r r m io u t
Continued from P age 5
surge in sexually transmitted disease. We know
how it is happening. We also have the knowl
edge to reduce the incidence of infection. What
is missing is the fundamental ownership of
responsibility by some in our gay community.
So where are we missing the connection
between knowledge and practice? Number one,
we must recognize that a personal choice is
made anytime someone chooses to engage in sex
in an unsafe way. What is involved is a choice
about one’s own health and the health and wel
fare of the chosen partner. Each individual is
responsible for choosing safe over risky.
Secondly, messages to the community should
be directly aimed at challenging each and every
one to step up to the plate. Messages regarding
HIV and STDs, fearing a negative impact on
self-image, have become obscure.
“Blaming and shaming” have influenced the
messages from the agencies whose charter it is to
educate our community. While working to
develop positive self-irnages for gay people, the
messages regarding disease transmission have
become somewhat indirect. Our messages to the
community can both develop a positive image
of gay people as sexual people and give clear,
direct information about health risks.
There is no blaming or shaming about point
ing out a solution based on each person making
the responsible choice. However, gay communi
ties all over the country are becoming polarized
around the message of individual responsibility.
Government regulation, as proposed by the
outreach director of Cascade A ID S Project, is a
failed proposition. Regulating morality and
behavior is in itself a “hlaming/shaming”
approach. A sex-positive message with clear and
direct information about personal responsibility
will resonate within the gay community.
We are intelligent, powerful, critical thinkers
capable of hitting this problem head on. The gay
community can and will accept the challenge of
getting the current situation under control. Each
of us can do a part. Start talking to each other,
and reinforce a message of personal responsibility.
Best foot forw ard?
M easure 30:
Fair, n ecessary
To the E ditor :
To the E ditor :
he recent articles in your paper and else
where on sexually transmitted diseases, and
the organizations that prevent them, disturb me.
Its not that I don’t believe in and advocate
safe sex. I believe that we as gay people try to
identify ourselves as “normal” in many ways;
quite often we use heterosexuals for our exam
ple. The issue of heterosexual barebacking is sel
dom addressed in these articles, however.
AIDS and other sexually transmitted dis
eases are not exclusively gay. If heterosexual
barebacking is overlooked, it only puts the gay
mind into believing we are an oppressed group,
which leads us to strive to be equal— in this
realm, that if it’s OK for heterosexuals to bare-
back, then “We damn well will, too!”
My heterosexual nephew just tested positive for
HIV, and NO, he is not bisexual. I know him well.
Please, no more prejudiced articles putting
us back in a closet? I encourage all to protect
themselves!
he Portland metropolitan area needs a
G LB T community center as a central
focus, as a meeting place, as a place to help peo
ple connect with our community and be our best
foot forward with the larger society.
Unfortunately, the group that assembled in
2003 to develop this center does not have the
organizational skills to achieve this. I should
know: I attended their community outreach
meetings during 2003. I have also sent them
information on the successful operations of
other G LB T community centers around the
country that I have seen.
But this group does not return phone calls or
e-mails and will not divulge its post office box
number nor Web site address. They have
become aloof, distant and mysterious. They will
ingly lose control of their meetings to those who
are severely lacking in the spirit of cooperation,
until those meetings become a deplorable forum
for the depressed.
I have seen G LBT community centers work
smoothly and contribute mightily in Dallas, Fort
Worth and Seattle, interfacing with police,
youth groups, entrepreneurs and senior citizens,
gay and straight. With more than 100 such cen
ters around the country, Portland is one of the
largest cities without one.
At a time when regulators and the public
expect greater transparency from for-profit cor
porations, this nonprofit organization could do
better. They could contribute so much to the
causes of social cohesion and hope.
’d like to urge other members of the G LBT
community to participate in the Feb. 3 special
election and vote YES on Measure 30.
I believe that Measure 30 is a fair and nec
essary temporary income tax surcharge. It is a
progressive tax and will only cost about $3 a
month for the average Oregonian— $3 that
will go a long way to keeping critical services
available in our state. Additionally, profitable
corporations will be required to pay at least
$500 a year in income taxes, instead of the $10
they pay now!
If Measure 30 doesn’t pass, many important
services will be lost:
• Schools will automatically lose $400 mil
lion in funding— forcing them to cut even more
days from the school year, lay off teachers and
increase class sizes.
• About 85,000 people will lose their bene
fits from the Oregon Health Plan.
• Thousands of people who can’t afford their
life-saving medications will lose prescription
drug benefits.
• C h ild ren ’s day care; adult m ental
health; treatment for alcohol, drug and gam
bling addiction; foster care and adoption
services; and services for people with physical
disabilities all face potentially devastating
cuts.
Please be sure to mail in your YES on 30
vote. It will make a big difference for all of
Oregon.
T im B ealer
Portland
R on R asmussen
Vancouver, Wash.
S arah S wanson
Portland
T im S huck
Cascade A ID S Project Founding Board Member
What about the heteros?
To the E ditor :
T
T
Buying or selling your home
is on im p o rtan t ch o ice.
Let Celia & T e rri guide you
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CELIA LYON TERRI POPEJOY
( 503 ) 345-9253
I
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Bella Casa Realty Inc.
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