Voices in the Wilderness
t is clear that testing positive for H IV anti
bodies has psychologically devastating
effects on a person, his or her fam ily, and
friends. This is especially true with many
public health officials and scientists dogmati
cally proclaiming that KM) percent o f sero
positive persons w ill eventually die o f AIDS.
Those who test positive w ill have to deal
w ith the psycholgical stresses o f fear and dis
crimination for the rest o f their lives. Because
the immune system is adversely affected by
stress o f any kind, an immune system already
suppressed by H IV would seem to be sever ly
compromised by continuous stress o f this
magnitude.
I
Which just goes to show that some women in
the Democratic party are no less immune to the
lure o f conservative politics than are
Republican men.
Evangelist's child prostitution
ring busted
vangelist Tony Leyva was sentenced to
20 years in prison after he admitted guilt
in a child prostituiton ring. The courtroom
audience in Roanoke, V A . which included
some o f Leyva’ s victims and their families,
cheered w hen Federal District Judge James
Turk told the evangelist that everyone who had
ever heard him preach morality “ ought to
kick you good according to The New York
Times.
E
Leyva. 42, is also serving a sentence on state
charges o f sexually abusing two boys in Salem.
V A . Rias Edward Morris, 47, an organist
for the Tony Leyva Evangelistic Association of
Columbus, GA, was sentenced to 15 years in
prison. Freddie H. Herring, 50, of the Light
house Assembly in Douglassville, G A, was
sentenced to 12 years. A ll three men pleaded
— D r. James E. D 'E ram o’s column,
AIDScopc, appears regularly in
Bay Windows. New England's largest
gay and lesbian newspaper. D r. D 'E ram o
has a doctorate in infectious diseases
fro m the U niversity o f Texas M edical Center
in Houston. He has specialized training
in medical counsetng and psychotherapy ,
tmd is in private practice in Manhattan.
(Bay Windows. A pril b-12, I9K9)
Hu/ / , buzz
“ G ” word taboo at ART/AIDS
proud conservative Democrat with
strong fam ily ties” is how her campaign
director described newly elected Congress
woman Judy Long, according to In These
Times.
Long represents Indiana's 4th Congressional
District, the district which spawned Dan
Quayle.
“ Eschewing feminist identification. Long
projected herself as acceptable in mostly male
terms to a largely conservative electorate,
wrote ITT's George Fish in a recent issue.
hat with all the gay men who were
involved in last month’s ART/AIDS
benefit, one might surmise that the “ G ” word
would appear at least once in materials pro
moting the week-long event. One would, how
ever. search in vain. While photographs o f gay
men were used in the beautiful ART/AIDS
poster and other materials, the “ G " word was
conspicuous by its absence.
Jerry West, one o f those men. lived his life
as a gay artist; he would be appalled at the
hypocrisy.
A
flap involving two high profile organiza
tions in the gay community was averted
when human figures in a painting were
covered. The painting was exhibited in the
rotunda o f the Portland Center for the Per
forming Arts by the Portland Chapter o f the
Names Project during the Portland Gay Men s
Chorus concerts in April. The painting, which
measures 12 feet square and is executed in
bright colors, memo, ializ.es eight men who
died ot AIDS. (See photo above.)
A
When the local Names Project people were
approached by PGMC with complaints that the
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The men procured the boys in their travels
along the revival circuit, using their influence
over the boys’ families. Over the past 20 years,
Leyva had sexual relations with at least 30
boys, many brought to him by their mothers.
The Fourth Reich?
s it only coincidence that Oregon’ s governor
signed legislation authorizing the state’ s
most ambitious prison construction program in
a century on the centenary o f the birth o f
Adolph Hitler?
On the same day, a legislative panel okayed
a bill which w ill recriminalize possession of
small amounts o f marijuana. The latter, o f
course, is so that come next election, the
powers that be can say, “ W ell, we did some
thing about drugs.” And the rubes w ill
believe them!
I
W
Family squabbles
Breitenbush Hot Springs
r
°
guilty to interstate transportation o f boys for
prostitution.
r
| m
i tkl . j tv , . i
j q
tv • tt .mt ta ■ . a v fl, m
painting “ was drawing the wrong kind o f atten
tion,” the Names Project volunteered to cover
the human figures with a banner.
“ PGMC tried to be helpful to the Names
Project by giving it access to our audiences
but out o f context, the ‘ Men au nature / ’ panel
made no sense,” PG M C’ s Richard Brown
said in a telephone interview. “ It looked
like a billboard for a nudist camp. The people
who complained to PGMC felt that showing
it in that way was disrespectful to the meaning
o f the q u ilt.”
The 144 square foot painting — the equi
valent o f eight quilt panels — was hung in
the rotunda and was not identified as part
o f the Names Project Q uilt.
▼
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