June 1986 -

Gay Peoples Chronicle

AIDS HYSTERIA HITS CLEVELAND

The Cleveland Board of Education has deferred action on policies that would keep any child with AIDS from attending a public school in this city. They also go beyond rules adopted anywhere else in the nation by calling for the suspension of any teacher or employee even suspected of having AIDS until he or she obtains medical certification of freedom from the illness.

The proposals were written by Betty L Mantzell, acting supervisor of health services for Cleveland schools. In a statement to the Plain Dealer Mantzell said, "It's not just the issue of whether an AIDS child can attend school, but what would be the reaction of parents of other students attending school if we were to have

students with AIDS attending school."

Mantzell's policy, which directly conflicts with the Ohio Department of Health guidelines, drew harsh criticism from the Cleveland AIDS Planning Committee, the Cleveland Health Department, the Health Issues Taskforce, and the Cleveland chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Mantzell has ignored information about the transmission of AIDS put out by the Centers for Disease Control and other bodies. Informed opinion suggests her policies are illegal as well. Noting that they had not been reviewed by the school distict's lawyers, The Board of Education ordered a legal review before it considers them.

BLUE CROSS DUMPS PEOPLE WITH HTLV-3

By ROB DAROFF

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Northern Ohio announces that beginning June 1 it will not sell insurance to several classes of people, including those with the HTLV-3 virus.

Most AIDS activists predict that the Blue Cross move signals the beginning of further discrimination by insurance companies.

Buck Harris, Gay Health Consultant for the Ohio Department of Health, said, "We can expect other companies to follow suit."

Harris and gay Columbus attorney Michael Zinacola testified before a state subcommittee on insurance. According to Harris, sub-

WHO ARE "DOCTORS FOR LIFE"?

page 3

committee members were previously unaware of the potential misuse of the RTLV-3 blood test. He said that some states have high-risk pooling so that the high medical costs become the burden of the public sector.

Harris said that this fall lobbying efforts will be under way to get legislation passed that would protect Ohioans against misuse of the HTLV-3 test.

Harris said, "It's going to be one hell of a fight. You better believe that the insurance companies have a much stronger lobby than we do."

The Ohio Department of Insurance is investigating the Blue Cross decision.

Doctors for Life, Inc., a group with a Cleveland mailing address, bought a fullpage ad in the May 26 New York Times. Although the Times is surely the most adult newspaper in the United States, the ad addressed itself to the 1986 Eighth Grade Class. Blaming the end of the baby boom on abortion it urged 13-year-olds to go out and breed.

Included in the ad was a comic strip in which a surprisingly androgynous teacher explains to 8th-graders that there aren't more students in the class because one-fifth of all conceptions have been aborted.

Doctors for Life blames abortion on a distingished group of organizations, inčluding the U.S. Supreme

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OTHERS?

GHTH GRADE ASS OF '86'

TO BE OR NOT TO BE THAT IS THE QUESTION!

EIGHTH GRADE CLASS OF '86''

Court, the Rockefeller and other foundations, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the ACLU, NOW, Unitarians, the American Jewish Congress, the Ameri-

U. AKRON GETS NONDISCRIMINATION

On April 23 the Board of Trustees of the University of Akron agreed to add sexual orientation to their institution's non-discrimination policy. The campus Affirmative Action Office is including the new wording in all university literature and correspondence dealing with its non-discrimination policy.

This action represents a major victory for the University of Akron Gay Lesbian Task Force.

This spring the Task Force obtained resolutions from the student senate and the campus EEO office banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. It followed these actions by writing letters to the trustees.

Formed in September 1985, the Gay Lesbian Task Force is the first recognized gay student group at the University of Akron. It has spent the first year of its exist-

ence being a support group and advocating gay and lesbian rights. Besides sponsoring workshops and semiDars on such topics as AIDS, religion and the homosexual feminist issues, and civil rights, the Task Force recently took part in a special memorial service for gay victims of the holocaust and sponsored a review of gay and lesbian literature in the campus library, as well as presenting films with gay themes

Next Septemer the Task Force, in cooperation with the campus Affirmative Action office, will offer a series of workshops and seminars for the faculty and the area community, dealing with discrimination based on sexual orientation.

For information about the Task Force, write its president, Michael Belusko, the University of Akron Gay Lesbian Task Force, Akron, OH 44314.

THAT'S FOR SURE-BUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OTHERS?

BE A MAN ABOUT IT I AM!

EIGHT CLASS OF 8

ican Humanist Association the New York Times, and Planned Parenthood.

Urging 8th-graders to have children, the doctors for life warn them against the media, antifamily feminism, and those who will try to

BUT WHAT HAPPENED TO

THERE ARE 745,000 REASONS

THE OTHERS? WHY YOU ARE LUCKY

EIGHTH GA CLASS OF 6'

TO BE ALIVE!*

recruit ality.

them into homosexu-

The most interesting speculation about Doctors for Life is that this is another Larouche organization. Its address is PO Box 24386, Cleveland OH 44124.

NEW HOURS FOR TEST SITE

The new AIDS Coordinator for the Cleveland Department of Health, Kevin Blanchet, announced that the Alternative Testing Site in Cleveland is changing its operating hours effective immediately.

The new hours for testing are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from 8 to 11 a.m., and from 1 to 3:30 p.m. The Site is located at the McCafferty Health Clinic at

4242 Lorain Avenue.

Individuals may take the test free of charge on a walk-in basis. After taking a small sample of blood, individuals are given appointments to return for results approximately two weeks lat-

er.

Preand post-test counselling is provided, and the entire process is completely anonymous. The Alternative Site uses a numbering system and no names are taken.

ANDREW PETER BEEBE, PH.D.—

PSYCHOLOGIST

2460 FAIRMOUNT BLVD.

SUITE 323

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS. OHIO 44106

(216) 229-4290