NEWS FROM THE FUND FOR REUNION/PRINCETON GALA P.O. Box 1481, Princeton, New Jersey 08542
Volume XIII, No. 1	October, 1999

Contents

Is That a Lesbian Singing at the 15th Tent?
by Bob Hotes

In its first collaboration with a major Reunion class, the Fund for Reunion will be cosponsoring a performance by the New York City pop rock band BETTY at next year's 15th Reunion. Scheduled for the evening of 26 May 2000, the performance will be the climax of Friday night festivities at the Class of 1985's 15th Reunion, "Tails of the Arabian Nights." Members of FFR and the undergraduate LGBA, as well as all alumni returning for Reunions, will be invited to experience what BETTY calls "She Rock for the New Millennium."

A fixture at LGB pride festivals in NYC, Philadelphia and DC, BETTY plays at many benefits for breast cancer research, AIDS care and research, pro-choice events and other causes. They met in DC, where they performed at GWU's Lisner Auditorium, and moved to NYC after they were "discovered" by HBO and cast to write and perform 27 songs for their children's program "Encyclopedia." As well as performing their live shows and recording albums for their own label, The Man From B.E.T.T.Y., they have written for all kinds of projects, including the PBS adult literacy program "TV411" and HBO's "Real Sex."

They produce a monthly cable television show in Manhattan, "BETTY: Off the Record," which airs the first Thursday of the month, 9:00 p.m., channel 54, and the first Wednesday of the month, 12:30 p.m., channel 36. For more scorching rumors and urban folk tales about BETTY, check out their website at www.hellobetty.com.

Save the date, look for further information in our next newsletter, and get ready for BETTY. You won't want to miss this new twist on Reunions. Old Nassau may never be the same!

While a little more low key than past years, Reunions 99 was a success with another great night at Terrace and lots of great socializing at Marx Hall. This coming year promises to be an exciting one, so if you have never made it back to Ole Nassau, now's your chance!

On Thursday, November 18 at 7pm, our investment manager Brandon Fradd '83 is hosting a party for us in his Greenwich Village apartment. If you can attend and didn't get an invitation with this letter, call 212-229-1769 for more information.

The Pride Alliance is off to a busy year. LGBT Awareness Week included a Gay Jeans Day Rally, with students, alumni, faculty, administrators, and community members speaking in Firestone Plaza about their support for LGBT students; a movie screening and discussion; a coffeehouse; and the traditional fabulous dance at Terrace Club. Awareness Week arrived in the midst of LGBT Peer Educators' discussions with freshman Residential Advisor groups. The Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students has made the LGBT Peer Educator program a part of its Residential Education Program. This year members of the LGBT Task Force will discuss the expanding the program's scope beyond the residential colleges.

We plan weekly movie nights and the re-installation of our men's and women's discussion groups. We will have another dance, several more coffeehouses, and are looking at a list of speakers to bring to campus. Our new webpage has been diligently revamped by Dan Weitz '01 and will be unveiled soon: http://www.princeton.edu/~pride.

The new webpage is just one sign of the many changes the Pride Alliance has gone through since last year. The members of the group had been talking for a long time about changing our name to reflect the importance of the transgendered community. But at a meeting last spring to decide whether to become the LGBTA, we heard from members who felt that the new name would still exclude them. "LGBT" doesn't include straight allies, people who are questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity, people who prefer to be called "queer", or people who don't like labels at all. So rather than turning our name into an alphabet soup, we agreed on the "Pride Alliance," which includes all of our members.

Returning members and enthusiastic new members make us confident that this will be a highly successful year. Several first-year students have made important contributions to our activity-planning, as have our new members among the upperclassmen.

Separate from the Pride Alliance, the Firehazards, a "performance group for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities," has added several new members to its ranks. During Awareness Week, the Firehazards had a "Trick or Treat Arch," during which they sang, danced, recited poetry, judged a costume contest, and hosted the performances of several other a cappella groups. Check them out at http://www.princeton.edu/~hazards.

In all of the Pride Alliance's activities over the past couple of years, Ryan Foley, the LGB Concerns Coordinator in the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, has been a tremendous help and a source of inspiration. We can only hope that the next year's intern will work out as well. For more information about the Pride Alliance, e-mail us at pride@princeton.edu!

FFR for the Past Year...

My apologies for the quiet past year. For a number of reasons, FFR was not very active. We intend to pick up the pace once again, as no doubt is evident from the above article on Reunions 2000 and the coming party in New York. At the same time we would greatly welcome anyone with energy and enthusiasm and ideas! There is so much more we can do, but volunteers and new board members are needed, not to mention your dues! Use the enclosed envelope to add M2000 to your mailing label!

One More Way to Lose A Lover

Forgive me for using this space to talk about something very important to me that is not specific to Princeton. Every year in this country gay and lesbian couples are torn apart by immigration laws. Whether or not you like the idea of gay marriage, one unfortunate side effect of our inability to marry is that gay and lesbian couples are not recognized by US Immigration Law. DOMA further enforced this by essentially denying application of the law to gay and lesbian marriages should they become legal in any state or any other country. While this may not stand under the Constitution, legal challenges will be lengthy and many more loved ones will be deported.

At this time the Lesbian & Gay Immigration Rights Task Force Inc. is providing to Congress legislation that would change the Immigration Law to allow foreign partners of gay and lesbian Americans to remain in this country legally, a right currently available only to married couples. Please write to your congressperson and senator now and urge them to support proposed changes to the Immigration Law. For further information, contact me or send e-mail to the Task Force at info@lgirtf.org.

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