Newspaper Page Text
Archbishop Opens Church
fioiGays
Atlanta - Catholic Arch
bishop Donellon has agreed
to allow Dignity/Atlanta to
use ch urch facilities.
Dignity’s short lived
banishment from use of
church facilities ended
amicably. The Archbishop
dso formally appropriated
Father Joe Cavdlo and
Henry Gracz as chaplains to
Dignity/Atlanta.
Dignity President Frank
Scheuren toid members that
“this permission to meet
cannot be taken as kind of
official backing for the
group but is a giant step in
the right direction.”
Scheuren also an
nounced that
Dignity/Atlanta would host
the next Eastern Regional
meeting of Dignity and
would co-host a seminar by
Father John McNeill S.J.
with MCC/Atlanta.
•Metropolitan Community
Church and Dignity of
Atlanta co-sponsored the
three-day seminar on
homosexuality and Christian
ethics on September 17-19..
The seminar was conducted
by Fr. John McNeill, S.J.,
the renowned Roman
Chtholic moral theologian
and author of the newly-
teleased book, The Church
and the Homosexual.
Told by the Superior
General of the Jesuits in
1974 to stop writing and
lecturing on the subject
until his teachings could be
hvestigated, McNeill was
finally allowed to publish
Ws' book, which he hopes
will help overcome “the
myths, stereotypes and
prejudices” that exist
among Christians toward
homosexuality.
Since Father McNeill’s
first articles on
tomosexuality appeared in
1970, his work has been the
center of intense and
not only the questions
raised by that controversy,
but provides the results of
years, of research on the
position and role of the
homosexual in the structure
and ethics of the Christian
community.
Buttressed by the latest
psychological research and
an encompassing grasp of
ethics, this work creates a
new, compassionate view of
the homosexual and his
relationship to God, Church
aid fellow humans. Father
McNeill's is a compelling
|iea for the acceptance of
the news monthly
for southern gays
OCTOBER 1976
NATIONAL NOTES
Hither John McNeill, S.J. at Dignity/Atlanta spon
sored reception for Atlanta Media Reporters.
widespread controversy.
The publication of THE
CHURCH AND THE
HOMOSEXUAL answers
TV’s Family Hour
Excludes
Atlanta - Despite gay
characters in two proposed
fall TV shows, Television’s
controversial ‘‘Family
Mewing” hour still excludes
any mention of gay people
or lesbians. Ginny Vida,
NGTF(National Gay Task
Fbrce) Media Director told
the U. S. House of
Representatives Sub
committee on Com
munications, that
“American families;...and
American children; have
the right to know that we
(gay) people exist.” In a
NGTF news release Ms.
Vida noted that the
equaling of homosexuality
with sex and violence on
TV stems in part from
BEueboy Forum
Makes Debut
what is not an aberration of
human behavior, but
merely one portion in the
spectrum of humanness.
Gay people are the only
group in America which
emerged from total media
invisibility into total media
abuse. Until recently, on
television, there definitely
were no lesbians. And
then the big breakthrough
came. There were lesbians
and it wasn’t a joke. We
were permitted to make our
television debuts as the
brutal rapists of pitiable
young girls, as the hear
tless killers of dear, sweet
ladies in an old-folks home.
No wonder, that parents
think we’re violent, con-
adering the stuff they’ve
been served up in“adult”
we wing hours.
The truth is that pic
tures of two homosexuals -
two women or two men -
Continued on Page 7
NEW YORK - In response
to repeated attacks on
homosexual men in New
York City by gangs of local
jouths, a group of gay men
has formed the Society to
Mike America Safe for
Homosexuals - SMASH.
The head of the group said
that the police and other
gay groups have failed to
take action against the
gangs and the group was
formed “solely as self
protection.”
SAN FRANCISCO - Fr.
Malcolm Boyd, Episcopal
priest and best-selling
author of Are You Running
With Me, Jesus and other
books, identified himself as
a gay person as he gave
the keynote address at
Integrity’s second national
convention. Integrity is the
gay Episcopalian
organization.
COLUMBIA, MO. - A
federal judge has ruled that
the University of ^Missouri
at Columbia has the right
to withhold official
recognition from the
campus gay group* The
judge ruled that the
Ihiversity of Missouri Gay
Liberation organization
would bring about
“association that is likely to
incite, promote and result
in acts contrart and in
\iolation to the sodomy
statute of the state of
Mssouri.”
NEW YORK - A Jesuit
priest, who says he waited
two years before obtaining
permission from his
superiors, has published a
book critical of traditional
Catholic teachings on
homosexuality. j Tne new
book is “The Church and
the Homosexual”, by the
Rev. John J. McNeill, S.J.
Father McNeill who admits
to being a celibate
homosexual disputes church
teaching that homosexuality
is a deviation from God’s
Ginny Vida,
Director
NGTF Media
creative plan and therefore
sinful.
NEW JERSEY - The
Judiciary Committee of the
State Assembly released a
revised state penal code
which would decriminalize
private sexual acts between
consenting-persons over the
age of sixteen. The bill
must pass both the
Assembly and the Senate,
be signed by the Governor
and wait a year before
becoming effective.
Meanwhile, a New Jersey
judge has ruled in the
state’s supreme court that a
private consensual act of
fellatio committed in a
parked vehicle at a highway
rest area does not violate
the public lewdness statute
as the persons involved
aren’t likely to be seen.
CALIFORNIA - S. I,
Hay aka wa, the Republican
hying to unseat incumbent
U.S. Senator John Tunney
(D-CA) made his position
clear on gay rights. A
woman at a meeting of
Republican women asked
Hayakawa asked how he
felt about laws dealing with
public morality. “I am
deeply, deeply prejudiced
against homosexuality,”
Hayakawa said. Sen.
TUnney has said that he
supports gay rights.
NORFOLK, VA. - The
Navy’s chief of naval
personnel says it recently
tried to give an “objective”
bok at having gay sailors,
but only reaffirmed its
lance that the seas are for
heterosexuals. The Navy’s
personnel chief said here
that the service could not
be effective with gay
personnel. “We feel very
strongly about it,” he said.
MICHIGAN - Rape, ex
tortion, personal abuse and
homicides resulting from
romantic triangles are
pastimes that are rarely
attributed to the
Mtropolitan Community
Church, but the Michigan
Corrections Commission
said that such fates would
befall inmates of Southern
Michigan Prison if the
NCC were allowed to hold
services there. The MCC
may take the corrections
commission to court if they
continue to refuse the
church a right to worship
there.
UIS ANGELES - A UCLA
study, published in
HUMAN BEHAVIOR
magazine has concluded
that young children of
lesbian mothers do not
develop the “deviant
traits” that judges have
been warned about in
recent court battles that
have often been settled by
depriving lesbian mothers
cf custody. The study is
the first of its kind and one
that could give defenders of
lesbian mothers some solid
psychological evidence in
court battles. The
researchers based their
findings on interviews and
tests conducted on twenty
Los Angeles area children,
iged five to twelve, all of
whom have lesbian
mothers.
NEW YORK - Psychology
Today has concluded that
homosexual men and
women are no more happy
or unhappy than straight
men and women. A poll of
over 50,000 readers of the
magazine resulted in that
conclusion according to the
editors of the leading
magazine on psychology.
HEAVENWORTH, KS. - 20
to 25 members of the
National Coalition of Gay
Activists demonstrated at
the US Federal Penitentiary
here to protest the refusal
cf prison officials to allow
inmates to receive gay
publications, despite the
removal of restrictions on
such mailings by the
Federal Bureau of Prisons.
violent portrayals of gays in
“adult” viewing hours.
SOUTHERN SHORTS
Miami: The first regularly
scnectuied, commercially
sponsored television show
in the United States,
prepared by and for
members of the gay
(Dmmunity, makes its debut
October 25 on WKID-TV,
Channel 51 (UHF) in
Miami. It will be entitled
“Blueboy Forum” and its
host will be Don Embinder,
publisher of the nationally
distributed gay magazine,
Bheboy. Brian Weidikind
is the producer.
Although Blueboy
magazine is directed
sexclusively to gay men,
Blueboy Forum will also be
drected to, and involve
participation by, the lesbian
community in Miami. It is
intended as well to inform
members of the
heterosexual community
about gay concerns and
lifestyles.
The show will feature
invited guests from around
foe country, and Embinder
has already begun efforts to
syndicate the show
nationally. There are
presently 29 weekly gay
radio shows in 14 states,
but none on television.,
Tentatively, the first
four Blueboy Forum shows
will involve local political
figures in the Miami area
discussing Florida gay
rights efforts; represen
tatives of .the major
presidential candidates
outlining their stands on
gay issues; an interview
with three female im
personators at the Fon
tainebleau in Miami; and a
talk with a gay
graphologist. Each half-
n>ur program wall also have
Continued on Page 7
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The
District of Columbia Office
cf Human Rights has ruled
that American University
foiled to hire Dr, Louis
Crew, gay activist and
founder of Integrity,
because of “his sex and
sexual orientation.” Dr.
Crew who lives in Fort
Valley, Ga. had applied for
the position of Com
munications Professor at
the school. American
Ihiversity had claimed it
hired a woman instead of
Qew “to be in compliance
with its affirmative action
obligations.” However the
director of the Human
Rghts Office rejected that
line of argument and stated
that “the affirmative action
plan seems to have been
conveniently brought into
play when the University
was faced with accepting or
not accepting Crew as the
top choice of the faculty
committees.”
CREENVILLE, S.C. * Dr
Bob Jones IH, president of
the fundamentalist Bob
Jones University, says
Democratic presidential
candidate Jimmv Carter is
an imposter who j represents
himself as a true Christian.
“We have a presidential
candidate who seieks to ride
the gospel train into the
white house be deceiving
gullible Christians with his
talk about being born
again,” Jones said. “All
the while he speaks with a
forked tongue,! receives
large sums of money from
the dope ridden rock
culture and replaces the
Bftde’s teaching against
homosexuality and women’s
Lib with his own contrary
opinions.” Carter has
©me out for civil rights for
homosexuals and for
passage of the ERA.
TALLAHASSEE, FLA. - A
grand jury in Tallahassee
has recommended that
restrooms like file one at
which former i Supreme
Court nominee G. Harold
Carswell was entrapped
recently be dosed down.
After Carswell wits arrested
as a result of meeting an
Undercover vic£ squad
officer at the Northwood
Mall, the comfort station
received a large amount of
publicity. The list straw
came when the Leon
Gbunty grand jury made an
on-site inspection of the
restroom and concluded
that such incidents of
bathroom cruising “indicate
potential harm to the public
health, sanitation, safety,
and morals of the dtizens
cf Leon County.”,
ATLANTA GA. j- A minor
eruption has taken {dace at
the Jimmy j Carter
headquarters in Atlanta and
in tne New York gay
political movement. The
eruption is over Robert
Rygor’s group, Gays for
Chrter. The Chairman of
the New York Citizens
Gbmmittee for Jimmy
Carter believes file group,
as a fund raising entity to
be illegal, because of the
new federal election law
which prohibits any private
©ntributions to a
presidential campaigner.
Gays for Carter will con
tinue its efforts to elect
Garter a spokesman has
said.
JACKSONVILLE, FLA. -
The city’s police chief,
bemoaning the fact that
this city of 500,000 has only
950 police officers, has
called upon dtizens to help
cut police trying to stem
the tide of homosexual
activity “spilling out into
the streets and public
{laces of our city to create
a festering sore of
corruption and crime.”
Sheriff Carson didn’t
suggest what citizens
should do to help out.
ON Tiff COVER
Lady Baronessa, Miss Gay America 1974
gives the lithe and crown ef Mr. Gay
America to Richard Conway. SEE PAGE 4
AND 10 for a fall report on this exciting
event.