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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1985)
- - ■■■ ----------- November, 1985 Vol. 3 No. 1 STAFF C ontributors Eleanor Malin Eve Sicular Patrick Caplis Pat Scott Sandra Pinches Billy Russo Cynthia Cum fer Marcella Box W m. McRae Jim Anctil Lee Lynch Ray Berger C o-publishers Jay Brown Renee LaChance E ditor Jay Brown Graphic A rts D irector Rupert Kinnard Advertising Director Roger Hall A dvertising Associates Eve Sicular Ed Hickey Production Bev La Belle Written and graphic materials are welcomed for submission. All written material should be typed and double-spaced. All graphic material should be black ink on white paper. Deadline for submissions is the 15th of each month. O ut About Town is a courtesy to,our readers Items must be received by the 15th of each month. and features may not necessarily be those of the editorial staff of Just Out. Subscriptions to Just Out are available for $7.50 for 12 issues. A free copy of Just Out and/or advertising rates are available upon request. The mailing address and telephone number for Just O ut are: P.O. Box 15117 Portland. OR 97215 236-1252 Display advertising will be accepted up to five days before publication date, if camera ready, if not. then seven days prior. Classified ads must be received at the office of Just O ut ten davs prior to publication date, along with payment Proofreader Anita Q uiton Just O ut is published the first of each month. Copyright 1985. No part of Just Out may be re produced without the writ'en permission of the publishers. Editorial policies allow the rejection or the edit ing of an article or advertisement that is offensive, demeaning or may result in legal action. Just Out consults the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual on editorial decisions. Views expressed in letters to the editor, columns. E D I T O R I A L Military hom ophobia institutionalized b y Ja y B ro w n N ovem ber 11 m arks the 67th anniversary o f the signing o f the arm istice ending hostilities o f the Great War o f 1914-18. For m any years the date was called Arm istice Day as was appropriate. More recently the date, still a holiday, has been celebrated as Veteran’s Day, which does not seem quite so appropriate. As a p e a ce n ik, I have always had problem s with the military, even when I was a part o f it during the late 1950s. In those days, som e people got drafted (I wasn’t) and had no choice in the matter. No one has been drafted in m ore than ten years and in that tim e more than 14,000 people were discharged from the m ilitary because they were lesbian or gay. One can be sure that few, if any, o f those 1 J00 were conscripts. And now, the D epartm ent o f Defense has ordered all personnel under its jurisdiction considered to be at “ high risk" fo r AIDS (read ages 18-35) be required to subm it to the HTLV-lll antibodies te s t The m ilitary is an entity unto itself. Those persons in the m ilitary are there because they have elected to be there; that is, they enlisted. People under the jurisdiction of the DOD, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines (both male and fem ale) are subject to the Uniform Code o f Military Justice. The UCMJ is a set o f rules which supersedes the Constitution of the United States. If one is in the m ilitary, one has no choice but to obey the rules of the military. So when I hear m oaning and groaning about gays and lesbians being treated “ unfairly" by the military, I w onder at the ignorance. Just Out begins 3rd year W ith this issue Ju st O u t m arks our second anniversary. In the scheme of things two years is a very short tim e, but we think it is pretty exciting and amazing that a gay/lesbian newspaper has been able to survive that long and prosper w ithout the support o f the m ost visible businesses in the com m unity. CAI HART 1C COM ICS Y E 5...I THINK THE FEN PEOPLE WHO THINK THIS STRIP HRS BEEN SOMEWHAT NEGATIVE have A POINT, m io T n \ going to u v e every 0 IT OR CRITICISM A LOT OP THOUGHT.... I N FACT 1 ALREADY HAVE. Just O ut, November, 1985 C onsidenng that at last half o f the copies distributed in the com m unity are picked up in gay bars and businesses in downtown Portland, we know that the patrons o f these businesses are reading J u s t O u t It hasn’t been easy on the other side o f the fence either. It’s d ifficult always being politically astute, especially when the best o f intentions backfires and results in alienation and suspicion. So, anyway, we are still at it And to all the people who have helped us along the way, Just O u t says, “Thank you.” AIDS fears foster paranoia A friend o f ours, a waiter at a downtown restaurant, was told recently by his boss that "I’m gonna make all you gay boys take that AIDS test" The m an’s statem ent about that "AIDS test" seems to be typical of the level o f understand ing about the syndrom e and the test. First of all, the test will not determ ine the presence o f the virus, but will indicate the presence o f antibodies to the virus. Antibodies indicate exposure to the virus, but exposure does not mean that a person in whom the test shows antibodies will actually becom e ill with the disease nor does it mean that the person will be a carrier o f the disease, it means only that the organism (the person) has been exposed to the disease. AIDS is not a highly contagious disease, nor is it spread through casual contact. The virus does not float through the air, get into food, nor can you get it by visiting with, w orking with or going to school with a person who has it. C ontrary to increasingly popular opinion, you cannot get AIDS from a toilet seat or a public telephone, n o r can you get it from an exercise bench or a swim m ing pool. The AIDS virus is transm itted only through the m edium of bodily fluids, such as semen and blood, through sexual contact or contam inated needles. A report in ine New England Journal o f M edicine (O ctober 17, 1985) said, A Florida surgeon with AIDS operated on hundreds of patients w ithout passing on the fatal disease, supporting the belief that AIDS-infected health care workers can safely treat patients," which should dispel some fears, but never underesti m ate the ignorance o f the Am erican public. Featuring THE BROWN BOMBER & DIVA TOUCHE FLAMBE WELL 1 WAS GOING TO DO A COMIC BASED ON KEESTON LOWERY GOING THROUGH EYTEH JlVE OLYMPICS- LIKE T r a in in g p o r t h e p o s s ib le R e t u r n 0 P JERRY WELLER AND FO R THE TUSSLE F o r P o r tlan d ' s g a y p o litic a l t h r o n e ... YOURE NOT GOING TO DO THE STRIP7* NO. BECAUSE I T WOULD BE TOO TACRY. AND 1 WANT TO SHOW R e s t r a in t f , OHf You R e a liz e of course that Y o u 'V e m m A g e d T o m a r e your STATEMENT, ANYWAY? TEE HEE... Z KNOW... Z COULpNT HELP M YSELF1 j thrive o n co ntro versy / 3