Anita endangers sexual privacy bill By Charlie Pluckhahn of the Cardinal Staff Public reaction against homosexuality in the wake of the Anita Bryant campaign has endangered passage of a bill legalizing all private sexual contact between con- senting adults, according to several legislators and its sponsor, Rep. David Clarenbach, D-Madison. The bill, AB 323, would change existing laws against fornication and "sexual perversion" (e.g. oral and anal sex), making them applicable only to public acts. Thirteen other states have passed similar laws since 1960. THE BILL WAS kept alive last spring by a slim 54-vote majority of the Assembly in the face of procedural maneuvers to kill it. In June, it was referred to the Joint Committee on Finance, which reviews all legislation changing criminal penalties. It still sits there. After Bryant made headlines last summer in her crusade against a Dade Co. Florida gay rights ordinance, legislative enthusiasm for Clarenbach's bill, dubbed "the sexual privacy act," cooled con- siderably. "The reason for this bill being here was to legalize homosexuality," said Rep. Joanne Duren, D-Cazenovia, who opposes the bill. "All of the sudden when the people back home found out what the bill really was, they contacted their represen- tatives.' The chairperson of the Joint Finance Darky Cardinal 2/2/78 committee, Gary Johnson, D-Beloit, supports the bill, Clarenbach said. But he is holding it in the committee until Clarenbach can round up a majority of the Assembly to support it. elec- NOVEMBER'S LEGISLATIVE tions are the largest factor in getting a majority, Clarenbach maintained. He has broken up last spring's 54-vote majority, he said, into two groups of 30 members who definitely support the bill and 24 others who voted to keep it alive but might not strongly support it. "It may in fact be too close to the election to expect them (the second group) to vote with us. But I think I can make a strong argument to them that it's already going to be used against them in the next campaign because they've already voted for it," Clarenbach said. Another reason that the bill will be "tough to pass," Clarenbach said, is the "conservative" climate of the legislature. "The abortion thing isn't going to help," he said, referring to the Legislature's heavy support of a bill limiting public-funded abortions. the Supporters of the bill are encouraging people and groups who favor legislation to organize. "The people who have spoken out are the religious fanatics," Clarenbach said. "if the libertarians speak out, maybe we'll get somewhere.' Sexual privacy (continued from page 1) IN SPITE OF the difficulties the bill faces, Clarenbach said he thinks it can pass. "It'll be close. We're going to have to do a lot of leg work in the next two weeks for it." If it passes the Assembly, he said, it will pass the Senate. "Only half the Senate stands for re- election (this year)." Citing the legislature's rejection last September of a part of the state's recodified criminal laws (continued on page 2) lowering the penalties for adultery and "perversion," Duren said the bill will not pass. She said the Joint Finance committee will be the bill's "burial ground. "I would be surprised if the bill has any action on it for the rest of the session," she said. "I'm definitely against the bill," she said. "It legalizes fornication and sexual perversion. People shouldn't be doing these things. You've got to have some moral standards." --- Tuesday, February 7, 1978-the daily cardinal-page 4 Repeal Wisconsin sex laws! In opposing the legislation sponsored by David Clarenbach, D-Madison, to legalize all private sexual activity between con- senting adults, Rep. Joanne Duren made a pitch for her brand of "moral" standards. "People should not be doing these things," she said. If there is a new morality in this society, one of its basic ex- pressions can be found in the sexual privacy bill. This code, contrary to Duren's repressive dictates, recognizes that the diversity of personal relationships human beings are capable of ought to be a matter between the persons involved-and no one else. Is it moral for the government to stick its voyeuristic eye in the keyhole? Is it for a small minority of fanatics to put through state law, a "void and prohibited" stamp on the sexual preferences of the rest of us? That is exactly what has hap- pened, and continues to happen, as long as Wisconsin's present sex laws are in effect. The laws prohibit many forms of sexual activity that nearly every adult has engaged in. Any sexual ac- tivity with an unmarried person, anal and oral intercourse or cohabitation is illegal. And while not many heterosexuals are arrested for violating these laws, they have often been used by police and prosecutors as tools of harassment and destruction. Most people have read or heard of a BOUDOR PATROL "They seem to be working up to an illegal position." case now and then of a husband and wife arrested for sodomy in a small town hotel, and many have felt the sting of laws against having sex with an unmarried person. But the real tragedy of sex laws is the effect they have traditionally had on homosexuals. Skillfully applied, often with doses of extra-legal violence, intimidation and entrapment, the sex laws have been an effective tool in the hands of police and election-hungry prosecutors in creating a cloistered atmosphere of repression and shame among gays and lesbians throughout the nation. The city of Milwaukee, under police chief Harold Brier, uses decoys to trick gay people in the city's parks and gay bars into violating state sex laws. The University has, in the not too distant past, used the sex laws to purge gays from this campus. It all adds up to a picture of deception and seriously disrupted lives. And for what? The most that supporters of present sex laws can hope for is to keep gay people and lesbians on the run. The preponderance of evidence collected by the psychological community suggests that a repressive com- munity attitude towards homosexuality does nothing to reduce it. And is that what Wisconsin wants to do-keep homosexuals "on the run?" Our concept of morality says that is terribly wrong. Gay people and lesbians are legitimate members of the community, and deserve all the rights that other people have. The present sex laws, as enforced, deny them the most basic rights of expression. The state of Wisconsin should not be in the business of forcing some people's tragically misguided and repressive moral code on those of us who do not believe in it. Repeal the sex laws. --- photo by Perry Greene Fund drive organized Gay community opposes Bryant By Nicholas Madigan of the Cardinal Staff Madison's gay community is organizing a fund drive to publicize its opposition to Anita Bryant's proposed appearance in St. Paul, Minn., this Wednesday. Bryant, a well-known religious and anti-homosexual activist, is lending her support to a move in that city to repeal the local gay rights ordinance, now in force almost four years. DURING A PRESS conference Sunday evening at the Lysistrata restaurant, 225 W. Gorham St., lawyer Karla Dobinski said it was "not out of the question" for Madison's own gay-rights or- dinance to be subjected to an attempt at repeal in the near future. When Dobinski mentioned the possibility of Anita Bryant visiting Madison early this summer, the crowd at Lysistrata erupted in hisses. She said the "concerned citizens" of St. Paul who are at- tempting to have the ordinance repealed "already have $100,000 in their campaign." Dobinski then produced two empty frozen orange juice cans and asked for contributions from the opposition. The money, she said, will be sent to a gay-rights organization called the Tri-City Defense Fund-so named because of its efforts in fighting attempts at repeal in three cities; Eugene, Ore., St. Paul and Wichita, Kan., the latter being described as "kind of a lost cause." The Defense Fund will buy media time to counter anti-gay sentiments in those cities. "We're up against sophisticated people," Dobinski said. "They did a really sneaky thing with the referendum questions in St. Paul. First they had the question about repealing ordinance and then some meaningless question about religion in schools, trying to equate the two. They know what they're doing." BRYANT FIRST GAINED prominence as an opponent of gay rights in June, 1977, when an anti- discrimination ordinance was repealed in Dade County, Fla., largely under Bryant's well- publicized premise that homosexual teachers were a bad influence on children. Crawdaddy magazine reports, however, that a recent survey shows heterosexual teachers commit more sexual assaults on children than homosexual teachers. At Sunday's press conference, state Rep. David Clarenbach, D- Madison, urged those present to "take a half hour every week to write to a legislator or kick in an extra five bucks" to keep the anti- discrimination effort going. Clarenbach said the Sexual Privacy bill was introduced two years ago and was now held up in committee because of "parliamentary technicality.' But, he added, "we might get something passed next session." Ald. James Yeadon, Dist. 8, said the city's anti-discrimination 1975, "didn't raise one word of ordinance, in effect since May, opposition when it was first brought up," but he could not tell if, in the wake of present trends, there might be an effort to repeal it. "They'll be going after us next, dancing and massage parlors," as soon as they're done with nude Yeadon said. Attorney Karla Dobinski --- Madison law protects gays Mother WIL Mothe 22 By Mark C. Hazelbaker of the Cardinal Staff Four times in the past year, gay rights has been put to a vote, and four times, it has lost. In Miami, Fla., Witchita, Kan., St. Paul, Minn., and Eugene, Ore., city ordinances recognizing the equal em- ployment, housing and social rights of gay people have been repealed by voters. The threat of a return to the closet days has fallen across gays everywhere. The fear is felt even in the "liberal and tolerant" community of Madison, which adopted a gay rights provision to its existing equal opportunities ordinance in 1975. THE REV. WAYNE Dillabaugh, pastor of North- port Baptist Church, has stated he may launch a petition drive attack on Madison's gay rights or- dinance. The Madison equal opportunities ordinance provision protecting gays has been on the books for three years. Adopted by a 14-8 council vote, the main effect of the non-discrimination law has been to set a tolerant tone in the community. Its provisions for anti-discrimination suits have been used rarely, according to several gay activists. The ordinance allows persons who suffer discrimination to file suits against landlords, em- ployers, businesspersons or government officials who ignore the human rights recognized by the law. The awareness of gay rights fostered by the or- dinance has, to a great extent, made the legal recourses provided in the law unnecessary. It remains, however, as protection for gays when incidents do occur. The effect of the non-discrimination ordinance on the atmosphere of the city has been profound, ac- cording to Ald. Jim Yeadon, Dist. 8. "It makes people reluctant to blatantly discriminate," he said. LEGAL PROTECTIONS made possible a promotion Yeadon won at the Wisconsin Union when as a law student he threatened to sue. The Union had passed Yeadon over for promotion because he is gay, Yeadon said. The threat of such a suit prompted the union to give in, and promote him. The protection of the ordinance contributes greatly to the stability of gay persons' lives, Yeadon said. "It makes people feel easier," he said. "If you lose your job, you have some rights." But he noted that many groups of workers, including state and university employees, are not yet protected by such legislation. State Rep. Davd Clarenbach, D-Madison, a proponent of reform of the state's sex laws to remove legal bars on anal and oral sex and other now-prohibited acts, agrees with Yeadon. "As long as gay sex is a crime, there's a legal basis for discrimination," Clarenbach said. One argument used against gay schoolteachers has been that they, as gays, must inevitably break the law because their sexual practices are illegal. Leontinued герои insciousness raising in ure will produce a iti-discrimination law ears. of today, however, in the four ordinance nwide has politicians YEADON AND CLARENBACH both agree that an attack is possible on Madison's city ordi- nance. Yeadon, however, thinks the City Council has stood firmly for gay rights in the past and will in the future. include three non-discrimination everywhere wary of the gay rights bills as well. AB 1296, 1297 and 1298 issue, Clarenbach said. would prohibit discrimination against gays in employment, housing and public ac- comodations, respectively. The three bills were killed quickly by the Assembly, which Clarenbach said would not deal with the touchy issues in an election year. Clarenbach was unable to persuade any other legislators to co-sponsor the bills. Lacking support, the bills died with the end of the 1977 Legislature on March 31. Acknowledging the bills never had a chance in the legislature, Clarenbach explained, "I in- troduced them to educate the legislature, to raise the issues. Clarenbach believes that long term " "They've been good," Yeadon said. "I'm proud to be a member of that body." He noted that the 1975 vote of the council to add "sexual orientation" to the categories protected under the equal opportunities ordinance came without great controversy. Clarenbach said gay rights was considered a "dangerous" issue by most politicians, making future positive moves difficult. Summer Registration 1978-the daily cardinal-page 17 --- WSA funds gay center By Ed Bark 7/22/78 Press Connection Writer Ignoring a scathing editorial by the Badger Herald, the University of Wisconsin Student Association unanimously has appropriated $2,800 to fund a "gay affairs center" on campus. The vote Thursday night was praised by Dean of Students Paul Ginsberg, who said the "concept" of a gay center is an "excellent one." Ginsberg helped form a Universi- ty-affiliated "gay assistance commit- tee" about two years ago. Its pur- pose is to "help those students who have sensed or been victims of dis- crimination and to create a better and higher level of understanding," Ginsberg said. Before the WSA vote, the conser- vative Herald, one of two student newspapers distributed on campus, said proposed funding of a gay center was "the most hideous" budget item scheduled for debate. In an editorial entitled "Queer Budget," the Herald called for elimination of the WSA as an elec- tive body representing some 39,000 UW students. "Taking student monies to pro- mote a lifestyle contrary to all moral canons is the last straw," the editorial said. State Rep. David Clarenbach (D-Madison), a sponsor of several gay rights bills, said the Herald broadside represents "a surprising- ly insensitive attitude that I'm sur- prised still exists in this city. "I thought the Reverend Wayne Dillabaugh had been put in his place," Clarenbach added. Speaking on behalf of United, a recently formed gay activist coali- Hiroshima Day rally planned PC 8/7/78 The Mobilization for Survival is sponsoring a Hiroshima Day rally p.m. Saturday. State Rep. David Clarenbach at Orton Park at (D-Madison) and Samuel H. Day and Erwin Knoll of The Progressive will be the featured speakers. tion, David Carter termed the Her- ald's use of the word "queer" a "dis- graceful" insult to what he esti- mated as Madison's 10 per cent gay population. "I don't think any newspaper to- day would dare print the word 'nig- ger' or 'kike'," he said. "It's an outrage and they shouldn't be able to do this with impunity." Carter said a "gay affairs center" on campus is intended to be mainly a counseling, social and informational center. "I don't think anything like this in the nation has happened before," he said of the WSA decision to fund the nun center. "I hope that this can gay students that exist, it's unreasonable amount of mon The center's purpose is "no vocate a gay lifestyle," but ra "help people who are gay," Carter stressed. "It's saying that if you're already gay, that's okay," he said. The location of the center and its opening date have not yet been determined. It is expected that those decisions will await input from existing gay organizations in the city. a Gay counseling services have been available in Madison on regular basis since 1973 when the Gay Center was organized. The center receives calls at 257-7575 and drop-ins at its offices at 1001 Univer- city. Ava Gay coalition sponsors picnic 6/23/78 The Madison Area Gay Interim Coalition (MAGIC), a group of business organizations serving the homosexual community of Madison, is sponsoring a picnic Saturday, at Britingham Park from noon to 7:00 p.m. Speakers, including the Rev. James Wright, chair of the Madison Equal Opportunities Commission, State Representative David Claren- bach, and Ald. James Yeadon, will address the crowd from 1:30 to 2:30. MAGIC urges the support of the entire Madison community and em- phasizes "attendance at the picnic rather than demonstrating. or ---