Let’s resolve to fight for gay rights
ay rights did not have a banner year in
1988. Anti-gay violence increased in
almost every sector of the population.
Oregonians passed Ballot Measure 8, which
revoked Governor Goldschmidt’s executive
order protecting gay state employees. The
federal government continued to drag its heels
in funding AIDS education and research. The
Food and Drug Administration failed to show
sympathy for AIDS victims by releasing few
experimental drugs that show promise of treat
ing the dread disease.
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• • > B e tw e e n t h e L i n e s . . .
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B Y
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A C K
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So, we have to roll up our sleeves in 1989 and
keep pressure on the electorate, the state and
federal governments and the politicians who
make the system work. Let’s all resolve to:
— Question all candidates for political office
about their stand on gay civil rights.
— Contribute to those candidates who hold
our best interests at heart.
— Support gay organizations that are taking
care of our sick, communicating with political
leaders, fighting for our civil rights.
One year from now, when we enter the ‘ ‘Gay
90s,” let’s all pray that we have made more
progress toward a society that cares, loves and
protects all of us.
males are excluded). And until 1985, there was
no AIDS literature available in Spanish.
Cultural differences render traditional AIDS
messages in newspapers and television virtually
useless to many minority groups. There are
many minority men who are married, have
children and have sex with other men. Because
they are the active partner, they do not consider
themselves gay.
Reaching this segment of the population
needs a non-traditional approach. For instance,
in San Francisco health authorities invented a
comic book character “ Mr. Bleachman” to
reach the city’s junkies with the message that
bleach should be used to clean needles and kill
the AIDS virus. By all accounts, the addicts are
listening.
Finally the federal government is facing the
reality that there are disproportionate numbers
of minority health care providers in the general
population. That gap is one reason why
communicating with minorities at risk has been
difficult.
Neighborhood clinics, often working on
shoestring budgets, are beginning to reach into
many urban areas where traditional advertising
does not penetrate. With more federal dollars
committed to programs like that, the rest of the
nation’s people at risk will begin to get the
messages once aimed at a very narrow segment
of the population.
Psychological
Services
for
Women, Men,
and Couples
Kristine L. Falco, Psy.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
634-9866
Milwaukie, Oregon
Coventry
Cycle (7
And you thought justice was blind
he Dallas, Texas gay community is in a
justifiable uproar over remarks a state
district judge made after sentencing a young
killer who murdered two gay men earlier this
year.
Judge Jack Hampton told a Dallas newspaper
that he gave the killer a lighter sentence because
the victims were “ queers.”
The judge later apologized for a ‘ “poor
choice of words,” but that didn't dampen calls
for his resignation by gay and civil rights
organizations. Perhaps the judge should have
used “ faggot,” instead.
Hampton told the Dallas Times Herald that
Poverty and bias major factors
he sentenced 18-year-old Richrd Lee Bednarski
in AIDS epidemic
to 30 years in prison instead of the maximum
life sentence on November 28 in part because
.S. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop
Bednarski’s two victims were homosexuals.
says discrimination, language problems
and poverty are as much at the heart of the AIDS “ These two guys that got killed wouldn’t
have been killed if they hadn’t been cruising the
epidemic as drug abuse and promiscuity.
streets picking up teenage boys,” Hampton said
At a recent address before the Association of
in an interview. “ I don’t much care for queers
American Medical Colleges in Chicago, Koop
cruising the streets picking up teenage boys.
^aid the fight against the disease has failed to
I’ve got a teenage boy.”
convey AIDS information to blacks and
The Dallas gay community has filed a
Hispanics, who have been stricken with AIDS
complaint with the state Commission on
in numbers disproportionate to their populations.
Judicial Conduct that could lead to the judge’s
“ If you look at just the numbers in AIDS, the
removal.
numbers that have died, you’re missing the
If you would like to tell Judge Hampton how
whole story,” he said.
you feel about his conduct, call (214) 653-6445. •
Of the 77,994 AIDS cases reported since
June 1981 in the United States, 26 percent were
among blacks and 15 percent among Hispanics.
Blacks make up about 14 percent of the overall
population and Hispanics make up 7 percent.
Koop said higher rates of illiteracy in both
minority communities contribute to the problem
of conveying information.
In addition, he urged the medical profession
to improve access to health care for blacks and
YE*! WE GIVE YOU THE BEAT OF
Hispanics, as well as for groups at high risk for
WHAT WE KNOW
contracting AIDS, such as prostitutes and
intravenous drug users.
—
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etting the AIDS message to others than
gay white males is now the emphasis in
most major US communities this new year. The
traditional gay community has pretty well
gotten the message about safe sex and clean
needles. Now the focus must be aimed at men
who have sex with other men, blacks and
Hispanics.
The disease rate for blacks is three times
higher than that for whites (and 12 times as
common when white homosexual and bisexual
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just out • 5 • January 1989