Gay People

Reading Jean Marbella 's column on anti-gay marriage TV ads left me scratching my head in bewilderment at the actions of conservatives who routinely deny the facts ("So just who's 'teaching' gay marriage?" Oct. 31). It is an indisputable fact that gay people exist. So why the full-court press by conservatives to deny or mask that reality? The anti-gay TV ads in question claim that gay marriage will be taught in schools if Question 6 passes. This supposition confuses me as much as it does Ms. Marbella.

SOMETIME in the next few weeks the president will decide whether to lift the ban on gay men and lesbians in the military. Faced with considerable opposition in Congress, it looks today as though he is likely to settle for a compromise that is politically safe. But it also looks as though that compromise is un-American.The new policy for allowing gay people to serve in the armed forces -- as they have done since this country was founded -- is known in shorthand as "Don't ask, don't tell." This gives the illusion that sexuality in the service will become a private matter.

Recently, Tim Hardaway declared his hatred of gay people. Gay people should be thankful. Let me tell you a story. It's about a man named Bull Connor. In 1963, he was the police commissioner of Birmingham, Ala. Back then, Birmingham was pleased to be considered the most segregated city in the South. Then civil rights demonstrators under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to town. Mr. Connor directed the city's response. When you see those famous images of dogs attacking unarmed marchers, and firefighters directing high-pressure hoses at men and women singing freedom songs, you are seeing Mr. Connor's work.

Gay marriage opposition illogical Rarely do I read an opinion piece that punches me in the face with the sheer power of its illogic. Cathy Sidlowski's article opposing gay marriage ("Your say: Gay marriage," May 15) packs quite a punch. According to Ms. Sidlowski, gay people suffer no discrimination by not being allowed to marry one another. Why not? Because "gay people are as free to marry as anyone else - within the confines of the legal definition of marriage that applies to everyone.

I was 4 years old when I was picked up after a minor fall and had my tears brushed away with the words "You'll be OK. You'll heal long before you grow up and get married. " But by the time I reached puberty, that promise seemed to only be for my three sisters. I had come to the realization that I was gay, and gay people were not even thinking about getting married when I turned 12 in 1968. I hadn't even yet learned a word for being attracted to another boy. As a culture we have come a long way since then.

I THINK it started at Studio 54 in the late '70s," Hollywood super-agent Sandy Gallin told Out Magazine last November. "Somebody must have pointed to a group of people -- and some of them could have been straight, because Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager could have been there, and Bianca Jagger and Diane Von Furstenberg are supposed to be a part of it -- and said, 'Oh, there's the Velvet Mafia.' "Whoever started it, it stuck. These days it seems that whenever Mr. Gallin and his powerful friends David Geffen, Barry Diller, Calvin Klein and a few others are mentioned, the phrase "Velvet Mafia" cannot be far behind.

PEOPLE around President Clinton are saying he is surprised by the intensity of feeling these past weeks over his proposal to allow gays and lesbians in the military.This can mean only one thing: Bill Clinton has been isolated. He has never visited a comedy club.have earned my living in these laugh dens over the past decade. As one of those few Americans whose paying job is getting people to laugh, I've been surprised -- and disappointed -- by how easily we laugh at stereotypical gay-bashing.

LOS ANGELES -- The leading Democratic presidential candidates struck a delicate balance yesterday evening between showing commitment to expand the rights of gay people while justifying their opposition to same-sex marriage during the campaign's first-ever televised forum focused on gay issues. In an evening devoted to sensitive issues of sexuality and social mores, there were also riveting moments of frankness. Perhaps the most personal question of the evening was posed to Sen. Hillary Clinton by Etheridge, who told Clinton that she had felt personally hurt and abandoned by the Clintons.

City Hall sanity open to questionHas City Hall gone over the edge? Events over the past few days should lead citizens to question the sanity of the city's decision-making processes.The first event was the mayor's decision to go ahead with the construction of a new police station on Cold Spring Lane, despite potential savings in public money by instead using the modern but empty F&M building on 29th Street.The city does not appear to have done any analysis of the relative merits of the two sites.

IT WOULD have been unthinkable 25 years ago for thousands of openly gay fans to cheer openly gay athletes at Yankee Stadium, for openly gay artists to perform to the acclaim of openly gay audiences at Carnegie Hall, or for the mainstream media to provide extensive and sympathetic coverage of it all.The weekend's marches and the Gay Games and Cultural Festival are testimony to the legacy of the Stonewall rebellion of June 28, 1969 -- when a police assault on...