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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 3, 1997)
ju s t out ▼ January 3 , 1 007 ▼ 15 piece of their income. The good news of he old lavender crystal ball saw the outline of things pretty clearly cant protease inhibitors has began to cut into that a year ago, particularly for election day. It called the easy ones of revenue stream will do so even more in Clinton ’s victory and Dole as the Republican nominee, but also the 1997. Look for a and lot of belt-tightening at com munity organizations. less homophobic tone of the Republican Party and the surprise emergence of Steve Forbes with more protest votes than Pat Buchanan. Congress did not change substantively, and Jesse Helms was re-elected as C ongress predicted. year ago, even its most ardent promoters at the Human Rights Campaign would not So I ventured deep into the closet to retrieve that dusty orb and, fortified have predicted a vote—let alone a near with a glass of holiday cheer and goodwill toward all, looked anxiously into favorable one—on the Employment Non-Dis the future. And let me tell you, it's scary. crimination Act. The tally of 49 supportive sena T A tors raises expectations that ENDA will pass the upper chamber this year and move on to the clinical therapy. House, where the going will be tougher. Maybe. A ppointments The good news of the “Lazarus effect,” with HRC has the fragile backing of the Leadership ommissioner of the Food and Drug Admin people living longer and better lives with the new Conference on istration: This might be Clinton’s most im HIV drugs, will continue. But the euphoria will be Civil Rights for portant appointment for gay men and les leavened by the reality of new and continued ENDA and bians. Retiring Commissioner David Kessler problems associated with the disease. doesn’t want to played a unique role during the past six years in threaten that by speeding up approval of HIV drugs. His succes- M oney changing the language of the IDS groups have been united in Washing bill. Trans folks ton, D.C., to push for federal action. That are left out, and began to come apart over Ryan White re they don’t like authorization and worsened in a scramble at the it. They are o. end of the congressional session by some Title I back and better cities to grab additional money intended for AIDS organized this Drug Assistance Programs run by the states, which year, and may pursue new Labor and Human pay for medications. Resources chairman Sen. Jim Jeffords (R-Vt.) to A number of reports will strengthen the case write more inclusive coverage into the version he for ADAPs. In January, the National Institutes of introduces. Health will Robert Doman’s departure and a more prag matic approach on divisive social issues by the issue guide- 'A ? i> Republican leadership should mean fewer anti lines on f'V standards of gay amendments to contend with in the House. % care that will The fly in that ointment is the departure of openly f r i --------- solidify the gay Republican Steve Gunderson, who acted as a F Co 1 K:, u s a staged use of trip-wire on lesbian and gay issues, bringing them combination ^ v to Gingrich’s attention to defuse them before a sor will continue to face that issue plus the emerg therapies. In vote. That will be greatly missed. March, a H t/A V ing one of microbicides, topical agents that can kill infectious diseases. Since their primary use is s t u d y C ourts sexual, this raises the specter of anal and oral sex, funded by and the potential for controversy from the theo on’t look for any resignations from the Fcmndatfon g W tO cratic right. It could be a rocky ride. Supreme Court this year—only a surprise AIDS czar: Clinton interest in the subject death will give Bill Clinton the chance to continues to fade, but he seems unwilling to take d e l T h at make another appointment. the heat for folding the position into the Office of significantly The legal struggle to lift the ban on gay men the Secretary of Health and Human Services. more money f . i • i and lesbians openly serving in the military was Look for another no-name bureaucrat with no is needed to , stalled when a 2nd Circuit appeals panel sent the independent voice or standing to be named, even pay for these Able case back to trial court. A favorable verdict therapies. S OtTIC tually, to the position. should be forthcoming Surgeon general: One observer has suggested early in the year, and a that the post, vacant for the past two years, might same* time! favorable appeals deci remain so for four more. It’s possible, given the the medici- sion later in the year. administration’s penchant for avoiding contro nal miracle The Supreme Court will versy. But a more likely outcome is a bland is reducing take the government’s nominee once all other positions have been filled. demand for appeal and schedule ar White House gay liaison: The post has been some AIDS guments for 1998. vacant since summer, when Richard Socarides s e r v i c e s , If the fight for the officially moved to the re-election campaign. He particularly for late-stage patients. Pressure is freedom to marry is a may be back, or the title may be abolished as a growing to reprogram government funds, which war, then Hawaii is the budgetary move—the odds are about 50-50. If the some organizations will fight. It could get bloody. Battle of Stalingrad. It latter option, look for someone in Vice President will be long and pain Gore’s office to become the unofficial link to the fully bloody, but at the community, after all, our money and votes are end there will be no important in Democratic presidential primaries. M oney , P art II doubt that the tide of the he viatical settlement industry is going battle has turned. Vic through a last hurrah, a flurry of activity tory becomes not a ques AIDS T reatment by middlemen to make their commissions tion of if, but of when and at what price. The ook for increased talk of integrase inhibi off of purchasing policies and attracting inves Hawaii Supreme Court will signal the end of that tors, a new family of HIV drugs that attacks tors still ignorant of the therapy breakthroughs. phase with its positive decision in late 1997. the virus at a different point in its life cycle. Look for AIDS coverage to crash. That could There will be symbolic losses as many states Treatment activists will focus on the Glaxo spell trouble for gay publications dependent on pass mini-Defense of Marriage Acts refusing to nucleoside analogue known as “1592,” now in viatical advertising for a big chunk of income. It recognize Hawaiian same-sex marriages. But the initial clinical trials. Some believe it is a powerful might be softened by the recent spurt of con pace will slow as the public begins to look seri successor to AZT and accuse the company of sumer advertising by pharmaceutical com ously at the idea of same-sex marriage and finds delaying it to protect the existing cash cow. panies trying to buy market share for their HIV less and less to fear from it. A big boost will come The FDA should grant accelerated approval to drugs. in the summer when the Episcopal Church, at its two or possibly three additional HIV drugs during You won’t hear much publicly about it, but triennial general convention, votes to perform the year. But we still will not have a very detailed many AIDS and gay groups have come to count same-sex unions. sense of how to combine and stage their use in on bequests from the AIDS dead for a signifi C A è :>• Pressure is reprogram government funds W/ilC/i organizations W ill fight. It could get bloody. L T D Another year, another squint into the old crystal ball... by Bob Roehr