Crisis in
Cincinnati
Anti-Gay Discrimination Legalized in America
What You Can Do To Help
by Michael Blankenship, 11/1/98
Due to the recent U.S. Supreme Court in-decision, refusing to hear the case of Cincinnati's 1993 Issue 3 referendum, discrimination against gays and lesbians has become a legal option for employers, landlords, and service providers throughout the city of Cincinnati. As Cincinnati's gay community struggles to devise a plan of action, and attempts to convince the voters to repeal the five year old initiative, it is clear that this is not simply a local problem, but a national emergency. It is also clear that a way must be devised to allow people across the country and around the world to participate in a resistance effort, to demonstrate that discrimination is wrong, that bigotry is bad business, and that legal excuses made in one locale will not be accepted in the world-wide marketplace.
Concerned individuals and activists must first realize, however, that because we here in Cincinnati will be attempting a repeal effort, we must be able to win the hearts and minds of the voters. This may be an impossible task, but the effort must be made, or our own beliefs in freedom, equality, and human reason will be no better than those of our opponents.
Those who care about these values can demonstrate their concern in a number of ways:
1. Make plans to come to Cincinnati to participate in events coordinated by the local repeal campaign. We need to show the hotel and hospitality industry that gays and lesbians are a lucrative market to those who are willing to accept us. Watch this website for announcements of future events, postings of friendly and unfriendly hotels and restaurants in the Cincinnati area, and other details of the repeal effort. Just as northern activists went south in the sixties to help out with "Freedom Summer", we need to generate an impressive influx of progressive minds to the Queen City to achieve our own "Change of Seasons".
2. Do not engage in a blanket boycott against the City. Allow our opponents to show themselves, and let us target them accordingly. Some will stand out automatically; such as the CINTAS uniform manufacturer of RICHARD FARMER, and the CHIQUITA, AMERICAN FINANCIAL, and UNITED DAIRY FARMERS corporations of CARL LINDNER. Some people will always be thorns in the side of gay equality, but we must first allow Businesses the chance to affirm their belief in equal rights and opportunity for all through participation in our educational and economic campaigns. Those Businesses who refuse to accept the idea of gay equality, and who steadfastly defend their special right to discriminate, can then experience the results of their actions.
3. Help us to spread the word about what has happened here, and to convince the people of Cincinnati that they risk the future well-being of their city if they allow the targeted discrimination of gay citizens to continue. While we are not calling for a blanket boycott of the city, we must make it clear that "business as usual" in a city that allows such discrimination will not be tolerated by the larger marketplace. Those businesses, unions, or organizations thinking of holding their conventions here, unless they are planning on making a special point of addressing the topic, and speaking out against discrimination, should plan on meeting someplace else. Those organizations who are as concerned about what the voters have done as we are, and as outraged by the inaction of the Supreme Court as we are, please contact Stonewall Cincinnati (513-651-2500 or quncityswc@aol.com) in order to coordinate your participation in the developing educational and economic campaigns. We look forward to your arrival in Cincinnati.
4. Organize your own city's way to participate in our effort. Just as the murder of a gay student in Wyoming could spark candlelight vigils across the country, so the legalization of anti-gay discrimination in Cincinnati, and its permission to stand by the U.S. Supreme Court, should light flames of resistance in cities around the world. Watch this website for suggestions of actions that may be taken in your city to demonstrate your support for our actions here.
