September 6.2002
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The Burnside Triangle Advisory Group seems to be facing nothing but hostility from
conservatives and apathy from queers. Is this a doomed effort, or can it be salvaged?
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M
aybe a majority of Portland residents do
not want an official Burnside Triangle.
You can say it, but not everyone wants to.say it.
T he only thing that really makes it official
no matter what anyone says or does not say is
you say, “It’s official.” If “they” can say it’s offi
cial, “they" also can say it’s unofficial. If you look
in Portland’s Gay &. Lesbian Community Yellow
Pages, you’ll see gay-owned businesses are all
over the city and beyond.
You probably never asked anyone to “offici
ate” you being gay or lesbian or whatever. I
understand the area is well known for gay enter
tainment, but that is not all being gay is about.
I hardly have spent any time in the Triangle,
but I’ve spent time at gay places all over town. If
I were heterosexual I think it would be a bit silly
to have a heterosexual “square." I think the
more we are integrated into society, as in “Gay
people are basically everywhere,” not thought of
as just in some “triangle," the world will be a
better place.
Casia
s s todag. M's V s romdg lu b u ild fu r g o u t
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8122 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy
Portland. OR 97225
425.394.1011
485 Front St. N„ Suita C
Itsaquah. WA 98027
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Beaverton
• • •
• • •
as Just O ut taken the time to really find out
what the Burnside Triangle project is all
about? Has anyone from Just Out come to one of
our meetings to see what we are doing as a body?
It seems that Just Out is making some major
assumptions here without researching what it is
writing about.
How can a project that is only a few months
old be dimmed? W ho said we are facing apathy
from the queer community? A nd the only hos
tility we have faced so far came from a conserv
ative group that failed to materialize.
Doomed? I think not! I also think it would
be wise for Just Out, our community newspaper,
to research the facts before making public com
ments like this.
H
N orman N evers
Portland
Eugene Weekly published a half-page opin
ion piece April 11 prom oting the idea that
“HIV doesn’t cause A ID S.” My reply, pub
lished April 25, questioned its ethics in pub
lishing advice th a t m ight lead to somebody’s
death w ithout at least providing a link to
“T h e Evidence T h a t H IV Causes A ID S”
( w w w .niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/evidhiv.htm )
by the N ational Institutes of H ealth.
A n outreach director for the Eugene HIV
A lliance provided the only other rebuttal. All
of the many other letters accused the “AIDS
establishm ent" o f conspiring to suppress sci
entific dissent.
Peter Duesberg is a leading scientist who
claims nothing proves HIV causes AIDS, but
he needed no proof for his personal decision to
avoid infection. He refuses to infect himself
with HIV to prove his theory that HIV is
harmless because he is worried that an undis
covered co-contam inant might cause AIDS,
according to the carefully documented inter
view notes in Edward Hixiper’s book, The
River, which linked African HIV infections to
1950s oral polio vaccines. Despite this, many
people are volunteering to become HIV-infect
ed hum an lab rats in an unethical experiment
to prove his theory right!
O n a recent visit to Borders, I found 90 per
cent of the books in the AIDS section deny the
link between HIV and AIDS. Many casy-to-
find Web sites supplement these Kx>ks, which
s a member of the Burnside Triangle Advi
sory Group from the beginning, I found the
task quite daunting. To turn a portion of the
downtown with a reputation as a gathering
place for homosexual men into a place for folks
to meander on a Sunday afternoon under shade
trees to eat an ice cream cone seemed improba
ble but not quite impossible.
But not many other people seemed to see it
th a t way. A pathy in the gay community
abounds. Gays are accepted in many neighbor
hoods in Portland, and they do not need to con
gregate in this area downtown.
As a historic place, as a monument as what
used to be in the past, the Burnside Triangle
should be preserved. Markers should be placed
showing the public what fascinating events hap
pened years past at places in the blocks in the
A
have influenced the South African government
to deny AIDS treatm ent to its citizens. These
conspiracy theories further were fueled when
U.S. AIDS officials refused to sign the Durban
Declaration affirming, “HIV is the cause of
AIDS,” which more than 5,000 world-class sci
entists have signed to refute South Africa’s
decision.
The problem of AIDS denial needs to be
addressed, but our government’s HIV programs
appear unwilling to confront it. I no longer can
remain silent about this.
T homas K raemer
Corvallis
Smoke screen
T o the E ditor :
special thing happened Aug. 15 at the
Egyptian Club. People got to come togeth
er and feel good about themselves.
We were treated to free drinks, free smokes
and a table of beautiful food, complete with a
lovely hum an centerpiece. After being expert
ly decorated with body jewelry and henna ta t
toos, groups of friends got to pose for profes
sional pictures in a luxurious tent right out of
1001 Arabian Nights. It was like drifting into a
genie bottle.
There was even a gorgeous belly dancer
behind a Moroccan screen. So why did we get
A
area. The streets should be made attractive. But
for attitudes of the people to change will take
time and lots cjf effort.
We cannot abandon the place to gentrifica-
tion. We must involve the businesses and devel
opers to help preserve the past along with open
ing the future for a clean and lively piece of
downtown Portland.
Lisa Costello 503-372-3129
Personal VW Consultant
vdublisa@ hotm ail.com
Herzog-Meier
K athy B ambeck
Portland
next ILT4!f4 xm you
be participating in Cascade AIDS
Project’s AIDSWalk02? Why or why
nott Respond at www.justout.com.
(Don’t forget to include your name,
city and daytime telephone number.)
treated to such a dreamy celebration of sensual
ity? This fantasy evening was brought to us by
Camel’s 7 Pleasures of the Exotic.
W hy would this big cigarette company cre
ate such an elaborate party just for the patrons of
the Egyptian Club? Perhaps they want sexual
minorities to feel gixxi about their community
and to treat them to something special.
O r maybe corporate America finally has rec
ognized the benefits of marketing to gay men
and lesbians. W hile it’s wonderful to be recog
nized by the suits in the boardroom, is it really so
great that those suits are being worn by big
tobacco?
Tobacco kills four times as many people as
AIDS, suicide, hom icide and car crashes
com bined. A nd this num ber m ight be even
higher for sexual minorities, because approxi
mately 50 percent of gay men and lesbians
smoke compared to less th an 30 percent of
straights. HIV-positive smokers develop full
blown AIDS faster th an nonsmokers, while
lesbians who smoke have five times the risk
for breast cancer.
Smoking and bar culture are a big part of
com ing out, and tobacco advertising is
designed to teach us that smoking is an easy
way to be tough, cool, sophisticated and sexu
ally desirable. It’s pushed as a way to fit in and
deal with stress.
Continued on Page
7
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