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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1986)
nated “ women only" and yet Wilson stopped reading at A Woman’s Place and asked a man in the audience to leave. According to a Catbird Seat employee, men were present at W ilson’s appearance there and Wilson made no objections. We think that actions such as Wlison’s will only serve to deny som e of us access to the widest selection of feminist books in Oregon. And that would be a shame. Chicago banks recirculating "Gay $" Banks in Chicago are learning that gays and lesbians are a force to be reckoned with. After a meeting with “Gay $’’ backers, two banks having branches in neighborhoods with large gay populations agreed to recircu late currency stamped with “Gay $”. The banks had sorted out the stamped currency because it was “ mutilated." The Federal Reserve and Secret Service have said that such markings, to the left of the portrait are legal and the agencies are recirculating the stamped currency already, according to the W indy City Times. The meeting with the banks also addres sed the banks’ responsibility to the comm un ity. The banks in question admitted to return ing very little money to the community de spite the large amount of gay and lesbian accounts, both business and individual. A gay assistant manager at one of the banks which changed its policy estimated that at least 70% o f the activity at his banch involves lesbians and gays. Isn’t it about time that gays and lesbians all over the country begin showing our clout, too? And show it, as the people in Chicago are doing, with the money me circulate. Things to come? A Senate race in Maryland between two w om en received nationwide publicity as an example of negative campaigning at its worst in a year when such tactics hit a high point The two month battle pitted liberal D em o cratic Congresswoman Barbara Mikulski against Reaganite Republican Linda Chavez. Chavez, former spokesperson for the Reagan administration’s controversial C om mission on Civil Rights, called Mikulski a "San Francisco style liberal” who should "c o m e out o f the closet” to debate her in her nomination speech in September. As the campaign progressed Chavez repeatedly claimed that Mikulski, who has never mar ried, is “ anti-male” citing her association with her form er congressional aide, an alleged “ radical feminist” Mikulski easily won the seat vacated by retiring Senator Charles M Mathias with a 61% to 39% margin drawing strong support from voters of all ages, incomes, educational levels, and religious and ethnic backgrounds according to the Washington Blade. The Maryland Senate race must be viewed, I think, as politics as usual. The prize at stake was control o f the (IS . Senate, which the Republicans wanted to retain at any co st And what made this campaign particularly odious was Chavez’s carpetbagger approach. Chavez was a Democrat and minor bureaucrat in the Carter administration. About 18 months ago, Chavez m oved to Maryland and surfaced as a Republican candidate for Mathias’ Senate seat (Sort o f like O regon’s carpetbagger, Joe Lutz.) * * • • • Across the nation, all four openly gay elected officials won re-election in easy races. Massachusetts Congressman Gerry Studds took two-thirds of the vote in a field of three. Minnesota State Senator Allan Spear and State Rep. Karen Clark were re-elected by wide margins. City Councilman Bob Gentry will retain his seat for another term in Laguna Beach, California. In San Francisco no openly gay candidates were elected in several citywide races but the LaRouche Initiative was rejected by 95% or m ore in many precincts. . On the Right ilank Drew Davis and Gordon (G ordo) Shad- burne, fundamentalist politicos and hom o phobes, now have something else in c o m mon. Neither Davis nor Shadburne was able to convince enough voters that they deserve being returned to public office. Both candi dates cam e in fourth in their respective races. Shadburne was trying to regain the seat on the Multnomah County Commission which he forfeited last July after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor. Davis ran for a seat on the Lake O sw ego City Council and lost by only 65 votes. Anywhere, USA (in this case a small town in Florida): The daughter of a Baptist minister objected to two well-known literary works which were parts of a book used in her high- school humanities class. The girl’s father and his followers put pressure on the schol board. The school board gathered up the books and locked them in a closet The two well-known literary works? Aristo phanes’ “ Lysistrata” and “The Miller’s Tale” from Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The objection to "Lysistrata” is its femi nism, according to NPR’s M orning Edition. "Lysistrata" is about Athenian and Spartan wom en who organized to pressure their men to stop warring by refusing to sleep with them. Chaucer’s “The Miller’s Tale” is prized for its depiction of lower-class life during the 14th Century. WHAT ABOUT RE-EXPOSURE TO THE AIDS VIRUS? Some men have the mistaken belief that since they have probably already been exposed to the AIDS virus, it doesn’t matter anymore whether they practice Unsafe Sex or not. Repeated exposure to the virus may make the difference between staying healthy, and getting a diagnosis of AIDS. Re-exposure may well be an important co-factor for AIDS. Although we don’t have final proof yet, it is the belief of many AIDS doctors tat one of the important differences between those who get infected without getting sick, and those who actually come down with AIDS, is the extent to which they are re-exposed to the virus. Those who are already infected are probably also contagious. To have Unsafe Sex with someone is to risk that person’s life. You could be passing on the virus to someone who has not yet been infected at all. Or you could be re-infecting someone who has alrea dy been exposed, thereby increasing Ju st Out. December. 1986 UNSAFE SEX PRACTICES Anal Intercourse Without Condom Rimming Fisting Blood Contact Sharing Sex Toys or Needles Semen or Urine in Mouth Vaginal Intercourse Without Condom their chances of actually coming down with a diagnosis of AIDS. You could also be continuing the spread of this disease in our community, thereby harming all of us. Maybe your body will successfully deal with your past exposure. After all, it seems that only 10 to 20 percent of those infected actually get AIDS. Do you want to be a part of the 10 to 20 percent who come down with AIDS, or part of the 80 to 90 percent who don’t? Besides, what about your partner’s health? And our community’s health? There may be nothing you can do virus in our community. Let’s end Unsafe Sex in Portland until this epidemic is over. No one has ever died from the frustration of giving up a few Unsafe Sex practices. Far too many have died of AIDS. If we as a community are to survive this epidemic. Unsafe Sex must cease to be a part of our gay male lifestyles until a medical solution for AIDS is available. Together, we can do it. about your past. But there is a great deal you can do about your future! As a community, we’re all in this together. Each of us is affected by the loss of any one of us. Each of us has the opportunity, and the responsibility, to do what we can so that this epidemic does not get any worse in our community. In the absence of a medical solution for AIDS, is all up to us, each of us, all of us. An overwhelming majority of gay and bisexual men hpve already given up Unsafe Sex. W e now have the chance to stop the spread of this A S c A D E A I D S P R 0 J E C T c 408 S.W. Second Ave. Suite 420 Portland, Oregon 97204 (503) 223-5907 Call for more information. This material is published with the permission of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. A portion of this ad donated by Just Out. 7