page 14

AIDS Hysteria

from page 1.

not yet hit Cleveland. But evidence of its potential for feeding hysteria is contained in a letter to the Plain Dealer by a former teacher, Patricia Hair. Reacting to assurances that AIDS is not spread by casual contact, Hair insisted that the contact of children with each other and with school personnel is not casual. The dangers she described were "runny noses, colds, skinned knees, and crying, not to mention chewed pencils, sticky doorknobs or shared food."

That such fears can be voiced in the face of widespread agreement that the HTLV-3 virus rapidly disintegrates outside the human body and is not spread by the kinds of casual contact she names illustrates the critical need to educate the public.

This problem, however, includes medical professionals as well as the lay public. A New York MD testified that a child with AIDS would endanger other children by spitting or vomiting. He also held that mosquitos transmit AIDS. Commenting on his testimony, Dr. Mathilda Krim, chair of the AIDS Medical Foundation, told The Advocate he was obviously speaking out of ignorance, and stressed the need to educate doctors.

The problem also extends beyond schoolchildren. The New York Times found northeastern universities unwilling to discuss AIDS among their students, fearing admission that cases exist would mean losing enrolment.

AIDS Shelters

Similar hysteria is evoked by shelters and hospices for AIDS victims. The New York City administration abandoned its plan to use a nursing home for this purpose when

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other patients as well as neighborhood residents protested. Similar plans by the New York Catholic Archdiocese ended when parishioners objected. In Newark, N.J., a proposal for a shelter surrounded by abandoned buildings and empty lots drew objections from area residents that they might catch AIDS. Quarantine

Calls for quarantining all AIDS victims are increasing. A bill to this effect, including a blanket rule for bidding any child with AIDS to attend public or private schools, was introduced in the Ohio house but has little chance of passage.

Those who test positive for HTLV-3 are beginning to attract similar hostility, with blatant homophobes as well as the uninformed public equating a positive test with having AIDS.

Susan Director, a mayoral candidate in Houston, has introduced an ordinance requiring everyone in touchcontact with the public to take the test and forbidding emploment to those who "have AIDS," i.e., test positive. Diane McGrath, RepublicanConservative candidate for

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Some Heterosexuals See Fear of AIDS As Potentially Profitable.

mayor in New York, makes the same argument.

Director's ordinance was drafted by a right-wing homophobic organization calling itself the National Democratic Policy Committee. It has no connection with the Democratic Party. This same group is also active in San Francisco, where it demonstrated at Grace Cathedral, handing out flyers saying "Spread Panic, not AIDS." The Bay Area Reporter notes the Cathedral was targeted because Episcopal Bishop William Swing supports the use of a common communion cup.

Mandatory Testing

In September the U.S. armed forces began administering tests for the HTLV-3 virus to all recruits, rejecting everyone who tests positive. After protests by civil liberties and gay rights groups, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs countermanded offers by military personnel to make their names available.

This month the Defense Department announced that all military personnel will be tested. Plans to assign those testing positive to limited duties are described as a compromise with commanders who wanted them automatically discharged.

Demands for mandatory testing currently center most strongly on persons handling food.

In Dade County, Anita Bryant's old stamping ground, Commissioner Sherman Winn proposed that all food handlers should be tested. Holding the quaint view that AIDS can only be acquired through blood, he remarked that kitchen workers sometimes cut themselves.

Insurance

Insurance companies are also getting into the act.

Nationwide Insurance Company, of Columbus, denied an earlier report that it would screen all male applicants in New Jersey, California, and Florida for homosexuality. Its clarification offers little comfort. It requires any applicant it has been told is gay to take the test. Those refusing, like those testing positive, will be denied insurance.

A spokesman for the American Council of Life Insurance announced that unless companies are given access to records of HTLV-3 tests they may deny coverage to all gay men or to residents of neighborhoods with high AIDS incidence. Insurance companies are also trying to repeal the California and Wisconsin laws keeping test results confidential.

No

The testing carried out by the city of Cleveland is absolutely confidential. names are recorded. Quaranting Gay People?

The gay community, already forced to cope with an epit demic among its members, it now facing a growing identification of gay people with AIDS, and signs that some heterosexuals are avoiding contact with its members. Some individuals and groups promoting this equation are ardent homophobes who also

November 1985

opposed any funding for AIDS research. But such attitudes have spread beyond them to infect the general public.

The recent Plain Dealer series on AIDS included a number of statements by people on the street indicating they see every gay person as a potential health threat.

A Wall Street Journal news roundup describes a national trend for heterosexuals to stop patronizing establishments owned by gay people, catering to them, or located in gay ghettos.

Political Implications

The use of AIDS against gay people is emerging very strongly in the political arena. Observors attribute the failure of the Massachusetts gay rights bill to fear of AIDS, with an underlying argument that gay civil rights will spread AIDS. In the Houston mayoral campaign, incumbent Kathy Whitmire, who is sympathetic to gay rights, has been heckled by people charging her with spreading AIDS. The Advocate reports fears that a New York City gay rights bill may founder on this issue.

many respects the outlook for gay, people is very bleak, yet this has been so since the AIDS epidemic began.

One possible shape of the future is foreshadowned by the plastic GardCard, advertised in the October 20 Plain Dealer by a Canton firm which is probably not gay owned. It certifies the holder has been tested "for A.I.D.S." with negative results. Apparently the card holder shows this to employers, relatives, friends, and if necessary, people on the street.

The other shape is foreshadowed by what has already happened within the national gay community. In many ways the AIDS epidemic has thrown gay people upon their own resources. They have accomplished a great deal, in the process discovering their own strength and building a community.

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