Badpuppy Gay Today

Thursday, 05 June 1997

For 21 years the Dayton Lesbian and Gay Center has operated a hotline for people to call to talk to someone who is well-informed about same-sex love and affection. It has been of great help to many who've had no where else to turn and for some young men and women contemplating suicide. Now, because of constant, unending harassment from a hate group, there is serious talk of closing the center's doors.

In the last several months a well-organized right-wing hate group has been flooding the Center hotline, say members, by using a computer to call every pager number in the state, leaving messages to contact the Dayton Lesbian and Gay Center hotline.

Two surgeons have been called out of surgery to receive urgent pages. Police have been paged. Politicians have been paged. Churches are being paged. Pilots flying planes are being paged. Everyone with a pager is being paged. They are often, understandably, upset.

The hate group has tracked down the operator on the gay hotline and sends orders of 15 pizzas or as many as 30 specially-designed ice cream cakes to his home. Besides having literally hundreds of other people call him at all hours of the day and night the hotline operator says he needs his phone for business and that changing the number would only hurt him financially.

But the tricks being used would seem to have been chosen from one of a number of recently published "dirty tricks" books. Churches are being called and told to "expect a van load of people from the Lesbian and Gay Center for a party in their church. They had better have the doors open or they will be broken down!"

At times people from the hate group have called saying they've been asked to deliver items to the Center, asking for its location or the location of the person answering the phone.

The Dayton police have been contacted and has referred Center representatives to the FBI. The FBI says that it is not involved and the Dayton police should be called. Both police and the FBI have treated the hate-group calls, says the hotline operator, as funny. The telephone company (Ameritech) representatives have indicated they think its funny too and have told the hotline operator there's nothing that can be done.

A similar type of harassment is also in progress at the Cincinnati Lesbian and Gay Center. That Center is also at a loss as to what course to take.

"We need help to solve this problem," says the Dayton Center. "We are asking for any technical or legal advice that can be e-mailed to: DaytonBear@aol.com.

The Dayton activists ask that their sympathizers see to it that the Dayton Police receive telephone complaints also.

E-mail complaints to Ameritech at:

share.owners@ameritech.com OR

rita.t.ullrich@att.com OR

mpruyn@attmail.com.