Speakers To Address Gay Rights Agendas
March brings spring - officially, at least - and a commitment to working for our future.
Liz Hendrickson, Executive Director of the San Fransisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights, will be with us on Fri. March 5. We can discuss our current civil-rights agenda with her at a brown-bag lunch meeting from noon-1 pm in the Women's Studies Lounge, 234 W. Engineering Bldg. At 7 pm Hendrickson will speak at Common Language Bookstore (214 S. 4th Ave.) on "Lesbian & Gay Rights in the Nineties." She will address lifting the ban on lesbians and gay men in the military and issues about lesbian and gay families.
On Sat. March 6 Hendrickson will particípate in panel discussions at the U-M Law School (10 am-6 pm, Room 100, Hutchins Hall, corner of State and Monroe) on "Cultural Background: Defining the Family in American Law." At 6 pm (same location), Karen Thompson, partner of Sharon Kowalski and nationally-renowned lesbian activist, will speak on "Why It Matters." At 10 pm Club Fabulous will offer another fabulous dance that will be totally chem-free (People Dancing Studios, Third and Huron).
On Sat. March 27 Gay Liberation Front, the U-M Lesbian-Gay Male Programs Office, and the Ella Baker-Nelson Mandela Center will co-sponsor a conference on "What To Do About Nine and Two: Organizing to Ensure Gay-BisexualRights." Speakers at daytime workshops (9 am-5 pm in the Mich. Union Pond Room) and an evening panel discussion (7:30 pm, Room 100, Hutchins Hall) will address organizing against right-wing initiatives to limit our human and civil rights. They will focus on recent hate campaigns in Oregon, Colorado, and Michigan.
Presenters include Donna Red Wing (Lesbian Community Project, Portland), Scot Nakagawa (National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute, Washington DC), Mandy Carter (Human Rights Campaign Fund, Washington DC), and Lawrence Pacheco (Equality Colorado, Denver).
That evening at 8 pm Huron Valley Community Church will host a dance party, "Marching Towards a Gay Spring" (1001 Green Road at Glazier). So let's work and play!
Gay Liberation Front's Purpose is to provide information, counseling, and related social services for people concerned about sexual orientation. We maintain a hotline for crisis intervention, peer counseling and referral. We help provide factual information to offset prejudice and misinformation about Lesbians, Gay men, and Bisexual people. We work to obtain human and civil rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation. We help organize groups for Lesbians, Gay men, and Bisexual people and are a link to other community groups.
Community Services include: a Hotline for crisis intervention, peer counseling, referral. Education: workshops and conferences on concerns of Lesbians, Gay men, and Bisexual people with an emphasis on how people in the "helping professions" and "teaching professions" can work positively with clients, patients, & students who are Lesbians, Gay men, and Bisexual people. Speakers Bureau: phone for information. Human & Civil Rlghts: information and referral to help people who are being discriminated against because of their actual or presumed sexual orientation or because of their presumed "cross-gender" characteristics; lobbying for human and civil rights. Community Organization and Liaison: information and assistance in organizing groups, setting goals, addressing conflict, linking with other groups and resources.
Gay Liberation Front Meetings vary according to purpose; we do most of our work in subcommittees (counseling, groupwork, education, civil rights). Call for time and place. Gay Liberation Front includes U-M students, staff, faculty and people from the larger communities. We have a president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. We're a registered non-profit organization.
Gay Liberation Front, c/o 4117 Michigan Union, 530 S. State, Ann Arbor, Ml 48109-1349; 763-4186.