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In the meantime, AIDS organizations and numerous gay and lesbian groups across the country are outraged over the production.

Problems began last week when scripts of the movie were "leaked" out of the San Francisco Studio on 7th Street. When the script was reviewed by AIDS organizations in San Francisco, there was an immediate outcry that rapidly spread to Los Angeles and across the country.

Specific information regarding AIDS treatment, it was pointed out, is inaccurate and the presentation of gay stereotypes was deemed offensive to many who reviewed the script.

Terry Beswick, with ACT UP/SF said, "What the viewer is going to be left with is somebody rampaging around spreading AIDS and justice being done by shooting them down in the streets.

"What they have in the script is that the health department and the police don't have the authority to take this person off the streets," he continued, "so it sets up the vigilante situation. It just isn't true."

Midnight Caller is a television show about an ex-cop who hosts a midnight telephone talk show in San Francisco. It is from that point each week an episode is developed.

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The original script describes a gay bar saying, "The Pinnacle's a bar filled with Bright Young Things looking to get lucky. Jack makes his way through the room. He walks past a table of four cute young things out for a night on the town. They flash him a collective smile. Jack never sees them. He's only looking for one man among all the men in the room."

A piece of dialogue says, "He didn't even tell me his last name. We did some poppers, smoked a little grass. He bragged about cruising the leather bars in the Castro but...but I thought he was only kidding."

Another descriptive phrase to set a scene states, "Killian shows the photograph to two Leather Freaks at a crummy bar. The Leather Freaks look at the picture and shake their heads no."

The subject of AIDS, which the producers claim is handled responsibly, is centered around the Gaeten Dugas "Patient Zero" theory, from Randy Shilts' book And the Band Played On. It then moves on to a variety of statements, "Now my feeling is we should take these people and put them in camps," says one caller. It continues, "I was also thinking about tattoos. Kind of like identity marks so we can spot them." Killian, the Midnight Caller, attempts in the script to

counter

charges.

the hysteria generating

The script describes the shooting. "The woman brings up the pistol, points it right at Mike's face. Now everything slides into extremely slo (sic) motion... Four shots are fired. Mike's body literally dances under the impact of the bullets. His feet beat a drunken tap on the apartment steps." In the script a police officer says, "Part of me thinks he got what he had coming...the part that's not a cop."

The murderer is never caught, and the body is seen with coroner staff, heavily dressed in protective "infection control" clothing, placing the corpse in a black body bag.

Jim Cvatanich, the producer of Men Behind Bars, a San Francisco annual gay fundraiser said, "I think that what's frightening is that people can create a rationale for just about anything they want to do. That's why there are fundamentalists who can say 'kill a queer for Christ'."

Lester Olmstead-Rose, a staff member of Community United Against Violence in San Francisco, has seen the script and said, "What I saw is dangerous. What I saw has a potential to incite a backlash type of violence. The symbolism of the script is that he is willfully spreading the virus. The solution is he gets murdered. That's the symbolism and you can put in as many words as you want to try and soften that message, but that is the basic storyline."

San Francisco AIDS Foundation Executive Director Tim Wolfred expressed the feelings of many when he said, "NBC should not exploit the human tragedy of the AIDS epidemic to increase rating points and profits."

Wolfred said that the Foundation staff and representatives from other AIDS organizations spent two days with the producers of Midnight Caller, to discuss the AIDS episode and offer constructive changes.

"The producers and NBC," he said before the Oct. 20 protest action, "have so far decided not to make any substantive changes in the program and are producing a show that will only spread fear and ignorance about AIDS."

Also prior to the first action, in meetings arranged by Robin Eickman, the Mayor's liaison to film production, the producers stated they would review the script. Those at the meeting wanted two basic changes. First they wanted the person carrying the virus to not be aware he was spreading the virus. Second, they wanted the character not to be murdered. An option was discussed that would have an attempt be made on the character's life and the attacker would be stopped.

Believing that the HIV-positive character would not be murdered, ACT UP members were outraged when they learned that the murder

Helms stalls federal bill

The first positive federal legislation to address violence against lesbians, gay men, and other racial, ethnic and religious minorities was stalled in the U.S. Senate due to threats by Sen. Jesse Helms to introduce sweeping anti-gay amendments.

The Hate Crimes Statistics Act, which would require federal data collection on crimes motivated by prejudice against gays and other minorities, never got to the Senate floor, despite vigorous lobbying by a coalition of more than 50 groups led by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Introduced by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the Hate Crimes Statistics Act made legislative history when it passed the U.S. House of Representatives in May. The bill was the first federal legislation specifically addressing sexual orientation passed by either house of Congress.

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Attempts to delete the sexual orientation clause were repeatedly defeated while the bill was in committee and on the House floor.

The Senate version of the bill was introduced by Sen. Paul Simon, DIll. It was approved unanimously by the Senate Judiciary Committee in August.

Efforts to bring the bill to the Senate floor crumbled as Helms, RN.C., told Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., that he would fight the bill unless anti-gay measures were attached.

Helms planned to introduce a four-part amendment which stated the following:

"1. The homosexual movement threatens the strength and the survival of the American family as the basic unit of society.

"2. State law prohibiting sodomy should be enforced.

"3. The federal government should not provide discrimination protections on the basis of 'sexual orientation'.

"4. School curriculums should not condone homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle in American society."

NGLTF lobbyist Peri Jude Radecic termed the amendment "totally offensive and unacceptable. We will never tolerate codification of this kind of bigotry."

Radecic noted that because of Helms' delaying tactics, the Hate Crimes measure must be re-introduced

during the next session of Congress and must again pass through committees to the floor of both houses.

NGLTF Anti-Violence Project Director Kevin Berrill said that while the bill stalled in Congress, acts of antigay violence continued to shatter the lives of gay men and lesbians nationwide.

"This bill reflects our call to the federal government to take a firm stand against homophobic violence," said Berrill. "We intend to press forward, add more supporting organizations to our coalition, and continue the grass-roots constituent pressure that helped so much this year."

in

Anyone interested generating support for the Hate Crimes Statistics Act in the next Congressional session is urged to contact Peri Jude Radecic at NGTLF, 1517 U St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20009.

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