Date: Mon, 15 Jan 1996 14:15:47 -0500 (EST) From: "David J. Edmondson" Subject: GLIL newsletter for 2/95 The Quill Volume 3, Number 1, February 1995 GLIL to Host Big, Fun Event to Benefit SMYAL The spring social event of the season will be the Academy Awards Celebration for Youth. Monday night, March 27 at 8:30 is the time, and Club Zei in Washington is the place This GLIL-sponsored event is for the benefit of the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League, commonly known as SMYAL. Tickets for the event are $25 for general admission and $100 for Producers. Event chair Gene A. Cisewski of The Monticello Group reports that entertainment will include ABC's live broadcast of the Oscar ceremonies, performances by the youth during commercial breaks, a possible Broadway number by performers scheduled to be in Washington that night, and some of the best hors d'oeuvres and desserts from around the Potomac. There will be a cash bar available with special, lower prices than normally found at the club. The event will also feature a contest to see who has the best handle on Hollywood politics. Guests of the event will be able to vote on a ballot for a price to see if their favorites win the awards (nominees will be announced on Valentine's Day). Among the prizes planned for winners is an autographed script from Mary Tyler Moore from her show's "Chuckles Bites the Dust" episode. GLIL Treasurer Odell Huff is organizing the Host Committee now and members should already have a letter from him. If you will help sell tickets, call him right away. David Morris, Stephen Bone and Scott Wallis are in charge of the facilities and food. The event will feature television monitors throughout the club carrying the broadcast and our own programming. People who purchase $100 Producer tickets will have exclusive use of the third floor lounge at Club Zei where they will discover special treats and a champagne toast for the Best Picture of the year. Rick Sincere is working on the publicity. We'll need volunteers in about a week who will help address invitations that we're sending out to about 2,000 people in addition to help putting up posters and getting word out about the event. The GLIL Board voted to do this event at a meeting in December. It gives us a chance to put our money where our mouths are. We talk about the private sector meeting the needs of our community. SMYAL is an exemplary private, volunteer-based youth services organization. This is an event where we can come together to show just how effective we can be in the private sector. SMYAL serves young people (14-21) coming to terms with the challenges they meet as they face their sexuality. Serving youth in the District, northern Virginia and Maryland, SMYAL offers a variety of services, including family counseling, structured weekly support groups, dropin programs for safe socializing and recreation with their peers, and a Helpline. GLIL to Host Policy Forum at the National Press Club Focus on HIV Home Test Kits Awaiting FDA Approval May Be Covered By CSPAN! On Tuesday morning, February 28, at 9:30, GLIL will sponsor a panel of leading activists discussing why the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should or should not approve the new HIV home test kit recently developed. This event will be held in the National Press Club's West Room on the top floor of 529 14th Street, NW, in Washington. It will last about one hour as each of six panelists present their case and then field questions from the audience. The people who have agreed to participate in the panel include, Sean Strub, publisher of POZ magazine and president of Strubco; Dana Berliner, a staff attorney with the Institute for Justice; Raquel Whiting, a policy analyst with the National Pediatric HIV Resource Center; Christopher J. Portelli, Esq., the executive director of the National Lesbian and Gay Health Association; A. Cornelius Baker, the director of public policy and education for the National Association of People With AIDS; and W. Shepherd Smith, president of Americans for a Sound AIDS/HIV Policy. According to event organizer, Odell Huff, this panel brings together a wide range of views on the topic. At the heart of the matter is whether or not the federal government has the right to prevent people from using the modern technology and channel of privacy the new home testing kit allows. Arguments will range from "counseling must be mandated" to "the government should track all HIV carriers," as well as it's "none of the government's business." All GLIL members are encouraged to attend this major event at the Press Club and to bring friends. Be prepared to ask challenging questions of the panelists. From Your Editor This past November, as voters, we sent an affirmative message. We want a government that provides a stable and secure society but which also costs less and stays out of our private lives. Hopefully, we can wean ourselves away from politics which pits one "group" against another in a zero-sum game. We would all like to see economic and social policy built around individual opportunity, resources, and concomitant responsibility. In the economic areas, more voluntary cooperation, decentralization, and employee ownership would give individuals more control over external events. Yet, government constantly encourages irresponsible personal behavior, which burdens and endangers others in ways to which no one pays attention. In our imperfect world, there are two major problems. One is that not everyone plays fair. We would all like to see an end to irrational discrimination, when based on immutable traits or on private "lifestyle" considerations that have no legitimate relevance. We have gotten used to depending on government to override the original common law right to "discriminate," with laws protecting persons who fit into certain identifiable "suspect classes." Is there a better way? As a second problem, people don't enter the world as adults. Strong, preferably twoparent, families make the best vehicle to develop personal accountability. If there is to be less government, families will have to become stronger and do more both in raising the next generation's adults and in taking care of the needy. But "family" must not be a smokescreen for keeping competing clans at each others' throats, and for perpetuating prejudices and condescension; "family" must not remain the only culturally recognized source of personal identity. This "family values" agenda has two components. First, adults at least for their own success in life need to make committed relationships based on caring and personal growth, not just gratification or fantasy. Second, the next generation's children need to be raised a tremendously costly venture for parents. To what extent should the state support these ends? Should the needs of those raising children be met at the expense of all others, or at least of those adults who would otherwise spend resources on themselves? Should the idea of "family support" be extended to caring for dependent adults and aging parents as well? Some social "conservatives" talk as if persons should be free from government only if they are first socialized in the traditional family. They accuse gay men and lesbians or undermining the credibility of the family as a social bedrock. They would close a circle with the Left in "legislating morality"; they would play Robin Hood in order to support twoparent, oneearner families with children. Yet homosexuals often do form stable relationships and often perform very well as parents, even if the generic, heterosexual two parent family is an optimal structure for raising children. Conservatives need to distinguish between people disinclined to have children and people who have children and then abandon them. Parents should be held responsible for their own children. We intend that The Quill will present constructive policy dialogue around the problems in making a society more productive, less dependent of government intervention, and still socially just. We are not trying to bash Newt, Jesse, "SamNunn", or "billclinton." We just want to ask questions like: why does everyone have to cling to their job for dear life? Why do so many families scrounge from paycheck to paycheck? And what can we do about these anxieties ourselves, if we can get government to get out of our way? Bill Boushka Have You Paid Your Dues? In 1995, we plan exciting things for GLIL. We will host two public policy forums during the first six months, the first of which is written up in this edition. We will also expand the public policy dialogue in the newsletter. In order to keep you informed (pay the printer and snail mail postage rates), we must begin charging dues, $10 per year, effective Jan. 1, 1995. We will continue to assemble for happy hour the first Tuesday of every month at 6:30 PM. For information, call GLIL president David Morris at (202) 789-2536.