This Way Out; 1

We're facing very very difficult nasty prejudice against bigoted times. The chief enticement for attendance was the guest list, a veritable who's who of the lesbian and gay movement in America. During our entire rally which we had first we were shouted at, digs for a thrown at us, the police did nothing. Low dancing was reserved for heterosexual couples only. Welcome to the inaugural broadcast of Inside Out, the International Game Lesbian Radio Magazine. I'm Greg Gordon. I'm Lucia Chappelle and during the next half hour you'll hear reports on the United Kingdom's notoriously homophobic clause 29. Almost 200 lesbian and gay activists gather for a war conference in the United States. In the Magic Kingdom only heterosexuals condense cheek to cheek. And despite violence last

September, lesbians and gays and debuk prepare for another march and maybe you can help. All that and even more now that you're tuning Inside Out. First up, clause 29, a new law in the United Kingdom which prevents local municipal authorities from quote promoting homosexuality. Inside out Tim Richardson has the details. The practical effects of this law will be the closure of gay centres funded by councils, the ending of lesbian and gay equality units and possibly the removal of licenses for gay pubs and clubs. Positive images of homosexuality in schools will be outlawed as will the promotion of gay or lesbian lifestyles as pretend family relationships. Whilst help for AIDS organisations is specifically

excluded from the bill, there is little doubt in the minds of lesbians and gays that these swinging new measures are part of a growing homophobic backlash following in the wake of the AIDS crisis. Sections of the British press have helped to fuel anti -gay feeling and activity by giving prominence to outbursts from well -known people who seek to blame the legalisation in the 1960s of homosexual acts for the AIDS epidemic. The response from lesbians and gays has been swift and vociferous. A march through the streets of London on January the 9th drew 12 ,000 people after only three weeks notice. On its way the march stopped outside Prime Minister Thachar's residence in Downing Street where the march has made their feelings on this new legislation very clear. The

march continued past Parliament to a rally addressed by speakers who included out -game member of Parliament, Chris Smith. I'm afraid that we're facing very very difficult nasty prejudiced bigoted times in this country at the moment and this clause is just one example it's the worst example but it's just one example of the flavour of this government, this Parliament and the climate that we're living in. Also there bringing a message of solidarity from gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in North America was one of the organisers of the 1987 march on Washington, Robyn Tyler. Robyn was speaking just as police moved into arrest people at the rally, sometimes for nothing more than just kissing. Are they arresting people? Yeah, what's your arrest? Are the gays and lesbians and England guys you're going to have to arrest millions and millions and millions of people?

Including members of parliament, including members of the parliament! We are everywhere! You cannot take us out! Further action is planning cities around the country which will remind all those who'd have us back in the closet that we're out and we're staying out. This is Tim Richardson in London for Inside Out. I called Tim Richardson earlier this week to get the latest on clause 29. There were several efforts made to persuade their lordships to make certain amendments to the clause which would have taken out this rather pernicious issue of promoting homosexuality and in particular the theatre lobby, several of our brothers and sisters in the theatre world made some very great efforts to try and change their lordship's mind but alas it didn't work. One or two minor amendments were made but in fact it went through in its

substantive form. The pernicious thing about this is that gay organisations, gay and lesbian organisations which of course at the best of times have got a few resources, they've got very little money, have got time that they should be putting into other things. Once again, it's going to be asked to defend themselves in the courts. One good thing that might come out of it is it's a lot more kind of solidarity if you like. A kind of solidarity which had started to get going around the AIDS issue but which has really started to gel a little around clause 29. So for example there's going to be a march in Edinburgh in Scotland which I should probably be going to in a couple of weeks time. There's going to be another big march in London on April the 13th. There was a very good one in Manchester that I should mention. That was on March the 20th and that was even bigger and more spectacular than the march in London. Really more than 10 ,000 people? 20 ,000 yeah. I'll be reporting to you next from Scotland from Edinburgh about the local scene up here and how people

are responding outside London because I think that's quite important. There is a lot going on in London but of course there is lots of gay and lesbian life outside London too and particularly up here in Scotland which is well I'm about 400 miles north of London at the moment and I'll be reporting from this area as a country for you next time. It goes into law June 1st. Rally speaker Robin Tyler. Which means June 1st the gay and lesbian's in this country should be in front of the British consulate and we should have major demonstrations at every British consulate in the United States. Even to the point I believe of getting them not to enter the consulate. I believe the time has come that we need to resist in the streets actively and not think of ourselves as a gentle loving people but in fact an angry people. It was Stonewall. It was the original step and nobody's ever going to give up power. You might power must be taken. It's never given. And this idea of gay people had two ideas. If you were campy enough and could be loved enough and say I'm nice and nice I just want to be like you or they would accept you. And in fact I don't want to be like straight people. I don't want war. I don't want to

pollute the earth and the water and the environment. But also the second. So you cannot beg your way into acceptance and you cannot buy your way into acceptance. And a lot of the gay and lesbian establishment felt that if we supported enough liberal politicians, they too would support us. But politicians are there to get elected. And you know, as far as I'm concerned, politicians in a way or if industry is the hoi then politicians are certainly the pimps. Robin Tyler, she always has something really interesting and provocative to say. And she's actually got a lot more to say. That was a little excerpt from an interview that I recorded with Robin a couple of weeks ago. And folks you're going to be hearing a lot more from Robin Tyler in the weeks to come here on Inside Out. I thought it was real interesting, Greg, that Robin mentioned Stonewall and made the comparison between the situation in Great Britain now and the Stonewall riots. I think we ought to let people know what those Stonewall riots were all about. I think you and I both have commented that we've met younger gays and lesbians in the early 20s. And you say Stonewall and Christopher Street and they have the foggiest idea of what... Listen, our children and you shall

hear. The disorders began with a routine police raid on a homosexual bar, the Stonewall on Christopher Street, in the heart of the West Village. One of the long time leaders of the gay rights movement, Craig Rodwell, remembers it this way. I started with so few coins and temples being thrown at the police and then the police were treated into the Stonewall. And then after the police barricaded themselves inside, it was like half an hour later, the riot police started moving up Christopher, breaking up the crowd. It should really become a very angry crowd. It's hundreds of bottles and rocks. There wasn't one window left in the whole place. I should have about ten minutes. And they broke the crowd up into small groups. And this went off like two or three hours back and forth in the whole area. I think they thought the people would just go home or run. Especially since they were gay people and not used to gay people

standing up at all, especially in front of police. But the people, they would chase people away and then they would go around the block and come in another way. And the sort of tug of war went on all evening. And then on Saturday night, it was much the same thing. Starting about nine, crowds started to gather in the area. There were small groups on the sidewalk. And then around 11 or 12, they started taking over the street and stopping cars and coming through. Unless they were gay people and the two fires were set. But generally, there's an angry mood, a lot of chanting, a lot of hand holding, a lot of assertion of being gay. And there was a way of saying we're tired of hiding, tired of waiting two lives, tired of denying our basic identity, denying ourselves. Newfound pride, really a collective pride in their identity. And I think it's going to infect the masses of gay people in the coming years. The Stonewall Rebellion served notice on the heterosexual majority.

The growing number of gays were not afraid anymore. And were not content to continue living out their lives in fear and depression. Gay powers here are the same. And nobody, nobody is going to ignore us any longer. Hey Joe, get up and go. We're glad to tell you twice. Hey Matt, get off my back. Did not score a fight. There's too much heat out of this heat. Telling us to move along. Gonna be along from summer till now on. From now on. Hey Matt, don't understand, we ain't hard to bother with you. The same fight, you're just a drag. We ain't did a finish with you. There's all this heat out of the beat. Telling us we don't belong. It's gonna be along from summer till now on. Up, up, up, up, up, up,

up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up. You're listening to the International Gay and Lesbian Radio Magazine. Inside out with Lucia Chappelle and Greg Gordon. As part of our folklore and our history, there are many versions of the Stonewall story. One part of the folklore is that it was in fact the frivolous people, the drag queens, that were the foundation of the Stonewall uprising. Many people of color were part of the rioters in Stonewall. And that's not brought out too often, unfortunately. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Those are the invisible people. And if you thought that dancing or that having a good time was not a real political expression, we're gonna hear a little something now about how dancing can be political,

at least if you're at Disneyland. On February 25th, this year, three gay university of California Los Angeles students filed suit against Disneyland for not allowing them to slow dance at the Magic Kingdom on April 11th, 1987. Christopher Drake, 23, Eric Hubert, 20, and Jeffrey Stabil, 21, all of West Los Angeles, were told by Disneyland security officers that slow dancing was reserved for heterosexual couples only. The three are suing for damages and to obtain a permanent injunction, barring the amusement park from discriminating in their policies. In

1984, an Orange County Superior Court Judge ruled in X -Liv versus Disneyland that the park violated the Unruve Civil Rights Act by ejecting myself and Sean Elliott from Disneyland after fast dancing together. The judge also granted a permanent injunction, barring Disney from enforcing their no -same -sex dance policy. In 1985, the park voluntarily dropped its 28 -year -old ban. Inside out, talked with Christopher Drake, one of the plaintiffs in the latest suit. We asked him whether or not he was surprised when security officers stopped him and his friends from slow dancing together. Oh, certainly. We were knowing full well about the previous court case. We had expected that there would be no reason that we would have to worry about something stopped or anything. We're fighting for the injunction against Disneyland to show Disneyland as well as other businesses of all kinds. That you can't just walk all over some of these

civil rights because they're doing something that you don't particularly agree with. Activist Lee Roy Walker, a private Los Angeles attorney, is handling the case in conjunction with Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund of New York. It's very simple what we're trying to accomplish. I think that the goals are very basic, that gay people have a right to express their basic being. I can't think of anything more complicated or complex to say to that in terms of why this has all come to be. We believe there's law on the books, along with other appellate decisions in the state of California. That the unruised civil rights act has been violated. And we also, I believe fortunately, have the law particularly on our side because this particular defendant has already been challenged on

discriminatory behavior in terms of who can dance with who. And they lost. And I think that gives us extra ammunition to make sure this time around that the win is permanent. When Inside Out contacted the office of Bob Roth, director for Public Relations at Disneyland, we were told by his secretary, quote, he's in a meeting, but will be more than happy to call you back. Unquote. Roth never did return our phone call. For Inside Out, this has been Andrew Roth's ex -loat. And this has been the story. My name is Charles Stewart, formerly co -chair

of the National Association of Black and White Men together. And now acting Chief of Staff to California State Senator Diane Watson. In the last few days of February, I was present at a rather unique gathering of lesbians and gay men. It lasted an entire weekend, was held on what was once a plantation in the hills of Virginia, and was billed as a war conference. It cost $180 to go, not counting transportation, and admission was by invitation only. Although it was run with a drill sergeant's attention to detail and scheduling, the conference had no substantive agenda, and was expected to produce no specific result. Yet 175 people came. The chief enticement for attendance was the guest list, a veritable who's who of the lesbian and gay movement in America. Elected officials, executive directors, co -chairs, and even a sprinkling of gay millionaires converged on the 200 -acre retreat known as Early House. They came,

we came, to begin to put our gay house in order. We came to strategize, to figure out how best to organize our defense against growing homophobia and against AIDS. Through a series of simultaneous, small group sessions, recommendations were hermit out for how the lesbian and gay movement ought to move. There were five areas of concentration, getting the government and the law off our backs and at our side. Silence equals death, what to do about closeted gays and lesbians. The need for national emergency response system. Using the media and last but never least, money as the ammunition in our war of liberation. The sessions were intense, the idea is mostly good, a few brilliant. Working under pressure is one of the things our leadership, like any good leadership, has learned to do well. The agreed upon recommendations were for. First,

a national media campaign must be waged to change people's concepts about homosexuality and their attitudes toward gay people. Secondly, a proposal by the street action AIDS group, Act Up New York, was endorsed. To erect a national network to mobilize lesbians and gays for political action on short notice. There would be letter writing campaigns, phone call -ins, and marches to respond to anti -gay political action throughout the nation. Thirdly, an annual conference of lesbian and gay activists was seen as a necessity. And finally, October 11th has been tentatively identified as a national coming out day. Since there is no single organization to implement any of the recommendations or strategies approved, the results of this first war conference can't really be gaged by the formal resolutions adopted. The real success of the conference was in the fact that for

brief period, nearly 200 lesbian and gay activists came and worked together to define and resolve the issues which impact our lives. Reporting for Inside Out, this is Charles Stewart. Thank you, Charles. We're sitting in the California State Senator Diane Watson's office as you provided that report. One of the things I noticed that was absent from your report, but we should talk about was the absence of a significant contingent of lesbians and gay men of color. The planners of the conference made it clear that the planning was done rapidly and it was done to some extent, have hazardly, that they did the best that they could under the circumstances. And I believe that for the most part they did, I certainly don't believe there was any intentional under representation of minorities. Some black lesbian and gay leaders did boycott the conference because they felt that this conference was likely to be a reflection of the general omission of people of color throughout the

lesbian and gay movement. And they were saying in essence that we lesbians and gays of color have got to stop standing up with Anglo lesbians and gays and pretending that we are a single movement when in fact we are not treated as such within the context of the lesbian and gay movement and it is time for us to recognize and deal with that reality. I guess I wasn't in that place and so I went to the conference and once I was there, I guess that I discovered that they were accurate. During the course of the conference, we tried to bring some of these issues up. Some members, a number of members of the conference were responsive, others were impatient. Some simply felt that they had heard it all and seen it all too many times and they didn't want to deal with it and chose not to do so. My own conclusions about it frankly were that a clear signal was

sent by the activists of the movement, by those at least were represented at the war conference, to people of color that the issues of people of color are not and cannot be expected to be priority issues in the context of the lesbian and gay movement. Lesbians and gay activists are terribly busy people, terribly committed people, people who work very, very hard with very few resources to accomplish a great deal in a variety of fronts and short amounts of time. There are always going to be some things that don't get done. Inclusion of people of color is usually one of those things. It doesn't mean it wasn't on the agenda. It just means that it was always item number 26 on a to -do list where people, where activists never get beyond item number 25. And that is a fact that creates a responsibility for lesbians and gays of color to recognize and to deal with. And to set our priorities so that

our objectives and our concerns and our needs get addressed regardless of that agenda. It is really about taking responsibility for ourselves. One final question, Charles. Is this the kind of conference where people are enthusiastic and sort of anticipatory and there's high energy at the gathering and then people go back home and very little lasting concrete things are going to happen as a result of this highly energetic gathering? Am I being a sinner? I don't want to take responsibility for making that kind of assertion. There was a lot of high energy. There were some good feelings I think that the conference ended on a basically positive note. I think that what you will certainly have happening and what is in fact happening is lots of individuals talking, lots of other individuals about some of the issues and the ideas and the strategies and the methodologies that were talked about at the conference. And those ideas can be shared and some people in some

cities will I think in fact begin to try to carry out some of those ideas. That was Los Angeles activist Charles Stewart, a participant at the war conference held in Virginia. And you know we should so far there have been two dates mentioned on this program on June 1st, clause 29 becomes effective in the United Kingdom and as Robin Tyler suggested we should all be out demonstrating a British consulate near you. And now October 11th last year was the National March on Washington for lesbian and gay rights. No coincidence that the war conference chose that this year for the national coming out day and there's a third date. Especially for those of you in the Midwest, you might want to know all about April 30th inside out. It's very weak has the story last year in September violence erupted in Dubuque, Iowa as a march for gay and lesbian rights took place in the Iowa community. This year's March is sponsored by the National Organization for Women Friends of Lesbian and Gays. Now flag, Jenny Lins tells what happened at last year's event. We gathered at the

park at noon and soon it was real apparent that we were going to be largely outnumbered by harassers. During our entire rally, which we had first, we were shouted at, takes for a thrown at us, the police did nothing. We were very frightened. We had planned that each one of us would be up on the podium separately speaking and we soon realized that we needed a lot more support than that. All of the speakers and a few of the other people went up on the podium to lend support to the people who were speaking. As we marched then after the rally, the hecklers followed us and harassed us through things at us and the police did nothing at that point either. They were there, but they took no opportunity to approach any of the harassers and didn't even respond to us when we just stood to them that they should be closer to us. Dubuque Iowa March Organizer Jenny Lins. This year's event is planned for one o 'clock in the afternoon at Washington Park in Dubuque Iowa on Saturday, April 30th. From what March Organizers tell

us, there will be many more than 75 people who braved last year's onslaught of eggs and debris. For Inside Out, I'm Barry Wick. In the coming weeks on Inside Out, a conversation with Bo's Hadley, the author of Conversations with My Elders, about closeted gays in Old Hollywood. Conservative California Republicans want to close down a Los Angeles High School gay counseling program. And how the death of Mayor Harold Washington has affected Chicago's lesbian and gay community. This week, Tim Richardson, Andrew Eczler, and Barry Wick contributed feature material. Reflex performed the politics of dancing and the Tom Robinson band performed Long Hot Summer. Kim Wilson composed and performed our theme music. Distribution made possible by a Chicago Resource Center grant.

Initial development funding came from Resist and National Community Funds, The Funding Exchange. Inside Out is produced by Greg Gordon and Lucia Chappelle. We thank you for listening and for supporting this local public radio station. Stay tuned! Thanks for watching!