T=E Summer Daily Summer Edition of TIE MICHIGAN DAILY Edited and managed by students at he University of Michigan Tuesday, July 17, 1973 News Phone: 764-0552 Presidential tapes may yield answers JOHN DEAN'S testimony to the Ervin Committee two weeks ago first implicated the President in the Water- gate scandal. Since then, numerous persons have de- fended the President. Until yesterday, the case seemed to be John Dean against everyone else, a virtual stale- mate. But now, with the revelation that tapes exist of Presidential conversations, the truth may be found at last. The information was supplied to the Senate Water- gate Committee by former White House aide Alexander Butterfield. The witness testified that the recording equipment was installed by the Secret Service acting on authority relayed by the President. The testimony was substantiated later by the White House. Butterfield testified that the microphones auto- matically picked up even low tones, and possible whis- pered conversations anywhere in the Oval Office in the White House or the President's office in the Executive Office Building. The existence of such tapes is obviously something that the President did not want disclosed. The tapes were entirely secret, according to Butterfield, and even Presidential advisor John Erlichman and Presidential Counsel John Dean did not know that they were being recorded. EVEN HEADS OF state, Congressmen, and other im- portant visitors who spoke to the President were all recorded. This fact alone is embarrassing to the Presi- dent. But, of even grerater significance, the tapes can fin- ally answer John Dean's charges. Nearly all the import- ant conversations that Dean claimed would show the Presdent's involvement in the cover-up took place in the President's office. If the tapes still exist, they could prove whether Dean's accusations are true. Suspicions naturally arise as to the failure of the President to produce the tapes before this surprise dis- closure. The fact that Nixon did not present them raises doubts about his willingness to finally clear the air about his involvement. Perhaps the tapes were to be used in Nixon's defense after completion of the testimony in the current phase of the Watergate hearings. Or perhaps Nixon did not want revealed the embarrassing fact that the highest of- ficials in the world were being bugged. Or perhaps, Nixon did not want exposed the true nature of the conversa- tions with Dean. SPECULATION WILL continue as to the reasons the tapes Were withheld. But now that their existence is known the tapes must be produced. Arguments about executive privilege will seen an evasion to an anxious public. Too much is at stake to be diverted by such argu- ments. The answer to questions that the public is ask- ing is in the tapes and they must be produced. UNCLE-lSAM ERVIN Homosexuals demonstrate to show pride and prejudice in gayness By HARRY KEVORKIAN, DAVID BENDLE, and DENNIS RAYMOND Gay Pride Week 1973 (June 25- July 1) marked the 4th anniversary of the birth of radical gay con- sciousness and liberation across America. June 25 has served as a lankmark in gay circles since that date in 1969 when gays fought back against a New York police raid against a gay bar. Gays have been fighting back since. In Ann Arbor, the week was pur- posefully and actively celebrated by the community. This marks the second year in Ann Arbor that we have celebrated Gay Pride Week locally. Last year the city of Ann Arbor had the honor of being the only official governmental body to re- cognize Gay Pride Week and ack- nowledge gay people in a positive way. The Republican majority on Council, despite valiant efforts on the part of the Human Rights Par- ty with Democratic support, re- fused to pass a similar resolution again this year. Highlights of the Ann Arbor cele- bration included picketing on June 29 of the Ann Arbor public library by lesbians (as .a separate Les- bian Pride Day activity) as a re- sult of the library's refusal to exhibit a lesbian art collage. that they be allowed to aparove (and in fact choose) the two speak- ers. Since the medical school was clearly aware of gay resources available to them long before the conference, (we have been speak- ing to med. classes for over a year) and since the two speakers they chose were Jim Toy and Jean Has- ler, the University's gay advocates and longtime gay activists, it seemed strange that they had not contacted us before, especially Dr: Other than being a homo- sexual what qualifies you to talk about homosexuality? Gay: Being gay is the only quali- fication I need. Dr. (shouted) Get an M.D. de- gree and maybe we'll listen to you. Gay (shouted): Learn how to suck cock and maybe we'll listen to you. Many gay people believe that straight doctors and indeed straight people cannot adequately, or even If there is anything wrong with gayness, straight people are responsible for it. . since one section of the conference inadequately for that matter, talk dealt exclusively with us. about gayness. They have learned about it in classrooms and through MANY GAY PEOPLE were af- sexist hatefilled anti-gay books. We fronted by the apparent callous- have learned about it through our ness of the medical school both lives and through love. They can in excluding us from the planning only deal with it as a pathology, a of the conference and in not allow- sickness; we view it as a self- ing us to choose who our speakers fulfilling experience true to every- would be. one's existence. Gay Liberation Front (GLF) de- cided that in fact it was not the intention of the medical school to THE ONLY POSSIBLE basis straight doctors and counselors have for dealing with gayness is to study the reasons for the tyran- nic and pathological discrimination and prejudice leveled at gay people continuously. If there is anything wrong with gayness, straight peoplearebre- sponsible for it and on that basis are certainly the worst possible choice f or trying to help gay people. The gay people who disrupted the conference and took part in the workshops viewed the experi- ence as an unqualified success. We were able to achieve our initial goal of preventing Dr. Poznanski's presentation from being heard; we were able to have a number of dif- ferent viewpoints on gayness tpre- sented to a substantial number of professional, and we were able to discover that in fact there are a number of doctors who support -od encourage many of the goals and ideals of gay liberation. Several of the conferees in fact supported the idea that Dr. Poz- nanski should not speak about gay- ness and were willing to be arrest- ed with us if the University at- tempted a show of force. BUT PERHAPS most important- ly, we demonstrated to the white male heterosexist elite that domi- nates, not only the University's medical school but in fact most of health care, that gay people and only gay people will be allowed 'o define and determine their own lives, histories and perspectives. June 25 marks that date in 1969 when gays fought back against a New York police raid on a gay bar. Gays have been fighting back since. B'it, for some of Ann Arbor's gay community, the week really began on June 28 with the disrup- tion of a conference on Human Sexuality sponsored by the Univer- sity Meledical School in the Towsley Center. The conference was attend- ed by approximately 200 profession- als (i.e., doctors) who deal with sexual problems in counceling sit- uations and abs each paid $1t0 to attend. THE CONFERENCE was sched- tled to serve as a basis for fur- ther understanding of sexual prob- lems in order to better enable the doctors to serve their clients. Yet gay people were initially totally excluded from both the planning and execution of this conference. The scheduled speaker on Thurs- day afternoon was Dr. Elva Poz- nanski of the medical school, a straight white heterosexual female who was to deliver a 50 minute paper on Gay lifestyles. Dr. Poz- nanski has delivered this paper at other conferences and it is not noted for its pro-gay attitudes. Dr. Poznanski is, in fact, gen- erally recognized by Gays as a re- presentative of the white male elite that dominates the medical profes- sion and prefers to deal with us as patients in their offices rather as friends anywhere else. That core is resoonsible for some of the reprehensible ne--Nazi treatments perpetrated on gay people i the guise of healing. These treat'ents include electroshock, chemo-ther- apy (massive dosages of various tranquilizers,) and psychosurgery (both voluntary and otherwisel. When gay people first became aware of the conference, we con- tacted the Medical school to gain input into the conference. After a month of negotiations the medical school offered us 20 minutes of speaking time with the stipulation allow gay people to adequately O.e. totally) represent ourselves and that indeed they were not letting us be heard at all and that certain steps should be taken to secure adequate representation. Accord- ingly GLF while accepting the tok- en gestures offered by the medical school began at the same time to planrto disrupt Dr. Poznanski's paper. The conference was in fact brought to a halt bya number of gay men and Dr. Poznancki was al- lowed to speak only briefly. She Our bodies, our lives, and our minds are our own and no one elses. did not deliver her planned speech and seemed flustered and confus- ed. By the time she did speak we had disrupted the conference for over an hour, had been threatened by various doctors, university of- ficials and security guards and had been made aware of the pre- sence of "riot equipped city police and paddy wagons. AFTER FURTHER negotiations the conference continued. We held a panel discussion, Jim Toy spoke, and about 1 of the participants left to attend alternate workshops lead by gays rather than hear Dr. Poznanski speak. After she and another doctor who spoke briefly about transex- ualism had finished,, even more joined our workshops. The highlight of the panel discussion was the fol- lowing exchange which for many gays typlified the good doctors re- actions to us: Our bodies, our lives and our minds are our own and no one elses. If doctors and other oppres- sive elements are not prepared to surrender what is rightfully ours, they must face the consequences and be prepared to lose a good deal more. Kevorkian, Bendle and Ray- mond are members of the Ann Arbor gay community. Letters to The Daily should be mailed to the Editorial Di- rector or delivered to Mary. Rafferty in the Student Pub- lications business office in the Michigan Daily building. Letters should be typed, double-spaced and normally should not exceed 250 words. The Editorial Direc- tors reserve the right to edit all letters submitted. WANTS YOU .