Newspaper Page Text
Tough Choices
For many gays and lesbians,
the holiday season brings
the stress of deciding with
whom to spend their time.
Tips on how to take
care of yourself. 4
Southern
Gay Games ’90
Atlanta athletes are prepar
ing for the Gay Games in
August. Participants and
spectators are urged to
start making plans now for
Vancouver. -j ^
Outlines
In this issue, "Outlines",
our people column, visits
with your average
American lesbian family.
18
Process to Implement Jackson's Gay Platform Hasn't Yet Materialized
by Wendy Morse
Although mayor-elect Maynard Jackson
has promised to implement a detailed plat
form for the gay and lesbian community, a
concrete process for doing so has not materi
alized to date.
At a September 13 community reception,
Jackson said, "[The] first thing we need to do
is make sure that the transition task force's
Committee on Lesbian and Gay Concerns is
in place." No such group was ever formed.
A group composed of transition team
members who are gay and lesbian has, how
ever, met twice since the October 3 election.
Although group members call themselves Gay
and Lesbian Atlantans for Maynard
(GALAM), they have no official standing
with the new administration's transition task
force and are not recognized as a separate
committee.
According to GALAM member Jeffrey
Laymon, his group's main purpose is to
ensure that all 43 points of Jackson's gay and
lesbian platform are included in the transition
team's final recommendations. Laymon told
Southern Voice that members of GALAM
meet in order to identify those platform issues
that come under the jurisdiction of their vari
ous committees and ensure that all points are
covered.
However, according to Bill Liss of ABC
Management Company, the private manage
ment consulting firm directing the transition
team task force, the gay/lesbian platform
agenda will be addressed by the Higher
Quality of Life Committee. Three GALAM
members are assigned to that committee,
which is one of 10 committees that comprise
the task force.
GALAM members first met November 1,
three weeks after the transition process began,
to divide among themselves responsibility for
the various points on Jackson's gay/lesbian
agenda. The group's facilitators cited over
work and uncertainty about the process as rea
sons for making the assignments so late.
"This is a lot of work," said Jeffrey
Laymon. "We're asked to do a tremendous
amount of work in a very short time, [but] it's
very rewarding. When all of these things are
effected, things will have changed for the City
of Atlanta. It will be an all-inclusive city, and
not many of those exist"
Although all 10 task force committees
include one or more GALAM members, those
members were not assigned to their positions
specifically to work on gay and lesbian issues.
According to Peter White, HI, Jackson's cam
paign liaison to the gay and lesbian communi
ty, it is important that gay and lesbian
appointees to the transition team work on
issues that apply to all Atlantans as well as
issues specific to the gay/lesbian community.
An attempt to discover specific examples
of the group’s progress was thwarted when
Southern Voice was asked to leave GALAM's
second meeting on November 15. When
asked why the gay press was not allowed to
attend the meeting, Laymon said, "We don’t
Cont'd. on page 13
San Francisco Says No
to Domestic Partners
by Phillip Matier and Michele DeRanleau
A narrow majority of San Francisco voters handed the gay
community a major political setback by rejecting a law that
would have made the city the first in the nation to legitimize
gay relatioaships.
Proposition S, a referendum on the city's new domestic
partners law, was turned down November 7 by a tight 50.5
percent to 49.5 percent margin. "There is no way we can put a
happy face on this one," said lesbian activist Pam David.
Both sides turned up the burners in the final days of the
campaign, resulting in a record number of voters—more than
44 percent of the city's electorate—going to the polls in the off-
year electioa
Had Prop. S won, unmarried couples would have been
allowed to register their partnerships just like couples filing for
marriage licenses, something that was vigorously opposed by
the Catholic Archdiocese.
The measure would have allowed unmarried couples city
hospital visitation rights that now apply only to immediate
family members. The law also called for a task force to study
the first steps in eventually extending health insurance to part
ners of city workers.
Diocese spokesman Father Robert McElroy said he was
happy that the campaign "took place without homophobia,"
something gay activists have been charging their opponents
with throughout the campaign.
For years, San Francisco's gays have enjoyed a high degree
of political clout at City Hall. The president of the Board of
Cont'd. on page 12
ROGER RUTHERFORD
"REMEMBERING ROGER"
An exhibition and sale of the late Roger Rutherford's work is scheduled at BumNoff Gallery December 9-16. Popular
for his nude photography, both graphically erotic and artistic, the native Atlantan enjoyed exhibitions of his work in New
York, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Frankfurt, Germany. Proceeds from sales will go
to NAPWA /Atlanta and Project Open Hand.
Writer Dave Hayward will examine Rutherford's work in the December 7 issue of Southern Voice. Pictured: "Dancer"