year

If we don't make major strides now, next will be too late. We may all be outlaws again. If let stand, the PHC sex regulations will add fuel to an already dangerous fire.

permitted to address the New York City Council's Health Committee hearings, while David Summers, the only person with AIDS scheduled to speak, was not allowed to testify until after the vote had been taken and the damage done.) They come pretending to be journalists, refusing to accept the responsibility for truth and facts inherent in their Constitutional right of freedom of the press (regrettably, this includes the New York Times as well as the Post).

Everybody Loves a Bargain!

But take some heart. David did slay Goliath. And hard facts are like small stones. Our community's attack on these liars has begun, and you can take part. Now. Even if you missed the triumphant December 1 demonstration against the Post (the first symbolic "Goliath" of our renewed struggle), know that the battle is on. The agenda this time is simple: Truth. Facts. The New York-based Gay and Lesbian Anti-Defamation League has identified and articulated a cause no gay person in the nation can afford to ignore-against lies, for truth.

But let's move on to other confrontations. The closing of the Mine Shaft and then the New St. Marks Baths brought me into confrontation with gay friends and acquaintances about the facts these events represent. "Well, finally that sleaze hole is gone," "I never went, so I don't care. It was bad for the community that it ever existed." or, "You mean they were still in business? With all this going on?" were some of the reactions I heard. I tried to give my friends a few of the facts on the larger picture of what was going

on:

FACT: Closing bathhouse and sex clubs, while not affecting their personal (or sexual) lives at present, is paving the way for the kind of legislation that eventually will affect their lives directly. ("Mercy, Chicken Little, the sky is not falling!")

FACT: Accepting the Public Health Council's regulations without a fight, accepting the enforcement of the regulations without a fight, is sending the kind of signal of weakness and divisiveness in the gay community in which our enemies rejoice. ("I didn't say I'm against the Gay Rights Bill, but...')

FACT: The United States Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of sodomy laws next year-specifically, whether gays have the right to have sex with each other in the privacy of their own bedrooms. If we don't make major strides now, next year will be too late. We may all be outlaws again. If let stand, the Public Health Council sex regulations, which in reality are an anti-gay endorsement of sodomy laws, will add fuel to an already dangerous fire. ("The Supreme Court, really?'')

FACT: The Supreme Court. Really. FACT: The liars are very stong. FACT: Too many people are misinformed, underinformed, or uninformed.

FACT: The truth is on our side.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot more facts. Facts about the unreliabilty and misuse of the HTLV-III antibodies test. Facts about the heterosexual transmission of AIDS. Facts about the proper focusing of AIDS education funds and research efforts. Facts about what the gay community needs to know in order to confront itself and the community at large.

So, arm yourself with a handful of cold, hard facts, swing that sling, and let fly. And remember, this time, David is not out there on his own. Not by a long shot.

E PLAGUE YEAR

Christopher reet

COLUMNS BY Quentin Crisp, Ethan Mordden, Richard Sennett

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