The Straight Stuff
The underwear trail in Washington; Phyllis Schlafly jerks
her chain; the siege of Queersville; is * *gay actor
redundant? And more.
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LA slap echoes in Portland
he Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) has cited
Pacifica Foundation, owners of
KPFK-FM radio in Los Angeles, for po
tential criminal prosecution due to air
ing gay-oriented material that the FCC
deemed obscene. In August 1986, KPFK’s
lesbian and gay radio show “ IMRU” aired
segments of “ Jerker,” Robert Chesley’s
play about phone sex. “ IMRU” is broad
cast at 10 p.m. Sunday evenings (like
KBOO’s “ Queersville” ), and a warning
was issued about the play’s sexual content.
KPFK is the only radio station cited by
the FCC for potential prosecution under an
expanded obscenity ruling, and “ IMRU”
was cited specifically. Pacifica Foundation
subsequently filed suit against the FCC,
claiming that the FCC decision was “ poli
tical harassment.”
“ Queersville” anchor Howie Bagga-
donutz says that the FCC’s action “ is
meant to instill fear.”
“ Queersville,” KBOO’s lesbian and
gay radio show, airs material that is fre
quently, well, robust, and has been the
target of angry phone calls. “ Now every
one threatens to call the FCC. We defi
nitely feel we’re being monitored.” Bag-
gadonutz said that KBOO has told its
broadcasters to be “ self-censoring.”
“ Queersville” will air portions of Port
land’s Spread Eagle Production o\' Jerker.
Baggadonutz says that the increased
pressure from the FCC has aided his deci
sion to curtail production of “ Queers
ville.” He says the radio show will end
some time this summer.
T
AIDS, syphilis, sexuality
nder a headline reading “ Safe Sex
warning ignored.” The Oregonian
reported statistics which indicate
that gay men in Oregon are practicing
safer sex. Figures from the State Health
Division regarding an “ epidemic” of
syphilis shows that the number of cases of
syphilis in Oregon have more than doubled
compared to figures from the same period
last year However, the number of cases of
syphilis in gay men has decreased this year
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by about half, compared to figures from
last year at this time. Dr. Larry Foster,
State Epidemiologist, claims that the fi
gures indicate that gay men are practicing
safer sex, and heterosexuals are not. The
Health Division is concerned about the
implications of the figures for heterosex
ual transmission of AIDS. “ What’s hap
pening this year with syphilis we’ll be see
ing in four to five years with AIDS.”
A causal link between AIDS and
syphilis is being explored by a West
German scientist. The New York Native, a
gay newspaper which championed theories
that AIDS derives from African Swine
Fever Virus, reports that AIDS may be a
form of tertiary syphilis, and can be treated
with massive doses of penicillin. Appa
rently, symptoms of tertiary syphilis re
semble AIDS symptoms, but cases of
tertiary syphilis were thought to be so rare
that doctors surveyed by the Native admit
ted that they would not recognize it. The
West German physician. Dr. Stephen
Caiazza, tested twenty patients with AIDS
and found syphilis infections in all twenty.
Three quarters of these were not being
treated for syphilis1. Caiazza reports that
penicillin has been an effective treatment
of so-called AIDS infections.
Indignities, etc.
ignity. an organization for gay
Catholics, ran a full-page advertise
ment in the April 27 Newsweek. The
ad, which cost between $20,000 and
$30,000, begins, “ What Jesus said about
homosexuality:4
What the
Vatican has to say: ‘Intrinsic moral evil. ..
an objective disorder . . . behavior to
which no one has any conceivable right’. ’ ’
The text of the ad goes on to discuss the
purpose of Dignity.
Dignity attempted to place the ad in
Time magazine, but the ad was rejected. A
spokesman for Time said that the magazine
gives no reasons for rejecting or accepting
advertising.
The Oregonian apparently subscribes to
the same lofty ideals as Time. Diane
Gunderson has begun * The Gay/Lesbian
Dating Line,” a phone dating service for
gays and lesbians. When she contacted the
Oregonian and attempted to place an ad
under the name, “ The Gay Dating Line,”
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AUTOBODY
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she was told that the paper wouldn’t ac
cept an ad with the word “ gay” in it.
When she asked how she might alter the
wording to accommodate the paper’s
scruples [Intrinsic Moral Evil Dating Line,
perhaps?], she was told that the paper
would not accept any ad for a gay dating
service. “ We’re a private newspaper and
can print what we like,” she was told.
Fresher perspectives and less bigoted
heads are prevailing in the obituary depart
ment of the Oregonian, however. The
Oregonian (and now, the New York Times)
will acknowledge lovers of the same sex as
survivors, along with family members.
Bob Caldwell, of the Oregonian staff,
says that the paper is “ Changing policy to
acknowledge reality.”
Reality, unfortunately, is frequently
homophobic at the Oregonian, and we’re
left to puzzle that a dead queer is somehow
less objectionable than a queer who’s
dating.
Under Whose? Under where?
ne of the enduring sideshows of
the Iranamuck circus is the lack of
news coverage regarding Spitz
Channel’s side payments to his male
lover, from money patriotically fleeced
from elderly warmongers. After National
Public Radio’s Frank Browning broke the
story in April, the mainstream press has
gingerly ignored the fact that a principle
fundraiser for the Contra war is openly gay
(Time, which we know is sensitive about
these matters, identified Channel’s long
time lover as his “ roommate” [Roommate
Dating Line?]). In These Times, a news
weekly associated with the Democratic
Socialists of America, noted the lack of
coverage of the story, and queried: If an
Administration insider had handed an op
posite sex lover healthy slices of Joseph
Coors’ money, would the media have
thought it was news? In the light of Fawn
Hall, Donna Rice and Jessica Hahn, it
seems unlikely that the media could be
detered from parading more bedroom
pranks. In These Times sardonically
assumes that dalliance and pilfering are
news only when straight people do it.
However, self-righteousness cuts both
ways. Accompanying the story in In These
Times is a pie graph displaying how Chan
nel’s money was spent. A tiny slice of the
pie is identified as the Contra's share,
while larger segments are identified as
“ Men’s silk undies” and “ Nitrous
oxide.” Such lurid stereotypes seem un
justified, even if directed at Republicans.
Silk underwear seems a commendable use
of money originally extracted to arm
mercenaries.
Washington has been hearing a lot about
underwear recently. Channel’s buddy.
Oliver North, whom the Washingtonian
identifies as “ the latest unofficial sex
symbol of the DC gay community” re
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portedly used some of the $90,000 in
traveler’s checks solicited form Contra
leader Adolfo Colero to buy lingerie.
What did he buy, and when did he
wear it?
Use that whip, Phyllis!
ight-wing activist Phyllis Schlafly
sent letters to sponsors of a dinner
to honor Surgeon General Dr. C.
Everett Koop, and succeeded in forcing
the withdrawal of support of several
sponsors, three of whom are Republican
presidential hopefuls. In her letter, Schlafly
attacked Koop's views on AIDS education,
which she characterized as the advocacy of
“ safe sodomy,” and urged the sponsors
not to attend the dinner. As a consequence
of the letter. Senator Robert Dole, former
Delaware Governor Pierre DuPont, and
Rep. Jack Kemp — all of whom have been
jostling ever right-ward — cancelled their
appearances.
Kemp’s campaign, by the way, has been
dogged by allegations, a la Gary Hart, of
Kemp’s gay carryings on. In God’s right-
wing mansion, apparently, there are many
closets. It is not known how many of them
contain men’s silk undies.
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I was a queen fo r eight weeks
ovies with gay themes are
enjoying a vogue this summer,
with Prick Up Your Ears now
showing and Maurice due to arrive. A side
industry has sprung up around these films
in some of the better glossy magazines: the
candid interviews of self-professed
straight actors who play gay roles.
May’s Vogue contains interviews with the
effete actors of Maurice, and Vanity Fair
printed a long profile of actor Gary Old
man from Prick Up Your Ears. Playing a
gay character is clearly a challenge of a
magnitude to command many column in
ches, and is obviously NEWS. The actors
devote much of the interviews to talking
about their girlfriends, and the preparations
necessary for a straight actor to play a gay
character. Quoth Oldman: “ To play Joe
Orton, you just think about cock a lot. I
went off sex; Lesley and I didn’t make
love, and Fred [Molina] went through the
same thing with his wife, and we both
became very camp. It’s fun for eight
weeks to be a gay man; we were like these
two screaming queens by the end.”
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Quote o f the month
4 4 C ? tU(^es at
Army laboratories
have shown that the AIDS virus
would be an extremely poor
biological warfare agent.” Col. David L.
Huxsoll, chief of the US Army Research
Institute, as reported by the Gay Com
munin' News.
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