THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

1993 U.S.: Red Hot & Country is released by the Red Hot Organization, who donate the proceeds from albums to AIDS programs. * In Houston, three ACT UP members are acquitted of disorderly conduct charges filed after they staged a protest during last year's Republican National Convention. * J.B. Mologhan, head nurse at the outpatient AIDS ward at San Francisco General Hospital, comments on the 10th anniversary of the hospital's AIDS program: 'We didn't think it would be a long-term arrangement. We thought there'd be a cure in a couple of years.' * President Clinton and Colorado Gov. Roy Romer greet Pope John Paul II when he flies into Denver. Few gay-rights protesters show up. * Boy George in The Advocate says: 'If clogs can make a comeback, why can't I?'

1988 U.S.: Gay and Lesbian VOICE '88, the coalition of gay/lesbian groups at the Republican Convention in New Orleans, zap Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Dan Quayle and Phyllis Schlafly. * The 13th Annual Michigan Womyn's Music Festival takes place in Hart, Mich. Highlights included Alix Dobkin, Teresa Trull and Toshi Reagon. * Blue Heaven by Joe Keenan is in bookstores. * Mexico: Tijuana, in the Mexican state of Baja California, has its first lesbian bar. Das Bierhaus is run by lesbian businesswoman 'Bertha' who is also a prominent member of La Comision Lesbica International en Tijuana. * Brazil: The Grupo Gay de Bahia (GGB), the gay activist group in the city of Salvador, in the State of Bahia in northeast Brazil, reports that a rash of murders throughout the country continues. GGB details the names, ages, occupations, and manner of death of 278 gay victims so far.

1983 U.S.: Popular porn videos include: Hot Shots starring Casey Donovan, Lou Davis and Rick Madison, and California Boys starring J.W. King. * The police say there are no suspects in a string of eight remarkably similar gay-related murders in Indiana and Illinois. Most were in their early 20s; the youngest was 14 and the oldest 27, and all lacked so-called defensive wounds, indicating that they did not struggle with their attacker. Larry Eyler is later arrested. * In Watertown, Mass., Persephone Press, a lesbian-feminist publishing house, folds due to financial difficulties. They have been operating since 1976. * In Tulsa, Okla., city officials drain and disinfect a swimming pool after a gay organization holds a pool party in it, following calls from from several residents who feared catching AIDS.

* Luguna Beach, Calif., becomes the nation's second city to elect an openly gay mayor. He is Bob Gentry. The other openly gay mayor is in Bunceton, Mo.