Subject: Email Article For Conference
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 94 22:37:08 EST

Digital Queers on the loose in Kansas

     By Kevyn D. Jacobs
     [email-masked]

     "We're Here -
         We're Queer -
             And we have EMAIL!"

      Thus was the chant of Digital Queers at the March on Washington in
April of 1993. And now, Queers Kansas jumped onto the information highway!
      Electronic Mail, or email, has become the activist tool of the nineties
for gay, lesbian & bisexual activists. The Internet, a worldwide information
web linking computers, has become the new stomping grounds of agitators and
rabble-rousers. Closeted individuals everywhere in the world are using the
Internet to access the Queer Resources Directory (QRD) for information about
Lesbian & Gay issues. I met my last boyfriend through America Online, a
commercial computer server. And the 'thinkers' of the movement - those who
come up with the ideas & directions that shape our movements - talk every day
over electronic chat lines, exchanging ideas and strategizing against the
Radical Religious Right.
      The 90's is shaping up to be the decade that the Queer movement went
online.
      We here in Kansas have taken advantage of this new technology in two
very important ways. The first is to establish a presence on America Online,
in the form of an Equality Kansas folder in the NGLTF section of the Gay &
Lesbian Community Forum. There, anyone who has a computer and a modem can log
on and get information about Equality Kansas, and news about Kansas in
general. If you have a home computer and a modem, you can get onto AOL for
$9.95 a month. You'll get your very own email address there, too! Drop me a
note, I'll help you get online. My phone is 913.539.6275.
      Even more dramatic is the development of two G&L email lists in the
state of Kansas. One list, EKS, is run by Equality Kansas, and is an
electronic anouncement board developed to keep people across the state
informed of the activities of Equality Kansas in its battle against the
Radical Religious Right. It is also being used to post general announcements
of interest to the statewide G&L communities. Outside of Kansas, national
groups like NGLTF are using this list to monitor events as they happen in
Kansas.
      In Manhattan, Digital Queer Kevyn Jacobs has set up a list called "MQ"
- Manhattan Queers - to post announcements about events in the Manhattan
communities. BGLS, The Flint Hills Alliance, The Manhattan AIDS project and
other organizations are using this list to send out news and announcements to
the Manhattan G&L community.
      Anyone with access to Internet email - either through work, school
(most universities offer FREE internet access to students, faculty and staff)
or home (through a commercial server like America Online) - can sign up for
these two email lists by sending email to the list managers. EKS is managed
by [email-masked], and MQ is managed by [email-masked].
      For slightly more adventurous Internet Surfers, QRD is one place you
should definitely take a gander at. The Queer Resources Directory (QRD) is a
HUGE, 40MB online database of queer info. Want to find the text of The Kansas
Sodomy Laws? The text of Urvashi Vaid's speech at the 1993 MOW? Information
on AIDS, Stonewall 25 or Bower-v-Hardwick? Want cool GIF pictures of pink
triangles, rainbow flags or red ribbons? Need to know what is going on in
other parts of the world like Europe, Asia or South America, and more? All of
this can be found on the QRD - FREE OF CHARGE.
     The EASIEST way to get to QRD is through a GOPHER server. If you are a
student at KSU, get an account on MATT (if you have a KSUVM account, you
automatically have an account on MATT). Log on to MATT and type :

"gopher vector.casti.com".

If all you have access to is Telnet, telnet to the public gopher site at
gopher.virginia.edu and login as gwis. Choose "Other Internet Services", then
"All the Gopher Servers in the World", and then "Casti Collection."
     The QRDstaff are eager to help you get there & share their information.
If you have trouble, you can always ask them for help via email at
[email-masked].