LEVELANDER'S to take pride in
[Editor's note: This month's Clevelander To Take Pride In is Buck Harris, Gay Health Consultant to the Ohio Board of Health. A few months ago we asked Buck for some bibliographic information so we could write this column. Buck returned this letter. We liked it so much we decided to print the letter in its entirety instead of our regular format.]
I got a call a while ago from Joe (Chronicle reporter) telling me that the staff had selected me as one of the people they wanted to acknowledge in this column. I am very flattered. I asked when they would be sending out a staff reporter to do an interview and a photographer to get some candid shots of me around my condo. I was informed that this was not the show "Alternative Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous". I was asked to jot down a few things about myself. They requested that I be brief.
Joe asked me to highlight my accomplishments and to acknowledge those things I've done worthy of recognition. I feel odd doing that. I'll give it a shot.
I've just turned forty. In these times that's a major accomplishment. I take no credit for my longevity, clearly a case of Divine intervention. I was not looking forward to forty. Youth seems to be a valuable commodity in our community. While I was planning my pity party, actually I was going to do brunch, I stopped to think about all those near and dear to me who did not see their fortieth, and all the men I know today living with AIDS and ARC who I pray will reach forty. Pretty God-damned petty of me to be pouting about aging. I am grateful to be alive and healthy.
major
Another accomplishment is serving five years working in the field of AIDS, especially within the bureaucracy of the state health department. As Gay
Health Consultant I had no idea how political my position would become. I did not expect to be involved with the media nearly so much. Being so out has had its rewards, to be sure. I am always touched when I get a call or letter from some isolated young gay person in East Cupcake, Ohio who just saw me on the tube. I'd like to think of myself as a positive role model. I've always said, "If you can't be a fashion model, be a role model." Being so out is scary sometimes. I have gotten a number of death threats. Would I go
Horizons
WANT
back to my closet? I don't think closets are very safe places to be. One can suffocate in them. They're short on air and friends.
The accomplishment I feel I best about is a very personal one. acknowledged that I am addicted to alcohol and decided to get help. As a result, I have not used alcohol and drugs for the last eighteen months. It took a number of events to force me to realize my powerlessness. My lover of eleven years died. Shortly after, my best friend and then my mother died. As much as I tried, alcohol could no longer relieve the pain. Life hardly seemed worth living.
Is life wonderful now that I'm sober? Wonderful, no. But it's getting better. Today I want to live. Today I'm involved in a fellowship and a program that teaches me to live one day at a time. Am I not going to drink for the rest of my life? I'd like to think not, but that task seems incredible. But I know I can work on not using alcohol and drugs today. Is my life free of pain today? No one is exempt from pain, expecially if you happen to be gay. But drugs and alcohol do not erase pain, they only mask it and only temporarily.
I was asked to say a few words about future plans. This summer I plan to do some recharging. I'm going to pull back from my job a bit and cut back on work related travel. I don't wish to leave the field of AIDS but I do need to recuperate. I plan on spending a fair amount of time at my family's place on Pelee Island. I love to fish. Nothing is more therapeutic than trolling along with rod in hand. I am attending the International Gay and Lesbian Health Conference and AIDS Forum this summer in Boston. I shall be presenting a paper on a project I hope to launch this fall. I am adopting the twelve step program of AA to assist those living with HIV infection. It will be called "Positive Living".
Well, enough about me.
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Candlelight Washington March
mourners
anniversary of the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights and the Inaugural Display of the NAMES Project Quilt.
Toll-Free will light
The NAMES Project Foundation has announced plans for a massive candlelight march in Washington, DC on Saturday, October 8, 1988, following a display of the NAMES Project Quilt on the Capitol Mall. At dusk, thousands of candles and move slowly from the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial. Leading the procession will be representatives from various parents' groups from around the country, there to express their concerns about AIDS and its impact on us all. Marching alongside those parents will be several government leaders who will participate in a brief ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial.
Other events planned for the weekend include concerts, films, conferences and the premier performance of a new play based on the stories behind the NAMES Quilt. This weekend of AIDS awareness and fundraising events marks the first
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To encourage participation in the return to Washington, the NAMES installed Project has a toll-free telephone information line. "800-USANAME is now available for general information about the October 7-11 events", said General Manager Michael J. Smith. "We will also have toll-free lines for travel and housing information operating by August 1." Those wishing to be in Washington to view the Quilt and participate in related events are urged to plan as hotel accommodations are already being
booked.▼
now,
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