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75e WHERE SOLD
PLEASE RECYCLE
S O U T HERN
Arrests
Queer Nationals
were arrested again June 30
and Cracker Barrel was
none too nice about it 2
Prison
Poison's
prison-based segment is full
of repression and eroticism.
11
AIDS
The world’s poor
were the focus of last
month’s International AIDS
Conference. 21
Pride '91: Queers Take Peachtree
by Debbie Fraker
Record numbers of gay men and lesbians flooded
Peachtree Street and Piedmont Park for the 1991
Lesbian/Gay Pride Celebration. With over 10,000 chant
ing "Queers Take Peachtree," Sunday’s Pride Parade was
the largest in the 20 year history of Pride in Atlanta. After
the march, an estimated 30,000 people collected in the
park for speeches, entertainment, and shopping at the
Artists' Market. On Saturday, thousands stayed the day to
enjoy the entertainment and shop at the Artists' Market
"When I walked into the park and saw all the thou
sands of people, I knew we'd done it" said Pride organizer
Shelly Robbins. "There's nothing to compare to the feel
ing I know all of us on the committee had in how success
ful and positive the whole event was."
The parade stretched for 15 blocks and featured a little
bit of everything: several drag floats, horseback riders,
the outrageous hats of the Digging Dykes of Decatur, a
flag-spinning team called Six Flags and a Babe, faeries,
leathermen and women, as well as what the AJIC called
"more ordinary-looking men and women in shorts and
brush haircuts." At the rally, trophies were given to the
winners of the float contest: 1st place to the Bar Owners
Association, 2nd to Backstreet, 3rd to the Armory, and a
special award for originality to the Digging Dykes.
The only problems came when the parade reached the
churches between 4th and 5th Streets. Marchers near the
front of the parade who were passing out red and pink car
nations (thanks Ansley Coles) had mixed receptions from
the church-goers they encountered. In front of the
Lutheran Church one lesbian was grabbed roughly on the
arm by a man who told her to "get your goddam ass out of
here." In front of First Baptist Church, another lesbian
approached a group of girls who promptly ran for protec
tion. A man carrying a Bible told two women who offered
him carnations that he was afraid of getting AIDS if he
took the flowers. Few congregants were near Peachtree
Street as the march went by, however, because both
churches had let their congregations go a few minutes ear
lier to avoid confrontations.
The first marchers turned the comer at 10th and
Peachtree chanting "we're here, we're queer, we ain't goin'
shopping!" At the end of the parade, many who had
watched along Peachtree and on 10th joined the marchers
to walk into the park.
During the afternoon's program, emcees Lea DeLaria
and Rick Mitchell kept the crowd entertained between
speeches, though most of the politicos were mercifully
brief and often witty. Dale McCormick, an openly lesbian
state senator, encouraged the crowd to get involved with
the story of her campaign victory in a rural district of
Maine. The crowd vigorously applauded DeKalb
Commissioner Sherry Sutton's words of caution about
politicians who "talk the talk but don't walk the walk,” and
delighted in seeing HRCF Southeastern Representative
Cathy Woolard escorted on stage in handcuffs by one of
the attractive policewomen on hand for the event. In
between speakers, three proposals of marriage were made
over the course of the afternoon, through the emcees.
Sunday afternoon's entertainment, in addition to wise
cracks from emcee DeLaria, included acoustic guitar
played with talent and aplomb by Angela Motter and sen
suous dance by Jim Chappeleaux. DeLaria rounded out
her participation in the day’s entertainment with a tireless
performance in the evening of music and comedy.
A Lesbian/Gay Pride event could not be complete
without the lip-synching camp of drag queens or the smell
of leather. Sunday evening's sunshine cooled as the
remaining crowd settled in for drag shows emceed by MP
Breslin and Wes Decker, Ms. and Mr. Southeastern
Leather. The Armorettes brought the audience to their
feet, everyone holding hands in the air, swaying and
See page 5
An Independence Day Salute to
Gays in the Military
by Steven N. Alper
The twenty-five year old man refused to give his name
as he squinted uncomfortably at the camera. "I'm sure that
if someone recognized my face, like from that camera,
there'd be a lot of trouble. But it's worth it. The rule is
stupid. I was overseas for eight months. We went over
there to defend the rights of the Kuwaitis and we don't
even have our own rights here."
The young man was part of a June 15 march of 100 men
and women against the Norfolk Naval Station. The march,
organized by the Hampton Roads Lesbian and Gay Pride
Coalition, was to honor the gay troops who served in the
Persian Gulf. Gay Pride and Independence Day celebra
tions following Operation Desert Storm both frame the
dilemma that gay service persons face in serving in the
U.S. armed forces, and set the stage for the struggle to
change Department of Defense policy excluding gays
from military service.
For the gay men, lesbians and bisexuals who choose
to serve in the armed forces there is the potential threat of
humiliation, loss of livelihood, punitive demands for reim
bursement of tuition costs and scholarships, imprisonment
and less than honorable discharges upon discovery. Those
who serve also face the daily hardship of remaining tightly
closeted in a highly homophobic institution. But many gay
people continue to choose military service, revealing a
patriotism so strong it withstands all the hardships the
Department of Defense can throw at it. The long fought
legal cases of Leonard Matlovich, Miriam Ben-Shalom
and Perry Watkins, all discharged from the military for
being gay, are testimony to the patriotism felt by many
gay people. And there are young gay people who continue
to struggle with the same discrimination within the institu
tion they have chosen to serve.
"I wanted to be a soldier. That's all I ever wanted to be.
You're looking at what should be a third generation sol
dier," stated Tracy Timmons as she shared her story at the
march on the Norfolk Naval Station. Timmons was in her
second year of an ROTC program when she was asked
whether she had ever "intended or desired" to have sex
with a member of the same sex. She answered truthfully
and was discharged from the program. For Timmons, "The
Army was my life, my community, my support. The Army
was the only life I knew. Being thrown out from the only
institution you've ever known, being ostracized by the
only community you've ever known, is a devastating
occurrence."
Kit Kling, co-president of the Lesbian, Gay and
Bisexual Veterans of America, joined the Army in 1972,
during the Vietnam War. In testimony to the US House, of
Representatives, Committee on Veteran's Affairs on May 3
of this year, she related that although she did not support
the war and was exempt from the draft because she was
female, she "felt a strong sense of obligation and duty to
aid my country in some small way." She also recognized
"the military would afford me the best opportunity for job
training and job skills." However, Kling quickly discov-
Evett Bennett
A veteran expresses her feelings about the military's poli
cy on exclusion of gays in Atlanta's '91 Gay and Lesbian
Pride march.
See page 9