just out ▼ docontbor 1, 1999 ▼ 7
SERIO US IN JU R Y
DEATH
C LA IM S resulting from:
Denver group attacks
youth info poster
Plans to display an informational poster aimed
at gay and lesbian youth and those who are ques
tioning in Denver’s 10 public high schools has
come under attack from Focus on the Family, a
homophobic Colorado-based organization. Den
ver School Board members received a letter from
James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family,
that stated, “The poster’s intent is clear: It is meant
to promote same-sex romance among teens.”
In fact, the poster advises gay, lesbian and
questioning youth that they may contact the Gay,
Lesbian and Bisexual Community Services Center
of Colorado. Additional assistance would be avail
able from school counselors.
At school board hearings last month, parents of
gay and lesbian teens testified about the complete
lack of information available to teens, and about
the climate of fear and torment that exists at school
for these youth. One parent described it as a “wall
of silence.”
First gay frat house opens
Delta Lambda Phi became the first gay and
bisexual fraternity to open a fraternity house on
campus when it opened its house this past August
at the University of Minnesota. At present 15
people live in the house, including eight current or
soon-to-be fraternity members, two international
students, two lesbians, two straight women and
one straight man.
“This is a more comfortable environment than
the dorms,” fraternity President Rusty Robertson
said. “Everyone can be what they want to be, and
they don’t have to worry about being criticized for
this and that.”
AIDS as genocide
A five-year-old survey of approximately 1,000
African American church members found that
nearly one-third of
AIDS virus was cre
ated as a form of
genocide against
black people. An
other third was un
certain w hether
AIDS was pro
duced to kill black
people, the Associ
ated Press reports.
The final third dis
puted the genocide
theory.
The survey was
conducted
by
Sandra
Crouse
Quinn, a health edu
cator at the School of Public Health at the Univer
sity of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and Stephen
B. Thomas of Emory University in Atlanta. They
gave the survey to 1,054 church members in Afri
can American churches in Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.;
Detroit; Kansas City, Mo.; and Tuscaloosa, Ala.
The group was not a representative sample of the
African American population in the United States,
and the findings cannot be applied to that popula
tion as a whole.
Rumors that AIDS was created to kill African
Americans have circulated in that community for
years, according to the AP. In 1992, the AP reports,
Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammad, chief doctor for the
Nation of Islam, told an NOI convention that
former President George Bush “played a leading
role in developing a policy of genocide against
non-white people all over this Earth, and we be
lieve that the AIDS virus is a direct consequence of
that plotting and planning in secret.”
Commenting on the survey results, the Rev.
Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Chris
tian Leadership Conference, cited the Tuskegee
experiment: “It’s been documented that the gov
ernment did use African Americans as guinea pigs
in this experiment.”
The Tuskegee experiment was a study of the
long-term effects of syphilis, which took place
from 1932 to 1972. During that 40-year period the
U.S. government withheld treatment from 399
poor African American men infected with syphi
lis.
Lowery also pointed out that the survey ques
tions were asked five years ago and said he be
lieved AIDS education in the African American
community had probably reduced the number of
those who believe AIDS is a genocidal conspiracy.
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Gay man sues
insurance company
A San Francisco man has filed a $1 million
lawsuit against Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance
Co. of St. Paul, Minn. The suit, filed in San Fran
cisco Superior Court, alleges the insurance com
pany denied Mark LaBonte life insurance cover
age because he lives with a partner who has AIDS.
LaBonte tests negative for HIV.
The case is important, according to LaBonte’s
attorney, Paul Wotman, because it questions the
legality of discrimination based on the hypotheti
cal risk of contracting a disease through casual
contact, according to the Baltimore Gay Paper.
“If they’re going to make decisions based on
his medical records like this, are they going to start
asking people if they’ve checked the HIV status of
everybody they’ve ever slept with? Have they
asked all their partners about hepatitis? Or any
other potential diseases that could be serious?”
Wotman asked. “Also, if you’re going to do it on
the basis of who you live with, what about smokers
and secondhand smoke?”
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New labor head is an ally
for gay/lesbian workers
John Sweeney, newly elected president of the
AFL-CIO, is a friend of the gay and lesbian com
munity, according to a gay and lesbian labor orga
nization.
Lambda Labor, a Washington D.C./Baltimore-
area organi zation, prai sed Sweeney ’ s election, ci t-
ing his long-standing advocacy of gay and lesbian
rights in the workplace. Sweeney is the president
of the Service Employees International Union.
During his tenure, SEIU established a gay and
lesbian member caucus, an advisory panel on gay
issues, activities and meetings for gay and lesbian
members at union conventions, and a model edu
cation program on advancing lesbian and gay
rights in the workplace.
Discrimination hits
Cincinnati’s pocketbook
Cincinnati’s Issue 3, a 1993 ballot measure that
denies discrimination protection to lesbians, gay
men and bisexuals, has cost the city more than $24
million in lost convention business, the Cincinnati
Convention and Visitors Bureau reports. Accord
ing to a United Press International story, eight
conventions have canceled meetings in Cincinnati
because of the passage of Issue 3.
In November the American Musicological So
ciety decided to move its 19% convention from
Cincinnati to Baltimore because of the anti-gay-
rights charter amendment. Other groups that have
canceled because of Issue 3 include the Music
Teachers National Association; the Ohio Psychol
ogy Association; the American Statistical Asso
ciation; the American Library Association; the
American Historical Association; the American
Speech, Language and Hearing Association; and
the American Academy of Audiology.
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