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Volunteers Needed for
9th Annual N.O. Film & Video Festival

Action, Roll Tape, Cut, Print--if these words get your blood going then it's time for you to sign up to volunteer with the New Orleans Film & Video Festival. The ninth Annual Festival is scheduled to take place Oct. 8-17 and is in dire need of enthusiastic workers to support the day-to-day operations of the film festival.

Past festivals have featured great feature films like Eve's Bayou, Shine, My Own Private Idaho and many more.

Volunteer as an individual or as a group with your favorite social, civic or corporate organization.

To receive a Volunteer Information application, call Cynthia at 504.581.3101. All applications must be in hand by no later than Oct. 4.

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Report Finds Gay Vote Matters

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) at a press conference in Washington, DC on Sept. 16 released a new report, "Out and Voting: The Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Vote in Congressional House Elections, 1990 - 1996," that confirms the significance and identity of a national Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual voting bloc. In a November election which could shift the balance of power but is predicted to draw an historically low turnout, the report's findings indicate that LesBiGays could make a real difference.

The report was developed by Robert Bailey of the Rutgers University School of Public Policy and Administration based on objective data: exit polls conducted for news organizations by Voter News Service (VNS) and Voter Research & Surveys (VRS) from 1990 through 1996, with a focus on Congressional elections. He was joined in its presentation by Rich Tafel, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, who also wrote the report's introduction; Daniel McGlinchey, executive director of the National Stonewall Democratic Federation; the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund's political director Kathleen DeBold; Human Rights Campaign political director Winnie Stachelberg; and, Urvashi Vaid, director of NGLTF's Policy Institute, with NGLTF executive director Kerry Lobel acting as moderator. Lobel made the witty remark that, "The voting booth is not the closet it once was."

Bailey's study maintains that, by even the strictest definitions, LesBiGays do in fact represent "a stable voting group" or bloc; as Vaid's summary expresses it, "Previous studies at the national and large city levels have shown that there is a coherent vote organized around sexual identity that possesses a socio-demographic profile, an agenda of specific policy priorities, and a predisposition toward government" -that last meaning, they do actually make it to the polls to cast ballots.

The size of that bloc indicates its potential political significance, compared with such traditionally recognized blocs as Jews (3.4%), Latinos (4.5%), African Americans (10.1%), and Asian Americans (1.11%), with percentages based on the 1996 national elections. Self-identified LesBiGay voters increased from 1.3% of 1992 voters to 5% of 1996 voters, and taking several variables into consideration (including the preponderance of younger people in the group) Bailey believes the number may continue to grow. The right wing has liked to cite studies that Gays and Lesbians are well under 2% of the population, but clearly in the voting booths their numbers are larger. One of the study's most surprising findings was that the largest percentage of self-identified LesBiGay voters was not in the biggest cities but in the mid-sized ones, at 8.9% in 1996. That 8.9% could have turned the tables in a number of elections, yet the LesBiGay electorate continues to receive significantly less attention from the political parties than its ethnic and racial counterparts.

The bloc is described as young, male and female, racially mixed, and comparable to the general voting population in income distribution. While more liberal than the average on general issues and in fact likely to vote Democratic, fully 28% of LesBiGay voters in 1996 voted Republican, and as Tafel put it, the bloc has "a significant independent streak." The data show that LesBiGay voters readily shift their votes depending on what the parties are actually doing on their issues. As Vaid put it, "The message that Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual voters are weighing all their electoral options should send a signal to Democrats that this vote should not be taken for granted and suggest to Republicans in swing districts that they dismiss this vote at their own peril." [from NewsPlanet]

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Gay Candidates See Wins, Losses in Primaries

Retired Army colonel Grethe Cammermeyer, one of four Lesbians running for the House of Representatives this year, won the Democratic primary in Washington State Sept. 15. Cammermeyer is the third Lesbian to win her primary. Christine Kehoe and Tammy Baldwin won their primaries in San Diego and Madison, WS, respectively, earlier this summer; Susan Tracy lost her primary bid to represent Boston in the House. In another primary loss for an openly Gay candidate, Rosie O'Donnell's brother Daniel lost his bid to represent New York City in the state assembly. [from The Advocate]

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CDC Study Proves Youth HIV Prevention Works

AIDS Action on Sept. 17 called for broader and more dynamic HIV prevention in light of findings from a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study demonstrating that comprehensive sexuality education is effective in reducing teen age sexual activity and increasing safer sex among teens who do have sex.

According to the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, the percentage of sexually active high school students decreased from 54.1% in 1991 to 48.4% in 1997 when they were enrolled in comprehensive sexuality education that included information about safer sex as well as abstinence. Among those who engaged in sexual activity, condom use increased from 46.2% to 56.8% during the same period.

"As with almost every social ill, education once again proves to be the best antidote. Unfortunately, we're not handing out enough textbooks," said Daniel Zingale, executive director of AIDS Action. "When it comes to HIV, other sexually-transmitted diseases and pregnancy prevention, we must speak to the reality of today's young people. Teaching teens about abstinence must be coupled with teaching them how to avoid HIV if they don't abstain."

AIDS Action cautioned that the study demonstrates the effectiveness of educating school-age youth and called for efforts that reach dropouts and post-high school aged youth. Half of all new HIV infections occur in young people under the age of 25.

"America must reinvigorate HIV prevention on every front: in schools, in mass media and in the home," added Zingale. "Reaching young people means reaching those at greatest risk such as young women of color and young Gay men. Unfortunately, these groups are often hardest to reach."

Also of concern is that the study reflects the national response to the earlier and deadlier years of the AIDS epidemic. With the advent of the protease drugs in the mid-90s, the national response to AIDS has waned, and complacency has set in. Most disturbing has been recent evidence of increases in risky sexual activity and HIV infections among young Gay men.

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