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30th Anniversary Of UFMCC

October 6, 1998 marks the 30th anniversary of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches-the world's oldest and largest predominantly Gay spirituality organization.

During 1968, three life-changing events deeply impacted the future of a defrocked Pentecostal minister by the name of Troy D. Perry-and motivated him to look for a way to address the spiritual and social justice needs of the Gay community.

First, in the midst of relationship break-up, Perry had unsuccessfully attempted suicide.

Second, a friend by the name of Carlos was falsely arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department for "lewd conduct"-a catch-all term used to oppress and harass the Gay community.

Third, in the face of police harassment, a group of Gay men marched to the local Los Angeles police station and for the first time took a public stand for their dignity and civil rights.

These events took place one year before the historic Stonewall Riots.

These three events were used by God to plant a dream-a dream of a church where Gay men and Lesbians would be welcomed, accepted and affirmed.

Out of that dream, the Rev. Troy D. Perry held the first worship service of the UFMCC. Twelve worshipers gathered in his home in Huntington Park, CA at 1:30pm on Oct. 6, 1968-the first service of what today has become an international movement with more than 42,000 members and adherents in 15 countries, an annual income exceeding $15 million, and a powerful message of spiritual acceptance and affirmation for Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgendered persons.

The celebration of UFMCC's 30th Anniversary will begin in October 1998 and will culminate with the dedication of the UFMCC World Center in West Hollywood, CA and UFMCC International General Conference and World Jubilee in Los Angeles, CA in July, 1999.

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Texas Gay School Begins 2nd Year

The Walt Whitman Community School for sexual minority students in Dallas, TX began its second academic year on Aug. 31. It's believed to be the first and only private school of its type in the U.S. Last year Whitman opened with seven students and ended the year with 15; although only six of those are returning (and some of them may participate in the school's first-ever graduation at the end of the year), enrollment is still expected to reach 15 within the first two weeks. To accommodate the increased enrollment, Whitman opened this year at a new location at the Samaritan Institute, a seminary affiliated with the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. The unusual amount of individual attention students receive means a cost of $7,000 per student, but generous community support is helping both the school and individual students to defray those costs. Whitman will apply for accreditation through the Southwestern Association of Colleges and Schools during its 1999-2000 school year, the first year it can do so. [NewsPlanet]

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Hepatitis A Alert For Gay Men

Hepatitis B has long been recognized as a special risk for Gay men, and the more recently-identified hepatitis C has been grabbing headlines, but the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is now recommending that Gay men be vaccinated for hepatitis A in the wake of an Atlanta, GA outbreak that began in 1996. Britain also identified an alarming increase in hepatitis A in 1997. Although hepatitis A is not often fatal, its treatment in the U.S. costs well over $1-billion annually.

Hepatitis A is an acute infection that usually lasts two to three weeks. It inflames the liver, causing flu-like symptoms and sometimes jaundice, although some infected people remain asymptomatic. It's transmitted through oral-fecal contact, and was long known as "holiday hepatitis" because it's often contracted through contaminated water. In the U.S., the population which has generally been most vulnerable to hepatitis A is Native Americans.

Atlanta had averaged only 27 cases per year from 1993-1995, but 222 cases were counted from January through June of 1996. Those 1996 cases were 74% Gay or Bisexual men, while in 1995, only 41% of those infected were Gay or Bisexual men. In the current CDC "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report," the CDC warns that the increase in cases in Atlanta appears to have continued at least through November 1997, the last month for which statistics are available.

Although Atlanta pursued an education and vaccination campaign in Gay venues as well as the usual health centers, the campaign resulted in the vaccination of some 3,000 Gay men-only about 10% of the population considered to be at risk, a much lower rate of success that other campaigns for children and teens. A hepatitis A vaccine has been available since 1995. Merck & Co., Inc. announced a new vaccine, VAQTA, last month.

In February at a first-ever U.S. National Hepatitis Summit in Washington, DC, a national Digestive Health Initiative Viral Hepatitis Education Campaign was launched by the American Digestive Health Foundation (1.800.668.5237) and the American Liver Foundation (1.888.443.7222) with the help of former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and Naomi Judd, the singer whose own hepatitis infection forced her to retire.

British officials identified 476 cases in England and Wales from June-September 1997, almost doubling the 249 recorded in the same period in 1996-and they believed that there were many more cases not reported. The increase was greatest among young Gay men in London.

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AIDS Action Mourns Loss Of Research Leaders

The tragedy aboard SwissAir Flight 111 is especially intense for those in the fight against AIDS. Aboard the doomed jetliner were husband and wife AIDS researchers and experts Jonathan Mann and Mary Lou Clements-Mann. The Manns devoted their lives to fighting AIDS and were key players in the vaccine search as well as AIDS treatment and humanitarian issues. "The loss of the Manns means the loss of committed leaders in the fight against AIDS and the search for a vaccine," said AIDS Action executive director Daniel Zingale.

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New York Times Shines
Cold Light Of Day On Morning Party

The Morning Party, an annual Fire Island fund raiser for Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), "began as a relatively modest affair, a respite for the living and remembrance of the dead that was held in daylight, so that even the ill might be able to go," Frank Bruni writes in the Sept. 8 New York Times. Today, the event "has evolved into a glamorous social event that attracts hordes of Gay men to Fire Island and reliably raises enormous sums of money for Gay Men's Health Crisis.... But the hangover has been formidable.... Many Gay men have questioned the propriety of the group's endorsement of a party that seems to inspire the kind of drug consumption widely thought to increase the likelihood of unsafe sexual behavior and the spread of AIDS."

The controversy has heightened, Bruni says, because dozens of similar events have sprung up nationally; they've become known as circuit parties because "some of them attract the same core crowd, lavishly muscled and wealthy enough to buy plane tickets and plenty of drugs." Bruni quotes Alan Brown of New Haven, CT, who annually attends about two dozen of the events, as saying, "People have been leaving parties in ambulances routinely for three years now." Bruni states that Brown and others emphasize that many who attend "use illegal drugs infrequently, if ever, and that a vast majority of Gay men have never been to" a circuit party. Bruni also details recent efforts to curtail drug use at the party, but writes, "What most alarms many Gay men and public health experts is not the drug use itself but the implications for responsible sexual conduct." He quotes Ron Stall, epidemiology professor at the University of California at San Francisco, as saying drug use by Gay men "is a strong, significant predictor of becoming HIV-positive." [GLAAD]

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Ms. Mag: Closeted Lesbians in Sports

Lesbians and Gays are going public all over the place," Liz Galst writes in the September/October Ms. Magazine. "So why does the sports establishment have some of the deepest closets in the country?" Though many assume women athletes are, by definition, Lesbians, Galst writes, "an out Lesbian athlete or coach can be pretty hard to find" in professional - and especially college - sports. Administrators "fear they'll lose students and money if their women's teams are thought to be made up of Lesbians." Success adds to the pressure to stay closeted, writes Galst: "With multi-year contracts, high-stakes endorsements and whopping TV revenues, nobody wants to bet their money on setting up an openly homosexual athlete as an American icon."

Galst details how some recruiters try to dissuade top candidates from attending other colleges by telling parents the rival coaches are Lesbians. Lesbian athletes "have heard rumors - many true - of young women who lost their scholarships when they were discovered to be Lesbians." Although a small but growing group of athletes are insisting they be open about their sexuality, "It's no wonder that most Lesbian coaches are in the sports closet - a secret society that exists largely apart from the rest of the Lesbian and Gay world." Galst also writes that "when Ms. asked more than three dozen coaches to participate in anonymous interviews for this article, not one agreed." Her article is a chilling portrait of a subculture denied its full identity, and much of its freedom, by the baseless prejudice of a heterosexual majority.

Please express to Ms. Magazine your appreciation for Galst's forceful, thorough exposure of the appalling discrimination still aimed at Lesbian athletes and coaches by their peers, colleagues and supervisors. Contact: Gloria Jacobs, Editor, Ms., 135 West 50th St., 16th Floor, New York, NY 10020-1201

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Smile When You Hand Over That Teddy Bear, Pardner

Dallas Morning News reporter Christine Wicker began her Aug. 30 report by painting a classic set-up for a neighborhood feud: In Oak Lawn sits JR's, a popular bar and grill among Gay men, which operates a $4 million-a-year liquor business. Precisely one block away is Sam Houston Elementary, Dallas' oldest school - and among its poorest. Last fall, JR's manager, Donald Solomon, went to the school seeking a small holiday project - the names of a few families who needed some help with presents for their kids. But school administrators talked JR's and its customers into buying toys -substantial ones such as skateboards - for every single pupil. That, Wicker tells us, was in the nature of a warm-up: This fall, JR's and three other local Gay bars owned by Caven Enterprises have adopted the entire school: "Sam Houston has some new playground equipment. The children have more than $1,000 in new school supplies. The number of tutors signed up to read to the children has doubled, from 35 to 70." Solomon told Wicker he never required that anyone volunteer, but employees couldn't resist the opportunity to help: "There's no hate in the children's faces. They don't know about hate."

This feature is an inviting, positive and warm-hearted look at the innovative, much-needed community service being provided to children by a business catering very visibly to Gay men. It is a perfect example of a story which found its way to print not because it was a "Gay issue," but because it was a great story which happened to involve Gay men.

Please thank the Dallas Morning News for providing such enjoyable evidence that Gay bars and businesses can be assets to neighborhoods as well as targets of complaint. Contact: Ralph Langer, Editor, Dallas Morning News, PO Box 655237, Dallas, TX, 75265-5237. [GLAAD]

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Condom Vending Machines
A Hit In China

According to the China Daily, the country's first condom vending machines in the southern town of Shenzhen have been so successful that machines will be placed in other cities. In the first month of operation, each of the 50 machines sold 2,000 to 3,000 condoms at 12 cents each. The paper reported that sales have been spurred by news of an increase in sexually transmitted diseases. Prostitution is widespread in Shenzhen, and recently the China Daily reported that 21 people in the town are HIV-positive. [from The Advocate]

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California Congressman
Apologizes For Slur

Republican representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham has apologized for comments he made recently to prostrate cancer patients at the San Diego Rehabilitation Institute. In describing his own rectal cancer treatment, Cunningham described the procedure as "just not normal, unless maybe you're Barney Frank." Says Cunningham now "I am sorry. I was out of line." The four-term congressman had a cancerous prostrate gland removed last month.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) subsequently shrugged off the crude remark. Asked about Cunningham's conduct by The Boston Globe, Frank said, "He seems to be more obsessed with homosexuality than most homosexuals." [from The Daily Advocate]

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$220,000 Harassment Award In Kentucky

A federal jury on Sept. 4 awarded $220,000 in damages to Alma McGowan for harassment she experienced for four years in the Spencer County, KY school system; the system has not yet determined whether it will appeal. The harassment began her second day in school at age 11 and continued on almost a daily basis, including Lesbian-baiting and taunts for her status as a German national with U.S. residency. The most dramatic incidents included a rape threat in a classroom the teacher had left unattended and shouts of "lezzie" at a school assembly. Perpetrators never suffered any consequences, and at 15 McGowan left for home schooling after one boy's threat to burn down her house.

Hers is believed to be the first case to meet the higher "deliberate indifference" standard established for public schools in a Supreme Court ruling this past session. Stephen Vance, another student who had filed along with McGowan over harassment which was also primarily homophobic in nature, did not meet that standard of notification of school personnel, and his case was dismissed; he has left the state to receive special services for autism. Now 17, McGowan is reportedly doing well at Jefferson Community College. [NewsPlanet]

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Gay Mayor Quits For EPA Job

After 14 years, Melbourne, Iowa's openly Gay Mayor Bill Crews is resigning effective September 11 to move to Washington, DC for a job in the Environmental Protection Agency.

"We're leaving friends and a wonderful place to live for something we think will be equally exciting and nice," he told the Associated Press. "My biggest regret is that Iowa's political and religious leaders have not realized that bigotry and discrimination hurts Iowa's future and Iowa's families," he told the Des Moines Register.

Crews came to national attention only after he attended the 1993 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights and returned home to discover anti-Gay graffiti on the home he shares with his partner of 20 years, Steve Kehoe. Thereafter, the couple accepted their status as role models, including appearing on a national TV newsmagazine show. Crews actively lobbied against Iowa's law to deny legal recognition to same-gender marriages another state may someday perform, which was signed into law in April.

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