Date: Wed, 21 Jun 1995 09:26:56 -0400
From: Gabo3@aol.com

New York Newsday - Thursday, May 4, 1995
A GAY NEW WORLD - IN CYBERSPACE
By Gabriel Rotello
	It was late afternoon on an otherwise slow news day a few weeks back when an
editor called me at home. A bill had just been approved by a committee in
Montana's legislature, she said, requiring state residents who had been
"convicted" of homosexual acts to register their whereabouts for life. Sort
of like a Meagan's Law for gays. It was about to go before the full
legislature and the editor, having seen a brief item on the wire, was calling
to alert me.
	She needn't have bothered. Although I had spent the entire day chained to my
home computer, by the time she called I already knew a lot more than she knew
- in fact, a lot more than she or I or anybody will ever need to know - about
that bill. I had read several analyses of its passage, had on file the names
of those voted for and against it, knew all about the local reaction in
Montana, the national response from gay rights and antigay groups, had read
finely honed arguments against it, and I even had the names and fax numbers
of virtually the entire Montana government. A veritable arsenal of
information with which to fight the bill back into the dark cave from whence
it came.
	And where did I tap into this gushing geyser of information? On the
Internet, of course, the most revolutionary catalyst of gay and lesbian
community organizing and communicating since the invention of the gay bar
almost a century ago.  
	Gay liberation is alive and thriving in cyberspace like nowhere else on
earth. Any homosexual with a computer, a modem and about fifteen bucks a
month now has instant, continuous, almost overwhelming access to dozens of
grassroots gay and lesbian news services, national and local gay groups, AIDS
organizations, support groups, conversation circles, bulletin boards,
libraries, and of course hundreds of thousands of like minded brothers and
sisters across the nation and around the world, ever eager to talk the talk,
dish the dirt, share information, support, gossip, criticism and maybe even
find romance. 
	There are two qualities that give the internet the potential to be (if it
isn't already) the most important medium in the history of gay liberation:
absolute freedom from repression (there are no controls of any kind, at least
so far) and, for those who wish, total anonymity. People can cruise
cyberspace under assumed names, a fact that is incredibly important for lots
of gay people uncertain about their sexuality or uncomfortable with the
reaction it might prompt. Once upon a time you had to screw up the courage to
come out, or at least go to a bar or community center, in order to find
others like yourself . Now you can just click a computer screen and, to
hopelessly mix metaphors, surf the 'net in the closet, getting many of the
benefits of community with none of the risks. 
	Some have suggested that this might keep some people in the closet longer,
but it seems the exact opposite is happening. Listen to a few voices pulled
from cyberspace: "If it were not for the net I would still be wallowing in my
former pitiful existence, thinking that I was bad and/or dirty." Or: "I have
met so many women in Women's Space who...have been empowered to act on their
lesbian feelings that I personally consider this one of the most powerful
forces encouraging women to come out that I have experienced."
	Newt Gingrich, in one of his more interesting flights of fancy, suggested
the government buy computers for disadvantaged youth. Great idea. And while
he's at it, he should buy one for every queer in America. Not only does it
build community, it gets results. Case in point: That heinous bill in Montana
was defeated the very next day, thanks to a massive outpouring of protest,
sparked almost completely by lesbians and gays on the Internet.