Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1993 18:56:06 EST From: Tim Retzloff Subject: Michigan Out Online, Part 1 (Posted with permission from the December 1993 issue of Between The Lines, Michigan's statewide newspaper for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and their friends) OUT ONLINE: MICHIGAN LGBs POSITION THEMSELVES IN CYBERSPACE First of two articles By Tim Retzloff "We're here! We're queer! We have e-mail!" This chant from this year's National March on Washington signals the dawning of a new era. Computer technology, with its exponential yes-no sequences made possible by the microchip, is spurring exponential leaps in LGB (Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual) communities across the globe. As historians have noted, the growth of gay communities, particularly in public spaces like bars, laid the foundation for the current liberation movement. A new LGB presence in cyberspace has parallels to the staking out of three-dimensional spaces in the past, parallels which may signal increased activism in the future. LGBs are already in the passing lane on President Clinton's "electronic superhighway." Their active presence in the high tech industry, with groups such as Digital Queers, is evidenced by the growing number of computer firms that have followed the lead of Lotus in implementing pro-gay policies and benefits. The conseuquences of computer technology reach far beyond the queers of Silicon Valley, however. Networks, the linking of thousands of PCs via telephone lines via such systems as the Internet, America Online, and CompuServe, are creating a social transformation for everyday LGBs, one that is already having significant effect here in Michigan. Over the past few months Between The Lines, which is produced with PageMaker software, has been exploring this emerging realm, what might be characterized as the newest safe space for LGBs. For this two part series BTL also contacted a number of individuals from around the state to find out how this new technology affects their lives and their identities. With one exception, all the interviews for these articles were conducted via electronic mail ("e-mail" in computer jargon). Since they are interactive, Networks provide a means of sharing information, soliciting testimony, and communicating with people near and far. At the core of their impact, though, are the many public forums, for the discussion of everything from the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival to the death of River Phoenix to a professor's homophobic response to bluejean day at Alma College. One of the most popular forums for discussion and debate are conferences, where individuals can post messages which then prompt responses. Among the confers available in Michigan are Triangle Chat at Western Michigan University, the recently launched Triangle confer sponsored by the Gay/Lesbian Faculty Staff Association at Michigan State, Flaming Dragon in Lansing, and LGM:RAP at the University of Michigan. LGM:RAP, on UM's MTS computer system and supported by the Lesbian-Gay Male Programs Office, has over three hundred particpants. Josh Simon, a 1990 graduate of UM, started the rap in 1988 as an outgrowth of previous public and private confers. He now organizes it from his home in Dallas, a volunteer job which involves not just the obvious technical duties, but also the social task of maintaining online civility. As with bars, which have evolved in larger cities to reflect various segments of the queer community, an array of newsgroups and listserves are available to LGBs. These include GLB-NEWS, Gaynet, soc.motss (members of the same sex), QN, AIDSnews, ACT UP, Bisexu-L, Stonewall25, and Sappho, a women-only list. A more complete catalogue can be accessed via the Queer Resources Directory, compiled by ace computer jockey Ron Buckmire from Troy, New York. For many in Michigan these resources have become an integral part of coming out. Because Networks provide a safe forum for asking questions and getting support, they play a role similar to gay bars. Instead of hesitating at the bar door, though, there's now a pause at the gateway. Dorothy Davis, a librarian at the University of Michigan-Flint in her early fifties, says "Without the online connection I'd probably never have come to identify myself as a lesbian." She had been online with CompuServe for seven years before she discovered its gay area in 1990. Six months later she got up the nerve to seek admittance to a closed forum for which she would have to identify her sexual orientation. It was her first coming out. Since then she's become very active in the LGB computer world, particularly on GAY-LIBN, an online mailing list for librarians. Network interaction gave Bill Eremia, a fifth year student at Alma, needed support when he first came out last fall. It allowed him to take part in something for the first time as a gay man, but without surrendering his privacy. "It gave me a sense of finally belonging to the gay community." Margaret Wilson, a systems analyst at the MSU computer lab, has been hooked up since MSU got its Bitnet and Internet connections in the mid-1980s. For her, too, queer electronic media was most helpful as a stepping stone during her process of coming out as lesbian. She found that as she became comfortable with her orientation she spent less time on the net and more time pursuing face-to-face relationships within her local community. In addition to helping people come out, computer tech is playing a role in people's social lives. Cindy Marlatt, who first came out as a lesbian on LGM:RAP, says that confer opened doors to meeting people, electronically and in person. "One gets to meet a more diverse lot than they would anywhere else," she says. Mark Bitman, a 34-year-old staff member at MSU who is studying computer science at Lansing Community College, met lots of people when he ran his own Bulletin board system (BBS) for a year. Bitman recognizes that some BBSs promote pornography. Several even allow the opportunity to scan and transmit photographs. The more explicit uses of computer technology raises the ire of many LGB leaders, but their popularity is demonstrated by many ads for such services in major publications like the Advocate. "Tod," a married, closeted gay man in his late forties from the Flint area, has been tapped into America Online for about a month. So far he has used it mostly for "fun and games" and has made contact with men from as far away as Traverse City and Grand Rapids. AOL has led to one blind date for Tod, with another married professional. Tod's service allows for instantaneous responses within a geographically patterned format allows for more interaction than other forums. Conversation may be held in "private rooms," similar to back rooms in bars, where the interaction is then shielded from observers. "A lot of the guys ... use it like phone sex, computer sex," Tod says. He calls it the "safest goddam sex there is." Online connections have also become an important means for people who are regionally isolated to establish ties with other LGBs. Michael Stemmeler, a professor of religion "in a pretty remote location" at Central Michigan, uses the Network to keep in touch with friends and colleagues, and to gather information for his research and courses, as well as for his work as director of Gay and Lesbian programs at CMU. Dawn Westadt, a graduate student in Houghton uses online resources not only for her studies, but as a link to life beyond the snowy walls of Michigan Tech. The Network provides her "the psychological connection to a community that isn't present for me in my phsyical community." For Nadyne Hagon, a bisexual native of Owosso currently attending Alma, being tapped into the Net showed her there are other bis out there. "Although Alma College is small, this technology has opened up new channels to others like myself," she says. Computers can now connect queers in Detroit to LGBs in Holland (both the city and country), well beyond the confines of the barroom. Michaelaneglo Signorile, in his book Queer in America, argues that the changes brought about by computers will "transform mass culture on a grand scale and aid in the dismantling of the closet in American society forever." To what extent is this true? The next Between The Lines will examine how computers are transforming LGB activism in Michigan, and look at the drawbacks of this emerging technology.