Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1993 11:39:27 EST From: Tim Retzloff (Posted with permission from the January 1994 issue of Between The Lines, Michigan's statewide newspaper for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and their friends.) MICHIGAN OUT ONLINE: ACTIVISM AND ANTAGONISM IN CYBERSPACE Second of two articles By Tim Retzloff The last issue of Between The Lines examined Michigan Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual folk in the emerging realm of cyberspace, that ethereal place created by the linkage of thousands upon thousands of personal computers. Much like bars, computer networks increasingly serve as a place for LGB folk to meet and mingle. Even the gay Doonesbury character Mark was recently seen surfing the waves, looking for some connection. However, as Michaelangelo Signorile suggests, the use of cyberspace for the LGB community has potential that goes beyond the primarily social functions of the bar scene. The most tangible use of the Net is in political activism. Such groups as the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and the Michigan Campaign for Human Dignity have all employed e-mail and newslists to get their word out. Yvonne LeFave used electronic mail to keep numerous people updated on the work of the MCHD, a statewide effort to combat the upcoming ballot proposal which would deny civil rights protections to LGBs. E-mail played an immediate role when the first threats were sounded by Carl Kellogg last January. LeFave supplied fellow Michigan activists with a print-out analysis of the Far Right's tactics in Colorado. "That was invaluable to our own strategy at those early stages," she argues. Former Detroiter Lori Randlett utilized e-mail to spread the word about the Michigan Happy Hour party held the day before last April's March on Washington. She also used the MOW newslist to keep updated prior to the march, and swap stories afterwards. "It was wonderful to be reminded of the elation and feeling of community after returning to my daily life," she says. John Huebler, a member of the task force responsible for a 1992 report on LGBs at Michigan State University, says he used e-mail extensively to communicate with others on the task force, and to reach people who had been unaware of the group. He is now using the system to gather information for an effort to get domestic partner benefits at the University. According to Mark Perry, an employee at Detroit Edison, the Triangle Foundation of Ferndale has just established an online bulletin board. Unlike more social boards, this system will be "primarily activist oriented," and will be used to disseminate news about the organization and on legislative activities. It will also be utilized as part of their Community Watch anti-violence project. Individuals with a PC and modem can hook up by dialing (810) 478-6271. This is a toll call outside the Detroit area, but Perry says the Foundation is seeking funding to establish an 800 number. A new project underway at the University of Michigan to add an LGB section to the UM-gopherBLUE gopher would allow for toll-free, anonymous access for people from virtually every part of Michigan. Steve Wooldridge, who is leading the early e-mail discussions of the effort, describes the gaygopher as "an Internet tool that allows one to browse for resources using menus on the computer screen." Most of those interviewed for these two articles see a continuing role for computer technology in the LGB movement. Dorothy Davis, a librarian at UM-Flint, says online services can be used to "hold the LGB movement together and direct its energies." She likes the advantage of getting news directly from the source, from participants, instead of being filtered through the media. Several Netters stress the advantage of being able to quickly distribute large amounts of information and late breaking news to masses of people without the hassle and cost of bulk mailings or phone trees. The Net is especially useful for reaching areas where the local press evades LGB issues. "Tod" from the Flint area sees the Net as also providing much needed outreach to LGB youth. In the short time he has been online he has seen a number of teenagers "looking for somebody to talk to, to talk about being gay." This outreach function can even include educating straights. Dawn Westadt, a grad student at Michigan Tech, notes that a gay student of hers uses a pseudonym on the campus computer bulletin boards to posit a gay perspective to the rest of the student body. Cindy Marlatt of Ann Arbor feels that the LGB community needs to make the use of computers, from desktop publishing to zapping officials with e-mail, a top priority. Marlatt notes, however, that not everyone has, or wants, access to computers. "You either have to have the money to buy one for yourself, have access to one at work or school, or be willing to take the time and use public computers that only a few cities in the U.S have available for general use." The effective silencing of those who can't afford a computer is not the only drawback. "This technology can also be used to stay closeted," Margaret Wilson of MSU says, "I have come across people whose lives revolve around their computer screens. It's really sad because it keeps people isolated if used to the extreme." Some people are frustrated, as well, by Netters who criticize LGB activism but never get involved. There are additional problems inherent in the medium. Online communication provides a degree of impersonal anonymity which leads some individuals to be boldly, often snidely, blunt. Such candidness can deteriorate into a less- than-civil exchange of barbs which has come to be known as flaming. Then there are privacy issues. Josh Simon, organizer of LGM:RAP, is concerned about confers and bulletin board systems providing "a public face for bashers and bigots," a sentiment repeated by many other Netters. Straight harassers who merely seek to antagonize are common on several lists. There have also been media reports of surveillance of LGB lists by the FBI, the Far Right, and Nazi groups, a danger reminiscent of bar raids of the past. Over Thanksgiving weekend a young woman announced on Gaynet that she wanted to kill herself. One of the people she cried out to was Mona Ammon, an Ann Arborite, who had not been logged in the entire holiday weekend. Ammon felt a sense of hopelessness when she finally read the four-day-old dispatches. In contrast to several years ago when a lesbian shot herself in the bathroom of a Flint bar, the young woman was saved from the attempt by other Netters who responded to her call. But what if no one had answered? The situation highlights the best and worst of the possibilities for LGBs online. "There is no substitute for a human being," Ammon says. "Still, if that is the only way that a person can or will get help I would rather have her do that than not seek help at all." Cyberspace, like bars, has both good and bad sides. Bars have been accused of helping to keep people closeted, of sapping activism, and draining money from our community. But bars have been a unifying space for LGBs, too. Now a new space, cyberspace, is emerging as a unifying force, one which can be as close as your fingertips.