Date: Sat, 10 Jun 1995 22:47:05 -0500 (EDT) From: paula@server.nlbbs.com (Paula Stockholm) MLGPA NEWSLETTER Summer 1995 PO Box 232, Hallowell, ME 04347 1-800-55-MLGPA (800-556-5472) REFERENDUM HEARING HUGE SUCCESS - Committee Votes Unanimously "Ought Not To Pass" On May 5th at the Augusta Civic Center, MLGPA organized a Public Hearing before the Legislature's Judiciary Committee. The committee heard testimony from both proponents and opponents of L.D. 310, An Act to Limit Protected Classes under Maine Law, the referendum bill. Testifying on behalf of the proponents were Carolyn Cosby, Lawrence Lockman, and Dennis Daigle of Concerned Maine Families (CMF), Bruce Fein, the Virginia lawyer who crafted the referendum, Mike Heath from the Christian Civic League, Michael Schools from All Catholics for Truth, and assorted fundamentalist preachers and followers. The message from CMF was as expected. They talked about special rights, minority quotas and block grants, special protection, and "truly deserving minorities". The committee seemed frustrated by much of the proponents testimony. In fact, Sen. Faircloth (D- Bangor) was so angered by the vicious attacks on Assistant Attorney General Steven Wessler that he felt compelled to defend the integrity of Mr. Wessler. Other committee members voiced opposition to some of the remarks and arguments the proponents were making. We amassed an awesome array of opponents to the referendum that included: Senator Dale McCormick, Sen. Joel Abromson, Attorney General Drew Ketterer, Assistant AG Steve Wessler, Maine Human Rights Exec. Director Pat Ryan, and representatives from the Maine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Maine Tourism Coalition, the Roman Catholic Diocese, the AFL-CIO, the Council of Churches, the Maine Human Rights Commission, the Jewish Federation, the Bias Crime Task Force, Veterans for Peace, the Governor's Diversity Commission, the Holocaust Human Rights Center, and the Friends Committee. on Maine Public Policy. In addition, there were many Maine citizens who are gay and have experienced discrimination or been the victims of hate crimes who submitted oral and written testimony. We were successful at educating the Committee about the danger of a referendum like this and urged them not to pass it. On May 16, 1995 the committee report was a unanimous (13- 0) "Ought Not to Pass" recommendation to the full legislature!! We would like to encourage all of our members to send a thank you to the Judiciary Committee. You can address it to: Committee on Judiciary, State House Station No. 2, Augusta, ME 04332-0002. On Friday, May 26th, the Legislature accepted the "Ought Not to Pass" recommendation from the committee and cleared the way for the referendum to appear on the ballot in November. Note: A big thank you to Joe Cowie from the Maine Won't Discriminate Campaign who really worked to get our supporters to the Hearing!! *-*-*-*-* MLGPA BOARD MEMBER TO CHAIR HIV ADVISORY COMMITTEE Augusta - - History will repeat itself on June 13, 1995 in Augusta when board member Kate Perkins is sworn in as Chair of the HIV Advisory Committee (HIVAC). Ed Shannon, former MLGPA President, chaired this committee for several years. Kate represents MLGPA on the Advisory Committee, which is charged with advising State government on HIV issues. Kate was actively involved with increasing persons with HIV (PWHIV) input into how the state distributes federal HIV funds and led the HIVAC efforts to pressure our congressional delegation to re-authorize the Ryan White CARE Act. This year the HIVAC also worked to revise and update HIV testing statutes, testified against L.D. 310 (The Concerned Maine Families referendum), and issued a statement supporting the distribution of condoms in schools. The HIVAC was created in the 1980's by then Governor Brennan but languished during the McKernan Administration. In 1994 Senator Dale McCormick and others convinced the legislature to pass a measure, signed by former Governor McKernan, designed to enlarge and strengthen the Committee. (Ed chaired the committee for several years prior to and immediately following the legislative expansion.) Nancy Roy, from the Hemophilia Treatment Center is the new Vice Chair. MLGPA is glad to see once again the communities most severely affected by HIV leading the HIVAC. Please join us in congratulating Kate! ACTION ALERT: Senator Olympia Snowe has not yet agreed to support S.641, the Ryan White CARE Act. Her support is essential to continued funding. Please call her Maine offices at 1-800-432-1599. The HIVAC meets the second Tuesday of each month from 9:00 - Noon in Augusta. All meetings are open to the public. Call Kate Perkins for more details: 985-2784. (PerkE1@aol.com) *-*-*-*-* RECEPTION FOR "FAT CATS" JUNE 10th Speaker of the U.S. House, Newt Gingrich, will keynote a fundraiser for Rep. Jim Longley at the Eastland Plaza Hotel (most recently the Sonesta) on High St. in Portland on Saturday, June 10th. Please join the Dirigo Alliance and others who will stage a FAT CAT RECEPTION in front of the Hotel. At the end of the last Congress (last summer) there was a very promising new bill to cut down fat cat funding and it's influence on Congress - but it was nuked by Newt. Those wishing to participate will gather at 11:00 AM at Dirigo's Money and Politics Project Office at 1 Pleasant Street in Portland. (Corner of Fore, Pleasant and Center Streets - it's in the Cinnamon Building on the 2nd floor above the Hi Bombay restaurant.) Please join fellow MLGPA members and our Dirigo coalition partners to add your presence to the opposition to Newt and the inordinate influence on Congress of "fat cats" and their dollars. *-*-*-*-* DIRIGO PREPARES FOR STATE TERM LIMITS Due to term limits which recently became the law in Maine, many current legislators will be out of office at the end of 1996. True, the US Supreme Court has just ruled that it is unconstitutional for states to impose term limits on members of Congress, but only the Maine Supreme Court could upset term limits for Maine legislators (by declaring it a violation of Maine's constitution). The question is how to get progressive women and men elected in November 1996 to fill dozens of vacancies which term limits will create in the next legislature??? This is a high priority question for the Dirigo Alliance and it's 16 member organizations (including MLGPA). For example, once the anti- gay referendum is defeated in November 1995, the new legislators will play a role in deciding whether Maine finally amends its Human Rights Act to include sexual orientation - as Rhode Island and eight other states have done. _Strategies to Elect Progressives_ Among the strategies for filling those vacancies with progressives are the following: 1. Urge progressive legislators who are being "term limited out", to run for a seat in the other body of the legislature. 2. Encourage former progressive legislators to run again. 3. Find fresh faces - progressives all - to run for the first time for the legislature. MLGPA members are asked to suggest promising prospects in their districts. Call the Dirigo Alliance at 621-2838. Dirigo will provide all of the above with its characteristically effective guidance, training and support. (Despite the right wing sweep in last November's election, an astounding 70% of Dirigo candidates were elected! This is consistent with Dirigo's past track record.) Ellie Goldberg, Betsy Sweet, and Richard Steinman continue to represent MLGPA on the Dirigo Alliance Board and we are grateful for their hard work on our behalf. *-*-*-*-* 21st SYMPOSIUM HELD IN PRESQUE ISLE On Memorial Day Weekend, the 21st Annual Maine Lesbian and Gay Symposium was held on the Presque Isle Campus of the University of Maine. Over 100 people from Maine, New Hampshire and Canada attended the event, was hosted for the fourth time by Northern Lambda Nord. Representing MLGPA were board members Kate Perkins and Barb Wood, and Board President Karen Geraghty. New board member, Anne Bertram, made an appearance at the Dance on Saturday evening! Many MLGPA members attended the conference. The theme for Symposium was "Coming of Age". Keynote speakers were Mary Bonauto from GLAD in Boston and Tuma Young, a Mi'kmaq activist from Cape Breton Island. Mary gave us an overview of where we've been as people and a movement, both legally and politically, for the last 21 years. Tuma spoke about our sexuality and spirituality. Both Mary and Tuma were very dynamic and answered lots of questions from the participants. There were many workshops to choose from. Karen, with assistance from Dale McCormick, facilitated a workshop on Coalition Building. Kate and Karen also participated in the Town Meeting/Panel Discussion of "Where do we go from here?" MLGPA would like to extend a very sincere THANK YOU! to all the members of Northern Lambda Nord who worked so hard to create a great conference. Information regarding planning the next Symposium will appear in the next issue of our newsletter. *-*-*-*-* MLGPA SCHOLARSHIPS AWARDED For the fourth consecutive year, MLGPA is pleased to announce the winners of our high school scholarship program. Each year we award $500 scholarships to two high school seniors who answer the following question: "In a society that routinely discriminates, what can I do to protect others from discrimination ?" Janet M. Deherty-Keefe from Kittery and Matthew Beaudoin from Orono are this years winners. Congratulations to the winners and thank you to all the students who submitted essays. Information about our scholarship was in the Finance Authority of Maine scholarship book for the first time this year and we also mailed applications to all 188 Maine secondary schools. *-*-*-*-* MLGPA CELEBRATES PRIDE DAY 1995 The weekend of June 16 - 18, Portland will be hosting its annual Pride Celebration. Michael Rossetti and the Pride Committee have been hard at work to make sure that we have many events to choose from. MLGPA will be participating in the rally at City Hall on Friday evening. Then of course, we'll all be going over to the Pier Dance. On Saturday, we will be showing off our brand new banner! Board member Jayson Hunt has been sewing up a storm -- can't wait to see what it looks like! We are asking all MLGPA members to meet in front of Blackstone's at 11:30 to line up behind the banner. We will have balloons so you can show off how colorful you are and MLGPA kazoos to show how much NOISE (music?) we can all make. See you at Blackstone's! We will have a table at the festival after the parade. Perhaps with T- shirts to sell - we are still price shopping. Come visit us and see what we end up with! *-*-*-*-* MEMBERSHIP Lauraine Bernier, our Membership Secretary, is at it again! She's been sending out renewal notices. If you've received yours in the mail, please send it in! We cannot carry out our mission without your help. *-*-*-*-* BANGOR PRIDE JULY 8th The Pride Committee of Bangor is working to organize the third Gay/Lesbian Pride Festival on July 8th. Bangor Pride begins at 11:00 with a parade starting in front of Fleet Bank on Exchange Street. The festival itself is in Paul Bunyan Park. For information or to volunteer, call Sean Weber at 989- 6944. MLGPA board member Diane Campbell tells us that there will be a Pride Dance that evening to benefit Maine Won't Discriminate. The Park Street Universalist Church is the place to be. Diane can be reached at 465-7574. *-*-*-*-* GET CONNECTED Paula Stockholm has created and maintains the Maine Gay Network Mail List and home page on the Internet. The goal of the mail list is to share information and ideas; and connect gays, lesbians, and friends across Maine. The list is open to anyone with an email address. For complete details on joining us send an email note to paula@server.nlbbs.com. MLGPA and other organizations also have an Internet presence on The Maine Gay Network Home Page. Here you will find group schedules and information from around the state - including minutes of MLGPA meetings, MWD chapters and meeting times - plus an index of the Maine-related files archived in the Queer Resources Directory - the QRD. To access this page you need to be using software called a browser - Netscape or Mosaic, for example. The address is http://www.qrd.org/QRD/www/usa/maine/gaynet.html Maine Won't Discriminate now has an email address, too: mecampaign@aol.com. *-*-*-*-* (Most of the credit for putting this newsletter together and getting it printed and mailed goes to Karen Geraghty. Thanks to those at the mailing party for the snailmail version, too) -- * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Paula Stockholm Cumberland, Maine USA * * http://web.nlis.net/~paula * * --------- * * The Maine Gay Network Home Page * * http://www.qrd.org/QRD/www/usa/maine/gaynet.html * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *