LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
Speak Out |
First The Exchange. Now...et tu Sean Riley, then falls ROAM. ROAM the popular Wilmington gay club is bankrupt. The hammer finally dropped at 11 p.m., Sunday, May 6th. The guarded secret revealed. The employees were informed that this night would be the last.
I had heard by mid afternoon the next day. I refused to believe it could be true. I first came to ROAM just last October. Friday's The University of Delaware's Gay Student Union had their weekly soiree. These were the nights I attended most often. These are the people most affected. Bobby White's Club 814, the last queerbar standing (in Wilmington), is not interested in these patrons. Too many non-drinking individuals. So the college queers have moved to the Trolley Bar and Grill. The great experiment now begins. Can a straight club host a gay night? Joseph Clipper, writer/photographer One of many who will miss ROAM Eight members of our social group attended the Women's Health, Legal and Financial Conference held on March 24, and we were very impressed. I found the Conference to be well organized, well presented and very informative. Serious subjects were sprinkled with some light humor. And everything was done by volunteers! A friend commented that some of the conferences or meetings that she must attend through her job are not even half as well done by professionals. The CAMP Rehoboth Women's Project really seems to care about the women in our community. I would say it was a morning well spent. With deepest regards, Betty Knepp Good people and fun times are the heart-warming parts of my Rehoboth recollectionsand there are many! Letters keeps me "on the scene," as well as educating me with some excellent articles. Keep creating, Joan Ferguson It is exciting to watch House Bill 99, the Sexual Orientation Bill, move slowly through the Delaware General Assembly, and we must stay vigilant in letting our legislators know that we expect their support no matter where we live in Delaware. However, our hope of progress in Dover should not make those of us that are residents of the City of Rehoboth Beach think all is well at home. There is a lot at stake in the upcoming City elections in August, and there is a growing concern among many of us that the Rehoboth Beach Homeowners Association (RBHA) needs our undivided attention. The good news is that Rehoboth Beach is one of the few resort communities in this country that allows property owners to vote even if your primary residence and voter registration is in another town or state. They do not make it easy to register, even for Delaware residents, but you can vote in the upcoming election if you go to City Hall and register by June 8th. Also, make sure you ask how to vote absentee if you cannot be in town on election day. Rehoboth Beach faces many challenges and every voice is critical to our City's future. There are good candidates to choose from this year, and that warrants the attention of all Rehoboth property owners. The not so good news is that the RBHA appears to be on a collision course with those of us who believe in an open dialogue, and a Rehoboth Beach that is friendly, open and welcoming to everyone. I am a member of the RBHA, despite the fact that I was warned by many that the group was homophobic and not a welcoming group. While I do not want to cast every member or all the members of the Board as homophobic, the actions of some members at last October's Annual Meeting, and the decision to take the Association members' voice away from candidate endorsements, clearly says that there are many leaders of the RBHA that fear any gay voice in the Association or on the Board of Commissioners. The decision to take the memberships' voice away in endorsing elected officials is the Boards response to that October Meeting which did not go as scripted. There were many new faces there, including gay and lesbian ones, that forced the Board to pass a resolution not to promise the Associations endorsement before an interview of all the candidates. One Board member publicly admitted this was a common practice, only to try and backtrack when confronted. That same Board member later said loud enough to be overheard, if we don't stop the gays they will take over. They clearly feared the new faces and maybe some new ideas. Frankly I found the October Annual Meeting refreshing. At the first few RBHA meetings I attended, I was taken aback by the few vocal people, in an organization that says it has 1200 plus members, that ran the show in a sometimes less than polite manner. These people firmly believe they know what is best for us, no matter what we may think. They fear the new people will take a genuine interest in the affairs of the Association and be vocal or "take over." Well I ask you, take over and do what? In the time that Rehoboth Beach has become a popular destination for gays and lesbians, while maintaining its appeal to heterosexuals and in particular families with children, the town has gentrified, property improved and the economy has expanded to the envy of our neighbors. We have renovated, maintained and improved our homes, unlike many of the almost slum property owners who milk their property for every last cent. We must have our voice heard in the RBHA. If you own property in the City, you must join, and you must come to the Annual Meeting, which is the only place your voice can now be heard. The RBHA is the only voice many property owners hear from all year long to know what the issues are and who to vote for. The RBHA also pays for candidate advertisements and letters. Their voice cannot be underestimated. When I called the RBHA President, Mary Campbell, to express my feelings about the resolution that takes our voice away, she said: "If you don't like it, vote the Board out." At the time I said to her, "Don't you think that's a little drastic?" Maybe Ms. Campbell is right! Gregory Oliver HB99 Alert On May 1, over 100 people met at Legislative Hall in Dover to show opposition to HB99, Delaware's bill that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. These people distributed letters to legislators and handed out a video called It's Not Gay!, which details the stories of "ex-gays." This opposition event received front page coverage in today's Delaware State News. This is NOT good news. Currently, HB99 is sitting in a desk drawer in Dover with no date for a committee hearing that would move the bill forward. Our community needs to move and move now! I strongly urge all of you to take the following steps: 1) Continue to make contacts with your legislators! Contact information for legislators can be found at the Delaware state website at www.state.de.us. Follow links for "Government" and "General Assembly." Legislative contacts in favor of HB99 have dropped off considerably in recent weeks and we need to get those rolling again. Call or write your senators. Call or write the Small Business Committee members, and Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Venables, in particular, and urge him to give HB99 a committee hearing as soon as possible. Contact your House representative and say "thank you" if he or she supported HB99 in the House vote on March 27. More importantly...ask others to do the same. Talk to your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and ask them to make these same contacts. 2) Write letters in support of HB99 to the editorial page of your favorite Delaware newspaper. Guidelines for letters to the editor are usually posted on the paper's editorial page. You can post letters to the News Journal through the Delaware Online website www.delawareonline.com. Call for a fair and open legislative process. Get the word out that we want HB99 to get a committee hearing and a debate and vote in the Senate. We are so close to seeing this bill pass. But it will only happen if everyone who supports HB99 voices that support loud and strong. It is imperative that we all spread the word and demand our equal rights! Peter Medwick Statewide Coordinator ACLU-DE Lesbian & Gay Civil Rights Project Because Sen. Robert Venables as Senate Small Business Committee chairperson is blocking the democratic process by refusing to release HB99 to the full Senate for an open discussion and vote, we may well have to circumvent him. Here's how it works and here's what you can do! Because Democrats are in the majority of the Delaware Senate, a bloc of Democratic senators, called a caucus, can vote HB99 out of the Small Business Committee despite Sen. Venable's persistent obstructionism. If Sen. Bunting remains unwavering in his commitment to this no-brainer civil rights bill, we believe we have the caucus we need to be successful! WHETHER SEN. BUNTING IS YOUR SENATOR OR NOT please immediately contact him & continue contacting him, thanking him for his past support & asking him to commit to a "yes" for release with the Democratic caucus to get HB99 out to the full Senate! Let him know as well that Sen. Venables has misrepresented the Governor's support for HB99 as being "lukewarm". In fact this week she very emphatically reaffirmed her strongest support for HB99 to our Project leadership. Contact information: Sen. Geo. H. Bunting, Jr. P.O. Box 1497 Bethany Beach, DE 19930 Office: 302-227-3891 and 302-744-4144 Home: 539-2229 Senate fax: (302)739-6890 gbunting@legis.state.de.us Thank you and please email us at coreyanddoug@hotmail.com with Sen. Bunting's response to you. We are so close that this may well do it but we ALL need to be in immediate & repeated contact with the good senator! Corey and Doug Marshall-Steele Project Co-coordinators |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 11, No. 5, May 18, 2001. |