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Gay Peoples Chronicle

NATIONAL NEWS

Election Roundup

The November 5 elections saw the defeat of several candidates whose campaigns centered on fostering AIDS hysteria to stir up hate against gay people.

New York

In New York, where Republican-Conservative Diane McGrath ran a viciously antigay campaign, Mayor Koch was easily re-elected with 76% of the vote. In second place, with 12%, was Liberal Carol Bellamy, who like Koch supported gay and lesbian rights. Homophobe McGrath came in a poor third, with ahead of 7%, barely Rabbi Lew Levin, whose Right to Life Party wants to make breeding compulsory.

Houston

Houston Mayor Kathy Whitmire decisively defeated former mayor Louie Welch. Trying to repeat the success of his recent campaign to repeal Houston's gay rights ordinance, Welch accused Whitmire of encouraging, the spread of AIDS by backing civil rights for gay people. In late October he blundered by saying "shoot the queers"

was

the only effective way to stop the spread of AIDS, not realizing that a TV microphone was broadcasting his comments. Analysts suggest Welch's "shoot the queers" prescription reminded black

NYC

voters of the police penchant for shooting blacks while he was mayor, and led almost all of them to vote for Whitmire.

The antigay "straight slate" running against incumbent council members who had supported the gay rights ordinance lost across the board, but forced one incumbent into a runoff election. Although gay people are part of Whitmire's coalition of minorities, liberals, and young conservative professionals, the Houston Gay Political Caucus refrained from endorsing any candidates, fearful its support would be harmful.

Boston

In Boston, gay city councilor David Scondras won reelection to his second term by a 65% margin. Voters also re-elected councilor Brian McLaughlin, whose support of gay rights was a campaign issue. Two candidates for at-large seats endorsed_by the Boston Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance also won. So did homophobe Albert

O'Neil.

Elsewhere

was

Openly gay Tim Mains elected one of five at-large city councilors in Rochester N.Y. Another gay candidate John Laird, was re-elected to the city council in Santa Cruz, California.

Shuts Mineshaft

Acting under recently issued state regulations empowering local authorities to close establishments where "high-risk sexual activity"--ořal and anal intercourse--takes place, New York City has closed the Mine Shaft, a leather bar.

City inspectors described sexual intercourse openly engaged in by men who were not using condoms. They also reported hearing the sounds of whipping and moaning, but did not explain how these are high-risk sexual activities conducive to transmitting AIDS.

Mayor Koch issued a statement designed to quiet fears of gay people, who see the new regulations as perhaps spearheading an attempt to make gay sex illegal. He insisted that the city was acting to save lives, rather than imposing restrictions on sexuality. The ambiguities perceptible in Koch's statement were not clarified by a press assistant who told The Native that while the mayor does not want government in anyone's bedroom, "medical experts" believe oral and anal sex are "dangerous activities. Richard Dunne,

Executive

Director of the Gay Men's Health Crisis, doubted that closing the Mine Shaft will change sexual behavior or halt the spread of AIDS. He said, "You don't get AIDS from buildings, you get AIDS from a virus that is transmitted sexually. The only thing that is going to stop it is education and the adoption of behavior changes.

Thomas B. Stoddard, Legislative Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, warned, "The Governor and the Mayor have taken us down

a

slippery slope that may lead to recriminalization of private sexual conduct in general." Stoddard has voiced fears that the apparent condemnation of anal and oral sex as such by New York state will influence the Supreme Court next year when it rules on the constitutionality of the Georgia sodomy laws.

to

Perhaps as a gesture show itself even-handed rather than anti-gay, on November 22 the city administration shut down Plato's Retreat, which in spite its name is a heterosexual sex club, as part of its campaign against AIDS.

of

December 1985

BY: Casmir Kuczynski

NGTF Nixes GRNL Merger

The National Gay Task Force voted against the merger with the Gay Rights National Lobby that had been planned for this year. NGTF administration and finance director Rosemary Kuropat said the decision was based entirely on financial considerations. She explained that the NGTF Board feared the combined debt of both

organizations might be too heavy a burden.

The NGTF Board also voted to move its political and program staff to Washington, D.C., next year, leaving only financial, administration and development operations in New York.

It also voted to include the word Lesbian in its name.

PHS Surrenders

Finally responding to the mounting public hysteria about AIDS and misconceptions about its transmišsion, the United States Public Health Service has issued guidelines on the subject.

It dismisses calls for restricting food-handlers and health-care workers who test positive for exposure to the HTLV-3 virus, pointing out there is no evidence the virus is spread through casual contact.

The Service also recommends against routine testing of employees for exposure to the virus. Dr. James G. Mason, Acting Assistant Secretary of Health and Hum-

an Services, who is also_Director of the Federal Centers for Disease Control, said, "AIDS is a bloodborne, sexually transmitted disease that is not spread by casual contact."

The guidelines apply to health-care workers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, food-service workers, hairdressers and barbers, and those working in offices, schools, factories, and construction. Separate instructions will be issued for surgeons, dentists, and prison workers.

The Public Health Service noted that its guidelines are not intended to apply to the armed forces, which have special needs.

Falwell Tumbles

These are hard times for homophobe Jerry Falwell, whose impassioned defense of South Africa's government and the Marcos regime in the Philippines drew a bad press along with caustic editorials about his definition of morality.

JML

As if this were not enough a Sacramento municipal judge ordered Falwell to pay a 10al gay leader, Jerry Sloan, On a talk show in 5,000:

July Sloan accused Falwell of slandering the Metropolitan Community Church in an "Old Time Gospel Hour" telecast. Denying the charge, he promised Sloan $5,000 if he could prove it. Sloan produced à tape that included statements by Falwell calling the MCC à "brute beast" and a "vile and Satanic system" whose overthrow would make heaven rejoice. When Falwell refused to pay up, Sloan went to court.

Through a spokesperson Falwell claimed the tape had been edited to distort his words. Reiterating his view that homosexuality is moral perversion (unlike apartheid ånd murdering political opponents), Falwell echoed the Anita Bryant of several years back by complaining that "militant homosexuals" are harassing him.

The latest bit of harassment came from the New York Times, which reports Falwell's political clout in his home state, Virginia, is fading. Each poll indicates Falwell turns off more voters. In the November 5 election a Moral Majority_group, the I Love America Committee, endorsed the Republican candidate for governor without naming Falwell. The Democratic candidate used a TV ad urging voters to think about the people backing his opponent, showing a shot of Falwell. Virginia went Democratic. Falwell still claims he can deliver the state but says he has chosen not to do so in the past two elections.