Continued from Page 5
What do I regret?
in tim es o f other crises, regardless o f what they
are— we, as a society, are still nowhere near to
living by the golden rule o f “do unto oth ers.” It
sends a m essage that even though we are per
ceived to be a forward-thinking nation, we are
still ju st as backw ard an d bigo ted as in
th e ...h m m m , I guess we’ve probably always
been this way.
But, the passage o f M easure 36 d id n ’t sur
prise me as much as everything I am reading
and hearing about now. I d o n ’t understand how
we’ve lost the right to benefits. We never had
them to lose— not the way 1 am interpreting it.
We are just back at where we started.
O n the bright side, and I like to think there is
one, we have more and more employers who
know the value o f dom estic partner benefits. If
enough o f them— along with city, county and
state agencies— are willing to step up to the
plate, there would com e a time when the rest
would hopefully fall into place. We have legal
avenues for both medical and financial power o f
attorney. We still have the m eans to create trusts
to protect and ensure proper distribution of
assets.
1 am not saying we should just be grateful for
what we have and rem ain silent about the rest.
I am just asking everyone to not forget about
the progress that has been m ade. W e certainly
aren’t giving up or going away, but neither are
“ they.” A t som e point there will be a com m on
ground upon which we all will stand, and there
won’t be “us” and “ them .” In the m eantim e,
what do we have to do to get that dam ned
am endm ent repealed?
To the E ditor :
D ebbie W ingate
Gresham
am writing in response to an article, or rather
the headline to an article, that asked, “ Will
you wake up Nov. 3 and wish you’d done more?”
l“ N o Regrets,” O ct. 15]
I read this after I had previously stayed awake
the duration o f the night with two hours o f sleep
working from 9 a.m. Nov. 1 until 9 p.m. Nov. 2.
1 was knocking on doors and telephoning young
A m ericans making sure their voices were heard.
1 mistakenly thought the new generation o f A m er
ica wouldn’t be as naive as the general populace.
I understand Oregon was primarily John
Kerry voters, which is great. A lthough, in talk
ing with many o f my straight friends, I found out
they had voted yes on M easure 36. W hy? I am
an extremely gotxJ friend to these individuals.
1 have shown them that homosexuality, to me,
is about falling in love with the soul, not the
gender. Being gay is not a lim itation in any way.
S o why would they deprive me o f som ething
so m any A m erican s take for gran ted?
I explained that voting no on 36 wouldn’t
change anything. T h e constitution would stay
the sam e, and marriage would still be unobtain
able by those wanting to live a life without dis
crim ination or segregation.
I am appalled at O regon voters, those who
pride them selves as caring about their country
and the people who live in it. G ay people are
not going to disappear or becom e any more elu
sive, no matter how much the religious right
tries to chant it into existence.
So, back to the question. Do I wish I had done
more? Do 1 regret anything? Yes, I do have a
regret. I regret I put trust in the people o f Oregon
to have the capability to understand, to feel and
to not treat us like we are second-class citizens.
I
Are we a nation o f hate, o f not learning from
our past? Let me ask you this: Will you wake up
tomorrow and see an A m erica full o f discrim i
nation? Did you help create it? O r did you sit
idly by and willingly watch, like so many over
weight A m ericans sitting in front o f their T V s
waiting for Bush’s re-election?
E ric E rcanbrack
Beaverton
“ HIV Stops with Me”
seeks to dispel myths,
not demonize
To the E ditor :
n the letter to the editor titled “Bush’s A nal
Sex Lies" [Oct. 15], the reader states, “Many
HIV-positive men feel demonized by the ‘H IV
Stops with M e’ crusade.” Although demonized is
the strongest term I’ve heard used, I have heard
people tell me that they feel the cam paign blames
HIV-positive people for spreading the virus.
It is true that most HIV-positive people are
acting responsibly. It is the people who don ’t
know their status who are causing most o f the
new infections. A ccording to the C en ters for
Disease C on trol and Prevention, it is estim ated
that 25 percent o f the positive individuals in the
U nited States do not know their status. A n d it
is estim ated that those 25 percent account for as
many as two-thirds o f the new cases.
W hat keeps people from getting tested? It is
my opinion that the stigm a o f being positive
plays a large role in people not wanting to test.
M any people in our society still feel that the per
son with the disease is responsible for getting it.
M any people still feel that we, as positive indi
viduals, have done som ething wrong or bad in
order to have contracted the virus. T h e only
I
way to elim inate this perception is by working
to dispel the myths surrounding it.
I ask that those people who feel the cam
paign blam es positive people to spend som e time
on the W eb site. Take the tim e to write a letter
to any one o f the 27 spokesm odels, and ask
them if they are blam ing people for their status.
You would have 27 different responses, but I can
guarantee that not a single one o f them would
say they are trying to lay blam e on positive indi
viduals for infecting others.
Take som e time to read the biographies. Read
the letters and articles. View the videos. Each
spokesm odel speaks from his or her heart about
various issues. Each one o f us reacts differently to
rejection for being positive. Each one o f us dis
closes in a different way. So m e o f us battle with
substance abuse issues. But, most importantly, all
o f us attem pt to live our lives responsibly.
T he campaign does not attempt to preach to
anyone. T h e campaign does not' give one “right”
answer. T he campaign does not prescribe any polit
ical agenda. A ll the campaign does is give a platform
for individuals to tell how they handle their life.
T h e cam paign is m ale, fem ale and trans
gender. T h e cam paign is straight and gay. T h e
cam paign is A frican A m erican, A sian/Pacific
Islander, L atin a(o ) and white. T h e cam paign is
young and older. T h e cam paign is even mother
and daughter. T h e cam paign is the face o f
H IV /A ID S here in the U nited States.
O nly by talking openly about our status will
we be able to break down the barriers that stigm a
erects. I am proud to know that I have the
courage to openly state that I’m positive. I wasn’t
always able to do so. A n d , when I couldn’t do so
is when I d id n ’t take care o f my body.
J ohn M otter
Portland
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