Oregon daily emerald., May 28, 1987, Page 5A, Image 5

Shanti deals with issues surrounding AIDS
By Sarah Kitchen
Of tin? Emerald
"If you want to know what it
feels like to have ARC (AIDS
related complex), put an
orange, a good-sized one. under
each armpit, two in your groin
and hang two off your ears and
wear them for a week," a friend
of the Rev. Ken Storer's told
him.
Storer is the executive direc
tor of Shanti in Oregon, a
volunteer-based organization
that deals primarily with the
psychological and social issues
of AIDS — what he calls the
"human issues." At Shanti,
Storer works with both the vic
tims and the families of the the
victims of AIDS, he said.
and (hat you not only have to
change the sheets, but you have
to change everything else under
the sheets clear to the mattress
because everything is wet,”
Storer said.
Storer became involved with
Shanti while in San Francisco.
A friend of his had recently died
of AIDS, and it was a Shanti
worker who helped Storer
through the grieving prtx:ess
"It wasn't that he did
anything, yet 1 do remember he
was there — in a very active
kind of way,” he recalled. "He
was the one person who
understood I couldn't keep
track of what my emotions were
doing."
In 1985 Storer helped to
‘ What amazes me is that I still find peo
ple who do not know what AIDS is all
about. ’
Ken Storer
The first few days of the
symptoms of ARC are uncom
fortable, Storer said. The time
after that it gets beyond uncom
fortable, he said.
“Imagine if you can. getting
up, going to work and after
about four hours being totally
exhausted. Imagine, if you will,
waking up in the middle of the
night sweating enough that you
feel you lust got out of the
shower and forgot to towel off
establish Shanti in Oregon.
Around that time he tried to
find out what services existed in
the area for someone who had to
deal with AIDS, and he general
ly got three kinds of reactions.
One reaction was “What Is
AIDS?"
"What amazes me is that I
still find people who do not
know what AIDS is all about."
Fear and bigotry were the two
other reactions Storer received
from the community.
“I found organizations
responded, ‘We don't deal with
that kind of people.' " Storer
said.
AIDS was. and often still is,
considered a disease that affects
"queer druggies." Storer said
And this is one of the many
myths surrounding the disease,
he said.
Another myth still around is
"A’DS only exists in San Fran
cisco. New York or Los
Angeles." he added.
These myths, and similar
ones, arose because in the past
when AIDS was mentioned it
was brought up in terms of
high-risk groups, when it was
high-risk behavior that should
have been talked about, Storer
said.
“The reality is that gay and
bisexual men. right now. con
stitute the largest percentages of
AIDS victims, but gay and
bisexual men right now are pro
bably at much lower risk than
heterosexuals because gay and
bisexual men are practicing safe
sex. and my sense is. by and
large, heterosexuals are not.”
he said.
This is especially dangerous
with AIDS because it has a long
incubation period during which
no symptoms will appear,
which also wipes out the myth
that only promiscuous people
contract AIDS. "It only takes
one," he said.
Storer said he recently spent
some time with a young man
AIDS
Continued from Page 1
Health Division, said public in
stitutions must balance protec
tion of the community with
civil liberties rights
“We have used unusual
methods to ensure confiden
tiality, including offering
anonymous testing for AIDS an
tibodies which indicates ex
posure to the disease." Gebbie
said.
Gebbie supports a Oregon
House bill which overhauls an
old public health statute. The
bill would restrict the power of
public health officials to
quarantine or restrict the
movements of individuals with
contagious diseases, she said.
She also backs another state
House bill which ensures pro
tection of civil liberties
regardless of sexual orientation.
“Our (health officials') ability
to do the ordinary things we do
is restricted because groups of
people in our society feel the
threat of discrimination so
greatly that they will not even
come in to talk with us about an
infection that is affecting them
directly,” she said.
Burton White, the chair of the
Oregon ACLU Commissalon on
Gay and Lesbian Rights,
described legislators as
“hotbeds of cold feet" on the
issue, hut predicted gay rights
legislation would pass within
the next two years.
This bill is due to hit the
Senate floor on Friday or Mon
day. Gebbie said.
A third bill, this one in the
state Senate, would reinstate
mandatory blood testing, in
cluding AIDS testing, as a re
quirement for a marriage
license. Pre-marital blood
testing was repealed in 1981 in
Oregon.
In opposing the bill, Gebbie
cited the expense and the risk of
loose confidentiality in putting
health records In the hands of
county officials.
Hub by Andy Crip*
Dave Fidanque and Gretchen Miller, at an annual meeting
of the American Civil Liberties Union, participate in a
panel discussion about tbe civil rights of people who have
contracted tbe AIDS virus.
WE BUY
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10:00 am
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318
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BRING A FRIEND
AND QUESTIONS!
who lives in Eugene diagnosed
as having AIDS The young man
is not only trying to put his par
sonal affairs in order but must
also suffer the brunt of his
parent's misunderstanding. Mis
father < ama to Eugene to take
care of a business matter but
would not enter his son's
house.
A month ugo the same person
made a trip home, and his
parents met him at the airport.
They would not let him sit
directly on the car's seat, in
stead they placed sheets over
the back seats
“He literally did not stay
overnight — he took care of his
business and flew l»ack, and
that was real painful for him.”
Storer said.
Tora Schulman. co-director of
the (lay and Lesbian Alliance,
said she believes Storer's
humanistic approach toward
AIDS information is important
”1 think there has been,
especially In Eugene with Ken
Storer agitating the media, an
increase in the treatment of
AIDS in a personal light,"
Schulman said.
She said the realistic ap
proach toward AIDS, instead of
the scare tactics often used by
the media, has helper! to bring
home the danger of AIDS, and
heterosexuals are beginning to
realize that they too can bo
affected.
"It is important to portray
AIDS as a disease that affects
everyone." Schulman said
Them lias been a forceful
push on the part of the Student
Health Center and the Universi
ty administration to distribute
mom information hIkiiiI AIDS,
she said And as a result.
Schulman I relieves students am
becoming more responsible In
their sexual relationships.
"The heterosexual popula
tion at the University is slowly
coming round." she said. "We
(CAI.A) get calls now and then,
but it is only because of the
sheer force on the part of the
administration."
The Oregon Daily Emerald
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