March 1, 1985

LETTERS

I wish to congratulate you on a well done, informative paper, which I am glad to see in Cleveland. Every page touches on things, issues, facts, and people who are significant to us as a proud people. Being well

informed createo

Gay Peoples Chronicle

involvement

informed creates involvement and concern. Best of luck. I know that the time and energy put into this paper have not repaid you in high wages. You have my admiration for the drive and devotion.

Charlie Sheenar

POLICE LIAISONS

Page 5

To offer cofidential information, or to request assistance in matters of abuse, harassment, violence, or other criminal matters, the lesbian/gay community's liaisons with the police are:

Cleveland Police Department

First of all, I would like to congratulate you and the Gay Peoples Chronicle for finally establishing a gay newspaper. Maybe this is a start to bringing all of our community to gether, and may help bring awareness to the straight community.

Right now in Cleveland, we as a gay community are having a hard time, with the closing of Traxx, the fire at Man's World, the condemning of Key's, and the possibility of Cleveland's State's buying Chap-

ter Two.

We as a community have to stick together and find alternatives to all these closings. These don't necessarily have to be bars. But we can't let ourselves become less visible, if we are ever going to be considered equal. This newspaper has come at a perfect time, when communication in this city is slowing down. Please keep informing us of gay news, and ways we as a community can help.

Jeff Sykora

HTLV-III / LAV Blood Test?

Articles, memos, and news releases about AIDS have continually flooded my desk since I became Gay Health Consultant to the Ohio Department of Health

a little over one year ago. Recently, about. eighty percent of the literature concerns the soon-to-be-released blood test to detect antibodies to HTLV-III/LAV. the virus believed to be the cause of AIDS. Much controversy surrounds this test. Blood donor centers.

medical facilities, and gay organizations throughout the world all have grave concerns about its implementa: tion.

Consensus has been reached by all National Gay Organizations that gay men not volunteer

to take the blood test unless participating. in carefully controlled research projects that insure confidentiality. Interpretation of the results of this test, whether negative or positive, fells the recipient little and may, in fact, do more harm than good. The test does not diagnose AIDS or contagiousness. It merely indicates the presence of antibodies to the virus. That presence could mean a variety of things: you may have

been exposed to the virus and have developed an immunity to its you may be incubating the disease and will become a full-blown AIDS case in the future: you may or may not be able to transmit

Bill Salupo Bryan Baranski

Community Response Unit Community Response Unit

623-5080

Area of Assignment: City Wide

Bill Grant

Mini-Sub Station

961-0066

Area of Assignment: Gold Coast

Pam Nickolson

First District

623-5100

Frank Novak

First District

623-5100

Area of Assignment: Gold Coast

Bonnie Rudolph

Second District

623-5200

Area of Assignment: Ohio City/Tremont

Lakewood Police Department

Det. Ed Favre

521-6773

Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office

Sharon Rosenberg

371-2126 (nights)

County Wide Authority

interested in screening out gay men could conceivably use the test as an indicator for homosexuality. Gay men applying for insurance could potentially be turned down if a positive blood test is among the medical records.

The National Gay Task Force and other national organizations all recognize that

the test is useful in the context of screening blood donations in order to help safeguard the nation's blood supply, and as part of research programs to learn more ábout AIDS.

Until more is known about this test and a vaccine and cure

for AIDS has been discovered, it is important

the virus to others; you may develop AIDS Related Complex (ARC). A negative test may indicate that you have not been exposed to the virus or that exposure has been so recent that you have not yet developed antibodies to the virus.

If a positive antibody test becomes part of an individual's permanent medical records, potential employers

that gay men continue to follow prevention guidelines, including the adoption of safe sex practices.

As of January 31 there are 68 confirmed Ohio AIDS cases. PLAY SAFE SEX!

Buck Harris

Please

Gay Health Consultant Ohio Department of Health

IT'S OUT...

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