ju s tn e w s
San Francico to thè White House:
"Take im m ediate action on AIDS"
Many o f the first wave o f the epidemic have become
homeless as a result o f housing or employment discrimination
or the loss o f health insurance.
B Y
D E N I S E
S E L L E C K
months for these booklets. “ I think some of
those people are guilty o f murder,” she added.
he second wave of the AIDS epidemic —
primarily affecting minority communities
It took subcommittee member Nancy Pelosi
— is upon us, said witnesses before a Nov. 23 (D -C alif.) several months and a lot o f hounding
subcommittee hearing on AIDS. People with
to pry loose 300,000 o f the booklets from the
White House — and even then she had to get
AIDS and public healthcare officials told the
them folded herself. Thirty-five members of the
House Human Resources and Intergovern
House drew on congressional funds to mail
mental Relations Subcommittee hearing in San
Francisco that the Reagan Administration
booklets out because the administration
wouldn’t allow the Surgeon General to do so.
must take immediate action.
The subcommittee came to San Francisco in
Witnesses at the hearing demanded stringent
the hope that the federal government can learn
federal legislation preventing discrimination
from the city’s relative success in slowing the
against people with AIDS. They argued that
epidemic. Starting with the highest per capita
such protection would encourage people to
come forward for voluntary testing and would
incidence of AIDS, San Francisco’s rate of new
also help combat the racism sure to surface as
cases among gays is now less than one percent;
the infection spreads in minority communities.
for intravenous drug users, it is an estimated one
Such legislation would also minimize the hard
to two percent. An unprecedented alliance of
ships suffered by people who already have
the city’s public, private and volunteer sectors
AIDS, and their families and friends.
is apparently getting the message of safer sex
Meredith Miller, who has had AIDS since
across to at-risk groups, despite the complex
1985, testified that she gave her children up for
ities o f disseminating information in a culturally
adoption to spare them the stigma of a parent
diverse city.
with AIDS. “ It’s hard enough to live with the
At the hearing witnesses called for funding
diagnosis and a million and one infections, but
for explicit education programs to help make
to be separated from your loved ones is
safer sex and drug practices the norm. Dr. Mindy
devastating,” she said. Miller pointed out that
Thompson Fullilove, associate director of
there were few shelters available for women
Multicultural Inquiry and Research on AIDS,
with AIDS and almost none where they could
stressed the importance of communicating
bring their children.
advice to people in their own idiom, especially
Infants infected with AIDS in the womb by
when they don’t share the dominant culture or
their mothers are not immune to hardships
language.
either. Almost all of these children are taken
A not-very-explicit and not-very-idiomatic
from their parents and kept in a hospital during
booklet on AIDS has been written by Surgeon
the slow process of placement in a foster home.
General C. Everett Koop. But the booklet,
Calling for an expansion o f foster care, Dr.
which uses the word “ rubber,” is apparently
Richard Sanchez, chair o f the Department of
still too strong for some in the White House.
Pediatrics o f San Francisco’s St. Luke’s Hospi
Thirty million copies of the booklet were
tal, told the story of the baby who spent two
printed, but they have never been distributed.
months o f her short life in a hospital bed waiting
“ There are people in the White House who
for placement. She died two weeks after going
would rather see people die than tell the truth
to a foster home.
about AIDS,” Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)
Within the next five years, witnesses testi-
told the hearing. Boxer has been waiting five
T
ACLU Commission
on Gay and Lesbian
Rights seeks a few
good men and
women
he American Civil Liberties Union
Commission on Gay and Lesbian Rights
recently held a day-long retreat to clarify and
further define the mission o f the commission for
the next two years. Once again, the mission
echoes the number-one priority of the ACLU of
Oregon board of directors: the creation and pro
tection of lesbian and gay civil rights. For the
commission to lay the groundwork necessary to
ensure passage of a lesbian and gay civil rights
bill in the Oregon Legislature, commission
membership must increase.
The commission is seeking a few good men
and women from every comer of Oregon to join
its ranks. It seeks individuals with a strong
desire to work with and within all segments of
the gay. lesbian and at-large community. Some
o f the specific skills sought are leadership
ability, fundraising capabilities, and public
relations and public education expertise. The
commission meets approximately once a month
and plans to hold meetings more frequently
fied, there will be an explosion of new AIDS
cases in the inner cities. In addition, thousands
who are now HIV positive but do not yet show
signs o f the disease will get sick. As new drugs
prolong patients' lives, added complications —
such as dem entia— will arise. Federal funds
will be needed to assist local governments and
the private sector in retraining health profes
sionals to cope with the special needs o f people
with AIDS. Most sufferers spend a relatively
short time in the hospital; more home nursing
and non-acute facilities are needed.
Many victims [sir) of the first wave o f illness
have become homeless as a result of housing or
employment discrimination or the loss o f health
insurance. Residence programs have been
JS 2L
Mail your responses to ACLU of Oregon.
705 Board o f Trade Building, 310 SW 4th Ave.,
Portland, Ore. 97204. Applications must be
received by January 15, 1988. For more infor
mation. call Jann Carson at 227-3186
( Portland), or Dave Fidanque at 345-6162
(Eugene).
•
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Ovff 35 yM»s o< SffvKf to ou» ne^jhbot j
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Persons who possess the needed skills, have
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developed for these people. But new types of
homelessness arc arising as the disease hits
people already on the margins o f society who
have mental health, alcohol or drug problems.
Special housing programs have to be set up for
these people, said Bob Prentice, project director
o f the Health Care for the Homeless Program in
San Francisco.
“ Substance abuse treatment might not
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maybe a year to live,” Prentice commented.
‘ ‘ We will have to meet them on terms that might
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Just Out • 11 • January 1988