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In&Out
OUR
HISTORY IS WORTH PRESERVING
Remember
the “Louie, Don’t Shoot” T-shirts (from
Louie Welch’s famed remark about what he’d
like to do to gays)? How about “Louie, You Missed!”?
Ah, our precious history as a community, passed on most
precariously by word of mouth, by rumor, by exaggeration,
by Ray Hill, by crumbling old copies of Upfront and
TWT.
To address this problem, the newly formed Gulf Coast
Archive and Museum (GCAM) is seeking to create a more
permanent repository of Houston’s GLBT memory and
memorabilia. In what should prove one of the more interesting
debuts of Pride Week, the archive and museum will have
their grand opening on Friday, June 16, and be open
through the weekend of the parade.
“We
need to save our history,” says longtime community
activist Judy Reeves, who has embraced the archiving
project heart and soul. “There’s so much of
our history that’s been lost or subject to interpretation
because person A remembers this and person B remembers
that. History is something that gets rewritten all the
time by government anyway—but if we start saving
our history so that it’s not so open to interpretation,
then we’ll be a lot better off in 20 years.
“In
the past 20 years, we’ve lost a lot of our history
because the family comes in and throws out everything,
because it doesn’t mean anything to them. The notes
of an early GLPC meeting, all that stuff, it doesn’t
mean anything to them, it can end up in the garbage.
But it’s important to us.”
Shepherded by Judy and Bryan Reeves, along with Richard
Hunt (a.k.a. Rainbo de Klown), Jim Carper, and a board
of advisors that includes Dr. James Sears, with the
International Gay and Lesbian Archives, the GCAM started
meeting in June last year, and became incorporated as
a nonprofit a few weeks ago, in May. They’re fundraising
and looking for volunteers, as well as looking for a
place to have a permanent home. Chase Texas Foundation
has lead the way with corporate sponsors, giving GCAM
a grant of $500.
The group’s purpose is two-fold: to create a museum
that will be interesting to visit, as well as an archive
that people can access for research (or curiosity).
They will also store “age-sensitive” material,
although that will be under lock and key, and require
ID to peruse. There has been some controversy between
GCAM and MCCR, which has been the longtime repository
of the sizable archive/collection of Charles Botts.
On
display in the Gulf Coast Archives and Museum will be
such items as: more than 80 different T-shirts (they’re
still trying to amass a complete Pride set), 150 buttons,
a numbered poster from the Silver Bullet from the 1970s,
a World AIDS Day sculpture by Christine Olejniczak,
dresses and a backdrop from the Krewe of Olympus balls.
They hope to have a tape playing of the first visit
by the NAMES Project quilt.
“I
got in a nostalgic mood watching it,” Judy says.
“I just cried and cried, because there were so
many people I hadn’t seen for years, there volunteering,
helping with the unfolding. It’s like renewing
old relationships.”
GCAM has made a special point of inviting H.A.T.C.H.
and PFLAG to the opening.
“We
want them to know they are more than welcome,”
Judy says. “We value their presence. We want these
kids to know their history.”
The Gulf Coast Archives and Museum grand opening is
Friday, June 16, 7–9 p.m. It will be open Saturday
and Sunday, June 17 & 18, noon–6. There will
be a preview “gala,” Thursday night, 7–9
p.m., with wine, cheese, and a door price of $15. The
museum is located in temporary quarters in a donated
warehouse at 2507 Capital, just east of downtown. (Coming
from the Montrose, take Westheimer, which turns into
Elgin, left on Dowling, right on Capital, one and a
half blocks on left, look for illuminated pink triangle.)
You can call to donate your own precious items, or make
a special viewing appointment, at 713/227-5973. GCAM
has a website (www.houstongayweb.com/gulfcoastarchive),
a listserve discussion group, and e-mail (gcam@mail.com).
PRIDE
5K FUN RUN & WALK
Want
to feel virtuous and deserving of an indulgence by the
time Pride Week comes? Whether you run for fun, run
for your health, or just run because you’d like
to have a crack at that Ruby Slipper trophy...join the
Houston Montrose Athletic Association for the Houston
Gay & Lesbian 5K Fun Run & Walk on Saturday,
June 10, Fonde Rec Center (just like the past two years),
Sabine at Memorial, starting at 7:45 a.m. Registration
is $12 & $15.
The run is sponsored by the Montrose Athletic Association,
which is formed for the “education, promotion,
and encouragement of long distance running, track and
field, and other related running activities among gay,
lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and straight runners,
with emphasis upon inclusion, participation, and doing
one’s best.” The event will benefit AssistHers,
which provides care and support to lesbian women with
chronic or disabling illnesses, as well as educating
Houston doctors about the health needs of the lesbian
population.
For
more information: 713/874-1686; e-mail: silentrunner@rocketmail.com;
web: www.geocities.com/houstonpride5k/index.html.
FREE HIV TESTING FOR ALL
The
Montrose Clinic will hold their third annual “Test
for Life,” an HIV-testing marathon on Tuesday,
June 27, 7 a.m.–7 p.m. Held as part of National
HIV Testing Day, the clinic is offering free and anonymous
HIV testing. Last year, more than 200 people were tested
for HIV at the “Test for Life.”
Even if you think there is absolutely no way, or you
are all too afraid to find out, it is extremely important
that you get tested.
“Prevention
is still our best tool in fighting HIV,” says Montrose
Clinic executive director Katie Caldwell. “Outreach
efforts like ‘Test for Life’ help us reach
a large number of people who might not think they are
at risk.”
Free Hepatitis C testing will also be provided that
day. Both English- and Spanish-speaking counselors will
be available. For more information, please call 713/830-3000.
TAKE
BACK THE (PROM) NIGHT
Those
of us who have already undergone a prom night may not
look back on it with the fondest memories. The Houston
Area Teen Coalition of Homosexuals (H.A.T.C.H.) is trying
to take back this institution that has been the bastion
of 1950s-era straight America, and is sponsoring their
7th annual gay and lesbian H.A.T.C.H. prom night, intended
to “allow gay and lesbian teens to enjoy an event
otherwise denied them because of their sexual orientation.”
Prom Night 2000 will be held on Saturday, June 17 at
the Lovett Inn, 501 Lovett Boulevard, from 7-11 p.m.
Aimed at teens age 13–20, there’s no dress
code, so prom goers are welcome in T-shirts, tuxedos,
ball gowns, or all of the above. The event is open to
the public. Admission is free for youth aged 13-20;
$20 adults.
Sponsors are urgently needed, with donations of $100
to $500 receiving a free ticket and the designation
of Chaperone, Principal, or Superintendent. (Of course,
donations in any amount are greatly appreciated. Checks
may be sent to H.A.T.C.H., P.O. Box 667053, Houston
TX 77266-7053.) Prom Night raises money for activities
throughout the year for youth to attend various H.A.T.C.H.
functions. The organization provides safe social environments
for homosexual youth, offers peer support and role models,
and sponsors educational and community outreach opportunities
to empower homosexual youth to become positive contributors
to society. For more information, please call H.A.T.C.H.
at 713/942-7002 or via e-mail:hatch@neosoft.com.
N.Y.
STATE DEMOCRATS TO STUDY CIVIL UNIONS
ALBANY,
NY—Democrats in New York state have agreed to study
recognizing the relationships of same-sex couples in
some form comparable to marriage. The Democrats agreed
to study the issue in the wake of Vermont’s lawmakers
enacting a same-sex civil union law in April that extends
virtually all the rights of marriage to same-sex couples
who certify their relationships.
Lawrence Moss, who heads the New York Democratic Party
reform caucus that endorsed the study, said, “We
believe it’s a fundamental rights issue. We believe
the time for it has come.”
New York Republicans quickly opposed the idea, saying
through a spokesman that a civil unions law “is
not something we’d advocate.” But even some
state Democrats also expressed concerns about the idea,
arguing that New York state doesn’t recognize common-law
marriage at all, so a civil unions measure would raise
“complicated issues.”
METHODISTS
KEEP ANTIGAY RULES BY 2-1 VOTES
CLEVELAND—In
a series of votes that many think is leading to a formal
schism, delegates to the United Methodist Church’s
General Conference voted 2 to 1 to keep church rules
forbidding the blessing of same-sex unions and ordaining
lesbians and gay men.
While 27 demonstrators protesting the church’s
opposition to gay and lesbian unions and clergy were
arrested on the convention floor and removed, the delegates
voted 640-317 to keep its rules against ordaining homosexuals.
The conference then voted 628-337 to confirm church
teachings that the Bible condemns homosexuality and
voted 646-294 for a third resolution maintaining church
rules against same-sex unions.
When the vote totals were announced, the protesters
surrounded the podium, halting the convention until
they were arrested. Randy Miller, one of the protesters,
told the delegates they would have to be forcibly removed
“to symbolize the broken covenant that has occurred
here today.”
The day before, outside the Cleveland convention center
where the Methodists were meeting, some 185 people,
including a church bishop, were arrested at a prayer
protest of the church’s positions against homosexuality.
Among those arrested was Bishop C. Joseph Sprague of
the Northern Illinois region of the church. Also at
the protest were Yolanda King, daughter of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.; the Rev. James Lawson, who led the
Nashville lunch counter sit-ins in the ’60s; and
Arun Gandhi, grandson of the Indian leader Mohandas
Mahatma Gandhi.
Ms. King said she was certain her father’s concerns
for “love and justice” would have brought
him to the protest and so she was showing her support
in her first public action for lesbian and gay rights.
As
the delegates were voting to confirm the church’s
previous antigay rules, however, the Rev. Mark R. Kemling
of Omaha announced that he and at least two other ministers
in the church’s Nebraska Conference would be conducting
a holy union ceremony for two gay men this June in open
defiance of the rules and assuring the issue will continue
to be at the forefront for some time in the 9.6 million-member
denomination.
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