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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 1996)
just out ▼ fobruary 2. 1996 ▼ 3 just out s in c e 1 983 steppin’ out PUBLISHER AND EDITOR contents Renée LaChance VOL. 13 NO. 7 FEBRUARY 2,1996 COPY EDITORS Kelly M. Bryan Jeff Boswell FEATURE REPORTERS Getting together Inga Sorensen Bob Roehr Rex Wockner Sistah 2 Sistah and Brother to Brother create fellowship (P- 21) CALENDAR EDITOR Kristine Chatwood DEPARTMENTS PHOTOGRAPHER Linda Kliewer World news Teri Ventura Argentinian queer youth break the law—b \ organizing (P- 5) ADVERTISING DIRECTOR National news Meg Grace African American gay men and lesbians honor Bayard Rustin (pp. 6-12) OFFICE MANAGER ADVERTISING REPS C. Jay Wilson Jr. Marty Davis Local news OHD institutes prosocial programs fo r HIV-negative gay and bisexual men (pp. 14-18) CREATIVE DIRECTOR E. Ann Hinds GRAPHIC DESIGN Rupert Kinnard FORMATTER COLUMNS Rachel Ebora TYPESETTER Jann Gilbert guest editorial DISTRIBUTION Ambling Bear CONTRIBUTORS Kristine Chatwood Cathay Che Kevin Isom Lee Lynch Jill Schuldt Richard Shumate Daniel Vaillancourt C. Jay Wilson Jr. just out is published on the first and third Friday o f each month. Copyright ©1996 by Just out. No part of ju s t out may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. The subm ission o f written and graphic materials b welcomed. Written material should be typed and double-spaced, just out reserves the right to edit for grammar, punctuation, style, liability concerns and length. We will reject or edit articles or advertisements that are offensive, demeaning or may result in legal action, just out consults the Associated Press Style Book and Libel Manual on editorial decisions. Letters to the editor should be limited to S00 words. Deadline for submissions to the editorial department and for the Calendar is the Thursday before the first and third Friday for the next issue. Views expressed in letters to the editor, columns and features are not necessarily those of the publisher. The display advertising deadline is the Monday after the first and third Friday for the next issue. Classified ads must be received at the Just out office by 3 pm the Monday after the first and third Friday for the next issue, along with payment. Ads will not be taken over the telephone. Ad policy. No sexually exploitative advertising will be accepted. Compensation for errors in, or cancellation of, advertising will be made with credit toward future advertising. Subscriptions to just out are available for $17.50 for 12 issues First Class (in an envelope) is $30 for 12 issues. A copy of Just s u t is available for $2. Advertising rales are available on request The m ailing address and telephone numbers for Just su t are PO Box 14400, Portland. OR 97214-0400; (503) 236-1252. The phone number for the advertising department is 236-1253. Our fax number is 236-1257. Our e- rnail address is JustOut2@aol com. Clinton's 'hate crime' Gay and AIDS groups sell out HIV community fo r political reasons ▼ by Bob Roehr hite House Press Secretary Michael McCurry announced at a Jan. 25 media briefing that President Clinton will likely sign a revised Defense Department appropriation bill that contains a provision authored by Rep. Robert Doman (R-Calif.) requiring that HIV-positive service members be discharged because of their medical status. Clinton vetoed an earlier version of the bill because of this provision. An earlier policy, which was adopted during the Reagan administration, allowed HIV-positive individuals to stay on duty as long as they remained healthy and were able to perform their jobs. About 1,000 HIV-positive individuals and 4,000 people with other ailments are already restricted from deployment overseas for medical reasons. This policy is supported by the Pentagon and even Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) “Signing this bill is a hate crime,” charges Mike Schriver, director of public policy with the National Association of People with AIDS. The impact isn’t simply on the service members who will be booted out. As Steve Michael, the ACT UP presidential candi date, reminds us, this action “sets the tone for more. If it is OK for the Pentagon to discriminate, then businesses are more likely to feel they can do it too.” But the largest national gay and AIDS organizations essen tially held their public fire, whimpering and retreating. The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay and lesbian political organization, continued to “blast” the “extrem ist Republicans” responsible for pushing this measure through Congress. HRC had, in fact, long tried to rally its grass-roots network to lobby Congress in opposition. But it failed to deploy those same resources in lobbying the White House. HRC did not urge Clinton to veto the legislation as he had done earlier. It did not ask its members to deluge the president with expressions of outrage. HRC acquiesced to Clinton’s complicity, his signature on the bill, even before it had occurred. W Nor did the AIDS Action Council, the nation’s largest AIDS lobbying group, call for a veto. B ut at least that group’s statement seemed to acknowledge some discomfort with its own lack of backbone: “We are deeply troubled that the Clinton administra tion failed to insist that the Doman provision be stricken from the Defense bill and that President Clinton acquiesced to codify this provision by signing [it] into law.” The arguments hadn’t changed as the bill traveled those few blocks from Capitol Hill to the White House. The bill remains “a travesty of [service members’] rights,” as Patsy Fleming, the supposed AIDS czar, so succinctly put it. What has changed is the unwillingness of the national organizations to apply the same standards and the same political pressure to both ends of Penn sylvania Avenue. Fleming can be excused for not publicly demanding a veto; her paycheck is signed by the president. But the national orga nizations have no such excuse—they are enabling Clinton’s dysfunctional actions toward people with HIV infection. Some have interpreted Clinton’s moves cynically, saying that he and his advisers have made the political calculation that voters concerned with HIV issues have nowhere else to go on Election Day. Therefore, the White House can afford to virtually ignore their concerns. They seem to be right, at least with regard to the leading national organizations. The groups are prisoners of the Wash ington lobbyist syndrome, afraid to risk their entrée to the Clinton administration. And so they have sold out the more distant, the less immediate, the community. There are times when one must take a principled stand, regardless of the political consequences. This is one of those times. Clinton and the national organizations, through their craven acquiescence, bear as much responsibility for this shameful legal codification of discrimination against people with HIV infection as do those who wrote the bill. They should be held equally accountable. Religion Episcopal Church may try gay-positive bishop fo r heresy (p. 13) Sports Man o f iron: Adrian Kalil (p. 35) Peach buzz Picasso in a dress could change your perspective (p. 36) Amazon trail Let us acknowledge the passing of poet Terri Jewell (p- 37) ARTS Interview Sir Ian McKellen talks about his new film, Richard III (p. 29) Books Stephen McCauley shares his demons fo r your enjoyment (P- 31) Dance Barry Pack and Erin Boberg take a sentimental journey (P- 32) Television A Portland lesbian mom goes on MTV (p. 33) Cinema Demonic machines and angels (p- 34)
