Subject: Dispatch From Gay South Dakota
From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 12:31:42 -0400

*************************************************
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
NEWS RELEASE

Contact:          Robert Bray (415) 552-6483
                       [email-masked]

2320 17th Street NW   Washington, DC   20009
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DISPATCH FROM GAY SOUTH DAKOTA

FIRST EVER NATIONAL COMING OUT WEEK KICKS OFF; TOURISTS GET EYEFUL AT MT.
RUSHMORE

[Note: The following report is by Robert Bray, National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force field organizer.   Bray is on a 10-day, 600-mile, four-town organizing
and gay visibility tour of South Dakota.  He is filing reports over the
Internet during the tour.  Bray is traveling with photojournalist Rick
Gerharter from San Francisco, plus local activist Barry Wick.  Bray lives in
San Francisco when not on the road.]

MONDAY, Oct. 9, 1995, RAPID CITY, S.D....The tourists were startled and the
granite bust of George Washington almost blinked in disbelief as National
Coming Out Week kicked off with an "official photo op" for queer South
Dakotans at the famous Mt. Rushmore National Memorial.

 First they unfolded a giant rainbow flag.  Then they stepped up to the
scenic viewpoint not far from where Cary Grant tried to escape the bad guys
in the Hitchcock classic, "North By Northwest." Then they took a deep breath,
struck a pose, shouted out a chorus for the local T.V. news station -- "Happy
National Coming Out Day in South Dakota!" -- and made history as gay,
lesbian, and bisexual people came out in a big way here in Black Hills
country. One couple even staged an impromptu kiss-in practically under Teddy
Roosevelt's nose.

STORY CIRCLES AND PHOTO OPS

 More than a dozen folks, most of them either not out of the closet or just
barely out, participated in the event.  Earlier in the day at a downtown
press conference an impressive list of official National Coming Out Week
(NCOW) events across the state was formally released.  The media event was
covered the Rapid City Journal, ABC and NBC local affiliates, and a stringer
for the Nichi Bei Times (Japanese American Daily News)

 On the list of events in Rapid City is the coming out story circle and brown
bag lunch.  The new All Faiths gay, lesbian and bisexual worship service,
plus a Unitarian Universalist sermon.  The NCOW video screening potluck.  A
meet and greet breakfast.  The Mt. Rushmore photo op.  Not on the official
list but perhaps most important were the private conversations and personal
encounters made by gay, lesbian and bisexual people and non-gay supporters
who reached out to meet each other.

 Being openly gay in South Dakota can be extremely difficult.  There is
tremendous fear and isolation.  There are no protections against
discrimination.  It's a terribly conservative state.  The Radical Right is
growing here. There's really been no gay movement or even a place where gays
can gather safely in this part of the state.  These people have shown true
bravery and courage in coming out.  There is a sense of community forming,
and more are getting politically involved.

GAYDAR IN THE BADLANDS

 Still to come on the tour are a trip east through the Badlands -- with
"gaydar" of full alert -- a NCOW prairie bonfire in Vermillion at the
University of South Dakota; lectures at S.D. State in Brookings; another
press conference in Sioux Falls; a media, fundraising and organizing
skills-building training; and a statewide strategy meeting to discuss the
next steps.

 But for now, the folks of Rapid City, (pop.  60,000) are talking about the
local buzz created in the media and around town by the new gay visibility.
 So far about 30 gay, lesbian and bisexual residents have come forward, with
another 20 non-gay allies joining them. 

 You'd think most of the town was coming out based on the press coverage.
 Both the local TV stations carried evening news reports.  The Journal
splashed NCOW across the front page of the local section complete with color
photo, after running an advance teaser the day before.  This Way Out national
gay radio is doing a tour roundup.  Gay Radio in Chicago was fed a live
broadcast direct from Camp David, the only gay bed and breakfast in South
Dakota (located off Bogus Jim Road in the Black Hills National Forest).

 In addition, the first ever G/L/B/T South Dakota Resource Guide has been
photocopied and distributed to businesses, churches, synagogues and other
places around town and throughout the state.  Even email networks are
carrying the news from Custer to Aberdeen.

 The tour is being sponsored by NGLTF and Free Americans Creating Equal
Status of South Dakota, Inc. -- or FACES -- an appropriate acronym
considering the historic profiles carved in Mt. Rushmore.  FACES (formerly
the S.D. Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Federation) is marking it's official
incorporation this week.  A very small number of local groups existed here
and there in the state before, including a PFLAG chapter in Sioux Falls, but
FACES is the first statewide political, education and advocacy group in South
Dakota.

CREATING A SAFE SPACE

 "NCOW comes at a critical time for South Dakota," said Barry Wick, founder
of FACES and native son of the state.  "The Far Right is bigger than ever
here.  We've had to battle hostile legislation already.  Gay, lesbian and
bisexual people need a safe space in which to come out in and organize.
 That's starting to happen in our state."

 The S.D. Family Values Coalition has been stirring trouble lately.  Some
2,500 anti-choice protesters marched past the local Planned Parenthood office
(which stopped performing abortions some time ago).  Posters in religious
bookstores such as the Gospel Gardens Shop advertise an upcoming "Clergy
Appreciation Day."  Arch-conservative GOP presidential candidate Allan Keyes
is making a speaking tour of the area.  Local politicos often remind
out-of-towners that South Dakota went for Pat Buchanan over George Bush in
1988.

  And of course there has been a long and violent history of oppression of
minorities in South Dakota, most infamously against Sioux and other Native
American tribes dating  back to when it was still a territory in the late
1800's.  Even Gutzon Borglum, designer and carver of Mt. Rushmore, is rumored
in these parts to have been a member of the Klan.

 Last January, the anti-gay measure SB1184 was introduced into the state
senate in Pierre, the capital.   The bill attempted to ban the recognition of
same-gender marriages, including those recognized in Hawaii, should that
state rule affirmatively on its current gay marriage case.  Wick and a
handful of other local citizens managed to derail the bill and stall it long
enough to have it killed, even after it passed initial floor votes.  During a
hearing on the bill, Wick, whose great grandfather is a former South Dakota
governor, and others testified openly to the senate as gay voters -- another
first for the state.

 And just three weeks ago, say local gays, the Rapid City Journal refused to
include AIDS as the cause of death in an obituary.  The deceased man's
outraged mother finally got the paper to reverse its decision after storming
into the editorial office and protesting loudly for an hour.

FACES TO REMEMBER

 The battle around the bill and the subsequent publicity galvanized many gays
into action and gave birth to FACES.  The group now has a database of 200
that is expected to top 400 by the end of NCOW; a library of more than 175
titles; and elaborate email lists and information access services on a new
computer NGLTF helped the group obtain.

 FACES is housed in Wick's basement at this time, which was the site of a
NCOW potluck today.  In attendance were a variety of local folks, all of whom
recounted dramatic stories of being queer in South Dakota.  Several revealed
how they had contemplated suicide, survived alcoholism, or even had their
children taken away after divorcing their heterosexual spouses.  Many come
from deeply religious families.  All told of how it was so critical for gays
to be able to come out and meet each other.

 Like the lesbian couple, a one-time nun and now a small business owner; and
her lover, a former Playboy Bunny and now a sign language interpreter and
security guard with a double Master's degree.  They announced at the potluck
their commitment ceremony planned for next July. 

 Also planning on "getting married" next year is a gay male couple, one of
which has been excommunicated from the Mormon Church after refusing to
renounce his homosexuality.

 And the teenage bisexual woman who did her high school senior report on gay
history, a first for that South Dakota school no doubt.

 Then there's the people at the new All Faiths gay and lesbian worship
service.  The fellowship, which gathers in a makeshift chapel near the mining
college, has only met for three Sundays yet still managed to attract some 20
new folks today.

 Live and Let Live, a gay and lesbian AA recovery support group, is starting
to meet regularly.

 Just this week, the Synagogue of the Hills announced it is a "welcoming
congregation" for lesbians, gays and bisexuals.

LESBIAN CAMPOUT

 And although local out-of-the-closet lesbians can be difficult to find, even
compared to the few number of out gay men, a popular lesbian campout has been
held privately every summer for at least 14 years in the pines and ponderosas
of the Black Hills.   Called the "Wacky Woo" jamboree, the last campout
attracted more than 70 women.  The title apparently comes from a local folk
song that is performed frequently around the campfire ("and all the women do
the wacky woo...").

 Despite all the new-found friends and lovers and fledgling groups and
events, life can still be tough for gays here.  The Atomic Cafe, a local
hangout for queer youth, recently closed again.  There are no bars or
official meeting places.  Only one or two gay-friendly cafes serve as
informal hangouts.  Teachers and other education workers tell harrowing tales
of homophobia in local schools, with virtually no diversity or sensitivity
training occurring anywhere.  Gays are fearful of  being fired if they come
out.

PROGRESS THROUGH THE PRAIRIE

 Still, it's clear that progress is being made.  Gays and lesbians could be
seen exchanging phone numbers for the first time at Rapid City NCOW events.
 One lesbian wrote a donation check to FACES on the spot after seeing a
demonstration of its new computer system.  Activist Barry Wick even managed
to unnerve Governor Bill Janklow when he wrote him to protest the restriction
on AIDS education in state schools, and the Governor fired back a nasty
missive saying he refused to even read Wick's note.

 Rapid City, on what possibly is the final frontier of gay organizing, is
just the first stop on the NCOW tour.   One local queen could be heard
calling it the "Queers, Beers and Steers Tour '95."  Next stop is Vermillion,
a small town on the Iowa border 340 miles across the Badlands and the
prairie.  Stay tuned for more gay dispatches from South Dakota.

NGLTF is the nation's oldest gay and lesbian civil rights and grassroots
organizing group.  In the last two and one-half years alone NGLTF's Field
Division organizers have traveled more than 100,000 miles to some 30 towns in
28 states and trained 5,000 activists.

NGLTF's donor number in the Combined Federal Campaign is 2622

###

(For more information and to make contributions contact Free Americans
 Creating Equal Status of South Dakota, Inc., at 605-343-5577,
[email-masked], 13121 South Creekview Road, Rapid City, SD,, 57702.  Contact
NGLTF's Robert Bray at 415-552-6448,  [email-masked].  Photojournalist Rick
Gerhardt is documenting the tour.  For photos, contact him at 415-824-5300.)