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PLEASE RECYCLE 75c WHERE SOLD S O U T H E R N March 14-27,1991 Vol.4,No.2 Sex Sabrina Sojourner tells us how she feels about the language of lesbian sexuality. And more. 9 Sweat Working out and pumping up mean more than muscles. Here’s why. 11 Atlanta Lesbian Nominated for an Oscar Building Bomb's co-producer is hard at work on another fdm documenting the dangers of radioactivity by Debbie Fraker Atlantan Susan Robinson and her lover Judy Stribling will be sitting in the audi ence biting their nails when the Academy Awards are presented on March 25. Robinson's fdm Building Bombs, co-pro duced by local fdmmaker Mark Mori, has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Feature Documentary. "Judy and I are going to parade our selves into the Awards arm in arm," said Robinson, "and then we’re going to the Governor’s Ball and dance 'til dawn." Susan's first reaction to being nominat ed for an Academy Award? "What am I going to wear?" Still light-hearted, but on a more serious note she acknowledged that "An Academy Award nomination doth a day make, but not a living. The nomination opens doors, but you still have to depend on what you take through those doors with you." The nomination took Robinson com pletely by surprise. She first heard about it from a neighbor. "We got home from an awful trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras," she related, "and my neighbor called to ask, 'Is it true you got an Academy Award nomination?"' After verifying the rumor, "Judy and I ran around the apartment screaming like we'd won the Publishers Clearing House." Incidentally, word about the nomination came to the couple on Valentine's Day. The Otherside hosted a reception for Susan on February 28 just before she left town for a New York screening of Bombs at the Museum of Modem Art. A reception at Mariel Hemingway's Symphony Cafe hosted by the film's narrator Jane Alexander and actor Tim Robbins fol lowed the screening. Penelope Williams, a friend of Susan's and performer at the Otherside, organized the Atlanta reception and seemed concerned that her party might pale in comparison to its more glamorous Gotham counterpart. But Susan was delighted to be able to spend a comfortable evening celebrating with friends before she left. Five years in the making, Building Bombs —which examines the horrific con ditions inside the Savannah River nuclear plant, where plutonium and tritium for nuclear warheads were produced—was a labor of love and principle. And Robinson, 29 and an environmental activist since age 13, was a natural for the project. She took part in her first protest of the plant at age sixteen. She served as co-producer, direc tor, and writer for the film. The film’s primary impact comes from interviews with two scientists previously employed by the plant. One, Bill Lawless, discusses a report he submitted on the con tamination of the area surrounding the plant. Due to the proximity to the Savannah River, he determined that the contamination could pose a serious threat to an underground water source serving four states. Lawless's report was buried by See Building Bombs, page 17 War Ends, But Plans for Protests Continue by John Zeh Washington—Activists in major coali tions opposing America's ongoing involve ment in the Middle East say they will con tinue their anti-war campaigns to assure a lasting peace despite the Persian Gulf bat tles' "apparent" end. "The war isn't over in the larger sense," said Bonnie Garvin, Campaign for Peace in the Middle East media coordinator. "Yes, it's true there's no more bombing, and there's no ground war anymore," she said. "But we still have troops there for the foreseeable future, and we haven't begun to talk about redirecting (military) money into (Americans') social needs. "Those issues need to be addressed now." Asked if she believes President George Bush will honor his pledge to end contin ued U.S. presence in the Middle East, Garvin said, "Only time will tell. Things change. A year ago, none of us would have assumed we would have been in a war against our 'friend,' Iraq." She acknowledged that because people perceive the war is over and "are glad to be rid of it" organizing activists is difficult. "Everyone is happy and wants to go back and pull the wool over their eyes," Garvin said. At a Campaign strategy session here Feb. 23 when Bush's ultimatum against Iraq's occupation of Kuwait took effect, veteran lesbian organizer and Campaigner Leslie Cagan said the anti-war movement would survive the war's conclusion. "The day-to-day work will go on because our demands transcend the imme diate end to the war," she said. "We want all our troops brought home, no permanent bases in the Middle East. We thinx part of Bush’s strategy is...to end up with a per manent military presence in the Middle East. We don't think that should happen.” "Central to the (February) decision," added Cagan, "is that we are joining with the Coalition to Stop U.S. Intervention in the Middle East, the African-American Religious Summit, and the National African-American Network to work joint ly-" Originally, the Coalition and the Campaign had trouble hooking up, partly because the Coalition had refused to denounce Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and approve U.S. economic sanctions. Cagan's Campaign condemned the takeover, and okayed sanctions except for bans on food and medical supplies. "Once war was a reality," Cagan said of Bush's January 16 declaration, "it influ Leslie Cagan concedes that the move ment's multifaceted post-war struggle is "going to take a little while to win." enced everybody's willingness to work together." At the Campaign's caucus here, 250+ people overwhelmingly okayed local or regional actions on March 16 and a mas sive international mobilization here April 6. Cagan, full-time coordinator of the Campaign and long-time peace-and-justice activist, facilitated the huge rally here Jan. 26 attended by over 75,000 people a week after the separate Coalition drew more than 25,000. "Politics is always difficult," she said. Gulf-war opposition is "still very much in a growing stage, and growth is always dif ficult and painful. Everybody realized we could not have two marches again and that a call for a major mobilization had to be done jointly." Attending the planning session were representatives of groups from California, Indiana, Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Boston, New York, and Iowa. Gay and lesbian support for the reborn peace movement is growing, New York City’s Cagan stressed, "A lot of activists, especially those around the AIDS crisis, are more and more angry that our government seems to have endless amounts of money for war, but not for fighting AIDS." The lively meeting underscored Cagan's feeling that the Campaign has tapped a deeply-rooted pacifist struggle. "There was a sense that we have identified a real base, that there really is an anti-war move ment in this country, and that we're able to put people on the streets in January. What we're faced with now is keeping that base active and expanding it, identifying how we reach out to other people." Cagan praised the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for its anti-war stand. "I would hope that people in leadership positions in different (groups) can under War Tax Resistance Workshop The Atlanta Greens are sponsoring a War Tax Resistance Workshop that will introduce participants to questions regard ing how our federal tax dollars are spent. Sixty-one percent of our federal tax dollars pay for past and present wars. “As the shooting war ends in the Persian Gulf, now is the time for all people of conscience to consider our own complicity in this vio lence,” said Hugh Esco, a member of the work group planning the workshop. “We should ask ourselves, 'Can we end sexism, homophobia, child abuse and relationship violence when the federal government sets the example of diverting our tax dollars from pressing community needs like child care and housing to fund American mili tarism abroad?’” A range of options and their associated risks for people considering resisting war taxes will be discussed. The workshop will be a kickoff of a month long campaign by the Atlanta Greens to challenge people throughout the metro Atlanta area to con sider diverting $1.00 or more from their war taxes to life affirming programs. The workshop will be held Saturday, March 16, from 9a.m. until 4p.m.at the First Iconium Baptist Church, 524 Moreland /We., just south of 1-20. Lunch will be served. Registration is $5. Financial assistance available for those of little means. For more information or to preregister, call the Atlanta Greens at 753-3025. X stand how this war half a world away relates to the concerns of their own con stituents here at home. We think it does, right? What's happening in the Gulf does relate to the reality that there's neither money for AIDS housing, nor education here in this country, but there's money for war."