Right Wing Anti-Gay Assault on the Arts Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the September 25, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- LATEST ATTACK IN TEXAS: RIGHT WING BEHIND ANTI-GAY ASSAULT ON THE ARTS By Pat Chin Right-wing bias against the lesbian/ gay/bi/trans community, in the form of attacks against the arts, reared its rabid head recently in Texas, North Carolina and other states. But the struggle has led to a step-up in organizing, with new groups and coalitions forming to fight back against the right-wing attack. In Texas, the San Antonio City Council voted unanimously Sept. 13 to cut funds for the Department of Arts and Cultural Affairs by 15 percent. All city grants to the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, a lesbian and gay arts group, were totally slashed. This amounts to $62,000 annually, or about 16 percent of Esperanza's budget. The city council voted after three hours of public hearings, with most talks coming from supporters of public funding for the arts. A literacy program also lost all financing, although spending for basic services was increased under the new budget. The fight against public funding for the arts was led by Councilperson Robert Marbut. He calls the Department of Arts and Cultural Affairs "a bastion of special interests." The Christian Pro-Life Foundation also campaigned against Esperanza. San Antonio Mayor Howard Peak tried to explain the budget slashing by saying that Esperanza "seems to go way beyond what people want their money spent on. It is an in-your-face organization." Graciela I. Sanchez, Esperanza's executive director, disagreed. "The attacks have been coming for the last four years because of the queer programming we do," she explained. "And because of the discussions we have on race and gender issues. "They want to say that this is not homophobia, but it is homophobia." Grassroots opposition to the cuts have been mounting. The group People Involved in Culture and Art in San Antonio, founded by Trinity University Professor Bill FitzGibbons, a sculptor, has held protests. City financing for Esperanza was also supported by the National Coalition Against Censorship. CUTS IN NORTH CAROLINA Earlier, in Charlotte, N.C., public funding was first cut for plays and art depicting lesbian and/or gay characters or themes. Then counselors were ban ned from discussing sex with teenagers. The Mecklenburg County Commission acted after a right- wing-orchestrated furor erupted over a privately funded showing of a gay documentary at the Mint Museum. That, and a reactionary mobilization against a production of gay playwright Tony Kushner's Pulitzer-Prize-winning play "Angels in America," led to the attack on public financing for the museum and for the Arts and Sciences Council. In April, funding for art galleries that show gay-themed works was banned. This occurred despite strong community opposition. The reactionary anti-gay movement in Charlotte is led by five conservative county commissioners. They say they're "following god's will and liberating taxpayers from supporting the perversion of homosexuality." (The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 23) Lesbian/gay/bi/trans youths are also under attack in Mecklenburg County. In June the County Commission passed a law requiring parental notification where counseling on sexual orientation is provided to young people. These agencies must now also inform youths and parents of the state's anti-"sodomy" law that criminalizes gay sex. Gay-related art has also come under attack in the city of Greensboro, and in Guilford County. The attacks in Mecklenburg County gave rise to a new group, the Charlotte Pride Alliance. PART OF BOSSES' ASSAULT The latest cuts in funding for the arts in Texas and North Carolina reflect a nationwide trend. Struggles have also erupted in Anchorage, Alaska, and Jackson Hole, Wyo. These local battles go hand in hand with the decade-long attack on the National Endowment for the Arts. The assault on the arts is part and parcel of a larger right-wing agenda against people who refuse to be laced into the suffocating straitjacket of mandatory heterosexuality. The lesbian/gay/ bi/ trans community is being assailed at the same time that racism is being stirred up by the capitalist state. Immigrants, youths, poor and working-class people are also being vilified as they face cuts in benefits, corporate downsizing, union busting, layoffs and growing police terror. The centuries-long repression of sexuality--particularly women's--is part and parcel of class society, which manifests itself today in capitalist social relations and exploitation. The struggle for sexual liberation is, therefore, like the fight against racism and economic exploitation, intimately linked to the battle for socialism. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://workers.org) ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytsxp-09.21.97-00:54:17-27196