The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 8

INTOWN EXTRA, January 29, 1981 Gay Center Sets First 5 Qk'Vp VP 1 Public Fund Raiser lit km $25,000 Gofl Js Set for Benefit i Including Tea Dance at Lime mmml 1 -i i 1 By DAVID K. SECREST RcpflfMff hrtHfR EXTRA The Atlanta Gay Center appears to 5 be on its way to reaching the goal ol y--Aj $25,000 set for the center public benefit Sunday. The benefit at the Limelight, 3330 Piedmont Road NE, is advertised as a tea dance and will feature disco entertainer Grace Jones. The dance begins at p.m. and will cost a donation of $5, with all proceeds going to the Atlanta Gay Center at 931 Ponce de Leon Avenue.

Door prizes, including airfare for two to Nassau in the Bahamas, will be Gene Loring (left) operatee the Christopher's Kind retail bookstore at the Atlanta Gay Center, directed by Ray Kluka. (Photos-Ray West) given away during the evening. in addtion, a pair oi special izs-a- plate dinners will be held. The dinners include WSB TV-2 anchorwoman Monica $45,000 but operated with only $26,500, also is applying for public and private grants for the first time in 1981. "In the first two-and-a-half years we've been in existence," Scheuren said, "everything we've done has been by The gay center is located in a former boarding house between two fast-food franchises on Ponce de Leon.

"This place was a real mess," said the center's director, Ray Kluka. "AH the windows were painted red, and the rooms had red and black wallpaper. It was pretty much divided up. A lot of people have put a lot of work into this." The center houses a reception area, fledgling coffee house, of ices for several gay organizations, a couple of retail en-r terprises and-art display. The organization of Atlanta's gay community was galvanized by the 1977 appearance of opponent Anita Bryant speaking to the Southern Baptist Conven- tion at the World Congress Center, Scheuren said.

A coalition formed to organize anti-Anita demonstrations wound up with a small surplus of money. This was used to found the first Atlanta Gay Center on 1 Peachtree Street near 10th. The center resulted from the realization "that we were behind the rest of the country in that we didn't have a center," Scheuren said. "Especially in the city of Atlanta, we're grateful for her (Anita Bryant)," he said. Bryant, former Miss America Kaufmann as guest speaker in the Lime-: light's Moonlight Cafe, original 7 p.m.

dinner for 70 persons sold out 10 days early, gay activist Frank Scheuren said, so a second dinner was scheduled for 10 p.m. All donations, ticket prices and money from the evening at the Limelight will go directly to the center, Scheuren Said. "We are trying to get organizations to pledge to the center," he said in an in-, terview last week. "We have $11,000 already today." The earlier' dinner Sunday should net approximately $1,500, he while the tea dance itself should generate, at least $10,000,. based on an estimate of people going through the door at Limelight, on the average." The money will be used to help finish renovating the center's headquarters on Ponce de Leon and to fund center programs.

i i 1 --'a 'SS 1 I I 1 i I Ij "t- v. I J. A benefit at the Limelight Sunday Will help pay for renovation of the Atlanta Gay Center at 931 Ponce de Leon. contestant and spokeswoman for the orange juice industry, was once and outspoken campaigner against gay rights. She has, since, backed off, saying everyone has a right to live as he chooses.

The center in addition to acting as a clearinghouse on information' for homosexuals and a support structure seeks to educate the, public, Scheuren The center provides a crisis telephone line, sends a monthly newsletter to approximately 1,500 people, operates 'a speakers' bureau, provides space to other gay organizations, works with the mental health advisory board and conducts a screening clinic on venereal u.f" 7 1 for recognition of gay rights by churches. "I think there can be and should be significant coalition-building between the gay community and others outside traditional Atlanta society." The Midtown area of Atlanta has been the center for the city's gay population for years. Gay groups and individuals were instrumental in the revitaliza-tion efforts in Atlanta's intown neighborhoods. "It is grossly inadequate to depict the gay community as one monolithic group," Chewning said. "It is difficult for non-gay people to see, but that's the way it is.

The center is trying desperately to involve all segments in its work." Scheuren added, however, that the center "takes no official position on this." It is a non-profit, uon-partisan organization, he said. "The main function of the center is education," Kluka said, "especially of the straight public on what homosexuality is all about' cenfer a necessity, said Atlanta Gay Cen-: ter leaders interviewed. Atlanta -homosexuals still suffer from public ignorance and apathy, discrimination and police harassment, cen-' ter leaders said. Bob Sturdivant described it as "a cross we bear' and Scheuren as "an extra tax burden." Homosexuals who announce their or "come out and liberate ourselves," as Sturdivant termed it, run the risk of losing their families. "It is a high price to pay," he Even with all of its other functions, the Atlanta Gay Center's primary role is that of education, center workers agree.

It is run by a nine-member board, which includes heterosexual men and women. "The Atlanta Gay Center, as a bridge to the rest of Atlanta society, is vitally Important," said David Chewning of Evangelical Outreach Ministries. The organization is a religious group fighting i The Atlanta Gay Center, founded in 1978 and moved to its present location in May 1980, serves as a clearinghouse for information and services for the gay community in Atlanta. v' Atlanta is the gay center for, the Southeast, and Scheuren estimated that appoximately 20 percent, or more, of the population of the metropolitan area is homosexual At that rate, Atlanta may have 200,000 gays in the area, especially on weekends, when the percentage goes up, Scheuren said. In national estimates, the figure of one in 10 is ususally used to estimate the gay population.

Atlanta has "20 to '25 gay groups, political, religious, social," Scheuren said. "Virtually all of them go through the center." The benefit Sunday is the Atlanta Gay Center's first attempt at raising funds from the public, Scheuren said. The center, which had a 1980 budget of "The question people have is why the gay community needs a separate center," Scheuren said. "The board of the center would love to see us go out of business and integrate back into the system." Cut "confusion misunderstanding-' and stereotypical thinking" about homosexuals and their lifestyles make the.