May 1986

Gay Peoples Chronicle

page 3

PBS Attacked

From page 1

up in Houston, still accompanied by the film crew. There he died.

The broadcast evoked protests from gay people in a number of cities, with demonstrations in San Francisco, where the gay community has been critical of the local PBS station for some time. In Cleveland, it greeted wth deafening silence. WVIZ reports it received no complaints.

was

Perhaps this is the Cleveland style. Probably it was mostly a matter of timing. The Taskforce was holding a ceremony the same night. Even the Chronicle has to confess that its staff did not watch the film. Some of us had to study for examinations and the rest were at the HIT ceremony.

Ted Wilson, of the Taskforce, points out another factor. The Taskforce nembers' pledge to protect the privacy of the AIDS victims with whom they are involved inhibits open discussion of their experiences with Brid-

ges.

Much of the criticism the film has drawn centers on its portrayal of Bridges as a prostitute drifting about the country, endangering other men by having sex with them even though he knew he had AIDS. By concentrating on one very atypical person, the film arossly distorts

the image of people with AIDS.

Wilson notes that everyone with whom he has discussed the film was appalled by this aspect, and particularly appalled by its being shown on PBS.

Criticism also centers on relations between Bridges and the makers of the film, and on the ethics involved. Bridges was receiving money from the film crew. Some reports say they reported him to the Cleveland police for hustling. They also reported him to the Houston police, filming an unsuccessful attempt to entrap him.

It seems clear that the film makers were trying to obtain the most sensational story possible, without regard for Bridges. Reports from several cities suggest that Bridges was using AIDS to draw attention to himself. Brian Jones, in the Bay Area Reporte, expresses doubt that he was having sex with anyone during the making of the film.

Similar doubts were expressed by Sue Lovell, president of the Houston Gay Political Caucus. She said, "Of course, Fabian said he was going to have sex. The more sensational he kept the story, the longer the camera crew was interested in him. Frontline manipulated him while he was alive, and now they' re manipulating him dead.

HIT Names New Board

The new board of the Health Issues Taskforce took office April 1. President is Jeff Swindler, with Jerry Bores as Treasurer and Tom Nobbe as Secretary.

Bob Barnes is Education Chairman, but at present Pat Baskin, member-at-large, is Acting Chairman for Education.

Support Chairman is Mich-

ael Anderson.

Christopher Smith is in charge of Public Relations, and Zak Haley of Fundraising.

Members-at-Large, besides Pat Baskin, are Geno Taylor, Mark Lehman, and Kim Roach.

Theodore Wilson and David Gelatly have Emeritus Board Positions.

American Run for AIDS

The American Run for the End of AIDS will hit Cleveland the end of this month, May 27 to June 2.

Sponsored by the National AIDS Network, the Run centers on Brent Nicholson Earle, a New York playwright undertaking a 20-month, 10,000 mile run around the United States to raise funds for AIDS research and education.

Impelled by the AIDS-related deaths of several friends, Earle began the run in New York, expects to reach the West Coast in September, and is scheduled to return to New York late next year. He is accompanied by a

4-man run_crewe.

May 28 Earle will run from North Madison to Mentor; May 29, Mentor to Public Square; May 30, Cleveland to Avon Lake; May 31, Avon Lake to Vermilion. After resting June 1, he runs from Vermilion to Sandusky June 2.

A national resource center for AIDS education and service delivery, the National AIDS Network is composed of the AIDS project/Los Angeles; Gay Men's Health Crisis, New York; San Francisco AIDS Foundation; AIDS Action Committee, Boston; and Health and Education Resources Organization, Baltimore.

CWRU AIDS Policy

AIDS. Their privacy is to be from Page 1 respected. They may continue serious communicable disease transferred by sexual conprovided support to remain tact or exchange of body productive; and will remain fluids. Persons with AIDS to work, it able; will be will not be excluded from eligible for all health bencampus activities. efits.

3. The existing rules governing the confidentiality of student and employee medical records will apply to persons with AIDS.

Education

The AIDS Advisory Committee has begun an educational program on the CWRU campus to present accurate information about AIDS, prevent its transmission, and counteract uninformed panic.

Health Committee Ragone also accepted the Committee's recommendation to form a University Health Committee, including a subcommittee charged with providing advice about the medical, legal, and social aspects of AIDS.

General Guidelines Apart from specific precautions to be observed in the health professional schools, laboratories, and other special areas, the policy also includes general guidelines for the treatment of persons with AIDS, in line with recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control.

These include a nondiscriminatory approach to any employee or student who might contract AIDS.

Employees with AIDS will not be restricted from activities involving casual contact that does not spread

Employees who refuse to work with a person known to have AIDS or to be a member of a high-risk group will be counselled about the transmission and prevention of AIDS. If counselling is not effective, the employee may apply for a transfer.

Sexual Orientation Rejecting the Committee's proposed policy statement that CWRU should not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, Ragone said, "It has been the policy of the University not to enumerate those groups against which we do not discriminate."

His statement is perplexing. Lists enumerating such groups are widely available in catalogues and other university publications. Such a list was recently spelled out in an April 7 memo from Ragone to all university employees.

Committee Members

The AIDS Advisory Committee, composed mostly of health professionals and administrators, included

as

its undergraduate student representative Robert B. Daroff, Jr., of the Chronicle staff. Its graduate student representative was Randy Gearhart, formerly Executive Director of the Health Issues Taskforce.

Lakewood Gays Assaulted

A gay couple in Lakewood recently experienced antigay violence. As they walked home along Westlake' shortly before midnight, four men in their late teens or early twenties shouted "Fags!" as they drove past. Turning around, they drove past the c ouple

again. The third time one yelled, "Hey, are you a fag?" One of the men responded, "No; are you?"

Two hoodlums jumped out of the car, shouting, "We don't want fags in this area. Why don't you live at 117th with all the other fags?"

Verbal harrasment turned into a physical attack on the smaller man, whom they

"

hit and kicked in the groin. Threatened by the other gay man, who said, "Let us alone or I'll pund the shit out of you, they ran back to the car but followed the pair to their home and parked outside. All four left the car and began shouting that they should move out of Lakewood:

The Lakewood police, whom the landlady called, arrived 45 minutes later. Meanwhile the hoodlums broke two clay pottery vases, throwing one through a window of the house. The couple, who had recorded the car's license, described the police as unhelpful.

NUMBERS