CAPITAL COVERAGE NEWS SERVICE
media in the public interest
Anti-gay Issue 3 (aka
Article XII) Under Attack
Stonewall Cincinnati Celebrants Seek Body Politic 'Makeover'
at Annual Dinner
By John Zeh
Capital Coverage News Service
CINCINNATI - Stylists from Saks Fifth Avenue offered personal grooming tips to guests at Stonewall Cincinnati's 18th annual dinner here April 8, but veteran human rights attorney Alphonse Gerhardstein want to detail a grand "civil rights makeover" he is helping apply to the faces and closets of anti-gay elements here.
Over 920 Stonewall celebrants were on hand to savor an extravagant multi-media salute to gay arts philanthropist David Herriman, three term-limited City Council leaders, and the group's recent achievements. The grand fundraising gala was held in historic Over-the-Rhine's ornate Music Hall Ballroom, itself the recipient of a recent and long-awaited makeover.
Stonewall board member Norah Salmon and others circulated petitions to formally launch a campaign to repeal the City Charter's anti-gay Article XII, which 64 percent of voters passed as Issue 3 in November 1993. Stonewall's Citizens to Restore Fairness Committee says it needs some 10,000 signatures to place repeal of Article XII on a future ballot.
After the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear attorney Al Gerhardstein's appeal, the law became the only one of its kind in the U.S. It bars municipal protections based on gay, lesbian, or bisexual "orientations, status, conduct, or relationship."
Somehow, rightist religious activists overlooked the transgendered then, nut the measure is "blatantly homophobic, " Gerhardstein charged in his keynote address. He asked the Stonewall audience, "You tell me, does Cincinnati need a civil rights makeover? " The response, of course, was a resounding yes.
A dynamic attorney and prisoner rights advocate, Gerhardstein has been described as "a guy who's spent 24 years suing people with power on behalf of people without power." He was lead counsel for plaintiffs in the fight against Issue 3.
In his talk, he described recent gay-related cases in area courts, including one with Sally and Jane Doe , two women together nine years who sought a simple name-change to symbolize their status as a couple about to raise a child, usually a routine matter. Openly-gay attorney Scott Knox will challenge the magistrate's denial of the couple's application.
His purpose in cases he handles is to prove that "lawyers
have a few weapons left in our arsenal." But, he warned,
"We need laws prohibiting discrimination," and listed
suggestions on how to achieve such political strength:
· continue opening up to larger (non-GLBT) communities
· document discrimination that does exist
· educate the public about hate crimes that happen
· be available to all victims of discrimination and anyone
on the margins of power
· stay politically active.
On Sundays when Gerhardstein teaches a Kennedy Heights church
class for children, he often asks what gives people hope, so
this night he wanted to list why he is hopeful about Cincinnati's
anti-gay predicament:
· Ordinary citizens who do extraordinary acts, like Sally
and Jane
· Groups like Amnesty International, Out Front, Lambda
Legal Defense Fund
· Role models like retired school social worker Kathy
Laufman and teacher Jeff Bixby, co-chairs of GLSEN-Cincinnati,
a group open to all concerned about schools having environments.
· honoree Herriman, and
· Stonewall Cincinnati.
"And you know what?" Gerhardstein concluded, "Stonewall knows how to party."
As if that statement weren't enough to win over his audience, he also proffered a unique presentation on a recent case in a nearby Ohio town, Glover v. Williamsburg School District, where he won reinstatement, back pay, and damages for a gay elementary school teacher. The case set an important national precedent as one of the first rulings holding that discrimination based on sexual orientation violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteen Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
What dramatized his Music Hall talk was a court-room scene from that case he set up on stage, with an opposing witness' role played by victorious teacher Bruce Glover, himself.
But that was not the only drama Stonewall helped direct at its Dinner.
The Queen City's premier gay political action and advocacy group capped its evening of dinner, drink, and entertainment by teasingly unveiling a new logo showing how Stonewall will seek to shed its long-standing moderate-to-conservative image here. "See how the triangle doesn't quite fit the mold," beamed Stonewall co-chair Freeman Durham. "It says, 'Lighten up and get energetic.'"
He announced news that Stonewall soon will move into a more accessible downtown, street-level storefront with space for meetings and parking thanks to Wayne Harris of Spurs bar.
Stonewall honored three City Council members unseated by term-limits - Bobbie Sterne, Tyrone Yates and Roxanne Qualls - for their remarkable commitment to Stonewall's human rights campaigns and contributions to achieve fairness and equality for all Cincinnati citizens. Qualls, now a Fellow at Harvard University, served as the dinner's co-host, along with Enquirer columnist Jim Knippenberg.
Current Councilman and Hamilton County Commissioner candidate Todd Portune was also recognized for his ongoing work. John Cranley, a first-time candidate opposing Rep. Steve Chabot, was also introduced.
Stonewall executive director Doreen Cudnik said the dinner provided a unique opportunity for the region's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities to join supportive politicos and civic leaders to honor human rights and celebrate GLBT achievements.
"This is perhaps the most diverse group ever assembled at a Stonewall Dinner," she said as she showed off representative members of color, one man in a wheelchair, and sisters-in-drag onto the stage.
"The dinner is Stonewall's biggest fundraiser of the year," said Cudnik, "I'm amazed by the dinner committee's efforts to make this year's event the biggest, best, and most memorable dinner yet. It really was a night to remember."
Dinner planners, led by Jeff Thomas and Mary Armor, worked for a high-profile event that would be fun, but also draw attention to Stonewall's renewed effort to educate the community about the need to overturn Article XII.
After a dramatic pipe-and-percussion number by members of a multi-cultural Drums For Peace quintet, the heart of the evening's entertainment was aimed at honoree Herriman, beginning with a video tribute featuring Cincinnati Ballet's Victoria Morgan and Playhouse in the Park's Ed Stern et al.
The salute also included live performances by the harmonic Vocal Point choir from the Cincinnati Men's Chorus and guest diva and popular Key West, FL, nightclub entertainer Randy Roberts singing "It Had to be You." Two Cincinnati Ballet dancers premiered an original, exciting dance piece accompanied by Louis Armstrong's song, "You're the Tops" choreographed by Morgan especially for the event.
Worth Gardner, former Playhouse artistic director and former chair of the University of Cincinnati's CCM Musical Theatre chair, toasted Herriman with a loving tribute for "taking up the torch to lead life (openly gay) as one's life should be lived."
Taking the stage, the white-haired Herriman noted that "fear is a real thing" in a city like Cincinnati where "poisonous fear-darts often infect us from people like (radio's) Dr. Laura (Schlessinger) and (local anti-gay conservative, Issue 3 founder) Phil Burress."
A force in business and arts development here for over 30 years, Herriman said he has friends here who have been together as couples 35 years. "But they do not have the same rights in hospitals' emergency rooms," he said.
"I don't get it. We are supposed to have a Constitutional right to happiness and equal treatment under the law. Unfortunately this is not so," Herriman concluded. "But Stonewall is a shield that can drive out bigotry and not let the poisonous fear-darts prevail."
Stonewall's Cudnik called Article XII "a dark shadow hanging over our town." Much of America has come "a long way in achieving human and civil rights," she said, "but unfortunately Cincinnati is not there yet."
She recounted how shortly after arriving in town (from Cleveland where she had edited Gay People's Chronicle), she took a call to the Stonewall office from a man whom had seen the group's listing in the phone book. "He wanted to build a stone wall," she smiled.
"But our real goal," she concluded in a serious
tone, "is to tear down the walls of ignorance, intolerance,
and bigotry - to dissemble those walls brick by brick so they
will come down, and that dark shadow will disappear. Together,
we can make that change."
Chronicle staff writer and Queen City native John Zeh writes
for the Gay People's Chronicle:
www.gaypeopleschronicle.com
and edits Rainbow News via
www.GayCincinnati.com
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Stonewall Cincinnati's Mandate It is an organization dedicated to the achievement of equality for all individuals. Through various forms of education, advocacy and outreach, Stonewall seeks to assist the community in the achievement of social change and the elimination of discrimination and violence against all people. To learn more, see Stonewall's website: |
