PAGE 4 THE WEEKLY NEWS MARCH 9, 1988
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EDITOR'S COMMENT
TAKING ACTION, DRAWING STRENGTH BY CLIFF O'NEILL
THESE ARE NOT PRODUCTS OF MY IMAGINATION. THEY ARE REAL HAPPENINGS.
Saturday night. Your cha-cha palace of choice. The dance floor is packed with boogieing hordes of men gyrating wildly to the beat of this week's diva. The place is alive with a thundering beat and smoke-filled pin spot beams. There is no room to breathe, but the mood is high.
Labor Day weekend. Your standard women's music festival. Couples sway in the sun to the acoustic guitar of the newest singer on the feminist folk scene. The sun is warm and the distant music is invigorating. The women sign back to the singer as they sing along.
Nineteen sixty-six. The only gay bar in town. At least the only one that's still open. The lights come on and the same-sex couples switch partners to no avail. The cameras come rolling in and everyone covers their faces from the bright lights. The police hurl insults at the crowd as they hustle the patrons into the paddy wagons waiting just outside the front door.
A long way to come in a short time? Yes, for the most part. But look again.
Nineteen eighty-six. Another cha-cha palace. This time it's in Houston. Brandishing firearms the police come barreling into the bar and yell at all the patrons to lie down on the ground. Calling those men that refuse to lie down "AIDS infested faggots," the "law enforcement officers" slam them to the ground. The same year. Another women's music ALD
festival. This time there are no women. There is no music. There are no swaying hordes. There is just an empty expanse. An expanse that a park official deemed "too small" for the female gathering when he heard it would be attended mostly by lesbians. The same expanse wasn't too small for similar gatherings before. Other gatherings. Larger gatherings. Non-gay gatherings.
Nineteen eighty-seven. A courtroom. A judge decides that a woman is not fit to "provide the right moral environment” to her children solely because she is a lesbian. Her children are taken from her.
Nineteen eighty seven. Another disco. Three gay men emerge from a bar and are set upon by three young men. Calling them "fucking faggots," the gay men are beaten. One dies a couple of days later of injuries to the brain.
The same year. Capitol Hill. Three days after over 650,000 lesbians and gay men march for their civil rights, their families, their love and their lives. A Senator effects a 94-2 vote on a bill that says that if you are going to engage in gay sex, you deserve to die.
A week later. The House of Representatives does the exact same thing.
How far have we come?
Today. A politician who proudly declares that homosexuality is an "unnatural perver-
OUR TIME
IT'S FOR REAL
BY TOM BRADSHAW
IF YOU THOUGHT CLAY SHAW AND ANITA BRYANT WERE A THREAT, YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET. QUARANTINE IS COMING TO FLORIDA.
If you were sure it could never happen, forget it. It is happening. If you thought it might happen but had doubts, pack them away. And, if you are not ready to stand and fight now, you may not get a second chance.
If you thought Clay Shaw and Anita Bryant were a threat, you ain't seen nothing yet. Quarantine is coming to Florida.
It is now a matter of record that Governor Martinez, the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS) and a coalition of legislators are formulating plans for a systematic quarantining of HIV-positive, ARC and AIDS-afflicted persons. The issue will come to a head in the upcoming regular session of the legislature which convenes on April 4th. And, if the proposal were to be voted on right now, it would pass overwhelmingly.
The quarantine showdown in Florida will also be a test situation for other states considering similar measures. If it succeeds here, there will be a chain reaction throughout the country, and America could well be dealing with a "final solution" to "the homosexual problem."
Hysterical exaggeration? Paranoid overreaction? No doubt that is what the proponents of this program will say as will many wellmeaning but naive and misinformed others. So, I will lay out the facts and let you decide for yourself.
First of all, laws granting HRS broad au-
thority to quarantine in the event of any epidemic are already on the books and have been for years. But, prior to the AIDS onslaught, they were regarded as emergency measures, only, and they lacked the budgetary appropriations necessary to enforce them.
If homophobic and AIDS-phobic state officials have their way this session, that will all change. A bill by Rep. Mefferts (who says he will not seek reelection this fall) would revise the current emergency statutes, toss out the more archaic language and replace it with provisions more explicitly applicable to HIVpositive, AIDS and ARC-afflicted individuals.
Another bill by Sen. Don Childers would revamp the laws governing the confidentiality of testing and remove that protection entirely.
Finally, a projected $1.5 million is to be earmarked for the renovation of a facility near Lantana that would hold 22 detainees. Who would be sent to this facility? Initially, they would be those HIV-positive persons deemed by the authorities to be habitual practitioners of unsafe sex who had not mended their ways a result of standard legal admonitions and/or counseling. Presumably, these would be "street people" prostitutes and IV drug users who continually pass the AIDS virus on to others.
as
The proposed HRS regulations are worded very carefully to ensure that all due process is observed. A court order would be required for commitment to this facility and only after a
sion" racks up big numbers in a several Presidential primaries. A Florida mayor feels so safe as to compare gay citizens to vomiting college students the week before an election.
Capitol Hill again. Representatives plot and scheme to attach amendments to what could possibly be the first pro-gay bill to ever pass Congress. Amedments which would send a message to this entire nation that violence against gay people is somehow less offensive that violence perpetrated against someone because he is Black, or because she is Jewish, or because he is Puerto Rican, or because she is a woman.
The message: If someone beats you into a bloody heap and smashes his car against your skull and hollers, "Nigger!" that's not good.
If someone mows you down in front of a notorious Cuban hang-out and yells, "Spick!" that's not good.
If someone spray-paints your synagogue with swastikas, and sayings like "Christ Killers" and hollers, "Kikes!" that's not good.
If someone assaults you in the street, rapes you and hollers, "Cunt!" that's not good.
But if someone torches your place of worship, violates your body, threatens your life or even takes your life in a viscous bloody attack and hollers "Enjoy it, you Goddamn Dyke!" or "Die you fucking faggot!" oh, why that's not so bad!
These are not products of my imagination. They are real happenings. They happen every day and usually go without any notice at all.
Washington again. This time we're looking at Senators. They're trying to attach amendments to another bill. This time it's the first bill to treat AIDS like the medical emergency it is. The amendments are many and they are frightening. They call for mass testing. They legitimize discrimination. They propagate homophobia. They could pass.
These all could pass quickly and without question. These add-ons from people who want the nation to look the other way from anti-gay rape, beatings and murder can pass. These riders from people who want any employer, insurance company of hospital to take your blood against your will and then use it against you could pass.
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full hearing had been held to determine whether or not detention would be the approA
priate remedy. person subject to this procedure would have the benefit of legal representation and could summon witnesses on his behalf. Qualified medical testimony would be required.
On the surface, it all seems reasonable enough. But there is one major hook: If you were accused of being HIV-positive and of engaging in unsafe sexual practices, the burden of proof would be on you not the state. In other words, you would have to demonstrate that you are not HIV-positive and/or not a threat to others.
Under the terms of this program, upon a sworn accusation an individual could be visited by enforcers designated by the legislature or HRS, informed of the accusation and asked to take an HIV test. If that person refused to take the test, he would then be presumed positive and have to undergo the process described above.
The possibilities for abuse here are rampant. A vengeful partner could turn in his "ex." A homophobic neighbor could use this approach to try to get rid of gay people in his or her community. Reactionary politicians and police could cite these rules to justify the arrests or prosecutions of gay political activists. Gay businesses could be raided or even shut down.
And then, of course, there is the more frightening question: What happens to you once you get sent to this facility? Under the terms of the proposal, an individual could be detained until such time as the authorities are convinced that he or she is no longer a threat to society. During the term of detention, all necessary medical care is supposed to be provided. But the language is unclear as to exactly what "necessary" means. If a detainee comes down with ARC or AIDS while in custody, would he be kept at that facility or transferred to a full-service hospital with AIDS treatment capability? Would the latest approved and experimental drugs be made available? What about visiting by loved ones, mail and telephone calls? All of this remains very murky, if you know what I mean. Already, some activists in our community are con-vinced that once people get sent to one of
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