just out ▼ fsbruary 1992 ▼ 7
national briefs
C A LIFO R N IA : California election officials
approved signature collection Dec. 5 for two
ballot initiatives that would ban anti-gay bias.
One of the initiatives would prohibit anti-gay
employment discrimination, and the other would
forbid anti-gay bias in both employment and
housing. To qualify the initiatives for the Nov.
1992ballot, organizers must collect nearly 385,000
valid voter signatures on petitions supporting
them.
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A measure that would have required restau
rant workers to be tested for HIV antibodies every
six months was rejected 11-1 by the Los Angeles
City Council Dec. 11.
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Tom Metzger, a white supremacist convicted
of taking part in a 1983 cross burning was denied
release on his own recognizance and ordered to
begin serving a six-month jail sentence in Los
Angeles. The 53-year-old former Ku Klux Klan
leader was led away from the courtroom in
handcuffs after a judge set bail at $100,000.
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Lesbians over 60 will be recognized for com
munity service through an award honoring the
late Pat Bond, a well-known lesbian actress and
playwright who died last year. The Pat Bond
Memorial Old Dyke Award will go to three les
bians over 60 who have not been sufficiently
honored by their local communities. If you know
of, or are, such a person, please telephone (415)
626-7000 and request a nomination form. The
deadline for nominations is Feb. 15, with awards
to be announced in May.
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“Roseanne,” television’s most highly viewed
program this season, has featured two positive
appearances by gay characters. Last year, the
program introduced the charac ters of Leon (M artin
Mull) and his lover, Jerry (Michael Des Barres).
This season, Leon, who plays Roseanne’s boss,
came out to Roseanne’s husband during a poker
game. In another episode, Leon and Jerry had a
quarrel about a visit from Leon’s mother, a situ
ation Roseanne could not resist butting in on. To
express support for the show’s efforts at com
batting homophobia, fans may write to Marcy
Carsey and Tom Werner, executive producers,
“Roseanne,” 4024 Radford Ave., Los Angeles,
CA 91604.
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Magic Johnson, who led the Los Angeles
Lakers to five National Basketball Association
championship» before retiring from the game last
year after announcing he was HIV positive, re
ceived this year’s Jackie Robinson Sports Award
from the N A A C P. A lso honored at the
organization’s 24th annual Image Awards banquet
in Los Angeles was Whoopi Goldberg, who was
named best actress for her role in the film, “The
Long Walk Home.”
▼ Y ▼
. A book by Amit Pierce Buxton, a San Fran
cisco author, addresses what hapipens to married
couples when one partner declares his or her
homosexuality. When that happ>ens, “a basic
premise of your life is shattered,” Buxton says in
her book, The Other Side o f the Closet: The
Coming-Out Crisis for Straight Spouses. (IBX
Press, $14.95). Buxton and her husband of 24
years separated in 1982. A year later, he told her
he was gay and had had a male lover even before
they married.
IL L IN O IS: Chicago NBC affiliate WMAQ-
TV fired Chicago Bears player Steve McMichael
from his “ Spx>rts Sunday” analyst position Dec.
10 after he p>erformed a mock AIDS test on
anchorman Mark Giangreco on the air. Accord
ing to reports, fellow Bears Tim Ryan and Tom
Backes restrained Giangreco while McMichael
pretended to draw blood from his neck. HIV
testing has been a hot topic in professional sports
circles since ‘M agic’ Johnson’s Nov. 11 an
nouncement that he is HIV positive and since
doctors for a Montreal woman who died of AIDS
complications reported in December that she
claimed to have slept with more than 50 hockey
players. McMichael has previously angered gays
by using the term “fag bar” on the air.
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The Illinois American Civil Liberties Union
Dec. 5 filed suit in federal court against a
Waukegan hospital that confined an HTV positive
patient to his room. The man, “John Doe,” entered
Victory Memorial Hospital for an apjpendectomy,
Dr. Dionisio Vorro tested him for HIV before the
operation and then barred him from leaving his
room for the duration o f his eight-day stay. “I felt
like a prisoner,” Doe said. “I ’m amazed in this
day and age, with all the studies we have about
how HIV is and is not transmitted, that something
like this could happen.” AIDS experts say there
is no need to isolate patients solely because of
HIV p>ositivity, noted ACLU AIDS expert John
Hammell.
LOUISIANA: New Orjeans is the latest U.S.
city to protect gays and lesbians from discrimi
nation. By a 5-2 vote, the City Council banned
anti-gay actions in the area of housing, employ
ment and public accommodations (restaurants,
parks, etc.). A gay rights measure failed in New
Orleans in 1986 after the Catholic archdiocese
decried its lack o f an exemption for religious
group». The new ordinance exempts religious
group» and schools, small businesses, and owner-
occupied homes with less than four rental units. A
recent survey found that22p>ercent of New Orleans
gays and lesbians had exp>erienced job discrimi
nation and 12 percent housing discrimination.
NEW Y O RK : The Rochester school board
voted 5-2 Dec. 5 to bar military recruiters from the
city’s pniblic schools until the Department of
Defense drops its pjolicy against enlistment of
gays and lesbians. “We need to say something
about discrimination in this country,” said school
The AIDS
epidemic hasn’t
gone away. That’s a hard
reality, and it’s something we
have to deal with as individuals
and as a community.
More and more men like you
are making commitments to
staying safe. Use latex condoms
every time you have anal or oral
sex. Don't share needles if you
do drugs.
Staying safe may be difficult
for you, but it can save your life.
Keep It Up, Portland!
board member* Karen Grella, who voted for the
ban. Pentagon officials said the Rochester district
is the first one in the nation to ban military
recruiting.
W ISCONSIN: Plans to make school a better
place for gays and lesbians in Milwaukee were
gutted after about 1,000 aggressively anti-gay
fundamentalist Christians jammed two school
board meetings in December. The board's pxo-
pxasals called for non-judgemental information on
homosexuality in the general curriculum, drop-
out-prevention pirograpis aimed at gays, and
sensitivity training for faculty and staff, among
other things. The fundamentalists-rallied to the
cause by broadcast evangelists-sang hymns,
prayed, quoted the Bible, spx>ke in “tongues,” and
equated homosexuality with Satanism and m ur
der. Board members ran scared, abandoning their
plans and disbanding the task force thatdevelopied
the proposals.
MAN TO MAN
Issues & A nsw ers About
S ex In T h e 90’s
for G a y /B is e x u a l M en
T u e s d a y , F e b r u a r y 11, 6:30-9:30 p m
_ 3835 S W K e l l y S t
CASCADE
AIDS PROJECT