Condom non grata regon Health Divison’s AIDS information campaign has got off to a halting start. On the one hand, AIDS activists have decried the lack o f material directed at the population most at risk for infection: in Oregon, homosex ual and bisexual men. Gay leaders also fear that the pervasive message of fear and self-defense in the ads — “ Protect yourself” — might lead to anti-gay violence. However, even the sanitized ads that dismay activists have proved too salacious for such stolid organs as the Oregonian. Apparently, Gov. Neil Goldschmidt, who promised that the ad campaign against AIDS would not be “ a shy one,’ ’ himself shied from several ads, one of which might, if you squint long enough, be construed as gay-oriented. The poster featured a comely young man dressed only in a rain coat, and read ‘ ‘Good boys always wear their rubbers.” Goldschmidt nixed it him self. Another rejected ad showed a roll of highly colored condoms, with the caption “ Lifesavers.” Other ads did pass Goldschmidt’s muster. The black and white ‘ ‘AIDS is a killer. Protect you rself ’ seems direct and banal enough on its own, on the back of a bus. But when this text is joined on TV by an image o f a hand loading, then firing, a handgun, the subtext of anti-gay violence becomes so obvious that only a poli tician could deny its message. How do you protect yourself? With a handgun. Against whom? Guess. The state’s ad campaign is not so much anti- gay, as anti-humor; it aims not to inform the people at risk, as much as not offend those at no risk; it is designed not to educate, but to frighten. If you think Oregon has problems with its AIDS education program, consider the prob lems facing the banana lobby. Public Broad casting Service's AIDS education documentary ‘‘AIDS: Changing the Rules” (to be aired Nov. 6, 10 p.m. on Oregon Public Broadcast ing) will feature “ frank” talk about AIDS and AIDS prevention from such luminaries as Ron O Reagan Jr. One segment uses a banana to demonstrate how to put on a condom. The International Banana Association is angry: in a letter to PBS a banana spokesperson stated, “ The banana is an important product and de serves to be treated with respect and consideration.” Well, for that matter, so do penises, and the people they belong to. Such squeamishness about advocating condoms masks a disregard for the people whose use of them might prove life-extending. The banana lobby and Fred Stickel would change their tunes if a latex sheaf were, for some reason, needed to protect bananas from disease. The problem begins when other fruits begin to use them. W.C. McRae Feature Editor Montana bom and bred. Bill was educated widely in the UK and Europe. Despite preoccupations with bridge, visual art, opera and pretentious cookery, he aspires to eventual full-employment. Am I thy child’s keeper? “ W; re seem to have kids on our minds these days” reports Boston colum nist Ellen Goodman. As the baby boom genera tion moves into its 40s, families are suddenly in vogue and the two-career household is now the two kid home. Baby Boom is a popular film, everyone talks about the kids on thirtysomething. But in the competitive self-conscious 1980s, kids are more than just members of a family: - they have become essential commodities, and hence politicized. More to the point, behind the happy families o f Parenting magazine, the energies formerly engaged in discussions for or against feminism now vitalize debates over day care and work ing mothers. Debbie Nathan, in the Village Voice (9/29/87) discusses the sudden spate of child abuse cases alleged to be occurring in the nation’s day care centers. Traditionally, charges of child abuse have been leveled against male adult family mem bers who violate male and female children. However, the Village Voice article explores a flip side o f conventional child abuse cases: increasingly, in what Nathan calls “ mini- McMartins,” charges o f sexual abuse are be ing leveled against the female staff members o f day care centers. And the charges don’t stop at sex abuse — allegations of Satanism, involve ment in child pornography, and animal torture have also been thrown into the pot. O f course, the charges may be true. But short o f a nation-wide infra-structure o f Satanic vol unteer child-care providers (as some prosecutors have advanced), it is difficult to understand how we have come to the point where — almost wholesale — white, middle class parents sus pect the white middle class women who tend their children of sex abuse. While the spectre of Freud and his Seduction Theory wafts by, Nathan notes that “ the weaker the family gets, the holier is its image. . . . If the private family is sacred, the public child care center is profane.’' The guilt our culture places on a mother who works is displaced onto surrogate mothers; the guilt is expressed by prosecuting the women who tend children in her stead. The sins — freedoms — o f feminism have been visited on our children. And unfortunately, the generalized appre hension about gay people in our society will almost inevitably be refocused into the realm of childhood, and emerge as accusations of gay child abuse. New Hampshire and Massachu setts’ legislatures have passed laws forbidding gay people from becoming foster parents. Al though Mass. Gov. Michael Dukakis vetoed the bill in that state, he had already taken the politi cally supererogatory step to procedurally bar gay people from serving as foster parents. Syndicated columnist William Raspberry re cently wrote an editorial dressing down the American Civil Liberties Union for arguing the case o f a bisexual man whose sexual orienta tion led to his rejection as a Big Brother. Raspberry’s veiled argument — that a gay Big Brother would be likely to sexually abuse a child, that a gay Big Brother would be a poor role model — is gratuitously induced as an inevitability due to the stereotyped “ nature” of gay men. Can the fire storm ofNAMBLA be far behind? While abuse of children by adults occurs all too often, to fixate solely on alleged abuse by gay men is craven, since the majority of child hood sex abuse is committed within families by straight men. Raspberry is merely refocusing his adult homophobia onto the realm of children, thereby representing as "w isdom ” what would otherwise be labelled intolerance and prejudice. When increasingly-family-prone America chooses to play out its homophobia by accusing gay men of abusing its children, do not be surprised. • WHAT HAVE YOU DONE LATELY TO STOP THE SPREAD OF AIDS! W ; J'aime Schelz \ •.V . Healing Crystals Events to Come ^ Full Moon Circles Goddess Series Classes Mask Initiation Crystal Meditations Shamanic Drumming Journeys Seth Group Sound Healing Circles Chakra Psychology Classes Treasures Crystals Jewelry Shells Books Music Pouches Rattles Choose from our wide selection of handblown glassware or commission your own unique piece. 8301 SE 13th • 231-9321 Come watch us work. Drums Tarot Cards sage Tues.-Sat. 10 am-6 pm Thursdays until 7 pm Healing Crystals, 8215 S.E. 13th Street, Portland, OR 97202 • 234-2224 Just Out • 7 • November. I9tt7