GOT THE
JANUARY
BLUES?
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Gays slump in polls
Come visit
with us and enjoy
an early spring.
ecent nation-wide polls have shown a
drop in support for gay issues.
According to a Gallup poll conducted
in September, only 33 percent of adults think
gay sex should be legal, while 54 percent think
it should be illegal. Thirteen percent have no
opinion.
The poll results show an 11 percent drop in
support of legalizing sex between consenting
adults o f the same gender in just the past year,
and represent the lowest poll support for the
legalization o f gay sexuality since Gallup con
ducted its first poll on the subect in 1977.
A November poll by Newsweek/GaWap indi
cated that a majority of Americans support
quarantine o f AIDS patients. A Time magazine
poll indicated that a majority of adults think
homosexuality should be taught to 12-year-olds
in school, but think that the children should be
taught it is immoral, according to the Washing
ton Blade.
R
Luncheons from 3.95
Dinners 4.95 to 12.95
^ x O u r CHOCOLATE
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Just briefs
Pettygrove
House
and Gardens
corner of NW 23rd & Pettygrove
221-4254
Reservations
Credit Cards Ac cepted
MHRC awards
he Metropolitan Human Relations
Commission will hold its Annual
Awards Luncheon at noon. January 9
at the PSU Red Lion. Stevie Remington, Ex
ecutive Director of the Oregon Chapter, ACLU,
will receive the Russel A. Peyton Human Rela
tions Award. Interstate Firehouse Cultural
Center will be given the Sonja Hilton Award for
service to the disabled. Cascade AIDS Project
will be awarded a Commission Special Rec
ognition Award. For further details, see Out
About Town.
T
TV, an NBC affiliate, was shameless enough to
run the ad.
New immigration law
perpetuates old discrimination
he Federal government’s recently
passed, and much ballyhooed, new
immigration law will grant immunity
to aliens who have lived in this country since
1982, unless they are gay. Legislators did not
alter the wording of the former law barring
immigration of gay men and lesbians.
Under the new law, the Immigration and
Naturalization Service can still exclude all gay
men and women from entry to the US on the
basis of being afflicted with a “ psychopathic
personality.” This exclusion applies to all
people who visit the country, do business here,
or who intend to immigrate.
T
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Just O ut
6
January. 1987
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\ 3562 S E Hawthorne • 230-1222
ranklin Jenkins has been elected presi
dent of the East County Coordinating
Organization, an umbrella group for
all community groups in unincorporated East
Multnomah County. Jenkins is a founding
member o f Mount Hood Community Mental
Health Board of Directors; he chaired the Fast
County Annexation Study; he serves on the
Multnomah County Citizens Involvement
Board by appointment of the County Commis
sion. Jenkins is also advisor to Windfire, a
support and social group for young gays and
lesbians.
F
entists in Oregon were warned that
charging extra fees or refusing
service to AIDS patients is a viola
tion o f state handicap anti-discrimination laws,
according to an advisory statement issued by
Mary Wendy Roberts, State Commissioner of
Labor and Industries. Roberts’ decision was
hastened by an Oregonian news story about a
Portland man. Chuck Houston, who revealed
he had been asked to pay a significant surcharge
for dental care after he had disclosed being HI V
antibody test positive.
Roberts’ statement reads in part, “ The same
law that prohibits restaurants from charging
more for a meal served to handicapped guests
also protects AIDS victims who must seek den-
D
Word from gai Paris
friend writes from France,
commenting on the gai life. “ Gays
here call themselves ‘homos,’ ‘gai’
is more a written than spoken word, particularly
for the straight masses. To the average French
man, ’gai’ still means ‘happy.” Gays use ‘pede’
[from pederaste] as we in Les Etas Unis use
faggot; OK within the family, but an insult on
the street. No AIDS literature to speak of in the
bars. No condom machines, as in Switzerland.
Phillipe told me every French boy he’s tricked
with has been cooperative but amused when he
requests they use a condom. The French are
such fatalists to begin with — they don’t need a
disease to perfect their mentality.” •
Stolen Kisses
A gay prisoner and his lover have prevailed against
discrimination in visiting privileges , but bias against gays
continues in Oregon prisons.
D
The
Coffee Merchant
Jenkins to preside over ECCO
Roberts puts teeth into
handicapped law
Mrs. Grundy moves to Seattle
ue to alarm about the spread of
AIDS, the British government decided
late last year to launch an
AIDS-education television advertising cam
paign, and to send educational leaflets to every
household in the country, reports the Windy City
Times. However, an AIDS-education
blitzkrieg in the Seattle area has run into
opposition-cum-squeamishness.
The Seattle-based Northwest AIDS Founda
tion prepared a 30 second ad, directed primarily
at a gay audience and designed to discourage
unsafe sex. The ad, which shows four young
men walking through traffic, contains the words
“ safe sex.”
Only one Seattle television station, KING-
tal care.” Roberts’ statement, a dental associa
tion policy statement, and a Center for Disease
Control booklet entitled “ Preventing Transmis-
son o f Hepatitus B, AIDS, and Herpes in
Dentistry” will be mailed to all 1756 Oregon
Dental Association members.
if
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esley Johnson, an inmate at
Oregon State Correctional Institu
tion near Salem, and his lover
William Stone o f Portland, are now able to kiss
and hold hands during routine prison visits, due
to a clarification of visitation rules. Johnson
filed a complaint against prison officials after
he was placed in “ security lock-up” for kissing
Stone’s hand at the end of a visit in late
November.
Stone claimed that Johnson, who has been
incarcerated since late August, had previously
been warned that he could hug, but not kiss, his
lover during visits. At the end of the November
20 visit, however. Stone said that Johnson be
came “ very emotional” and kissed his hand.
Prison guards and the superintendent on duty
then seized Johnson, and charged him with
“ sexual activity.’ ’ Johnson was disciplined with
15 days in “ security lock up” and threatened
with “ six months in the hole,” according to
Stone.
OSCI Procedures fo r Visits allows as
“ Expected conduct while visiting” as
‘ ‘Inmates may embrace and kiss a visitor briefly
and/or shake hands with visitors upon meeting,
and at the time o f leaving.”
Johnson contacted the ACLU, and filed a
complaint that present application of the
so-called “ physical contact rule” discriminated
against gay prisoners. Ed Reeves. ACLU ap
pointed attorney, said that enforcement of the
rule was “ clearly discriminatory ” and consti
tuted a “ special rule for gay people.”
Counsel for the State eventually agreed, and
clarified the physical contact rule to allow same
W
sex partners to hold hands, embrace, and kiss
without threat of discipline. Scott McAllister,
legal advisor to OSCI, said that prison officials
will continue to “ encourage” gays not to kiss,
though OSCI superintendent Richard Peterson
claimed prison staff would “ give protection to
the degree we can’ ’ to gay couples during visits.
Larry Roach, Director o f Program Services
at OSCI, contacted Johnson and assured him
that he would have the same privileges during
visits that a straight couple would enjoy.
Johnson is now allowed to have physical con
tact with his lover, but he feels there are other
aspects of prison life that continue to discrimi
nate against gay prisoners. During a telephone
conversation from OSCI, Johnson said that
when prisoners are incarcerated, they are asked
if they are “ homosexual.” If they respond af
firmatively, they are asked if they will attempt
to have sex while in prison. Regardless of the
answer, the “ A-Hs” (“ Admitted Homosexu
als” ) are put into Unit One, the "gay ward.”
According to Johnson, there are about 20
“ A-Hs” in OSCI, all of whom are subjected to
“ protective custody.” All cells in OSCI are
built for two prisoners. Prisoners who do not
admit to being gay are put into double occu
pancy cells. However, “ A-Hs” are jailed
alone. Johnson claims that the practice “ im
poses isolation” and is “ like being in solitary.”
According to Johnson, prison officials claim
that “ protective custody” is necessary for the
safety of the gay prisoners. However, Johnson
feels that “ isolation” is just another way the
prison justifies discrimination against gay
prisoners.
And at that point, a prison guard terminated
our conversation, a less subtle, though certainly
effective, form of discrimination. •