LOCAL BRIEFS

GLBT Scholarships Available

The PFLAG/H.A.T.C.H. Youth Scholarship Foundation has $50,000 in college scholarship money to award deserving recipients. The scholarships range from one-year $500 awards to four-year $10,000 awards, and are available to 17- to 26-year-old GLBT high school seniors or college students who live in the greater Houston area.

The scholarship foundation is a result of the ongoing effort of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and H.A.T.C.H. (Houston Area Teen Coalition of Homosexuals) to provide support, education, and advocacy on behalf of all gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons. In addition to providing continuing education for deserving recipients, they hope to provide role models and encouragement for the recipients.

Making the scholarship program possible are large grants from the Elliot H. Matthews Foundation, an anonymous individual, Chase Bank, and the formation of the Gary Van Ooteghem Scholarship Endowment Fund. The fund has committed $130,000 to 19 students to date.

Although the official deadline was May 1, H.A.T.C.H. President Kevin Davidson says they will accept applications and be interviewing candidates through June or beyond. You can get an application from your school counselor, or by calling at H.A.T.C.H. at 713/942-7002.

Also, An Uncommon Legacy Foundation gave away $22,000 in scholarships in Houston last year, and expects to award even more this year, according to Houston Legacy board member Robin Brown. A large part of the mission of An Uncommon Legacy Foundation is to foster leadership and strength in the lesbian community through scholarships to deserving lesbian students. Nationally, Legacy has awarded more than $750,000 through the years.

The deadline to apply for Legacy scholarships is July 1, and they will be awarded in December for use towards the spring semester. To qualify for the scholarship, all applicants must have a minimum 3.0 GPA, demonstrate a commitment or contribution to the LGBT community, demonstrate financial need, and follow Legacy’s Lesbian Leadership Scholarship guidelines. To find out more and obtain an application, contact Legacy national board member Dr. Joyce Gayles 713/677-6047, e-mail transworks@aol.com, or visit Uncommon Legacy’s national website at www.uncommonlegacy.org.

OUR STORIES, OUR LIVES

We received the following call from Dr. Maria C. Gonzalez, who is an associate professor in the department of English at University of Houston. She and Elizabeth R. Kessler, a colleague at the California State University at Northridge, are gathering stories from lesbians of color over age 50:

"We wish to receive personal narratives from lesbians of color over 50 for a new anthology. These narratives need to address the intersections of diverse issues and attitudes: culture, religion, ethics, family (parents, siblings, relatives, as well as husbands, children, and grandchildren), politics, age, career and colleagues, friendships, same-sex spouses, family of same-sex spouses, and other attitudes that have a clear and important impact on one’s decision to self-disclose. The form should be a personal narrative that may include other genres (poetry, lyrics, diary entries, letters, and so forth). Manuscripts should not exceed 20 double-spaced, typed pages. For inquiries and more detailed information, e-mail mgonzalez@uh.edu or elizabeth.kessler@csun.edu." –Eds. Elizabeth Rodriguez Kessler and Maria C. Gonzalez

Be a Fairy Godmother

The Glass Slipper Project has recently started a Houston chapter. Glass Slipper is a nonprofit program where volunteers help a Houston high school student be the "Belle of the Ball" at her prom by collecting new and almost-new formal dresses and accessories and providing them free to students who are unable to purchase their own prom attire. They distribute the dresses at Glass Slipper "boutiques," where each student receives individual assistance from a volunteer "personal shopper" as she shops for the dress of her dreams. The Glass Slipper Project-Houston is working with the HISD in locating students who need the dresses. Make room in your closets and make prom dreams come true. The project also needs donations of shoes, accessories, jewelry, and pantyhose or donations to purchase those items. For more information about the program, please contact Ellen Chang at 832/545-0202 or eychang@hotmail.com, or visit http://www.glassslipperproject.org.

STATE/NATIONAL BRIEFS

GIVE US MORE TALES
Why we’re excited about Further Tales of the City:

• Armistead Maupin was on the set during the filming. "It’s twice as sexy as the other shows," he told OutSmart last October. "All of the actors get naked at one point. They’ve been extremely generous in that regard."

• Showtime has no restrictions. Maupin said, "Several times I stood in front of the monitor during a love scene and found my own jaw dropping. I turned to this woman producer and said, ‘Oh my God, are we doing this?’"

• Pierre Gang, the director, is gay. He "has a wonderful combination of sentiment and liberal sexual attitudes," said Maupin, adding that he has "a great visual sense."

• Laura Linney was just nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress for her role in Pollock. She returns as Michael’s friend and neighbor Mary Ann Singleton.

• Laura Linney was at the recent Oscar ceremonies with Armistead Maupin as her date!

• Olympia Dukakis and Billy Campbell return as Anna Madrigal and Dr. Jon Fielding, respectively.

• Joel Grey, Parker Posey, and Lea DeLaria have cameos.

Further Tales of the City premieres with episode #1 on Showtime on Sunday, May 6, at 9 p.m. and airs four consecutive Sundays, also at 9 p.m. Additional playdates are Wednesday, May 30, at 11 p.m. (episodes 1 & 2), and Thursday, May 31, at 11 p.m. (episodes 3 & 4). –Blase DiStefano

Texas Bike Ride for GLBT High School

Now that the Texas AIDS Ride is in limbo or defunct, we’re looking around for other cycling opportunities, and this sounds like a really splendid one. For the second year in a row, the Walt Whitman Community School in Dallas is sponsoring a 100-mile bike ride on Saturday, May 19, to raise scholarship funds for the only private alternative high school in the country for GLBT adolescents.

Founded in 1997, the Walt Whitman Community School relies exclusively on private donations and fundraising, as it receives no federal, state, city, or school district support. Funds raised by the ride will create scholarships for GLBT students who have little means of support and have often been abandoned by their families because of their sexuality.

The one-day bike ride will begin at 8 a.m. and will be routed through the scenic countryside around Dallas-Fort Worth. Participants may select distances of 100 miles, 100 kilometers, 25 miles, or 10 miles.

Walt Whitman officials are expecting over 250 riders to raise more than $30,000. Rider registration fee is $25, plus each rider must raise a minimum of $100 in tax-deductible contributions for the school’s scholarship fund. In addition to rider registration fees, ride expenses are being completely underwritten by corporate, organizational, and individual sponsors. As with the first annual ride, it is expected that 100 percent of all contributions will benefit The Walt Whitman Community School Foundation Scholarship Fund.

You can register for the ride online at www.waltwhitman100.org, as well as print pledge forms and get all other info you need to participate.

Speak Truth to Power

Our friends at Soulforce have announced their schedule of church actions, if you’d like to engage in a little civil disobedience on your summer vacation. Led by Mel White, Soulforce is a national network of people of faith which uses "the principles of relentless non-violent resistance as taught by Gandhi and King to the liberation of sexual and gender minorities from religious policies that exclude and discriminate against God’s GLBT people."

First up is the ever-popular Southern Baptist Convention, June 11—13, in New Orleans; followed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church National Convention, August 10—12, in Indianapolis; then the Mormon Church National Convention, October 5—7, in Las Vegas (no, just joking, it’ll be in Salt Lake City); and finishing with the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, November 12—15, 2001.

If you can’t make a trip to protest, you can make your soul force felt by participating in the "Faithful Dissenter’s Campaign," which encourages GLBT people and allies to withhold all or a percentage of their usual contribution to denominations that discriminate against them.

"For 30 years, GLBT people and their allies have been supporting oppression with every dollar we donate and every special talent/gift we volunteer to our local churches," says Dr. Mel White, Soulforce executive director. "This campaign by Faithful Dissenters to withhold tithes and offerings is designed to empower and give voice to our oppressed sisters and brothers and to ‘step up’ the level of spiritual resistance against local congregations and/or denominations that discriminate."

Last year, Soulforce gathered more than 1000 people who were trained in non-violent civil disobedience, and more than 500 were arrested. For more information about joining up with Soulforce, see their website at www.soulforce.org.

Making the World Aware of GLBT Health Issues

That excellent group, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA), has just published the first-ever comprehensive document on the state of LGBT health.

Coordinating dozens of LGBT health experts through the recently formed National Coalition for LGBT Health, the GLMA has put together the 500-page Healthy People 2010 Companion Document for LGBT Health. It is written by and for health care consumers, providers, researchers, educators, government agencies, schools, clinics, advocates, and health professionals in all settings. Among the focus areas are access to quality health services, mental health, public health infrastructure, HIV, immunization and infectious diseases, tobacco, injury and violence prevention, and substance abuse.

"All their lives, LGBT people have had to struggle against ignorance in the health care field," said Patricia Dunn, the director of public policy for GLMA. "In many cases health care providers meant well, they just didn’t know. Now, we’re telling them. While we are still fighting for equal access, still struggling to have our needs understood and addressed, this document will take us much farther down the path toward equity."

GLMA represents the interests of more than 70,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender physicians and medical students, as well as millions of LGBT patients throughout North America. The largest organization of its kind, GLMA was founded in 1981 to combat homophobia in medicine and promote quality health care for all LGBT people.

The document is posted on GLMA’s website at www.glma.org.

Bush Closes Office Focusing on Women’s Issues

Amidst all the fury about whether Bush was going to close the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, another important office was shuttered up: the White House Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach, according an article in The Washington Post.

"As of January 19, 2001, this office no longer exists," an answering machine at the former office intoned, "and we will not be able to retrieve your calls. We apologize for the inconvenience."

The office for women’s issues had served the function of reviewing legislation and administration proposals to gauge their impact on women, and arranging briefings. They also created a symbiotic relationship with women’s groups, alerting them to forthcoming issues, in exchange for early feedback on how those groups would respond.

Gay History Moves Across Country

America’s oldest GLBT organization and library has moved from Louisiana to LA, according to Billy Blover of the Homosexual Information Center in Bossier City, Louisiana. The ONE Institute and Archives are now housed in their own collection adjunct to the University of Southern California. The collection dates from early Mattachine (secret-1950) through the public ONE (1952) through today, and includes all parts of ONE, such as Don Slater’s Homosexual Information Center, Dorr Legg’s Blanche Baker Library, Jim Kepner’s International Gay & Lesbian Archives, and also collections of Morris Kight, Dale Jennings, Lesbian Legacy, etc. To get information about the archives, call 213/741-0094, e-mail oneigla@usc.edu, or look at the web site at www.oneinstitute.org.

The Ride of Your Life

More than 100,000 GLBT people and their friends and admirers will converge on the theme parks in Orlando, Florida May 30—June 4 for Gay Days, with a round of ever-more-lavish cocktail parties, dance parties, and special events.

The event began in 1990 as an informal gathering of gays and lesbians at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, and has grown into a celebration of tremendous size and impact despite the fact that it has never been officially acknowledged by any theme park management. For years, visitors have been encouraged to "Wear red and be seen," and the sea of red visible from any place in the park is testament to the popularity of this grass-roots-grown-wild event.

Complete information about accommodations, event and theme park tickets,
and event calendars are available at www. gaydays.com. A portion of the profits from the site’s operation benefits the Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Community Center of Central Florida.

HIV study to look at marijuana use

SAN MATEO, Calif.–San Mateo, Calif., county health officials have begun recruiting 60 patients infected with HIV who will be prescribed marijuana as part of a two-year study of the medical benefits of the drug.

Specifically, the county health researchers want to evaluate whether the illegal drug relieves pain and stimulates appetite among the patients, two benefits that medicinal marijuana advocates have pointed to as the main advantages of the drug.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agreed late last year to provide the county with enough government-grown pot for the patients in the two-year study.

Court strikes down Ark. sodomy law

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.–An Arkansas court has ruled that the state’s antigay sodomy law violates the Arkansas state constitution’s privacy rights. Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge David Bogart declared in the ruling: "It is consistent with this state’s constitution to hold that an adult’s right to engage in consensual and noncommercial sexual activities in the privacy of that adult’s home is a matter of intimate personal concern which is at the heart of the right to privacy in Arkansas."

The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund sued to challenge the state law on behalf of seven gay and lesbian residents, arguing that the anti-gay sodomy law violates their right to equal protection under the state’s constitution.

Four other states–Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri–also have sodomy laws that apply to same-sex sex but not to opposite-sex couples. The Missouri law, like Arkansas, has been struck down by a state court.

Massachusetts couples sue for marriage

BOSTON–Taking the route others have taken in Hawaii and Vermont with mixed results, seven gay and lesbian couples in Massachusetts have filed suit in an effort to force the state to allow them to legally marry.

Jennifer Levi, an attorney representing the couples, told reporters, "The constitution of the commonwealth of Massachusetts ensures equal treatment of all citizens. Gay and lesbian couples face different treatment because they’re denied the freedom to marry. All these couples seek is equality."

A similar lawsuit in Hawaii several years ago ended with a positive court ruling, but was later negated by a voter-approved amendment to the state constitution that effectively blocked the court decision.

In Vermont, the state Supreme Court in 1999 essentially told the state legislature that gays and lesbians in Vermont had to have the same legal benefits and responsibilities available to married opposite-sex couples, but left to the legislature how to achieve that. The lawmakers adopted a "civil unions" law that technically isn’t marriage, but includes all the rights and benefits.

Maryland Senate OKs anti-bias bill

ANNAPOLIS, Md.–The Maryland state Senate has voted 32-14 in favor of a bill proposed by Gov. Parris Glendening that would prohibit discrimination in employment and housing because of sexual orientation. The Senate vote came after lawmakers in the state’s upper house broke an attempt by Republican senators to filibuster against it.

Observers say the measure now is likely to easily win approve in the House of Delegates. The House approved a similar bill two years ago and swift action is expected in that chamber.

Gov. Glendening made approval of the bill one of his top priorities and he frequently speaks of his brother Bruce, who died of AIDS after a 19-year Air Force career.

South Africa’s HIV figures worst in the world

JOHANNESBURG–Two reports indicate how severe the HIV/AIDS epidemic is in South Africa.

According to a report by UNAIDS, South Africa has the largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world. The new data indicates that 4.7 million South Africans are now infected with the virus.

The nation’s health ministry also just released a study indicating that the infection rate in the country’s KwaZulu-Natal province is the highest in South Africa, with the virus infecting one in every three people.

The study also reported that nearly a fourth of all the women going to public clinics in KwaZulu-Natal were infected.

Gay man elected mayor of Paris

PARIS–Bertrand Delanoe has been elected as mayor of Paris–the first time an openly gay politician has won mayoral offices of a major global city. His election also marks the first time the French left wing has won the important office in more than 100 years.

Speaking to supporters, Delanoe described the election results as "this victory of daring and reason" and vowed to rule without regard to partisan politics. "I shall be the mayor of all Parisians." Delanoe will formally be installed in office at the new city council’s first meeting on March 25. Delanoe, 50, won the Paris race with the support of his own Socialist Party as well as with the backing of the increasingly important French Green Party.

As an openly gay man, Delanoe’s election reflects the extent to which gays and lesbians are integrated in the French political landscape, many observers said, noting that throughout the campaign Delanoe’s sexual orientation never even became an issue.