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K. Watts and her partner cut a beautiful rug at Pride Prom ’89 on June 17. As the kick-off event for Lesbian and Gay Pride
Week, the prom drew more than 250 people to the Inman Park Trolley Barn. The Pride March and Rally is scheduled for Sat.,
June 24. Thousands of lesbians and gay men are expected to attend the all-day event See the Pride ad on page 5 for details.
PRIDE WEEK IS HERE! LET YOUR PRIDE SHOW!
Three Years after Hardwick:
Nation Revitalized, Refocused
for Sodomy Law Challenges
Part 1 of a 2-part Series
Washington, D.C.-In shades of purple, pink and lavender, the map
is sectioned off. Reminiscent of pre-Civil War maps of the U.S., the
country is divided into a nation of "free" and "unfree" states.
But the freedom to which this map refers is much more shrouded
than what one would normally expect The freedom involved here is
the freedom to engage in certain sex acts with consenting partners
behind closed doors.
Hardly the stuff that inspires civil wars.
But in a sense, there is one going on now. And the battle lines have
been drawn.
As with many wars, the present confrontation began with a crushing
defeat. The "massacre" in this melee took place on June 30,1986,
when the U.S. Supreme Court voted 54 in the landmark Hardwick v.
Bowers decision and, in doing so, upheld the right of the state of
Georgia-and hence the right of all states-to declare gay and lesbian sex
illegal.
Actually, Georgia calls it sodomy. Others call it "lewd and
lascivious behavior" (Florida), a "crime against nature" (several),
"sodomy and buggery" (Massachusetts), "sexual psychopathic
behavior" (Washington D.C.), "unnatural intercourse" (Mississippi),
"deviant sexual conduct" (Montana), "unnatural or perverted sexual
practice" (Maryland), or, as was the case in North Carolina, the
"detestable and abominable crime against nature." (The state has since
trimmed down the name, but not the statute.)
In some states it is a misdemeanor; in others, a felony. In many, it is
directed specifically towards gay and lesbian sex; and in some, it
extends to many forms of heterosexual sex as well.
•O-ASIU
HAWAII
VsW/ffl'A H«*ro»c.xuaJ and homoKxual sodomy law
j Homosexual sodomy law only
J No sodomy law (fret suit)
And in all 25 "unfree" states and the District of Columbia, the laws
make unconvicted criminals of all sexually active lesbians and gay
mea
"The Supreme Court dealt us a very serious blow with the Hardwick
decision," states Sue Hyde, Privacy Project director for the National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washingtoa "The Hardwick decision
now is cited over and over again, not just in court cases, but in the
legislative arena as justification and rationale for denying us basic civil
rights. The Hardwick decision is cited in every one of the military
cases. The Hardwick decision was cited by the New Hampshire state
legislature what they pass their... foster care law... as justification for
denying lesbians and gay men the option to be foster parents in the
state. Over and over, that decision is cited as justification for denying
us basic civil rights. [It] would be wonderful if the Supreme Court
reviewed the Hardwick case and decided that they had erred."
But it it at all likely that will ever happen?
She takes a drag on her cigarette, leans forward and calmly shoots
back: "Would snowballs survive in hell?"
Cont'd on Page 3
Before and
After Stonewall
Part 3 of a 3-part Series
This series of three articles is a celebration of
the 20th anniversary cf Stonewall, the 1969
rebellion that changed forever the way
lesbians and gays would see themselves. The
theme for this year's gay and lesbian pride
celebration is Stonewall: Reasons to
remember. We have a lot to remember, a lot to
be angry about, a lot to cry about and a lot to
give thanks for. Within this series, which spans
pre-1940 until the present, we hope you will
learn something you didn't know about your
history - the history of being gay in America.
The battle of Stonewall was begun by gay
spirits who, never having had a closet to begin
with, were "out" from the start. The
Stonewall Inn was - to be blunt - a dive, a
dance bar whose clients were fast-living
Village street people, far-out cross dressers,
acid heads, ultra-macho lesbians, groups of
young screaming queens who traveled in
packs for security-a highly visible crowd for
whom shocking the onlookers was often the
main thrill. At first, they turned the raid into a
camp happening. It got out of hand, and the
next two days changed history. No one
knows quite why. It was the right time.
The national mushrooming of gay and
lesbian liberation groups and activities in the
wake of the Stonewalls riots could not have
happened in the 1950's, when McCarthyism
stalked the country and non-conformity of
every description was snuffed out under the
pretext that it was a threat to "national
security." It took the Civil Rights movement
to dramatize the fact that, if mainstream
America is in the wrong, not only is it
possible, but also right for those who are
wronged to fight back and to change it
From the counterculture movement, from
the New Left and the opponents of the war in
Vietnam, we gained not only some effective
political action techniques, but new recruits
already committed to an oppositional stance
toward authority-young gay radicals ready to
carry banners and have themselves
deliberately arrested because they were
already politically disaffected and proud of
their opposition on principle to corruption and
oppressioa As with the street queens at
Stonewall, appearing respectable was not part
of their agendas.
Within the new-born gay liberation
movement itself, fragmentation-as it has done
in virtually every major historical movement
since time began-almost immediately began
to divide the participants along factional lines.
In New York, which for better or worse still
sets the trend for the rest of the nation, many
of the activists had to decide between what
was best for the movement and what seemed
best for them and their own organizations.
Cont'd on Page 5