Ms. Northrop, a former CBS news producer and one-time writer for Good Morning America is also a magazine journalist, having written for such diverse publications as Ms., Ladies Home Journal and Poz. In the early 1970's, she became active in the "second wave" or "re-birth" of feminism. "One thing we were always fascinated by in those days," she says, "were reproductive issues and who had power over reproductive relationships. And now, the idea that women could take total control of reproduction is just stunningly exciting to me. I think this news is just a potential power shift of volcanic proportions!"

Ms. Northrop currently sees two principal matters of focus on cloning. One, she says, is "very definitely about gay people being able to reproduce a gay person. That, of course, would depend on the scientists who think that there is a genetic basis being right, and it might be a good way to test that thesis."

A front-page gay press story, she says, quoted a pioneering genetic scientist who allowed that abortions should be "properly" performed on mothers who are likely to give birth to gay children if gay genes can be identified beforehand. "If nothing else," Ms. Northrop told Gay Today, "it may come down to us to perpetuate ourselves and we should be prepared to do that! And wouldn't the world be a better place if there were more gay people, creatively anyway."

"Essentially," said the lesbian/ feminist activist, " this is sort of the final nail in men's coffins. Men are now totally irrelevant, if this (human cloning) is in fact true and possible and becomes routine. Men are going to have a very hard time justifying their existence on the planet, I think. This really is going to call into question the necessity for men---not that I'm not happy to have my gay brothers around. I think its going to be very interesting if--in the future-- maybe women may not let men reproduce!"

Without referring to commentary about male obsolescence,. Dr. Franklin E. Kameny, a scientist and the undisputed "father" of gay activist militancy, gave a cloning rights support statement to Badpuppy's Gay Today. Kameny foresees cloning possibly taking place outside female wombs and he says:

"I do not share the seemingly well-nigh universal aversion to human cloning which has been widely voiced in recent days. While, perhaps, a small amount of carefully-calculated monitoring of the process might need to be put into place, I can see no fundamental reason for not cloning humans, and many good reasons for doing so. Further, once the process has been suitably refined, I see no practical way whatever to prevent it. Those who wish to clone will, the hysterical shrieks of the opponents and ill-advised laws notwithstanding, as calmer voices of some public weight are beginning to point out.

"While the process at present, in its primitive stages, seems to be limited to the genetic engineering of ova, which are already biochemically predisposed to proceed on to develop into embryos, I predict that means will be found, rather quickly, to stimulate any body cell into cloning-related embryogenesis, initially requiring surrogate wombs for full development, but likely, in due course, to lead to maturation fully in vitro. It seems clear that we are far closer to that than is being said publicly.

"Because many Gay men and women wish to have children of their own, and doing it 'the old-fashioned way' is not to our liking, cloning --which is not a new idea at all conceptually or technologically, the current furor notwithstanding; it has been very visibly coming for a long time-- would seem to offer possibilities of particular interest and unique value to Gay people.

"Let the human cloning begin."

Kameny also told Gay Today he strongly supports the March 1st Clone Rights United Front demonstration for keeping cloning legal.