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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