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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1990)
_______________ jumt out V Nowwwbr 1 990 V Christopher Eskeli, Ph D, LMFCC.CAS ffl(E=DEATH This space is the newsletter o f ACT UP/ Portland and is made possible by a grant from the MacKenzie River Foundation and Just Out W hat does it take to make you AN GRY?! • 300,000 people dead from AIDS world wide. • We live in the only industrialized nation besides South Africa without a national health care system. • We, as lesbians and gays, are being beaten up on the streets and systematically legislated out of existence. • We can legally be thrown out of our homes, jobs and schools. • The courts can take away our children and deny us legal protection in family matters. • The American Medical Association funds Jesse Helms. • Doctors are spuming AIDS patients. Of a survey of recent graduates, 63 percent intended to exclude AIDS patients form their practices, and 60 percent agreed with this statement: “Most gay patients with AIDS have brought the disease upon themselves.” • The Portland Police commit hate crimes. At the Quayle demonstration, they engaged in acts of gay bashing and misogyny by calling demon strators faggots, cunts and bitches. • Our own Sen. Hatfield votes against pro-gay and lesbian legislation while hiding in the closet. • The Oregonian neglects to report on our is sues and lives. How could they ignore the Gay Games? • Portland’s only lesbian bar closed to be come a topless joint. And the Embers, the alter nate choice for many dykes, has been charging women a cover, while letting men in for free. The owner, Steve Suss, has openly said that the large number of women are less than welcome; he wants his bar to be a men’s bar. • And what about the loss of our women’s bookstore? Our visible public community re sources are vanishing! 33 based organizations, such as Cascade AIDS Proj ect, your county health departments and the Ore gon Health Division accountable and responsible for this lack of attention! Health care is a right, not a privilege! A new focus for ACT UP in the coming year will be national health care, so join us and get involved! Here are some facts about AIDS: Eighty-four percent of the women who die from AIDS are women of color. The fastest-growing numbers of new AIDS cases are among women, many of them poor and women of color, homeless women, single moth ers, I V. drug users, or sexual partners of I.V. drug users. These women have already been shut out by the system and have little or no access to health care or information. AIDS is the leading killer of young black women in New York and New Jersey. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) keep no records of possible lesbian transmission. Twenty-five percent of the lesbian/bisexual women entering methadone treatment programs in San Francisco are HTV infected. The govern ment is unwilling to research the risks for gay women or their rate of infection because, accord ing to one CDC official, “lesbians don’t have much sex.” There have been no AIDS Clinical Trials Groups (ACTG) specifically targeting women with HIV and related immune disorders. Since women are excluded from drug trials, side-effects and standard dosages for women remain unknown. AIDS will soon be the fifth leading cause of death among all United States women of child bearing age, according to CDC researchers. ACT UP builds legislative and health agendas A M iller/Marlboro boycott rally W Specializing In: • Recovering Alcohol & Drug Addiction • Co-dependency / Adult Children • Interventions • Relationships / Intimacy e joined other cities around the coun try on Sept. 28 in a day of action aimed at keeping the pressure on Miller and Marlboro. More than one hundred people joined ACT UP on Stark Street to dump a keg of beer in the gutter and bum a giant mock pack of Marlboro cigarettes in the street. Two ACT UP demonstrators were arrested toward the end of the rally for spray painting on the side walk. Guess who prompted the police, who were merely watching from the distance, to make the arrests? A lesbian who came out of CC Slaugh ters, the only gay bar on Stark Street not involved in the boycott. She would rather that fellow les bians and gays go to jail for writing “Boycott Miller” and “Stop Helms” on the sidewalk than support an effort to stop hate perpetuated against us. Oregon Health Division responds to community concern 811 NW 20th, # 203 Portland, Oregon 97209 (503)635-6803 Y O ! VINNIE 721 S W 1OTH • 2 2 8 - 4 8 0 0 T he Oregon Health Division has re sponded to pressure from ACT UP and a number of community-based health or ganizations by restoring free condom distribution to previous levels after an abrupt cutoff. ACT UP will be joining other community groups in form ing a coalition concerned with HIV prevention policy, which will work with and advise the state Health Division. CT UP is working together with groups around the state to begin building agen das and lobbying efforts to enact pro us! gressive health care and lesbian and gay Join rights legislation in the next Oregon legislative session. Efforts to put together a comprehensive gay CT UP is a nationwide nonviolent di rights bill for the state of Oregon are being or rect action group organized to fight the ganized this month. A community meeting is multiple issues surrounding AIDS. We scheduled for Nov. 13 in the Portland building at W hat about hope that the gay and lesbian community will 7 pm. Work parties will be formed to detail ideas join us in fighting AIDS, homophobia, racism such as partner rights to employee benefits and classism. Whether you join ACT UP, work the women?! insurance, anti-discrimination in jobs and hous and in coalition with us, or contribute money or re ing, and domestic partnership rights. Get in sources, we want you to know that we appreci volved and help shape our legal rights as lesbi ate your support Call 775-4763 for information here are no AIDS prevention or educa tion efforts directed at women in Oregon, ans and gays! about purchasing ACT UP tee shirts, hats, but ACT UP is also working with progressive tons, yet the number of women with AIDS is posters and stickers. Also, we arc in need of health care advocates as a member of the Oregon an office sing twice as fast as the overall rate, according space and a copying machine! If you Oregon Health Division statistics. What’s Health Action Campaign (OHAC). A planning can help, call us at 232-1038. ore, women develop AIDS and die faster than meeting took place in October to discuss We meet the first and third Wednesdays of V positive men, within six months of receiv- OHAC’s targeted goals for 1991. They are: To every month at 7 pm at the Metropolitan Com T h e P r id e g an AIDS diagnosis on average in the United lobby the state legislature to create a single payer munity Church basement on the comer of 24th tales. Yet the support services for people with health care system for Oregon and fight for in and NE Broadway. Enter on the Broadway side. DS that exist in Oregon are proving to be in- surance reform, as well as to demand adequate Call 236-7837 to put an item on the agenda for ffective in meeting the needs of women with funding for last session’s SB 27, a bill that broad discussion or action. DS, and little effort is being expended to cre- ened access to Medicare benefits to all below the e services for the various groups of women poverty level, doubling the number of those eli I ntroducing the P ride ACT UP/Portland, P.O. Box 6352, gible, without increasing its already burdened ing affected by AIDS. Hold your health care Portland, OR 97228. F oundation B ank C ard . oviders, your physicians, your community- budget A T V F oundation Mention just out when supporting one of our advertisers To orna out 1- (800) 735-7287 or W a it T he P ride F oundation , 1535 11 th A ve , Sum 202, S eattle , WA 98122 ^7
