_______________ 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 ,
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