2 Tl» Daily CoHagian Friday, July 25,1997 Gay stereotypes during Cunanan By MICHELLE BOORSTEIN Associated Press Writer Sexual promiscuity. Lavish par ties. Violence, cross-dressing and a suggestion of AIDS. The story of Andrew Cunanan was loaded with all the stereotypes of gay men, old and new. With its bath houses and bar rooms, the accused killer’s story has unearthed some deep-rooted, if unsightly, images of homosexuals. The problem, members of the gay community say, is Cunanan repre sents a narrow slice of gay life. “It’s like, here we go again, describing gay bars as dark and seedy, like we’re some sort of Masonic group plotting and plan ning and doing weird rituals,” said Eugene Patron, who writes a col umn about gay issues for The Miami Herald. “I think that’s the problem are we ever going to be perceived as productive members of society or are we going to be seen as a liability?” On the Internet and in coffee shops, among filmmakers and at bookstores, gay men said yester day public interest in the case seemed oddly focused on Cunanan’s sexuality though only three of his five alleged victims were gay. Sketchy reports that One shell of a race Turtle-racing fans watch a pack of the slow-moving reptiles make their way across a Days festival shut down the Jaycees-sponsored event after receiving numerous makeshift arena in Concord, N.H.. Wednesday. The organizers of the city’s Market complaints of animal cruelty at the races. Giant Foods, Inc. may join AFL-CIO in By CARRIE DELEON Collegian Staff Writer Executives from Giant Foods Stores Inc. met yesterday to decide whether they will join Pennsylvania’s AFL-CIO in a battle against a major distributor of California strawberries for inhumane treatment of its workers. The treatment of some California straw berry pickers brought a protest by the Penn sylvania American Federation of Labor-Con gress of Industrial Organizations Wednes day to the area Giant Foods grocery store. The AFL-CIO petitioned the manager of Giant Foods Stores Inc., 255 Northland Cen ter, to join its nationwide effort in improving the wages and working conditions of the workers. Over 100 union members distrib uted informational leaflets Wednesday at the store. Executives from Giant’s headquarters met yesterday to decide whether they will join Boxing Continued from Page 1. “Alcohol is the fuel for our sports spectacular,” he said. Shortly after the wave, a woman dressed as a cowgirl appeared on the dance floor and stripped down to a g-string while the crowd cheered her on. She was followed by more women who wandered through the bar giving dollar bill waving spectators private shows. While most of the crowd was enjoying the view, some spectators hung back in the shadows observ ing. “I’m not sure about this yet,” said one student majoring in busi ness logistics, who refused to give his name. “My roommate dragged me here,” he said. "It triggered all those images that a straight killer wouldn't." John Orcutt gay bookstore manager Cunanan may have had the virus that causes AIDS or was hiding out in drag were believed without scrutiny because they perpetu ate the stereotype, they said. “It triggered all those images that a straight killer wouldn’t,” said John Orcutt, manager of A Different Light, a gay bookstore in New York. “That gay people’s lives revolve around sexuality, or that they have AIDS, that they can dis guise themselves as drag queens, that they float from place to place.” Some said thp media were to blame for perpetuating the seedier side of gay culture. “That’s all that the public gets to see, they don’t see the norm,” said John Balasa, a 35-year-old comput er designer from Minneapolis, the city where the first murder occurred. “Everyone wants to see the bizarre. They don’t want to see "We just want the public to know what's going on." the battle against Driscoll Corp., a major dis tributor of California strawberries, the man ager of the State College store said in a news release. However, the representative from Giant’s corporate office was not able to be reached for comment on the outcome of the meeting. The AFL-CIO urged Giant Foods Stores, among other food stores across the country, to let Driscoll know they disapprove of its actions as part of a nationwide effort, said Tom Santone, AFL-CIO business representa tive. Santone explained that they weren’t plan ning a boycott. “We just want the public to But the shyer audience members were the minority, especially when the main event boxing began. The crowd on the second level of the bar pressed against the railings and craned their necks to get a glimpse of the “sports spectacular” below. Two men in the crowd each paid over $2O to win the job of ringside manager. The job entailed spraying down the women, dressed in thin, white cotton T-shirts and shorts, with cold water. The ringside managers were also supposed to coach the boxers. “On your knees, baby doll,” one manager said, “Back to your cor ners, baby dolls,” another said. surface manhunt what they see at home.” Some gay men called it outra geous to link the killings to the pos sibility that Cunanan had recently tested positive for the AIDS virus, or to frustration over his sexuality. Others said it wasn’t impossible for such things to prompt rage in a murderous person. “In fact every stereotype has an element of truth, and there have been a number of cases of men who had problems with their sexuality who took their frustration out in negative ways,” said Robert Rosen berg, maker of the documentary “Before Stonewall.” Rosenberg added that he was surprised to see police and FBI officials earnestly coming into gay neighborhoods to spread warnings of Cunanan. While society has broadened its image of gay culture, the public’s reaction to Cunanan shows the stereotypes remain strong, said Liz Tracey, spokeswoman for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in Manhattan. “This reinforcement of a gay elite subculture people are fasci nated with because they think it’s this world they’ll never see,” she said. “The truth is, there’s a lot of very boring gays and lesbians out there.” “Hey, sweetheart, take it easy.” These coaching tips by the ring side managers encouraged the women to push each other around until one fell down sending the crowd into a frenzy. When one of the boxers was down, her opponent would jump on her and pummel her until the ref eree, “Mad Mark,” would pull the overzealous fighter off her com petitor. Although the enthusiastic audi ence was made up mostly of men, several women were present at Wednesday night’s fight and seemed to be having just as much fun. One of these women, a scien tist from Russia in town for a con ference, said she viewed the fight Cunanan Continued from Page 1 Jordan of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. “There was absolutely no other place to go.” On Wednesday afternoon, police got a break. Fernando Carreira, the caretaker of the houseboat owned by fugitive German businessman Thorsten Reineck, dropped by to check on the home along the Intracoastal Waterway and he saw the door par tially unlocked. As Carreira looked around inside, he saw slippers and a pillow Profile Continued from Page 1 His surname was DeSilva. He had a wife and child in the Bay Area. He came from a wealthy, Jewish fami ly that owned a national parking lot company. Friends and acquaintances said he was alternately a bookish intel lect who could talk politics and world affairs and a “party boy” who danced barechested in bars. The youngest of four children, Cunanan, 27, was born and raised in San Diego. Cunanan graduated in 1987 from The Bishop’s School, where class mates remembered him as an out going young man who acknowl edged some say even flaunted his homosexuality. The murders began April 29. Tom Santone AFL-CIO business representative be aware of what’s going on,” he said. What is going on in the California straw berry patches is unfair treatment of pickers and unpleasant working conditions, Santone said. The workers are earning $8,500 a season for 10-, 11- and 12-hour work days, he said, which is one half of what the workers were earning 10 years ago. There are no portable bathroom facilities or portable drinking water available to workers in the fields, Santone said. The workers are also forced to endure cancer causing chemicals without proper protec tion, he said. as a show and found it very enter taining. “I can see it’s only a show, but a pretty well-performed one,” Tanya Makalrova said. “It’s very enter taining and the girls have many interesting tricks.” But not everyone shares the views of Makalrova and the crowd who paid eight dollars each to enter Crowbar. Jill Dworzanski, co-director of Womyn’s Concerns, said despite the fact that business at Crowbar may be slower in the summer, the managers should not display top less women as entertainment. “I don’t support what they did,” she said. “It promotes drunken ness, abuse, objectification of , rljf- 1*j# labor battle Not only are working conditions poor, San tone said, but the workers are not provided with health insurance and many women are facing sexual harassment. But, Phil Adrian, director of public affairs and marketing for Driscoll Corp., said AFL CIO is portraying an entire industry as cor rupt by making generalized accusations, which may be true in some cases, but not all. “It is a harassment technique by the union to try to get strawberry shippers and grow ers to sign a contract with them,” Adrian said. The AFL-CIO is urging public protest and written complaints from food stores, hoping the corporation will change its ways, San tone said. “If we put enough spotlight on this issue, they will correct it themselves,” he said. “Hopefully there will be no need for an all out boycott.” Collegian staff writer Kristin Walpole con tributed to this report. and then heard a gunshot, investi gators said. Carreira quickly retreated across the street and called the police, never taking his eyes off the front door, according to an FBI affidavit. Dozens of police and SWAT offi cers converged, closed down busy Collins Avenue at rush hour and tried to communicate with the man inside. When that proved fruitless, they fired tear gas inside and entered the home, quickly finding the vic- First David Madson, 33, a Min neapolis architect and exdover; then Trail, 28, a former Navy offi cer whom Cunanan considered one of his best friends; then Lee Miglin, 72, a millionaire Chicago develop er; then William Reese, 45, caretak er of a Civil War cemetery in Pennsville, N.J.; and then Versace. As the manhunt intensified, criminal experts theorized Cunanan was becoming increasing ly desperate and poised to kill again. All the talk stopped Wednes day when a gunshot rang out from the Miami Beach houseboat. “It’s a strange kind of relief,” said a Cunanan acquaintance from San Francisco. “There’s no closure. No one is ever going to know why he did it.” women and the sexualizing of women,” she said. Dworzanski is not alone in her opinion about Crowbar’s entertain ment Wednesday. Events like Foxy Boxing are part of a cultural phenomenon that encourages people to treat women’s bodies as an object of lust, said Michael Johnson, associ ate professor of sociology and women’s studies. “We are embedded in a cultural phenomena of sexual violence and, although that event alone did not cause it, it does contribute to it,” Johnson said. The Center for Women Students and Women’s Resource Center refused to comment. tim’s body on a bed in the upstairs master bedroom. Investigators didn’t say exactly when Cunanan shot himself, but said he did it with a .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun, the same type of weapon linked with Ver sace’s death and two t>ther mur ders. Even after the body was found, hours passed as investigators struggled to identify the body because the face was largely blown off. Fingerprints confirmed it was Cunanan. Andrew Cunanan alleged serial killer Self-defense may lead to prison term By RACHEL GRAVES Associated Press Writer ERIE, Pa. A simple “no” was usually enough to fend off guys who flirted with Michele Clark when she danced topless. Not so for the drunk who pinned her against an alley wall one night. She kneed him in the groin. And then she shattered his jaw. Now, she could be headed for prison. A jury decided last week that the slightly built woman could have walked away once she had Ronald Daniel down on the sidewalk. Instead, she continuedtoikick in the head. v - “They said l should have run.- - Well, that’s what I tried-Co do the first time,” said Ms. Clark, “and he came after me.” The jury of eight men and four women needed only 20 minutes to find her guilty last week of aggra vated assault. Ms. Clark, 20, could get a maximum of 10 to 20 years in prison Aug. 29. Daniel, 27, a married father of two from Melbourne, Fla., had bruises and cuts all over his face and needed surgery on his jaw. He could not be reached for comment because his number is not listed. Daniel testified that he had no memory of Ms. Clark or the fight because he had been drinking. He was in Erie visiting his sick father at the time. AP Photo Ms. Clark, who worked at Part ners Tavern, said Daniel harassed her last September at the State Street Tavern, one of her favorite after-work hangouts. He followed her to the ladies’ room, where she said he grabbed her buttocks. Later, she tried to elude him by leaving through a back door, but he followed her into an alley, put his hands up her shirt and touched her breasts, Ms. Clark said. “Obviously, he was trying to rape me,” she said. Ms. Clark, who said she never has taken a self-defense class, kneed Daniel in the groin and crossed the street, but Daniel fol lowed her two blocks. She said he then grabbed for her hair. She said she cannot remember exactly how she fended him off, but the next thing she knew, he had fallen to the sidewalk. “I just remember fighting to get away,” said Ms. Clark, who is 5- foot-6 and weighs 120 pounds, about the same size as Daniel. She said she continued kicking because Daniel grabbed the waist of her shorts in an apparent attempt to pull her to the ground. Prosecutor Damon Hopkins chal lenged her story, noting that she lied to police about her underage drinking. She said she was trying to protect the tavern owner, a friend of hers. A witness testified that he pulled Ms. Clark off Daniel because she kicked him even after he stopped resisting. “If she hadn’t been stopped, she probably would have killed him. She didn’t try very hard to get away,” said juror Charles Moon. Defense attorney Christine Fuhrman Konzel argued that Ms. Clark struck Daniel in self-defense. The director of a program for battered women suggested jurors might have treated Ms. Clark more leniently if she were a “plain, chub by girl” instead of a topless dancer. AP Photo
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