N*E*W*S*L*E*T*T*E*R

Inside This Newsletter

• For Christine
• Cost Of Living
• Senseless Shooting
• Sydney 2002 Gay Games
• More US firms offer health benefits to gay partners
• Poem Of The Month
• Short Time Topics
• Pet Of The Month
• Fun Quiz

For Christine

I first met Christine Burton when she was a healthy ninety-three years old woman. I did not know at that time that she was the founder of Golden Threads, an organization for older women. Her dream was not to be a dating service, which Golden Threads is not, but to be a place where women, Lesbian and Straight, might come together and form strong friendships. If, after writing and finally getting to meet each other the end result became more than friendship, so much the better.

At the time of our first meeting, we were like ships that pass in the night. Because I am basically a shy person, all Christine knew about me, was my name. She did not know about my dream, nor did I offer it up to her. Looking back, I wish I had. It would have been so much easier to hand her my dream than try and make it work myself.

The second time I met Christine was two years later. She had suffered a stroke, and was now residing in a nursing home. I was brought to see her by a friend from Northampton and what I saw was not pretty. This once strong woman was now living in a shell that held her thoughts prisoner inside an almost useless body.

We walked down a long corridor towards Christine’s room to find her not there and no one really sure where they had left her. Christine was not alone in this kind of treatment in the typical nursing home. The one thing Christine had in her favor that other residents do not have, even from their so called loving families, was the love of many friends that went to visit her often. The thing Christine did not have in her favor was that she lived openly as a lesbian.

When we finally found Christine, she was in her wheelchair in a corner facing a wall in the cafeteria, and lunch had been over for a couple of hours. I will never forget that sight of her all alone as long as I live. Her head was hanging down and she looked so lost and sad. We wheeled Christine back to her room and began to talk. I told her about my dream of having a home for women where we could share our pasts with one another without shame. A place where would could live, care, laugh and be ourselves together. I will never forget her reaching out to me and clutching my sleeve and crying haltingly…"When? Please get me out of here…"

Today, as I talk to others about my dream, the main thing keeping me going on this project is the vision of Christine in that nursing home left in a cafeteria facing a wall with no one knowing or caring where she was. I do not wish to end up with the same fate as her, and I do not wish for any of my sisters to end up that way either.

If you too wish to share in this dream, My Sisters House is not asking you for much. The cost of a pack of cigarettes. The cost of a six-pack of Pepsi. The cost of your favorite vise. Whatever you share with the sisterhood is an investment in your future. All you have to do is think of Christine and ask yourself if that is the way you wish to finish your life.

Cost Of Living

After researching the cost of assisted living throughout the country, these are the figures I have found to be the most common. Some basic expenses depending on the area you chose to live may be higher. Prices listed below are for living spaces, Private living quarters, Apartment design and heat & electric.

Senseless Shooting

Just before midnight on September 22, a man fired off eight shots in quick succession into the crowd at the Roanoke, Virginia gay bar Back Street Cafe, killing Danny Overstreet and wounding six other patrons. Within minutes, police apprehended Ronald Edward Gay, 53, who reportedly confessed to the shooting and was arraigned on September 25. Gay will be indicted on October 2.

Roanoke police say Gay admitted the shooting in a confession that was videotaped and will be used against him in court. Police Lieutenant William Althoff told reporters, "He admits to shooting people. He said he was shooting people to get rid of, in his term, 'faggots.' He told us people made fun of his name. ... He told us that he was upset about that." Police had some warning of what was to come. Sometime between 11 and 11:30 p.m., Gay had asked a staffer at the Corned Beef & Co. tavern where the nearest gay bar was, and that worker gave him directions -- not to the Back Street Cafe, but to The Park. (Both are on Salem Avenue, three blocks apart; Gay had been known to hang out at two other venues on the same street.) Then Gay showed his gun to the employee, whose name has not been published, and reported said he was going to "waste some faggots." The staffer had colleagues call 911. A police officer arrived at Corned Beef at 11:39 p.m. and broadcast Gay's description at 11:46 -- but the Back Street shooting was called in at 11:51. Police had stopped Gay on the street by midnight.

Danny Overstreet was shot in the chess and died within five minutes, John Collins was shot oand is still hospitalized with damaged his intestines and colon. Iris Page Webb remains hospitalized in critical condition after being shot in the throat The Four other shooting victims were Kathy Caldwell, 36; Linda Conyers, 41; Susan Smith, 45; and Joel Tucker, 40, who is not gay but was visiting the bar with friends. Tucker was shot in the lower back, and the bullet will remain alongside his spine because doctors have determined it would be more damaging to remove it. Smith took a bullet in the leg that exited through her buttocks. Conyers was shot in her right arm and hand. Caldwell was shot in the left hand and right shoulder.

Sydney 2002 Gay Games

For those who've dreamed of competing in the Olympics but failed to meet the athletic requirements, there's still hope: they can sign up for the Sydney 2002 Gay Games. The event is open to everyone.

``There is no minimum standard required to participate,'' Garrie Gibson, chief executive officer of the Sydney Gay Games, said Sunday (Saturday night EDT). ``No one is excluded, regardless of gender, sexuality, race or physical ability.'' Organizers expect the two-week event, which includes a weeklong cultural festival and opens Oct. 25, 2002, to attract over 14,000 participants from at least 78 countries.

Gibson also said the Gay Games, which will attract mostly lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual competitors, have found their biggest sponsor. San Francisco-based Gay.com, an online supplier of services to the homosexual community, has entered into a $1.5 million agreement to be the event's official Internet media sponsor, he said.

The sports will be held in two main zones - Olympic Park and around Sydney Harbor. As well as the official sports, the sixth edition of the Gay Games will feature exhibition events such as surfing and surf lifesaving, dragon boat racing and what organizers are calling ``mind games'' - chess, bridge, backgammon and mahjong.

Organizers said the influx of nearly 35,000 visitors to Sydney for the games and festival will inject about $55 million into the region's economy.

On the down side, Gay Olympic athletes hide their sexual preference for fear it could affect their chances to compete or attract sponsorship, a Sydney 2002 Gay Games official said Sunday. Garrie Gibson estimated there are more than 1,000 gay men and lesbian athletes competing at the Sydney Olympics (news - web sites).

``For the vast majority of them, their sexuality is something that they have had to hide, to keep hidden because they did not want their sexuality to be an issue in competing in sports,'' he said. ''(They) don't come out about their sexuality because of the fact that it can have an impact on their opportunities to compete or on their opportunities to attract sponsorship.''

Tom Waddell, a decathlete who competed for the United States in the 1968 Olympics, founded the Gay Games in 1981. He died of AIDS (news - web sites) in 1987.

US firms offer health benefits to gay partners

More US companies are offering health benefits to domestic partners of gay employees, with a 25% increase in the number of firms in the last year, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). The firms that offer these benefits include more than 100 companies on the Fortune 500 list, a 46% increase over the previous 12-month period for that group, according to the HRC, the largest homosexual political organization in the United States.

The high-tech sector led the way, the HRC said in a statement, but in the so-called Old Economy, the Big Three automakers--Ford , General Motors and DaimlerChrysler--added this coverage in July. Subaru became the first automaker to offer domestic partner benefits in June. Coca-Cola , General Mills , Pillsbury and Boeing all joined the list in the last 12 months, the group said. The news was mostly favorable for gay and lesbian employees, the group said, with more state and local governments enacting bans on discrimination against homosexuals, while more government agencies are offering health benefits to domestic partners of gay employees. As of Sept. 2000, 3,576 Employers are listed that offer Domestic Partner Health Benifits. To see if your company does visit the HRC website at: http://www.hrc.org/worknet/

Poem Of The Month

Short Time Topic's

You can change your name in New Jersey for almost any reason, but one judge refused to let a lesbian "hyphenate" with her partner and the ACLU is stepping in. The American Ciivl Liberties Union of New Jersey (ACLU/NJ) announced September 21 that it is appealing a Newark judge's refusal to allow a lesbian to legally hyphenate her surname with that of her partner. On August 10, State Superior Court Judge Anthony Iuliani, 74, rejected the application of Cedar Grove resident Jill Bacharach, 32, because he did not want to appear to be recognizing same-gender marriages. According to Bacharach, Iuliani said sarcastically that if she wanted to marry, she should go to Vermont. As it happens, Bacharach and her partner of a year and a half did exactly that a month later, but it should not have had anything to do with changing her name, which New Jersey routinely grants for almost any reason other than fraud or evasion of creditors.

The twenty-year-old National Center for Lesbian Rights had never heard of a case like Bacharach's in the U.S. before; certainly other same-gender couples have been granted name-changes, including some in New Jersey, where the Law Against Discrimination protects the civil rights of gays and lesbians. In addition to the ACLU/NJ's appeal, the Montclair-based Magnus Hirschfeld Centre for Human Rights, has filed a complaint against Judge Iuliani with the New Jersey Supreme Court's Commission on Judicial Conduct.

The state Supreme Court on Monday recognized new rights for gay and lesbian couples raising children, ruling that a woman can petition Family Court for the right to visit the son she and her former partner raised together. The 3-2 decision gives de facto - ``in fact'' - parents, including gay couples, the same rights to petition for visitation as biological and adoptive parents. In the case, Concetta DiCenzo, 43, from RI, was trying to prevent her former partner Maureen Rubano, 53, from petitioning Family Court for the right to visit the son DiCenzo gave birth to in 1991 after undergoing artificial insemination. She and Rubano sent out birth announcements identifying them both as the child's parents, and the last name of Rubano-DiCenzo was listed on the birth certificate. DiCenzo and Rubano split up in 1996, and in 1997 they signed a Family Court consent order granting Rubano permanent visitation rights. In exchange Rubano waived ``any claim or cause of action she has or may have to recognition as a parent of the minor child.'' DiCenzo said she ended the visitations because she believed Rubano's visits were ``disruptive and confusing'' to the boy.

The ruling was based on state law allowing any interested party to ``bring an action to determine the existence or nonexistence of a mother and child relationship.'' Similar cases began surfacing in courts around the country in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and claims by ``co-parents'' generally were rejected, said attorney Mary Bonauto of Gay & Lesbians Advocates & Defenders of Boston, which filed a brief in support of Rubano. Recently, however, courts in a handful of states, including Massachusetts and New Jersey, have decided to recognize the legal status of non-biological parents.

"Dr. Laura" Schlessinger's new syndicated TV show show premiered September 11 with three weeks' worth of programs already recorded, and after only two weeks on the air -- two weeks characterized by disastrous ratings, unanimously negative critical reception, and dozens of fleeing advertisers -- production is going into hiatus for a week. Producer and syndicator Paramount insists that the production break was planned all along for the much-protested anti-gay top-rated radio talk show host's new venture, but Reuters says it's "raised some industry eyebrows," the Associated Press called it "surprising," and gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender activists are thoroughly unconvinced. Surely it's not possible that after three weeks of assiduously avoiding any mention of homosexuality and trying not to scream at people that he's run out of things to say.

Paramount spokesperson Daniella Cracknell told Reuters that, "This is a normal thing. It's typical of any show. Every show has a dark day to plan for new shows, for sweeps periods, and that's what we are doing. We shoot six weeks and then take a break." "Adjustments," "planning" and "retooling" are among the words being bandied about for activities during the hiatus through September 27. Dr. Laura spokesperson Linda Lipman told the AP that when the shows to be taped after the break hit the airwaves, "all parties will be very happy."

StopDrLaura.com, organizers of the nationwide protests, through September 22 counted more than 45 advertisers who have told local TV stations to keep their ads away from Dr. Laura's hour in the two weeks since the premiere. StopDrLaura.com co-founder John Aravosis said confidently, "Paramount is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Dr. Laura has sunk, it's time to let it go." Aravosis vowed the protests will continue until the TV show is cancelled "definitively."

People who knew Gallaudet University freshman Eric Franklin Plunket say he had no enemies. That's why the beating death of Plunkett, 19, who was deaf, had cerebral palsy and was a leader of a gay campus group, is that much harder to accept. Plunkett, of Burnsville, Minn., was found in his dormitory room Thursday night after a student asked an official to check on him, police Cmdr. Jennifer Greene said. Plunkett had not been seen for more than a day. An autopsy has not been completed, but Greene said a preliminary report showed Plunkett died of blows to the head. Police told The Washington Post they have no suspects and no motive, although they have found what they believe to be the weapon. They would not say what it was or where it was found.

Plunkett was secretary of the Lambda Society, a gay and lesbian organization of about 20 students. The student-run group is a university club for gay and straight students, said club President Thomas Green. Plunkett ``was very motivated and he had a real desire to see the organization grow,'' Green said. Police said there was no evidence that Punkett's involvement in the club was related to his death. Students described Plunkett as friendly, somewhat shy and handy with a computer. ``He is a very sweet guy. He had high expectations for his future,'' said Jean Frink, a freshman.

Texas' "deviant homosexual conduct" law makes it a Class C misdemeanor for consenting adults of the same gender to engage in oral or anal intercourse even in private, but in a split decision June 8 a three-judge panel of the state's 14th Court of Appeals struck down the law as a violation of the state constitution's Equal Rights Amendment because it applies only to gay men and lesbians . That ruling came in the notorious case of John Lawrence and Tyrone Garner, who in September 1998 were literally arrested in Lawrence's own bedroom after police received a false report of an intruder on the premises . On September 14 attorneys in the case received a brief note advising them that the full bench of the 14th Court of Appeals has agreed to prosecutors' request that they review the case; it is not known when that opinion will be issued.

There is also a development in connection with an unusual sidebar in the case, in which Harris County Republican Party treasurer Paul Simpson drafted a letter in July threatening to deny campaign support to one of the judges, Justice John Anderson, unless he changed the position he took against the sodomy law. (All the state's judges are elected.) Simpson never sent that letter to Anderson, although he did share it with Republican leaders in thirteen surrounding counties .Nevertheless Texas' Commission on Judicial Affairs has begun an investigation. Latter this past week it was ruled that the state's sodomy law unconstitutional. It’s a start, but we still have a long ways to go.

To the cheers and applause of supporters, the Fort Worth, Texas City Council voted 6 - 1 on September 26 to add sexual orientation as a protected category under the city's anti-discrimination ordinance, one of the strongest in the state. The move will make it a misdemeanor punishable by a fine to discriminate based on an individual's actual or perceived homosexuality or bisexuality in employment, housing and public accommodations; there are exemptions for churches and some other groups. The addition of sexual orientation to the ordinance was first proposed eight years ago. To the astonishment of many, conservative Republican Chuck Silcox was the leader in moving enactment, after years of opposition. Just last year he led a 5 - 4 majority voting to shelve a similar proposal without a hearing, despite a favorable recommendation from the city's Human Relations Commission.

One Council member who like Silcox switched from opposition to support was Jim Lane, who said his turnaround began with a Texas appeals court ruling the state's sodomy law unconstitutional; now he views the ordinance as not a "gay rights" issue but a human rights issue.

Fox News Channel on Tuesday nixed a primetime segment about an ad that suggests First Lady Hillary Clinton is a lesbian. The commercial from the Virginia-based Christian Action Network was to be screened Tuesday night on ``Hannity & Colmes,'' on which CAN president Martin Mawyer was booked as a guest. But after reviewing a tape of the ad, network president Roger Ailes said ``no way'' to it and to Mawyer, according to Fox News executive producer Bill Shine. ``The segment was canceled because it was an unfair attack against the first lady and we're not in the business of being unfair,'' Shine said. The ad has reportedly been rejected by two New York broadcast stations.

Pet Of The Month

Luna MoonShadow, kitty cat of my dreams came into my life after 2 years of searching for a Scottish Fold cat. I had written letters to over 200 shelters & rescue organizations within a 12 hour drive from my home (this was pre-computer for me) and had pretty much abandoned my search as hopeless. I had resigned myself to the idea that a Scottish Fold kitty was just not in my future due to the high cost of the breed. Imagine my surprise when I returned home from a temp job one day and found a message on my answering machine from a shelter TWO MILES from my house! The message said "we don't know if you are still interested in adopting a Scottish Fold, but a one year old fold came into our shelter today and we had your letter on file." Needless to say I immediately hopped in my car to go see the kitty of my dreams.

The sweetest silver patched (with peach) tabby face with folded over little cap ears pulled back her lips & hissed at me. Her name was Luna, and I knew she just had to be mine! I filled out my paperwork, and found out they were willing to approve my application immediately (due to the fact that I foster cats for another local rescue group! Yippee, no 24-hour wait for approval! I ran home to get a kitty carrier while they expedited my request to adopt the kitty of my dreams, and within two magical hours had found & adopted my Luna MoonShadow. She's my little shadow and graciously allows me to use her name for my small custom-crafted jewelry business, which she does her best to "help" me with by attacking threads & chasing beads! I quite honestly can't imagine life without her.