Badpuppy Gay Today

Friday, 07 March, 1997

March 6, 1997. A revised song, titled "Clone Man," is part of the mainstream media's reaction to the unfolding social and cultural revolt erupting over cloning nationwide. Reflecting on this day, cloning rights champion, Randolfe Wicker, told Badpuppy's Gay Today: " The Revolution really began today. It started with USA Today breaking the (mainstream) story about us demanding the right to clone and putting the gay spin on it, that the Clone Rights United Front (CRUF) existed, that we had a demonstration in Greenwich Village." Wicker said he was fighting for freedom of choice and reproductive rights. He also represents a new twist, he says, on what's traditionally been a right-wing issue, the protection of life.

USA Today, which calls itself the nation's newspaper, also printed Badpuppy's Gaytoday web address, resulting in thousands of hits by both the media and by the curious. Journalists, in radio and print, telephoned, some discovering Badpuppy for the first time. "If its anything at the Badpuppy website like it is here," said CRUF's director, "you know we've got a tornado by the tail." The cloning rights advocate said, "the phone just began ringing off the hook." To begin, The Montel Williams Show called, asking Wicker to appear on an upcoming panel. Wicker was treated politely-- between 3 & 4 p.m.-- by Bey Buchanan, talk-show hostess and sister of former presidential candidate, Pat Buchanan, who is again a CNN Cross-fire host. Alan Combs' program, which the CRUF director said was a liberal talk show, confronted Randolfe Wicker with "Clone Man," a song revised, sung to the lyrics of "Soul Man."

Ann Northrop, independent lesbian-feminist columnist for New York's lesbian and gay newspaper, LGNY, and Co-host of the Gay Cable Channel program, Gay USA, has also been fielding cloning calls. "Yes," she told Gaytoday, "there's been a lot of interest." CRUF personnel predict that the movement for women's rights will enthusiastically embrace the new rights organization's position. Ms. Northrop, however, has raised the specter of women who threaten a program of deliberate gender-elimination, an issue sure to cause controversy. Gaytoday email, mostly from men, indicated a strong revulsion to such talk, equating it with promoting genocide.

Franklin E. Kameny, Ph.D., "father" of gay activist militancy, also a mid-1960's contributor to debates in The Ladder, the first lesbian movement magazine, told Gaytoday, "Ann Northrop does not fully understand what cloning is all about. Once it is perfected, human beings will be irrelevant altogether. Neither wombs nor other body parts or accessories will be needed, just a few old cells and some glassware."

CRUF's Director has had reports, he says, that Rush Limbaugh exploded on his program today, quoting from USA Today about CRUF's founding. "Wish I'd had time to listen," laughed Wicker.