner of the current organization, sometimes barely managed to stay alive during its formative years. A crisis hit in 1980, when runaway costs threatened the organization's survival. Another crisis, AIDS, challenged the clinic last year, although the problems faced this time were matters of personality and Gay community infighting and never threatened the operation of the organization. Today, the clinic seems in good health. Out of the V.D. clinic held in a church basement, has come an organization with five different other services. These include an alcoholism program, run by Joan Smith; the AIDS Education Fund, led by John Hannay; counselling groups for both men and women, led by Tripp Van Woodward and Arleen Rogan; and the Gay Hotline, which is currently in the midst of a volunteer drive. • The first phase of the clinic's history, recalled by Howard Sanders in the program Jim Graham, Whitman-Walker Clinic administrator. Of the banquet last month celebrating the organization's 10 years, lasted from late 1973 until early January 1978. During that time the heart of the clinic's current operation, the Gay Men's V.D. Clinic, started. A Saturday morning clinic held in the basement of a Georgetown church as part of the Washington Free Clinic, a private volunteer clinic to provide low-cost health services, the GMVDC screened about a dozen people per week for syphilis, gonorrhea, and other sexual communicable diseases. Then as now, clients were asked for a donation ($5 then, $15 now) to help defray expenses, but no one has ever been turned away because of lack of money. By late 1977, the clinic had become secure enough to expand its services to include an alcoholism program and a program for Lesbians, and to incorporate. The expanded operation named itself after poet Walt Whitman, and Dr. Mary Walker, the rust woman surgeon in America and began its second phase when it moved into two floors of a townhouse on 17th St.," N.W., near Q Street. But with growth came growth pains. The biggest of these pains was with the clinic's new headquarters. The space proved too small. Soon there were complaints from the women's group, the Lesbian Health and Counselling Center, that men were barging into their meetings. And it was too expensive. In 1980 the clinic broke its lease and moved into its present location at 2335 18th St, N.W. In early 1981, Jim Graham took over as the clinic's president, a post he held until March of this year, when he became clinic administrator, a paid staff position. When he took office, Graham says, he "wanted first and foremost to put the Clinic on a sound financial basis." "We'd had to escape the lease on 17th Street virtually in the dead of the night because it was destroying us financially," Graham recalls. - After moving to affordable space, Graham says, he also worked to improve fund-raising and establish sound accounting Continued on page 20 |
