EDITORIAL Letters

Piltdown Syndrome

There is a great deal to be found in Betrayers of the Truth: Fraud and Deceit in the Halls of Science (William Broad and Nicholas Wade, Touchstone Books, 1982) that is helpful in understanding how some of the shenanigans that have gone on in AIDS research really typify science-as-usual. We highly recommend the book as an eye-opener to anyone who believes that scientists never lie, or that scientists are superior human beings who would never do anything to impede AIDS research because a high percentage of human life on this planet may be threatened by it. Au contraire, the stakes only increase the potential reward for fraud in science.

We've referred to Broad and Wade's book in the past, and will no doubt be turning back to it again in the year ahead, especially if the cover-up of the connection between AIDS and African Swine Fever is exposed after two years and seven months of unconscionable stonewalling by the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Remember that when Jane Teas suggested the connection in April, 1983, there were only 1,406 official cases of AIDS in America. Today, nearly six times that number have died, and the total caseload is nearly 16,000. While Swine Fever is as complicated as Robert Gallo's rediscovered virus, there are several hundred research papers that would have given the world's scientists a foothold in treating Swine Fever in humans. We've been told that there are scientists outside the United States who think that American research on AIDS has rendered results that are both amusing and wrong. It's a shame that those who are suffering in this misdiagnosed epidemic can't join in on the laughter. Outside the country, scientists are at least slightly freer to explore the possibility that HTLV-III is either a secondary infection in AIDS, or an endogenous retrovirus which is reactivated by another factor or several factors. Unfortunately, our scientists can bury their amusing mistakes.

One of the most fascinating sections in the Broad and Wade book explores the Piltdown Man hoax, which took place in England in the early years of this century. Somebody buried fraudulent fossils, and they were discovered by a lawyer named Charles Dawson, who presented them to a geological society as remnants of the "dawn man." England, still a proud nation in 1912, was eager to accept the notion that the first man had indeed been British. According to Broad and Wade, "The Piltdown skull was also of scientific interest because it seemed to be the 'missing link,' the transitional form between ape and man that was postulated by Darwin's still controversial theory of evolution. Subsequent excavations at the gravel pit [where the skull was buried and discovered] were not disappointing. A whole series of new fossils emerged. The clinching evidence came from a pit a few miles away-the discovery a few years later of a second Piltdown man." In 1913, when a young zoologist named Martin Hinton concluded that the whole thing was a hoax, he decided to expose it with cleverness by "planting clearly fraudulent fossils and watching the reactions." Unfortunately, these fraudulent fossils, when uncovered by Dawson, were heralded as yet more important discoveries. The plot backfired, and Dawson received additional praise. Hinton tried once more, this time by carving the leg bone of an elephant into the form of a cricket bat, planting it, and waiting for the laughter. It didn't come, because the cricket bat was pronounced "a supremely important example of the work of Paleolithic man." Exasperated, Hinton gave up trying to expose the fraud and, according to Broad and Wade, "Piltdown man retained its scientific luster until the mid-1920's and the discovery of humanlike fossils in Africa." The original culprit in the deceptions has never been found, though the original discoverer has remained the prime suspect. The authors note that "the real mystery is not who did it, but how a whole generation of scientists could have been taken in by so transparent a prank."

Of course, our concern is that HTLV-III may turn out to be a "Piltdown virus," and that America is currently suffering from an epidemic of Piltdown science. But as Broad and Wade warn us, "When the conditions are right, there is no limit to human gullibility."

Flake of the Year Award

Speaking of human gullibility, our nomination for the Flakiest Organization of the Year goes not to NGTF, but to the American Association of Physicians for Human Rights, which recently sent out a dumb little press release in which they tell us that "too many gay and bisexual men continue to practice high risk sexual behavior at least a portion of the time." The press release could have just as easily been issued by supporters of Gay Apartheid, like Jerry Falwell or the Hastings Center. The American Association of Physicians for Human Rights is also the first supposedly friendly gay organization sneaky enough to urge gay people to be tested if you "need the test for you to practice low risk sexual behavior all the time."

Can't someone start an organization of smart, tough-minded doctors who can stand up to the fraud in American science, an organization which could spearhead some first-rate scientific efforts?

4 NEW YORK NATIVE/DECEMBER 23-29, 1985

Charles L. Ortleb

Holocaust II?

While I share many of the concerns you expressed in your editorial, "Time to Act" (Native 138), I take strong exception to your suggestion that the "gay liaisons" to various elected officials should resign in protest over their" "bosses' anti-gay actions."

With particular regard to Lee Hudson, the liaison between the Koch administration and the gay/lesbian community, with whom I have had substantial interaction while working on a variety of projects, in my opinion she has struck that most difficult balance in a government liaison role: while loyally reflecting the positions of the administration, Lee Hudson has simultaneously been a strong, spirited, and creative advocate of our community's needs and interests inside City Hall.

In this time of peril and crisis we need someone of Lee Hudson's sincerity and intelligence on the inside more than ever. As someone who worked for nearly twenty years for major elected officials in federal, state, and city governments, and who has managed many political campaigns, I believe that a staff member resigns in protest only at time of extreme disagreement over fundamental policy issues when the sheer act of resignation would clearly have more meaning than staying on the job. It almost always makes more sense in terms of advancing one's agenda to stay and fight diligently from within to press your policy view. While some may take issue with one of another of Mayor Koch's actions or positions regarding the gay/lesbian community over the years, the mayor cannot be characterized by any well-informed or rational observer as an enemy of this community. To the contrary, Mayor Koch has been a strong friend and ally of the community who has defended our rights and legitimacy on numerous occasions despite bitter political opposition-and personal attacks.

N

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should spit in the Cardinal's face on the steps of St. Patrick's. The Cardinal is the spiritual leader of millions of Catholics who live in this city, and the mayor is the mayor of all the people-us and them. One accomplishes nothing by gratuitously offending a major institutional leader such as the Cardinal. But this is what you seem to be asking for in your recent editorial-a grandstanding gesture. I think the majority of the men and women in the gay/lesbian community want substance, not grand-and ultimately empty-gestures.

Ethan Geto Geto and deMilly Inc Public Relations, Governmental Affairs, Political Consulting Manhattan

Patrick Merla responds:

As recent documentation has proven, during the 1930s and 1940s, Jews who believed they could effectively work within the system, may actually have helped prolong the Holocaust. The time to act is before, not after discrimination has been legally codifiedwhich is exactly what is happening now. The gay community ignores the experience of the Jews at its own peril, and paves the way for history to repeat itself. It is time for the gay liaisons to cease pretending they can stop anti-gay government activity and thus misleading our community.

To suggest that Lee Hudson resign from the Koch Administration is counter-productive to our actual political and health interests at this moment in our history. She in fact has helped to move an administration which was essentially sympathetic and supportive from the outset to be even more It Makes Cents responsive. When she has disagreed with ad'ministration positions she has worked hard to amend them. Symbolic resignations in protest are, with rare exceptions, flash-in-thepan stories with little lasting impact. I'd much rather have Lee Hudson on the inside, especially now, than a distant memory of in the corridors of City Hall.

In all my (albeit more limited) dealings with Peter Drago in his capacity as Governor Cuomo's liaison, he also has consistently conducted himself in an honorable and capable fashion, striving to communicate the community's agenda within the ranks of state government. It would serve no useful purpose for Peter Drago to resign.

One standard you apply in your editorial with particular reference to Peter Drago-if the liaison's advice is not accepted in every instance, the liaison has somehow failed and should resign-betrays a limited understanding of the political/governmental process. Your mindset is similar to those Koch critics who said that the mayor wasn't really sincere

in his championing of the gay community

vis-à-vis the Archdiocese of New York

because Koch could be seen on television

and in news photos in cordial poses with Cardinal O'Connor. The surface interpretation of these events was just that-superficial. The fact is that Mayor Koch challenged the real power of the Archdiocese-its funding-in a more substantive and confrontational manner than any mayor (or other elected official) in New York history. Koch really took on the Archdiocese, in a meaningful, not grandstanding, way--but that still doesn't mean that a Mayor of New York

Until last week, I despaired that there was anything that could be done about the New York Post's homophobic excesses, its bombardment of lies and half-truths, its irresponsible and repellent willingness to use the ghastly specter of AIDS to do battle against the entire homosexual population.

Since there are still a few by-lines and features I enjoy, I couldn't break my preMurdoch habit of picking up that literally filthy rag every day.

No more! Having learned that its daily sales declined by a whopping 127,000 copies in the six-month period ending September 30, here's one gay man who will never buy it again. Ever.

Join me. Let's stop wasting $2.10 every week and contribute our saving to a fund to give comfort, aid, and a measure of love to those dying of AIDS.

Elementary,

Stanley Clayton Manhattan

My Dear Watson

As a literary detective, I feared at first that I was confronted with the detective's nightmare a perfect crime, in this case a perfectly snotty letter from Clay Fullum (Native 137). But then I detected an imperfection in Clay's snottiness, a fatal clue which destroyed the snotty tone he had so laboriously wrought. The clue lurks in Clay's words, "I go to my local porno store." "Local" suggests that Clay lives in a nabe