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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 21, 1997)
ju st o u t ▼ m arch 2 1 . 1 9 0 7 T 9 and largest AIDS service organization, shut down abruptly on Feb. 28, leaving its 2,600 clients in the lurch. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that agency board m embers convened an emergency meeting to address financial problems uncovered by a two-m onth audit conducted by county offi cials and decided to file for liquidation under Chapter 7 bankruptcy laws. That means all the agency’s assets, including its $1.9 million build ing, will be sold to pay its debts. Effective March 3, the county health departm ent transferred SD A F’s federal contracts to other service provid ers and established a hot line to provide referrals for the agency’s form er clients. After the county’s audit revealed $331,500 in unpaid and undocumented bills for which the foun dation was reimbursed with federal funds, SDAF was given a week to produce receipts, but county officials said the irregularities were so egregious that cancellation of the agency’s contracts was imminent. The audit also found that some $400,000 was owed to more than 80 vendors and that the agency had exhausted its $200,000 line o f credit. Internal efforts to rescue the agency— includ ing staff and program cuts and stepped-up fund raising— unfortunately came too late. In Decem ber most o f the board members resigned, in re sponse to the dem ands o f a staff concerned by hints o f major financial problems. No one has suggested that theft or em bezzlem ent led to the foundation’s demise. HIV-prevention ad campaign stirs up old controversy On Feb. 25, AIDS Partnership M ichigan un veiled an advertising cam paign designed to stop the spread o f HIV among teens, young white gay men, African American men and intravenous drug users— groups targeted by the agency in light o f state health departm ent statistics show ing, among other things, that in M ichigan AIDS is the No. 1 k illero fb lack m en ag e2 5 to44. But with some sexual minority com m unity leaders already objecting to one ad and more protests expected, the organization may become the new center of an ongoing debate weighing the requirements of high-impact, effective and focused advertising against the need not to alienate anyone from participating in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The ads, which convey messages developed with the input o f focus groups representing the four targeted populations, are funded by private donations and began appearing on billboards in the Detroit m etropolitan area in early March (and will eventually be found on buses and in newspa pers as well). Some gay and lesbian activists have com plained about an ad depicting two shirtless tw entysom ething men em bracing with the mes sage, “W e’ re hoping for some negative responses.” Activists fear that not all viewers will understand the ad refers to negative HIV test results rather than negative responses to gay couples. AIDS Partnership defends the ad’s bluntness, saying its purpose is to stop the spread o f HIV, not to address prejudice. A nother ad shows nearly naked teenagers in tertwined above a list o f “W ays You Can Get AIDS,” including descriptions o f anal and oral sex. The ad is planned for placement on smaller billboards near schools. G atew ay Outdoor Ad vertising has donated some o f the billboards be cause it says it believes in the cam paign’s mes sage. Laws may change, but public opinion hasn’t A poll conducted by the Honolulu Star-Bulle tin shows residents o f Hawaii are by a strong majority opposed to legalizing same-gender mar riage. As in a similar poll last year, 70 percent of respondents oppose legal recognition o f same-sex unions and 55 percent disapprove o f granting limited marital benefits to queer couples. Mean while, the state Senate and House have both autho rized constitutional amendments to outlaw homo sexual marriages and are attempting to hammer out a compromise on the issue of limited benefits. While approving its version o f the amend ment, the Hawaii House of Representatives passed a companion bill granting four marital benefits to gay and lesbian couples who register as “recipro cal beneficiaries.” The Senate, however, seeks to confer a much broader package of more than 200 state benefits, in order to pre-empt legal chal lenges to such provisions based on the state Su preme C ourt’s 1993 ruling on marriage and equal rights. The Senate proposal would allow regis tered couples to file state tax returns jointly. The Star-Bulletin poll yielded some additional statistics: 27 percent of Democrats versus 3 per cent of Republicans favor legalization o f queer marriages; almost twice as many women support it as men; and 35 percent o f Caucasians supported, while 85 percent of Filipinos opposed, same- gender unions. On the subject of limited marital benefits, the gap between men and women less ened significantly; 50 percent o f Democrats were in favor vs. 26 percent o f Republicans; and 51 percent of Caucasians approved, along with 43 percent o f Filipinos, while 59 percent o f ethnic Japanese disapproved. Megan’s Law misfires amid decades of red tape An article in the Los Angeles Times in February exposed myriad problems with California’s hope lessly inaccurate sex-offender registry and law enforcement’s attempts to implement a newly es tablished statute called M egan’s Law. One of the problems is that men arrested by police in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s for seeking or engaging in consensual sex with other men are listed as regis tered sex offenders, even though their conduct is no longer considered criminal. r 93 ose G il y H OSPITAI Pounded in 1911, Rose City Veterinary Hospital is Portland’s oldest pet hospital. As the new owner, I am proud to he able to carry on this tradition of service to the City of Roses hy giving your pet the finest medical care, hoarding and ¿rooming as well as lots of loving compassion. Please stop hy for a visit. DocJar G raiy Q uirk 8 0 9 BE Pow ell Boulevard (near the Ross Island Bridge) 232-3105 Bridgetown Realty congratulates its Million Dollar Producers for 1996. Chris Bonner. GUI Associale Broker Despite an intensive effort two years ago to overhaul the list, state Department of Justice offi cials acknowledge that vague, decades-old criminal records and changed statutes governing sexual be havior make it difficult for them to know which offender did what, and thus who really belongs on the list. All of that makes a law enacted last fall— that calls for the creation of a publicly available CD- ROM database showing the names, photographs and ZIP codes of California’s 57,000 most danger ous sex offenders— a quagmire for the state and a nightmare for men, some now in their 90s, who were arrested for having consensual sex with other men. As dozens of states have passed versions of M egan’s Law, named for a New Jersey girl alleg edly murdered by a paroled molester, reports have surfaced nationwide o f gay men and others land ing on sex offender registers even though their crimes have nothing to do with rape or molesta tion. There is particular cause for concern in Cali fornia, where for many years registration laws were used to monitor homosexuals. Police later used the list o f sex offenders for tracking child molesters— without removing names from the list’s previous uses. According to state Department of Justice offi cials, by the 1990s as much as 60 percent o f the information on registrants was inaccurate. Donald Falk, ORI Philip Beausoleil Val Thorpe Galvin. GR] Karen Biking Gerry Federico, GR] Kathleen Ira Jude Watson. GRI Broker Anita Trudeau Linda Welch, GUI Greg Washington Robert Anibes Robin Grimm Bill GaHin Associate Broker Laurie SanlaMaria Kathy Tyslnger Cathy Martine Associate Broker Bridgetown Realty For Those Who Appreciate Superior Service Lloyd Center Office Clackamas County Office 1000 N.E. M ultnom ah Portland, OR 97232 21570 W illam ette Drive West Linn, OR 97068 503/ 287-9370 e-mail: hridgetownl@solnlogic.com 503/ 655-8015 e-mail: bridgetown2@solnlogic.com Visit our Web site at: http://www.solnlogic.com/bridgetown Compiled by Christopher D. Cuttone Sandy Mort