Oxford gays fight back
OXFORD, OH. (GCGC) The Miami University student group. Advocates for Gay Liberation (AGL), is challenging discrimination by the University administra⚫tion. The Student Affairs Council recommended that AGL receive an allocation of $64 (only 40% of what AGL requested) as a recog-. nized studeni group, from the student activities fund. University President Phillip Shriver took the student budget to the Miami
member Powell Grant, "the student group was clearly denied funding because it advocated gay rights. This kind of discrimi-
Board of Trustees and recom-. mended the requested allocations for every student group except AGL. The Board of Trustees adopted Shriver's recom-nation violates the First Amendmendation, despite testimony by AGL officers protesting this blatant discrimination against the gay group.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has agreed to defend the AGL as a court case. According to ACLU board
Stallions plan big events
September is a busy month for the Stallions, a private club, with two big events on the ticket -a White Elephant Sale and the Fiesta Ball. Both events are open to all men and friends of the Stallions.
The White Elephant Sale is a club favorite held annually and will take place on the patio of the Leather Stallion Saloon, 2203 St: Clair Ave., Cleveland, Sunday. Sept. 14, 2-5 p.m. (free admission). This afternoon affair will offer the chance to scoop-up
great buys on a wide range of gift items and leather novelties, both new and used, donated by Stal-
lion members.
The Fiesta Ball will blend flavors from South of the Border on Saturday, Sept. 20, at 10 p.m. at the Sumner Trucking Company (STC). There will be a $2 cover at the door.
The Ball will provide a disco party, a "Mr. Fiesta Ball" contest, plus the Stallions will serve especialades de Mexico to all in attendance. The Stallions encourage everyone to wear appropriate Fiesta spirited attire.
The Stallions are also wellunderway with plans for their 8th Annual Autumn Stampede to be held October 24-26. The club's "run" (called that because you
run around constantly enjoying the fellowship of others) is open to mer and friends of the Stallions with applications available at most bars.
The run begins at the Leather Stail or Saloon on Friday. October 24 at 8:30 p.m. with registration and dinner for run attendees. Later that night a disco party will be held at the Sumner Trucking Company (STC).
Saturday starts off with brunch at the Crown Café, followed by a special afternoon event and a banquet that evening with a live show. Another after-hours party at STC caps off the night.
Sunday offers brunch and an awards ceremony at the Crown Cafe and a farewell luncheon at STC that will conclude the three day event.
Many downtown bars and restaurants are participating in the run. The Stallions have secured deluxe hotel accommodations at a reduced rate for those who require them.
Applications may be picked up at the Leather Stallion Saloon, Sumner Trucking Company and Vaults or by mail to the Stallions, Inc., 2203 St. Clair Ave., Cleveland, Ohio 44114.
Gay beaten during Olympics
MOSCOW (IGNA) There have been numerous incidents of Soviet interference with Western press coverage of the Olympic Games, but the harshest so far occurred on July 21, in Red Square, when KGB agents. scuffled with four newsmen covering a one-man protest by an Italian gay-rights activist.
The activist, Vincenzo Francone, 32, of Turin, had told reporters that he intended to handcuff himself to a stanchion near the Kremlim wall and St. Basil's Cathedral to protest Article 121 of the Soviet Criminal Code, which calls for up to 5 years in ́ ́ prison for sexual relations between members of the same
sex.
The square, between the Kremlin and the Gum Department Store, was full of plainclothes police, who instantly tackled. Francone and any newsman who was carrying a camera.
United Press International
bureau chief John Moody was hit twice in the groin and hustled off to a holding room inside the Kremlin, where security guards screamed at him that he must not cover politics, only sports. Two French reporters were also hit several times.
One highly reliable Western.
source said that the gay activist was seen on a floor in a police sub-station, being pummeled and kicked by police.
Physical abuse of Western newsmen has been increasing since the Games opened.
The Russians are angry because they do not wish anything controversial politically to be examined. They also were reported angry when Western news bureaus refused to participate in the Ostankino Soviet TV Center; the news bureaus said that the price--in money and censorship--asked by the Russians was too high.
·
ment doctrine of freedom of
September 1980 HIGH GEAR Page 11
speech, by punishing the group endorsed the AGL court battle for speaking out on a controver‚ against anti-gay discrimination, sial issue." The Oxford Legal and has made a donation to the Defense Fund has been estab Defense Fund. Individual contrllished to help pay for legal butions can be sent to GCGC for expenses of the case. GCGC has the Miami court case..
Play House season set
A Play House series set in ancient Rome, 18th century England, and Second World War France and America has been promised Clevelanders for the 1980-81 season. The new season includes thirteen productions. among them a classic and a revival, a premiere, three shows directly from Broadway, a musical and two comedies.
At the Euclid-77th Street Theater, the year will begin with Banjo Dancing (or the Squitters Mountain Song Dance Folklore Convention and Banjo Contest... and how I lost); starting September 16, it is a one man folk music entertainment featuring Stephen Wade.
The Brooks Theater will open October 17 with Indulgences in the Louisville Harem, a recent play concerning two unmarried 'sisters and two seeming gentlemen who prey on their loneliness. Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine will begin the season in the Drury Theater. October 10, as
audiences live the life of an antinazi German engineer in Washington in 1940.
Other highlights of the upcoming season include Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: On Golden Pond, an observation of age and love; and Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce, set to open at the Euclid-77th Street Theater December 5.
A special treat for the Cleveland audience will be the March 17March 21 appearance of Pat Carroll in Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein at the Drury Theater. Set at her apartment in Paris in 1938, the review recreates the salon of Stein and Alice B. Toklas and regales the audience with a view of Hemingway, Picasso and Matisse as Ernest, Pablo and Henri seen through the eyes of Stein.
The complete season is outlined below.
Banjo Dancing: September 16 October 5. Euclid 77th Street
Watch on the Rhine October 10. -November 23. Drury Indulgences in the Louisville Harem: October 17-November 9. Brooks
Filumena: October 31-November 30, Euclid-77th Street
A Christmas Carol: November 28January 4, 1981. Drury Bedroom Farce: December 5 February 1, 1981. Euclid-77th Street
Emigrants: December 19 January 18, 1981. Brooks Strider: The Story of a Horse: January 23-February 21. Drury. Children of Darkness (or The Jailer's Wench): February 6 March 18. Euclid-77th Street.
On Golden Pond: March 20-May 3. Euclid-77th Street Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Ger trude Stein: March 17 March 21. Drury.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: March 27 May 3. Drury.
Miss Margarida's Way: April 10 May 3. Brooks.
Gay prisoners hold social
VACAVILLE, CA. (IGNA)-The
transvestite and transexual soners at the Vacaville Correcmal Facility have held an wards program and social inside the prison walls.
Permission for the evening was granted by prison officials after the prison outreach program of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco requested the occasion.
Awards were given, cake was served, and dancing rounded out the evening.
Vacaville is one of the few prisons in the United States to have special protective facilities for self-identified homosexual prisoners. Most gay prisoners are.dered a woman legally. in the closet because they risk beatings and rapes if they are known to be gay.
("trapped inside a men's institu⚫tion," as she put it) because she has yet to complete the final operation she needs to be consi-
There are some 30 prisoners at Vacaville who attend weekly gettogethers sponsored by the prison outreach program. One of the leaders is Elizabeth, a maleto-female transexual, who remains in the all-male prison
Elizabeth is not entitled to have ⚫ cosmetics according to prison rules, but she and several others have managed to obtain some.
The outreach program is trying to expand in order to make life less oppressive for gay prisoners in other facilities.'
Miss Ohio Female Impersonator contest
held in Canton
The Miss Ohio Female Impersonator-1980" contest was held on June 28 at the American Legion Post 44 in Canton, Ohio.
A crowd of 300 watched 17 contestants compete in the con-
was Krista Kelly Fields, also from Southern 'Ohio. Second runnerup was Jamie Maxwell of Canton, and first runner-up went to Kiki DeCarlo of Warren.
The winner and new "Miss
test which had "Copa Cabana" as Ohio Female Impersonator -
: a theme.
Miss Stella Van Horne was Mistress of Ceremonies. Entertainment was provided by Jayne Winters, "Miss Ohio Female Impersonator1979", Melissa Ross, Denise Monet, and Jeanette Jones.
The executive director of the contest was I eon Ball. Ron Kinest of Canton designed the sets.
The fourth runner-up and winner of the best costume award was Michelle St. Johns of Southern Ohio. Third runner-up
1980" is Suzanne Stratford of Canton. Miss Stratford won $1000 and a trip to Detroit where she will represent Ohio' in the "Miss Gay America" pageant in August.
Prisoner released
(IGNA) Russell Smith, the gay prisoner activist whose case became of interest to the International Gay Association because of a history of mistreatment, has been released from prison.
Smith, a federal prisoner for 7% years: spent 2% of those years in
prison because ne nad defended himself against rape and threat of rape and been convicted by authorities for so doing.
Activists in Ireland, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and England rallied to help. Smith.