Green Thursday, radio program, July 24, 1975

  • PAUL: --In the morning, following
  • Green Thursday, which is next.
  • An hour long program produced by WCMF
  • in Rochester, and by men from Rochester's gay community.
  • (music plays)
  • BOB CRYSTAL: This is Green Thursday for July 24, 1975.
  • (music plays)
  • BOB CRYSTAL: That was "Avalanche."
  • Tonight I have Bruce Jewell and a tape of the gay pride
  • rally in New York City.
  • And we'll be playing that for you tonight.
  • Bruce?
  • BRUCE JEWELL: OK, I have a couple of announcements here.
  • Coming up on July twenty-seventh,
  • there's a business meeting at the gay brotherhood
  • in the Genesee Co-Op on Monroe Avenue.
  • If you'd like information about that business meeting,
  • you can call 244-8640.
  • Or if you'd just like information
  • about the gay brotherhood, you can call 244-8640.
  • Let's see, two weeks from now there's
  • a meeting entitled "Psychodrama."
  • That's on the tenth of August.
  • That sounds pretty good.
  • BOB CRYSTAL: That's going to be a little bit of exercises
  • in getting to know each other.
  • And we've done this before.
  • Previous meetings would call it touching.
  • And we've changed the title to "Psychodrama" too.
  • We thought that it would bring in more people.
  • They're usually very enjoyable.
  • BRUCE JEWELL: If you need something more heavy than that,
  • there's professional counseling for gays.
  • Relationship counseling for gays, straights, and bisexual,
  • emphasis on concern about interpersonal communications
  • and conflict.
  • Interviews by appointment.
  • Call appointment coordinators Miss Susan (unintelligible)
  • Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
  • That's Miss Susan (unintelligible).
  • Evening appointments are also available.
  • They're through the Family Service of Rochester,
  • Incorporated 31 Gibbs Street.
  • And if you're interested in that counseling center,
  • you can call 232-1840.
  • BOB CRYSTAL: I'd like to say tonight
  • that Kathy Thurston, who has worked with women in creating
  • and producing the Lesbian Nation program,
  • died Sunday from complications from an accident
  • that she suffered.
  • Kathy was a tremendous worker, and a really good person
  • to know.
  • And we'll all miss her.
  • And we'd like just to have people know that she's died,
  • and think about her a little bit.
  • Bruce, would you like to introduce the tape for us?
  • BRUCE JEWELL: Well before we have the tape,
  • a song called "Nashville Blues," and then it's
  • simply the segments of the gay pride rally
  • that I thought would interest you, OK.
  • (music plays)
  • (applause)
  • ANNOUNCER: This is it, baby, just look at each other.
  • SUBJECT 1: We are.
  • SUBJECT 2: I know.
  • I know.
  • ANNOUNCER: Are you good?
  • Let's start off gay pride day.
  • It's gotta be, are you ready for this?
  • Alright, let's all hold hands.
  • Come on, baby.
  • Grab your brother and sisters and hold hands.
  • I want to see it up.
  • Hold those hands, brothers and sisters.
  • And I want to hear you yell, gay pride, baby.
  • CROWD: Gay pride!
  • ANNOUNCER: How are you, gorgeous?
  • Alright, let's welcome Jade and Sarsaparilla!
  • (cheering)
  • (live music plays)
  • Thought I had a problem.
  • I thought that I was sick.
  • A ludicrous idea in a country run by Dick.
  • I first ran to the preacher.
  • And then ran to my shrink.
  • They screamed, "You need repair work.
  • Your love is out of sync."
  • Mother was embarrassed.
  • Father was upset.
  • They're holding me committed.
  • I'm treated like a pet.
  • I refused both invitations And ran into your arms.
  • Knowing I was damned to hell when heaven sent your charms.
  • And I need a drink of water in my mind.
  • Well it's dirty from the way our love survived.
  • I can't seem to get it clean with smoke and wine.
  • And I need to drink your water in my mind.
  • I could not live without you.
  • I had to live in shame.
  • Guilty and embarrassed, that our plumbing was the same.
  • A camera caught us playing.
  • The plumber was a spy.
  • And in the eye of the beholder is where perversion lies.
  • And I need a drink of water in my mind.
  • Well it's dirty from the way our love survived.
  • I can't seem to get it clean with smoke and wine.
  • And I need to drink your water in my mind.
  • In this lonesome cell I realized, that something
  • was amiss.
  • Something very different, from the rightness of our kiss.
  • It's a major revelation, you know,
  • that the world itself is lewd.
  • And it ain't just by each other that we are being screwed.
  • And I need a drink of water in my mind.
  • Well it's dirty from the way our love survived.
  • I can't seem to get it clean with smoke and wine.
  • And I need to drink your water in my mind.
  • And I need to drink your water in my mind.
  • And I need to drink your water in my mind.
  • (applause)
  • ANNOUNCER: Let's hear this loud and clear.
  • There are people here today that must have a standing ovation.
  • They're parents of gays, let's hear it for them!
  • (applause)
  • (cheering)
  • ANNOUNCER: Aren't they beautiful?
  • RALLY ATTENDEE: Yes, they are.
  • ANNOUNCER: Let me tell you about the parents of gays.
  • A lot of them are in their seventies and eighties.
  • And baby, they can outwalk Mama Jean.
  • They are beautiful.
  • Let's hear it for the parents of gays.
  • Come on!
  • (applause)
  • ANNOUNCER: Our first speaker of the day,
  • is a woman called Sarah Montgomery.
  • And baby, she's beautiful.
  • Let's hear it for Mrs. Sarah Montgomery!
  • (applause)
  • ANNOUNCER: A standing ovation for Mrs. Sarah Montgomery!
  • (cheering)
  • SARAH MONTGOMERY: Can you hear me?
  • CROWD: Yes!
  • SARAH MONTGOMERY: Great. (unintelligible).
  • Too long have you, my dear beautiful gay sisters
  • and brothers.
  • (applause)
  • I bring you greetings from Parents of Gays.
  • But this year, I want to look back a little
  • and tell you I have come full circle.
  • It so happened, I marched in the first gay parade,
  • not even knowing it was the first.
  • I remember I wrote to the newspaper Gay
  • and said that I knew no other parents,
  • but had decided any way to walk with, and not
  • for, my gay people.
  • (cheering)
  • The next (unintelligible) I walked with the men.
  • Next year, I decided to walk with the women.
  • (cheering)
  • I was told by my friends, everyone
  • will say you are a lesbian.
  • (cheering)
  • My answer was, so what?
  • (cheering)
  • (applause)
  • The third year, I was out of the country.
  • And I-- but the fourth year, I had found Parents of Gays.
  • So for three years now, I have marched with the parents.
  • You see you have to live and experience as well
  • as read to really learn.
  • I learned that it was important that gay people know
  • there are parents who fully accept and believe in them.
  • (applause)
  • But I have also learned by these years with Parents of Gays
  • that my first feelings were equally correct.
  • Yes, I am a parent of a gay son.
  • But I still do walk with all of you.
  • (applause)
  • That's where all parents should be.
  • We do not love our children in spite of who
  • or what they are, but just exactly as they are.
  • RALLY ATTENDEE: Right on.
  • SARAH MONTGOMERY: It may sound like a subtle and fine
  • distinction, but I've learned it's a very real and vital
  • difference.
  • For one thing, no one wants to be loved in spite of,
  • but just exactly as they are.
  • (applause)
  • But I've also learned that if you fight only
  • for your own child, you never come to a full understanding
  • that your child's very life depends on the full freedom
  • and well-being of every gay person in this country.
  • (applause)
  • So it is that this day I marched with the parents
  • for the first reason.
  • But truly, I marched with all of you,
  • but with an ever deepening understanding
  • that no one is safe so long as anyone is threatened.
  • This is the time of year when all gay people drop
  • their differences, and in ever-growing numbers realize
  • in-depth, that the deeper truth you are all safe
  • only together, not separated.
  • You must come to know your need for each other.
  • And then I'm sure, I'm very sure,
  • you will find the way to both differences and unity.
  • I sometimes think gay people will have a better
  • chance than straights to see this and understand it fully.
  • Your own search for identity in your beingness, so very
  • young, starts so very young, faced
  • with a hostile world, your search for truth
  • and for reality in your own beingness
  • can so easily make you also more understanding
  • of another person's equally desperate search
  • for themselves.
  • But these are years of decision for all of us.
  • As your movement grows, you will have
  • to face both the differences and the even more important need
  • for unity.
  • Never forget another fact, as you
  • grow in strength and determination,
  • and more and more of you come out of the closets,
  • and take your places beside your fighting sisters and brothers,
  • your enemies will also become alarmed and go into battle
  • earlier, and more openly.
  • I will--
  • (applause)
  • --I will take just one example.
  • Last year in New York, the Gay Civil Rights Bill
  • almost passed.
  • But because the archdiocese of the Catholic Church--
  • (booing)
  • --got into action very late, and only
  • defeated it by one or two votes.
  • This year, seeing your increasing growth,
  • you're reaching into the radio, the TV,
  • with more and more favorable comments into the press.
  • With sympathetic articles, they've
  • watched you grow stronger and stronger.
  • So this year, the archdiocese went into action early.
  • They have mounted a vicious campaign very, very early.
  • You can be both outraged at this, but also flattered.
  • It's proof of your growing strength.
  • An unpleasant flattery, I admit, but it has also worked,
  • as all enemy attacks always work,
  • it is unifying the gays of New York.
  • It may frighten some.
  • It's true.
  • (applause)
  • But it will also intensify your unity, your courage,
  • and your fighting spirit.
  • And whether the archdiocese likes it or not,
  • they may or may not once more defeat our bill.
  • But they will also lose many thousands of Catholic members.
  • (cheering)
  • Let all the homophobiacs and anti-gays learn this fact.
  • Being gay is just a part of nature,
  • not a social problem, not a choice, not a conversion.
  • It has been and will continue to be a simple fact of life.
  • We are born heterosexual, or homosexual,
  • and all degrees in-between.
  • RALLY ATTENDEE: Right on.
  • (cheering)
  • SARAH MONTGOMERY: This has been truth for many, many thousands
  • of years.
  • It's been true in every society human beings have created.
  • It's been dealt with through the ages in a more or less
  • permissive degree.
  • But if homosexuality could have been eliminated,
  • it would have been eliminated thousands of years ago.
  • (cheering)
  • Because there have been so many efforts to do so.
  • Every religion has tried.
  • All they have ever succeeded in doing
  • is either driving women and men deep into the closet,
  • or losing their membership.
  • No society, no matter how repressive their laws has ever
  • been or ever will be, to my mind,
  • succeed in eliminating gay people.
  • For thousands of years they have tried.
  • But fully straight parents through all the ages
  • have continued to bear gay children.
  • Why?
  • No one on this earth knows.
  • And again, through my way of thinking,
  • it's not even necessary to know.
  • (cheering)
  • There will always be enough heterosexuals
  • born to populate the earth, even to overpopulate it.
  • (cheering)
  • Right now here in the USA, we face vast problems,
  • a horrible growth of unemployment,
  • as mechanization leaps forward.
  • It can either spare human beings long hours
  • of repetitive and empty labor.
  • Or it can, and as at this time seems
  • to be doing, to increase unemployment, devastate
  • lives, create hunger, and increase towards a war machine.
  • We are closing our schools, increasing ignorance, closing
  • our hospitals, closing our industries,
  • and polluting our air, water, and land.
  • These are real issues.
  • Let the churches and the synagogues,
  • and the homophobiacs try to divert women's and men's minds
  • from these very real and desperate problems
  • by attacking gay people.
  • It has never worked and never will.
  • Yes, the very rich--
  • yes the very rich and very powerful
  • have always been allowed any lifestyle they prefer.
  • It's the person who needs a job that
  • will bear the brunt of all these oppressions and the problems
  • I have mentioned.
  • It won't be too long before you will find allies
  • among other oppressed groups.
  • I truly think that's exactly what the powers that be really
  • fear, not your sexual orientation,
  • but rather your need for peace and jobs
  • will force you and other oppressed groups
  • to eventually join forces to solve the human problems.
  • (applause)
  • You will never get discouraged in that endless fight for truth
  • and well-being of all of us.
  • In organizing, your learn when, where, and how to fight.
  • You learn who are your possible allies,
  • and who are your real enemies.
  • But be quite deeply sure that in the truth we'll prevail.
  • V for victory.
  • (cheering)
  • (applause)
  • BRUCE JEWELL: Sally Eaton.
  • SALLY EATON: Mr. Norman Rollings on piano.
  • (applause)
  • (live music plays)
  • Like a bird on the wire.
  • Like a drunk in a midnight choir.
  • I have tried in my way to be free.
  • Like a worm on the hook, like a knight
  • in an old fashioned book, I have worn all my ribbons,
  • oh honey, just for thee.
  • And if I have been unkind, I hope you just,
  • hope you just, just let it go behind.
  • And if I have been untrue and I, well, I hope you know,
  • I hope you know, hope you know darling it was never to you.
  • Like a baby stillborn, like a beast with it's horn,
  • I have torn everyone that reached out to me.
  • But I swear by this song, and I swear
  • by everything that's gone wrong, I will find me some way ah,
  • just to make it all to you.
  • Like a bird on the wire, just like the drunk in the midnight
  • choir, I have tried in my way to be free.
  • (applause)
  • BRUCE JEWELL: Bruce Voeller.
  • BRUCE VOELLER: --North America now
  • have adopted some manner of protection of gay people.
  • Twelve states, their legislatures
  • in the last few months have repealed their sodomy laws,
  • their restrictions on what we do.
  • (cheering)
  • The National Council of Churches adopted a resolution
  • saying it was morally wrong to discriminate against gays, that
  • are urging the Congress, and state, and city legislatures
  • to pass gay rights bills.
  • Those are big things and we're not alone anymore.
  • An important thing happens, though, from time to time.
  • And that's that a very human thing happens,
  • a very special thing that doesn't
  • have that kind of impersonality of a law being passed,
  • or something of the sort like that.
  • From time to time, a person comes along
  • who does a very dramatic and a very brave
  • and defined act on behalf of gay people everywhere.
  • Another thing that's just happened
  • is that a whole series of people in the armed forces
  • have come out and united to fight (unintelligible).
  • (applause)
  • I have with me four of those people who have done
  • a particularly striking thing.
  • Two lesbian WACs from up in Boston.
  • (cheering)
  • I want to tell you who they are in case, by any chance,
  • someone doesn't know.
  • They're Private First Class Barbara Randolph, and Private
  • Debbie Watson from--
  • (applause)
  • And two gay Air Force sergeants, Tech.
  • Sergeant Leonard Matlovich--
  • (cheering)
  • --and we have also Sergeant Skip Keith, who has just come out.
  • He did this just the last few days.
  • (cheering)
  • They're going to talk for themselves.
  • Before I do it, I want to introduce one other person,
  • and that's Dave Krause from the Gay Veterans Action.
  • He himself is a veteran and openly gay.
  • There are lots of you, I know, in this audience
  • that are, a lot of people march with the veterans group.
  • And right on.
  • We want to have as many people who are veterans,
  • and had honorable discharges, and who
  • are gay, write affidavits for these people,
  • for their hearings.
  • They badly and desperately need to have any of you who
  • are veterans and had honorable discharges
  • to write and say you were gay and you
  • were in the armed forces.
  • And get those letters to us.
  • (applause)
  • One last thing, they also need money for their hearings,
  • and for bringing in the expert witnesses,
  • and all the people who are going to testify at their hearings,
  • please send money to the Military Rights Project
  • at the American Civil Liberties Union.
  • Or if you send it to the National Gay Task
  • Force, earmarked for their fund, we'll send it on to them.
  • (applause)
  • BARBARA RANDOLPH: I just can't believe this.
  • I mean, in the army, so many things are hidden.
  • And to see so many of you out here, it's just so beautiful.
  • And together, sisters and brothers, we'll win.
  • (cheering)
  • BRUCE VOELLER: Debbie.
  • DEBBIE WATSON: I just want to thank you all for coming.
  • Because it just means so much to us in our fight.
  • It just gives us so much will to go on.
  • You just don't know how much it means.
  • (cheering)
  • RALLY ATTENDEE: Bravo!
  • Bravo!
  • Bravo!
  • BRUCE VOELLER: And next, a jet engineer from the US Air Force,
  • Skip, you're on.
  • (cheering)
  • SKIP KEITH: What can I say, you're all so beautiful.
  • Everybody say, cheese!
  • CROWD: Cheese!
  • (applause)
  • SKIP KEITH: This is really fantastic.
  • I think that one of the main things
  • that we as gays, the biggest problems that we have is that,
  • gosh, usually we're so invisible.
  • I mean we learned it the hard way at such an early age,
  • was as long as people can deal with us as living, breathing,
  • visible human beings, they have got to change the stereotypes.
  • And that was one of the main reasons
  • that I came out in my last race relations class
  • on the twenty-third of May.
  • And then like right after that, that was the Friday.
  • And that Monday, Len Matlovich's case hit the paper,
  • but I missed it because I was off on a trip.
  • And I didn't get back until like Thursday that night.
  • And I found out about it.
  • It really was like a jaw dropper.
  • And I just want to say, really, thanks a lot.
  • We really appreciate it.
  • And as long as we got this many gays, you're working together.
  • This is one city.
  • I mean, we know what's going on out on the West Coast now too.
  • We'd like to get, really, as many gays, especially
  • in military right now, who can pull off
  • the restraints of the closet and come out,
  • it would make it really so much easier for our cases.
  • Because the more of us the DOD, Department of Defense,
  • has to deal with, the worse it's going
  • to be for them to continue their ridiculously hypocritical
  • policies about gays in the military.
  • (cheering)
  • DOD knows damn well that there are thousands
  • of us in the military.
  • (applause)
  • There have been always.
  • There are now.
  • There have been in the past.
  • There are now.
  • There always will be.
  • And it's really foolish of them.
  • RALLY ATTENDEE: (unintelligible)
  • SKIP KEITH: Right, we're trying.
  • We're trying.
  • It's really foolish for them to continue
  • this ridiculously oppressive policies, which
  • is a classic and blatant violation
  • of our constitutional rights, denying of our person,
  • you know, discriminating against a person purely because
  • of sexual orientation, which we have about as much control
  • over as your height.
  • (cheering)
  • So we really appreciate this.
  • I sincerely want to tell you that we really appreciate this.
  • Thank you.
  • Thank you.
  • Thank you.
  • (applause)
  • BRUCE VOELLER: I'd like to tell you a little incident that's
  • happened recently.
  • Lenny Matlovich, the Sergeant behind me,
  • has for twelve years, had the highest possible score rating
  • on his personnel records, every year on his annual report.
  • The scale goes from zero to nine.
  • He's had nothing but nines for every one of those twelve years
  • until this year after he announced
  • that he was a homosexual.
  • He received his first lower rating than that.
  • He has a zero for this year.
  • (cheering)
  • LEONARD MATLOVICH: If my voice begins to crack,
  • it's because I've never been before so many beautiful people
  • in my whole life.
  • You're beautiful.
  • I love each and every one of you.
  • (applause)
  • Earth, Wind, and Fire, they've said it.
  • You are a shining star.
  • Each and every one of you are a shining star.
  • Let's let your light shine out from every rooftop,
  • from every church steeple in this land.
  • Let's let all know that we're gay and we're proud of it.
  • (cheering)
  • This isn't my quote, but it's from someone else.
  • A man that was in the Marine Corps.
  • I don't know who he was, but if he's ever around,
  • please introduce yourself.
  • He said that-- yeah right.
  • Right, he said that, "When I was in the Marine Corps,
  • I received a medal for killing two men,
  • and a dishonorable discharge for loving one."
  • RALLY ATTENDEE: Oy!
  • (applause)
  • LEONARD MATLOVICH: What a crazy, mixed up world
  • we live in when you're rewarded for hating
  • and put down for loving.
  • You are a shining star, shining bright to see
  • what you can truly be.
  • Let equality and justice ring from every rooftop
  • in this land.
  • Thank you.
  • And we love you.
  • (cheering)
  • ANNOUNCER: The next group I'm bringing out to you--
  • (cheering)
  • RALLY ATTENDEE: Let's stay together!
  • ANNOUNCER: --is the group that was received the best here
  • last year.
  • They are loved here all around.
  • They've been heard on many radio stations, club dates
  • throughout the states.
  • Two weeks ago, they played at the Statehouse
  • for the Massachusetts State Legislature with Elaine Noble.
  • They played Boston City Hall for the Speaker of the House
  • and the Mayor of Boston, none other--
  • and give them a warm welcome--
  • The Deadly Nightshade!
  • (cheering)
  • THE DEADLY NIGHTSHADE: Thank you, thank you.
  • Now I sure hope it doesn't rain.
  • I want everybody to think sun.
  • --On July fourth, Independence Day.
  • It's called "High Flying Woman."
  • (cheering)
  • (live music playing)
  • Did you ever think that you lived in a cage?
  • Did you ever think that you lived in a cage?
  • Well they're calling you a jerk, and the name just
  • seems to stick.
  • And you still don't think you're living in a cage.
  • Have you heard?
  • Have you heard?
  • There's a migration happening, going
  • where the thinking is free.
  • Only you can decide.
  • Take yourself for a (unintelligible).
  • You're a free flying woman, a high flying woman.
  • Did you ever think that you were up a tree?
  • Did you ever think that you were up a tree?
  • Well they're calling you a name that makes (unintelligible)
  • their game.
  • And you still don't think that you are up a tree.
  • Have you heard?
  • Have you heard?
  • There's a migration happening, going
  • where the thinking is free.
  • Only you can decide.
  • Take yourself for a (unintelligible)
  • You're a free flying woman, a high flying woman.
  • Is there someone out there trying to shoot you down?
  • And they tell you they're not trying to shoot you down.
  • Well they're telling you a lie.
  • Chicks that (unintelligible), but they don't fly.
  • And you don't have to stay down on the ground.
  • Have you heard?
  • Have you heard?
  • There's a migration happening, going
  • where the thinking is free.
  • Only you can decide.
  • Take yourself for a (unintelligible).
  • You're a free flying woman, a high flying woman.
  • You're a free flying woman, a high flying woman.
  • (cheering)
  • BRUCE JEWELL: This is WCMF FM, Rochester, New York.
  • You've just been listening to the gay pride rally.
  • And, or selected segments of it.
  • The thing ended with a blast of thunder and a downpour of rain.
  • BOB CRYSTAL: The first rain in six years.
  • BRUCE JEWELL: And the covering of all the sound equipment.
  • So it ended prematurely, and a great deal
  • of the entertainment, and many of the speakers
  • that were scheduled did not come on stage.
  • The keynote speaker of the day was Sarah Montgomery,
  • a woman in her seventies who is the mother of a gay man.
  • And I think she gave quite a spirited speech.
  • The problems of unemployment are touching all of us.
  • And she drew a particularly great response from the crowd,
  • talking about the unemployment situation
  • and what was happening to people's lives because of it.
  • Well now, I think we'll have the news for July 24, 1975,
  • here on Green Thursday.
  • BOB CRYSTAL: Constant pressure from gay activists and court
  • decisions have won a major advance for gay rights
  • with the US Civil Service Commission's decision
  • to drop its ban on homosexuals in civilian federal government
  • jobs.
  • On the day before Independence Day,
  • the commission issued new regulations and guidelines,
  • which replaced the previous policy with one which
  • bows to court rulings, that the government must show
  • some connections between a person's
  • homosexuality and his or her ability
  • to perform a job before it can fire or refuse
  • to hire that person.
  • In the past, the mere discovery that a person was a homosexual
  • was enough for dismissal by the Civil Service Commission,
  • which has the power to oust an employee
  • during his or her first year of federal employment.
  • The commission's argument was that the presence
  • of a homosexual would bring public shame on an agency
  • in which he or she worked.
  • The new guidelines state, quote, "Court decisions
  • require that persons not be disqualified
  • from federal employment solely on the basis
  • of homosexual conduct.
  • The commission and agencies have been
  • enjoined not to find a person unsuitable
  • for federal employment solely because that person
  • is a homosexual or has engaged in homosexual acts.
  • Based on these court decisions and outstanding injunctions,
  • while a person may not be found unsuitable
  • based on unsubstantiated conclusions concerning
  • possible embarrassment to the federal service,
  • a person may be dismissed or found unsuitable
  • for federal employment where the evidence establishes
  • that such a person's sexual conduct affects job fitness."
  • End quote.
  • Frank Kameny, President of the Mattachine Society
  • of Washington, greated the change as quote,
  • "Basically what I and others have been working
  • for over many years," unquote.
  • BRUCE JEWELL: The American Medical Association
  • has gone on record as being in support
  • of, quote, "Repeal of laws, which classify as criminal,
  • any form of noncommercial sexual conduct between consenting
  • adults in private.
  • Save only those portions of which
  • protect minors, public decorum, or the mentally incompetent,"
  • unquote.
  • However, the medics rejected a motion,
  • which would have supported an end to employment
  • discrimination based on private consensual sex behavior.
  • BOB CRYSTAL: Ma Bell's west coast affiliate
  • may lose its contracts with the city
  • of San Francisco in a major test of sections of the city's
  • nondiscrimination ordinance, banning discrimination
  • against gay people.
  • The Human Rights Commission released its findings
  • June twenty-eighth, that Pacific Telephone and Telegraph
  • quote, "Maintains a policy prohibiting
  • the hiring or retention of manifest homosexuals," unquote.
  • The city ordinance bans discrimination
  • in hiring by city agencies, and by those companies contracting
  • with the city.
  • Pacific Telephone and Telegraph has
  • contracts with the city's department
  • of public works for the installation
  • and maintenance of telephones on the city's sidewalks.
  • The city must void its contracts with companies
  • found to be in violation of the nondiscrimination ordinance.
  • In addition, the offending contractor
  • is barred from future contracts with the city for a two year
  • period.
  • Pacific Telephone and Telegraph's policy
  • on gay people called "Employment of Homosexual's" was
  • obtained by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission
  • in 1974.
  • The policy says, quote, "We do not
  • give favorable consideration in the employment process
  • to anyone who, in our judgment, may create conflicts
  • within existing employees or the public we serve.
  • This includes, but is not limited to,
  • any manifest homosexual," unquote.
  • Pacific Telephone and Telegraph, a state protected monopoly,
  • installs and owns most of California's telephones,
  • and is one of the state's biggest private employers.
  • There is no question that the company's anti-gay policy
  • came down from the very top of the multi-million dollar
  • corporation.
  • And the struggle to overturn it may become a heated fight
  • as the city of San Francisco takes on Pacific Telephone
  • and Telegraph.
  • BRUCE JEWELL: An equal opportunity ordinance,
  • which would have banned discrimination
  • against gay people, was defeated by the city council in Duluth,
  • Minnesota by a 7 to 2 vote.
  • Sections of the bill covering quote,
  • "sexual or affectional preference" unquote,
  • were blamed for the defeat.
  • Other anti-discrimination criteria
  • included in the proposed ordinance
  • were age, sex, disabilities, marital status, race, color,
  • religion, and national origin.
  • The news was from The Advocate number
  • one hundred and sixty-eight.
  • And this has been the news for Green Thursday.
  • OK, I guess that just about it for this evening.
  • BOB CRYSTAL: Next week, Lesbian Nation will be on.
  • And the week after that, Wednesday,
  • at midnight, Thursday morning, Green Tuesday will be back.
  • Bruce, do we have a tape for that evening?
  • BRUCE JEWELL: Well no, I don't think we have a tape.
  • Been a great deal happening in the last month
  • or so in the gay movement.
  • I thought we'd take some commentaries
  • from the newspapers and from the straight press
  • as well, which has been giving us little bits here and there,
  • and talk about those things.
  • BOB CRYSTAL: OK.
  • I'd like to point out that Green Thursday and WCMF are
  • the only pieces of media in Rochester
  • that covered the march of fifty thousand people.
  • And that's not good.
  • Don't go cheering there, (unintelligible).
  • That, I mean, it's good for WCMF,
  • but it really says something about our news reportage.
  • And if I remember correctly, I asked people at CMF
  • to see if the UPI or the AP wire services would cover it.
  • And I wasn't told.
  • I don't think they did.
  • So we were there.
  • And the reporters were there.
  • But somehow the communication between the reporters
  • and the populace broke down.
  • We'll close tonight with Mother Maybelle Carter,
  • "Keep on the Sunny Side."
  • (music plays)
  • PAUL: Views and opinions expressed
  • on Green Thursday do not necessarily
  • represent those of WCMF, its staff, or management.
  • Green Thursday is an hour long program
  • produced by WCMF in Rochester, and by men from the Rochester
  • gay community.
  • It may be next heard two weeks from tonight at 12:00 a.m.
  • Thursday morning.
  • Meanwhile, next Thursday morning at 12:00 a.m.
  • Lesbian Nation will be on the air.
  • On August twenty-third, John (unintelligible) and WCMF
  • present in Syracuse, the Great American Music Fair.
  • That features the Stanky Brown Group, the New Riders
  • of the Purple Sage, America, Jefferson Starship, the Doobie
  • Brothers, and the Beach Boys.
  • On Friday and Saturday, August first and second,
  • Summer School Productions and WCMF
  • present Bat Magrath, Don Potter, Michael Bacon,
  • and Rob Galbraith at the Rochester Community Playhouse.
  • Old Salt will be at the Penny Arcade tonight.
  • (unintelligible) at the Wine Press,
  • Geoff Muldaur at the Red Creek, Vixen at the Fairport Village
  • Inn, the Earl Weems Revue at the Cottage Hotel in
  • (unintelligible), and Iota will be at the Purple
  • Pig on Route 64 in Bristol.
  • WCMF announces a Rock Guide.
  • That's a detailed list of radio stations
  • throughout the country, giving you the band and the frequency.
  • The WCMF Rock Guide is available now at all (unintelligible)
  • locations.
  • On the radio this Saturday night at ten o'clock
  • we'll be doing Rock Around the World
  • that features import music this week from Wales,
  • and some groups such as David Edmonds, and Man,
  • and we'll also feature some live recordings of Gentle Giant.
  • And if you're into Gentle Giant, do not miss it.
  • It is excellent.
  • They do the five minute recorder thing
  • they go through when they do (unintelligible)
  • in concert, and their acoustic guitar things they go through.
  • If you've ever seen them in concert,
  • and you know what they always do all the time in concert,
  • and they never do on their records,
  • you'll have a chance to hear it on the radio, Saturday night
  • at ten.
  • Sunday night at eight thirty, we start the King Biscuit Flour
  • Hour, half an hour early, so we can
  • do an hour and a half special featuring Alice Cooper.
  • From ten to ten thirty, it's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,
  • with the episode The Lion's Mane.
  • And after Sherlock at ten thirty,
  • we zap over to the Wine Press to bring you
  • a live concert with Petrus.
  • That's the music calendar.
  • I'm Paul (unintelligible), I'll be here till six o'clock
  • in the morning.
  • (music plays)