________ \ / L R C C o m m u n i t y N e w s \ / \ / April 1993 part 1 \/ June 7, 1993 delivery 'Better late then never.' Editor Terri L. Smith Ad Manager Mindy Schaberg Columnists Pat Carl Lin S.Goodman Lee Lynch Contributors Seanna Jordan Charmell McLaughlin Proofreader Melissa Mather Distribution Joanie Scott GLU Email tomh@halcyon.com Queries Lrccn 1208 E. Pine Seattle, WA 98122 206-322-3953 ------- Dear subscriber, I have been a long time admirer of the Internet and the power that it has to offer our people. I have hope that we can seize this magnificant technology and use it in many, many, many, creative ways to benifit all people. I am over joyed to be able to bring the LRC Community News to you. I have dreamed of being able to bring quality LGBT publica- tions online. Straight press from the NY Times on down are available electronicaly. We deserve the same, we deserve the best. *** PLEASE *** Let people know about the LRC Electronic News. I do not have ac- cess to the womens networks. Please, pass the subscription in- formation on to others. It will only work if you allow others to hear about this online production. Delivery LRC has contributed 3 months of articles. You will receive LRCs 1-2 a week for awhile to catch up the back issues. Then delivery will be about 1-3 times a month. Availablility LRC can be accessed after delivery via FTP at: Halcyon.com pub/GLU/LRC * * * * * * * Last and by no means least. My hat is off to the LRC. Terri Smith and others at the LRC obiviously have vision and can see that the future is here today. Getting online is a great step forward for the LRC and all people everywhere. This is a first!! * * * * * * * Thanks Tom tomh@halcyon.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- AMAZON TRAIL ------- Boycotting for Our Lives by Lee Lynch Last week I talked to a friend on the other side of America. She got an earful about our ongoing struggle in Oregon. "Still?" she asked. "We hear about Colorado, but bring up Oregon and all any- body talks about is trees." Still. In Oregon, we've switched from a state-wide war to hand to hand combat with the dying right wing, fending off city-by-city, county-by-county attacks that have continued unabated since the November defeat of Ballot Measure Nine. The local initiatives are unlovingly called Son of Nine. It's true too, about the trees. The same enemy is out to destroy old growth forests and wetlands by stripping from them government protections and turning them over to private, profit-hungry hands. I was walking some property with a realtor just yesterday. He stopped our little troupe in the snowy woods and looked up at a stately old pine. "A thousand dollar tree," he pronounced, turning majesty into market value without apology. It takes a while to see the simple logic of the Right. Gay is hardly the issue, though that's what all the noise is about. We're just a stepping stone, living beings no more worthy than that tree, on the way to the Right's greater goal: profit. Fear is an excellent fundraiser. What is more frightening to Americans than commies? One thing: queers! It seems fitting, then, that we queers use money to protect our- selves. Whether the strategy is called buycott, where we support gay-positive businesses, or boycott, where we refuse to deal with the enemy in its financial persona, hitting 'em in the pocket- books is fair game these days for a besieged people who are being used to further a political agenda. It wasn't hard for me to write my letters to Colorado politi- cians, or to send back promotional materials to companies trying to sell me stuff out of Colorado Springs. I haven't got the kind of money it would take to ski Aspen on gay ski week or any other. The only time I've ever even been in Colorado was the day some years ago when I got stuck at Stapleton International Airport in a plane with hydraulic troubles. It began to get more difficult when I realized that The New York- er magazine, to which IUve subscribed since 1963, uses a mailing company out of Colorado. I compromised by writing to the magazine and asking them to switch services. Any day now, without a doubt, IUll get there reply thanking me and saying that theyUre in the process of doing just that. Or I can compromise and accept the fact that The New Yorker is an extremely gay-positive periodical with a base of operations in New York, which has civil rights for gays. What I won't compromise on is L.L. Bean. I admit to having yuppie genes from my father's side and absolutely no defense against a Bean catalogue. Even when I had no prospects of money, I'd pour over the catalogues with lust. I'd heard rumors that grand- daughter Linda Lorraine Bean, large stockholder and one of the heirs to the Bean fortune, was all for nuclear energy, but my en- vironmental passions found a shameful balance with my loyal cus- tomer passions. Then I saw the damning evidence in Au Courant, a gay paper out of Philadelphia. The article stated that when Linda Bean tried for a congressional seat, Phyllis Shlafly's Eagle Forum group contributed on a large scale. The state chair of Pat RobertsonUs Christian Coalition was BeanUs campaign manager. Although she lost that race, Linda Bean has, in turn, made "large contributions" to the Christian Coali- tion and to Jesse Helms' National Conservative Action Committee. It was with feelings suitable to Greek tragedy that I wrote to L.L. Bean, the company, and ended my twenty-year relationship with them. I got a response the other day, regretting my deci- sion, but explaining that the company had a policy of non- intervention in its employeesU politics. Laudable, but not the point. Not one cent of mine will knowingly go to despicable or- ganizations or causes. When I hear the strategy of boycotting attacked, I always have qualms. I don't want to hurt the progressives of Denver, for ex- ample, by closing even my thin wallet to them. Many of them have supported their gay neighbors. But I think back to the civil rights wars of the sixties, to the long hard work, the danger, the full-time commitment made by blacks and whites. Have any of us really done enough? If we had, Son of Nine would have been le- gally aborted and the gays of Colorado would not be the walking wounded. Before the election when I masochistically attempted to imagine what it would feel like to lose in Oregon, I couldn't bear the emotional wasteland of despair I discovered in myself. Gay Coloradans are living with that despair every minute. I've got to make the best use of what little power I have in this society. Locally, progressive people share the word on this or that conservative-owned business. The Long Island Center in New York is in the process of putting together a directory of gay- positive businesses. Patagonia is using its profits to help save the Earth. The Banana Republic is using a gay male couple in an advertisement. You can bet my Bean bucks will be buying Banana from now on. Right now, Lover and I are faced with a decision that may change the face of our world. Just as we went to refinance our home at a lower interest rate, we learned that the undeveloped land next door was for sale. With the money we'd save on the refinance, thereUs a very slim chance we could buy that land. We'd be pro- tecting ourselves from new hostile neighbors (like the John Birchers down the hill) and protecting the land and wildlife from timber harvesters. On the other hand, we'd be more deeply rooted in this hostile county. Being gay in America today is a political experience. I feel as if I live in a voting booth. Stay or go? Buy or boycott? Comprom- ise or martyr? The Son of Nine and his pesty brothers are every- where, the inbred sons of a dying breed. Linda Bean may have lost her congressional race, but sheUs inherited Anita Bryant's talent for organizing the lesbians and gays of America. If we've got the strength to give up the L.L. Beans in our lives, we're invincible. ------- COVER ------- A Seperaration of Church and Spirituality by Terri L. Smith The historic separation of church and state is under assault as many religious organizations move away from focussing on person- al, spiritual matters and invest increasing time, energy and resources into dictating public policy. As church and state meld, however, there is a widening gap between church and spirituality. For, despite the rhetoric, the underlying forces of their movement have less to do with "morali- ty" or "sin" or even "the Scriptures" than they do with power, control and money. Lots of money. The Catholic church controls an enormous amount of wealth around the world. Evangelists like Pat Robertson have used god-talk to build empires for themselves. Closer to home, Lon Ma- bon uses religion as an excuse for his campaign of hatred. Along the way he has made a very comfortable living for himself, his wife, his children and his parents, all of whom are or have been on the OCA staff. The influence wielded by this "Christian Right" outweighs their numbers. Twelve years of a friendly Republican White House have given them access to power and national attention they couldn't have gotten otherwise. And now they have a base solid enough to exist without pals in the Oval Office. Their political agenda is far-reaching and they are pursuing it aggressively. They field their own candidates, particularly in local elections, where they often use "stealth candidates" who hide their affiliations to fundamentalist Christian groups until after they are elected. In 1991, the Catholic Church was the primary force behind the op- position to both initiatives 119 (death with dignity) and 120 (right to choose) in Washington State. In fact, some of the indi- vidual churches probably violated tax laws because their non- profit status prohibits extensive involvement in political ac- tivities. Typically, churches havenUt been held accountable for these transgressions, but such concerns could again become timely as churches gear up to organize around anti-gay issues. Right now lesbians and gay men are unmistakably, undeniably at the top of the Christian Right agenda. But why us? Why now? There is certainly no basis for the Biblical mandate these organ- izations like to claim for themselves. Homosexuality plays a re- markably minor role in the Bible (after all, homosexuality doesn't even make the list of the top 10 no-no's); a good deal more holy ink is spent extolling tolerance and love than condemn- ing homosexuality. But the abortion issue isn't filling the coffers or rousing the rabble the way it used to. Groups like the Traditional Family Values Coalition and Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition make no secret of the fact that attacking lesbians and gays is currently their most effective fundraiser. But attacking gays is more a means to an end than an end in it- self. Ultimately their agenda is very much about maintaining the status quo, about preserving straight white male power and privilege. Women are as threatened as gays - and not only on the choice is- sue. Preachers decry the erosion of male power within the family, insisting that women are at their best when they are subservient to their husbands. Not surprisingly, feminists (or "feminazis" as the Christian Right like to say) are almost as high on the hit list as gays and lesbians. Like lesbians and gays, feminists are accused of plot- ting to "destroy the family." It would seem that in Christian Right lingo "family" really equals patriarchy. People of color are not safe. These same groups, like the OCA, have opposed school integration efforts. Lon Mabon himself has ties with white supremacist Tom Metzger. The poor are at risk, too. Dismantling the social welfare system is part of the Master Plan. Religious minorities certainly are threatened by the imposition of specific Christian beliefs into law. Anyone who values freedom of speech and thought must be con- cerned. The Christian Right is behind much of the censorship currently being perpetrated, especially censorship of materials used in schools and libraries. Evidently some churches are not content to be churches. Attending to the spiritual needs of their congregations is not enough. They want to be governments, making policy and law for everyone to follow. They want to be gods, taking for themselves the right to judge, the right to determine RsinS and decide which RsinsS are most important. So far, the Christian Right has been fairly successful at cloak- ing themselves with Bible verses and religious rhetoric to dis- guise the completely political, militant nature of their agenda. But ultimately the ambitiousness and breadth of their attacks may be their undoing, if they succeed in bringing together the vari- ous disparate groups victimized by their attacks. Gays, women, people of color, poor people, religious minorities may all be forced to concentrate on what we have in common rather than what separates us. We may have no choice but to learn how to genuinely work together. ------- Feature ------- Claire of the Moon by Terri L. Smith House lights dim . . . Okay, here's the scene: An unproduced, but talented, lesbian screenwriter hits Hollywood with a script tucked under her arm. The script is about a journey of self-discovery, an exploration of intimacy, and, ultimately, a lesbian love story. The Hollywood studios Q realizing that there is a large and hungry audience of lesbian moviegoers who will not only line up in droves to see this movie but will see it repeatedly, and real- izing, too, that an intelligent, adult story of love and intimacy will appeal to open-minded straight audiences Q jump on the idea. They give it a modest $7 million budget, hire the screenwriter to direct the film and everyone lives happily ever after. Yeah, right. Even in the land of movie make-believe this scenario is pure fairy tale. The lesbian screenwriter in question is Nicole Conn and the journey of self-discovery, exploration of in- timacy, lesbian love story is Claire of the Moon. BUT . . . Hollywood's track record with lesbian themes and characters is unimpressive, portraying us as dangerous psychos (e.g. Basic In- stinct) or sexless "best friends" (Fried Green Tomatoes) when they portray us at all. The major studios apparently aren't ready to produce a film that deals with lesbians and lesbian sexuality in an open, direct, honest, positive manner. (Though the fact that Hollywood isn't ready to make a movie like that doesn't mean there aren't mil- lions of people ready to see such a film.) So our story goes a little differently. Let's try this again. House lights dim . . . Originally, Nicole Conn wanted to be a novelist, then she real- ized her talents lay in character development and dialogue. Her three-year foray into Hollywood left her feeling frustrated, and while she received kudos for her writing, her scripts were re- jected for being too "women-oriented." That frustration became the creative impetus for Claire of the Moon, a coming-out story Conn had always wanted to write. "I think coming out stories [are] falling in love with yourself. To me, it's the biggie, the first love," she says. "There can never be enough love stories." But once the project was underway, once the script was completed, Conn found herself at a crossroads. She could play it safe, stay at her construction company job, and most likely watch her script languish in Hollywood limbo. Or she could take some risks to pur- sue her dream. "When people really have a burning passion, they should just do it," asserts Conn. "I think that people donUt pay enough atten- tion to their dreams." She found the little kid inside her who believes anything is pos- sible and decided to produce the movie herself. Even producing it for $30,000 was better than nothing at all. The film was slated to be a short, black-and-white 16mm production that would allow her to break into directing. The response at an L.A. casting call prompted her to rethink that decision. The enthusiasm for the script by straight actresses in- dicated to Conn that Claire of the Moon spoke to and resonated with an audience wider than the lesbian community. Her vision be- came full-color, feature length and 35mm. The final budget of around a million dollars, though still pocket change by Hollywood standards, was gargantuan compared with the original plan. Conn formed Demi-Monde Productions with Pamela S. Kuri, Claire producer, and the two women began the herculean task of raising funds for the movie. Conn "went to essentially everyone I ever knew. I lined up credit and credit cards." That included 25 of her own credit cards and 10 of KuriUs. Kuri was also able to find outside financial back- ers. Forsaking Hollywood even further, Conn relied on Pacific Northwest talent to complete the entire cast and much of the crew. ConnUs home doubled as production offices and primary shooting location. Claire of the Moon is set at the Arcadia Women's Writer Retreat and centers on Claire (played by Trisha Todd), a hard-drinking, chain-smoking satirist with a propensity for (heterosexual) one- night stands, and Noel (Karen Trumbo), a reserved, uptight lesbi- an therapist who has authored a study on sexual behavior. The two women find themselves cabinmates at the retreat and the glaring contrasts between their characters creates an immediate tension. But their differences also challenge each other and stretch them in unexpected, and perhaps initially unwelcome, ways. As a counterpoint to the tension and struggling, Maggie, the warm-hearted butch who organizes the retreat (played by Faith McDevitt, whom Conn calls "the dyke Clark Gable"), is an emotion- al anchor in the film, inserting wisdom or levity whenever need- ed. But friction isn't the only thing heating up between Claire and Noel. The slow-burn attraction builds through the movie, suffer- ing setbacks along the way, until both women overcome their fears of intimacy enough to become genuinely intimate with each other. Conn notes that Todd and Trumbo were as different in their styles as their characters were. Todd was "all over the planet. She will try something new with every take. Sometimes it doesn't work and sometimes it's brilliant." Trumbo, on the other hand was "incred- ibly consistent, incredibly strong. She will match her actions every time." Trumbo was something of a goddess-send for Conn. Shortly before filming was scheduled to begin they found themselves without a Noel. Trumbo was cast a mere five days before shooting. RKaren Trumbo saved our asses," Conn says, continuing, "There was nobody who read Noel like Karen did." While Claire of the Moon has been compared endlessly with other lesbian feature films (the total number of which comes nowhere near double digits), Conn sees some important distinctions. "En- tre Nous didn't have any sex, for one thing," she notes, adding that both Entre Nous and Desert Hearts are "period pieces that do not really allow for a lot of dialoguing around the sexual issue itself." Claire of the Moon is peppered with frank discussion about lesbi- anism and sexuality. And these ongoing discussions are an impor- tant part of the dynamic between Claire and Noel, helping them to work past some of their differences. The most talked about of these discussions is the potluck scene (hey, chalk that up as another distinction between Claire and previous lesbian movies, there's not a potluck to be found any- where in Desert Hearts). At the potluck, all the women partici- pating in the retreat talk and drink and drop some of their bar- riers. The scene is also part of the controversy over the role of al- cohol in the film Q centered especially on Claire's heavy drink- ing. Conn justifies it on two counts. First, she was staying true to the character of Claire, who drank to drown the pain of her emotional torment. And "there is a major drinking problem in the lesbian community. We are who we are. WeUre human," comments Conn, a recovering al- coholic of seven years. The other major complaint has been the lack of a political state- ment. But Conn feels that "Claire of the Moon is a political statement. Not making a strong political statement in and of it- self is a strong statement for me." She sympathizes with people who find that Claire isnUt exactly what they want it to be. "If I went to a lesbian film and I wasnUt either turned on by the characters or couldnUt relate to them, I'd be like "Oh, shit. Now I have to wait another five years for another lesbian film to come out and see if it speaks to me particularly.' So I can understand their frustration." But she also notes that itUs unrealistic to expect any one film to be all things to all lesbians. The lack of lesbian films to choose from does focus an enormous amount of attention and scru- tiny on the ones that do appear. Conn hopes that rather than looking at what Claire of the Moon is not, audiences will embrace it for what it is. And, for the most part, they seem to be. Claire has been playing to packed houses at dates around the country (including a showing at the Lesbian/Gay Film Festival in Olympia last year). Taking their independent, maverick approach all the way, Demi- Monde has branched into self-distribution. Though the move scan- dalized some in Hollywood, it's working just fine for Demi-Monde. They've recruited another distributor, Strand, to help them mark- et to art-house audiences, but feel confident of their own knowledge of the lesbian/gay market. Claire of the Moon will be making a return trip to Washington in early May, playing at the Neptune Theatre in Seattle May 7-13. On May 8 there will be a special noontime screening to benefit the LRC (Conn, Todd, Trumbo and McDevitt will all be on hand to answer questions). The success of Claire of the Moon is not only the realization of a dream for Conn, itUs the perfect finish for a self-confessed "diehard romantic" who loves happy endings. Maybe Hollywood hasnUt cornered the market on movie magic after all. House lights dim . .. ------- Regualrs ------- Lavender Legacy Dat Ol' Time Religion Counts on All Kinds of Fools by Pat Carl Not too long ago, I ran into an acquaintance and, as usual, I couldn't remember her name. Fortunately, before I revealed my ineptitude at recalling names, the woman told me that I should call her Blue Ishtar because she had recently changed her name. Foolish me, I asked her why she changed her name, and she said Blue Ishtar more accurately reflected the hermetically balanced state of her being with nature and the cosmos. Blue Ishtar proceeded to tell me about how she realized her given name (Suzi, by the way) did not properly fit her personality as revealed through her astrological chart, and during a recent con- junction of her planets, when her dominant planet was in ascen- dance, and after consulting with her heart chakra which was her dominant chakra in many of her past lives, according to the enti- ty which she sometimes channels, she changed her name to reflect the true her, the one who is prosperous and deserves to be pros- perous. Individually, people like Blue Ishtar seem to be searching for some reasonable explanation for the arbitrary events which impact their lives. Such explanations have been sought since homo sa- piens first stood erect and, for the most part, come from a place which is good and healthy and certainly intends no subversion. Sadly, what can begin from individual goodness, can, in the hands of the unscrupulous, become mass movements which are anything but good. Thus, many times, institutionalized religions and their New Age counterparts encourage their members (whether intentionally or not) to use spirituality as a way of exonerating themselves from social responsibility and blaming the victims of social in- justice for their own status. Members of the first group often use divine documents (for in- stance, the Bible in Western religions) to limit calls for social justice. Historically, the Abolitionist movement, the Labor move- ment, the Civil Rights movement, the Feminist movement and, most currently, the Lesbian/Gay Rights movement have found some insti- tutional religions blocking the path to social justice. Members of the second group believe those who prosper choose to prosper and those who don't choose not to. Either way, those who benefit most from the oftentimes unjust social status quo contin- ue to benefit and those who benefit least continue to be its vic- tims. All because people, according to some New Age thinking, choose behavior which either guarantees prosperity or guarantees physical, mental, emotional and monetary poverty. Of course, this is not to say that all New Agers or all practi- tioners of institutional religion are without a social conscious- ness. The Civil Rights movement, while hampered by some religious groups and organizations, actually benefited from the pacifist and spiritual teachings of Martin Luther King, a Baptist minis- ter. And some church organizations helped by getting the word out to the community concerning protests. The same is true today, as some people see religion, and even New Age thinking, as a call to various social justice movements. Nevertheless, the unscrupulous and charlatans among such move- ments can and do promote their own self-serving agendas in the guise of the spiritual. What is most unsettling are the numbers of people who fall for their spiritual claptrap. Clearly, as long as people search outside of themselves for explanations to arbi- trary events, there will always be someone willing to take advan- tage of their spiritual quests. While I admit I am chronically suspicious of mass spiritual move- ments, I have been known to seek the intercession of that well- known spiritual guide of possible Celtic origin, the Parking God- dess. In fact, I fervently pray to her each time I'm looking for a parking space near my home on Capitol Hill because there's nothing more arbitrary than parking availability on the Hill. Only a fool would fail to try even the spiritual when looking for a space. Maybe Blue Ishtar and I have more in common than I ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1993 Lesbian Resource Center, publishers of LRC Commun- ity News. All rights revert to individual authors upon publica- tion. To reprint material please contact the editor and include attribution. Opinions express herin are those of the writers and artists, and may bot reflect the opinions of the LRC staff and Board. LRCCN will print differing views in the interests of com- munication and dialogue. LRCCN will not print items the editor or Board feel to be oppressive or personal attacks. A name image or likeness of an individual appearing in LRCCN does not indicate that individual's sexual orientation. 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Design and production performed on the MACIIci made possible through the generous help of the Philip W. Blumstein-Gerry E. Jordan Trust. ------- Electronic distribution ------- LRC Community News is distributed by GLU, Gay Lesbian University of Seattle. For information regarding the articles contained in the LRC publication contact the LRC at the address provided. For distribution questions contact by Email tomh@halcyon.com