Date: Thu, 25 May 1995 10:05:02 -0400 From: Babngltf@aol.com ************************************************* NATIONAL GAY & LESBIAN TASK FORCE ACTIVIST ALERT JUNE 1995 2320 17th Street, NW Washington, DC 20009 (202) 332-6483 FAX (202) 332-0207 TTY (202) 332-6219 EMAIL ngltf@aol.com ************************************************* DYING FOR A BALANCED BUDGET? Scrambling to provide the deficit reduction outlined in the "Contract With America," Congress is now prepared to slash projected spending on social programs, particularly Medicaid. Medicaid provides basic health and long term care coverage for over 33 million low-income Americans, including one in four children and two in three nursing home residents. Of the estimated 1 million HIV+ Americans, at least 40% of adults and 90% of children receive Medicaid support. At current funding levels, Medicaid will provide nearly $2 billion in care for people with HIV/AIDS in fiscal year 1996, a sum which dwarfs every AIDS-specific health care funding program. The House and Senate will decide the fate of America's poor over the next two months. Currently, the House is considering $184 billion dollars in cuts while the Senate is proposing slashing $175 billion. These large reductions will mean fewer health care services, lower payments to health care providers, and more uninsured people. Because Medicaid serves America's poor, a group with little political clout on Capitol Hill, the balanced budget will be cut on their backs rather than on the middle class, the wealthy, veterans or defense, all areas considered politically difficult to attack. ACTION: We must move quickly to let all Senators and House members know how devastating these budget cuts would be to poor people including those living with HIV/AIDS. Call the US Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121 or Write: The Honorable ________, US House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 & The Honorable ________, US Senate, Washington, DC 20510 n NOT MY AMERICAN FAMILY The Christian Coalition recently introduced its "Contract With the American Family," a repackaging of the group's conservative, anti-choice and anti-gay political agenda. Deeply indebted to Christian Coalition support for the "Contract With America," Newt Gingrich and other Republican leaders immediately endorsed the group's social agenda platform. The new "Contract" calls for prayer in school and the curtailing of a woman's access to abortion among other items billed "family-friendly." While gay-specific themes were dropped from the final version, the "Contract with the American Family" is often vaguely worded, allowing numerous possibilities for attacks especially on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth and on freedom of expression. In particular, monitor debate on the abolishment of cultural and educational agencies and on a loosely defined push to increase "parental rights." The Christian Coalition has pledged $2 million to push its politics of divisiveness, a theocracy aimed to exploit fear and homophobia. We can not let them to succeed on Capitol Hill. ACTION: Call or write your US Representatives and Senators. Demand a Congress Respectful of ALL Families! (See contact information above.) Be a voice for redefining the "American Family" to truly include all families. Write a letter to your local paper exposing the "Contract With the American Family" for what it is: a political pay-off and a repackaging of the right wing social agenda. Read it for yourself. For the full text of the "Contract With The American Family" call 1-800-325-4746. Also available on the Internet at http://www.cc.org n HOMOPHOBIA GETS IN OUR WAY "Lesbians in the sport hurt women's golf." "Women [golf players] are handicapped by having boobs...[they] get in the way." The world may never know whether these often repeated quotes were made by Ben Wright, CBS golf analyst, in a May interview published in the Wilmington News Journal. What is indisputable, however, is the weak, apologetic and often inappropriate response offered by officials from the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). Officials denied seeing any "evidence of lesbian activity." One official had the nerve to ask why Wright hadn't also mentioned male players "who fool around on their wives," as if lesbianism and infidelity were somehow equatable "wrongs". The LPGA missed an opportunity to publicly support women golfers and female athletes everywhere against the lesbian-baiting and sexism that pervade women's sports. Instead, the LPGA validated homophobia and sexism, further alienating women athletes and fans of all sexual orientations. ACTION: Tell the LPGA to support its players and fans! Encourage the LPGA to instruct its employees in sensitivity to the issues of homophobia and sexism in women's sports. Ask them to take a public stand against homophobia and lesbian-baiting. Contact: Charles Mechem, LPGA Commissioner. Write: 2570 West International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, FL, 32114, call: (904) 254-8800, or fax: (904) 254-4755. ILLINOIS BILL STILL KICKING Illinois Senate Bill 994, the Lesbian & Gay Rights Bill, would add sexual orientation to the State Human Rights Act, outlawing discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations, and credit transactions. The bill was headed for the floor for a full vote, when Senators Doris Karpiel, Chair of the Senate Executive Committee, and Walter Dudyczy shunted the bill into the newly-formed State & Government Subcommittee, a subcommittee whose members haven't been appointed yet. This was a clear attempt to keep the bill from going to the floor- where, according to the Illinois Federation for Human Rights, there would likely be enough votes to approve the bill. ACTION: Contact Senators Karpiel & Dudyczy and tell them to release the bill from the subcommittee to allow a full Senate vote. Senator Doris Karpiel; 400 W Lake St; Roselle IL 60172 ; (708) 894-2008 (voice); (708) 894-2871 (fax). Senator Walter Dudyczy; 6143 NW Highway; Chicago IL 60631; (312) 774-7717; (312) 774-7877 (fax). For more information contact Rick Garcia or Richard Cooke at the Illinois Federation For Human Rights (312) 477-7173. SISTER SPIRIT VOLUNTEERS At this writing, Brenda and Wanda Henson, co-founders of Camp Sister Spirit in Ovett, Mississippi, are in trial battling a nuisance suit brought against them by several neighbors. As they continue their struggle to establish a lesbian-feminist retreat and folk school, the Hensons are always in need of volunteers to assist in construction and security. ACTION: Plan a work vacation to Camp Sister Spirit. Call (601) 344-1411. n GOING TO ACTIVIST SCHOOL? Come to Creating Change 1995, Detroit, November 8-12 and give ol' Newt a case of the nerves. Our 8th annual national conference will be jam-packed with 100 useful and thought provoking workshops, plenary sessions, caucuses, roundtables, films, and cultural happenings. ACTION: To receive a brochure call (202) 332-6483 ext. 3229. Registration fees begin at $95.