Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 14:46:44 -0500
From: Boykink@aol.com

                                    NEWS RELEASE

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                      CONTACT: Keith Boykin
 February 21, 1996                                          (213) 964-7820
                                                                       (202)
736-3729

              HUNDREDS PARTICIPATE IN NINTH ANNUAL 
           NATIONAL BLACK LESBIAN & GAY CONFERENCE

 Nearly 500 black lesbians, gay men and bisexuals participated in the Ninth
Annual National Black Lesbian and Gay Conference in Dallas, Texas last
weekend, February 15-18.

 President Clinton's top AIDS adviser, Patricia Fleming, the National AIDS
Policy Director, spoke at the conference.  Other keynote speakers included
political activist Mandy Carter, who is leading an effort to unseat Sen.
Jesse Helms in North Carolina, and health activist Jacquie Bishop of New
York.  Carter predicted that former Charlotte, North Carolina Mayor Harvey
Gant would defeat Jesse Helms in November.  

 Keith Boykin, Executive Director of the Forum, speaking at the awards
banquet, told the gathering that the black lesbian and gay community cannot
wait for a savior to appear so long as "Pat Buchanan wants to put us in jail
and Pat Robertson wants to put us in Hell."  Warning that "Congress is poised
to eliminate or reduce every major initiative of the Great Society and the
New Deal," Boykin exhorted the crowd to see themselves as leaders instead of
looking to others for leadership.  

 Bestselling writer E. Lynn Harris read from his new book And This Too Shall
Pass, and signed copies at the Annual Awards Banquet Saturday, Feb. 17, 1996.
 Writer Essex Hemphill, who passed away last year, was posthumously awarded
the James Baldwin Black Quill Award.  The Lesbian Support Group of
Washington, D.C. received the Award for Organization of the Year.  The Forum
also announced a new award, the Carl Bean Spirituality Award, in honor of
Bishop Carl Bean, the founder of the Unity Fellowship Movement, and presented
the first award to Bishop Bean.  

 Boykin outlined long-term goals for the Forum, including building alliances
with black organizations, creating a public policy arm, increasing the
visibility of black lesbians and gay men, registering thousands to vote,
launching an anti-racism campaign in the gay white community, arranging a
national black church conference on homosexuality, continuing the fight
against the radical religious right, creating a leadership training school,
supporting lesbian and gay students at black colleges, and creating a
national job bank and information resource directory for the black lesbian
and gay community.
 
 The Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum was established in March 1988 to
combat homophobia, racism and sexism and to strengthen institutions for
African American gay men and lesbians.
                                           - 30 -