LESBIAN GAY

Community Service Center

OF GREATER CLEVELAND

This space has been donated to the Center by the Chronicle. The following does not necessarily reflect the views of the Chronicle staff or management.

by Robert Laycock

The Living Room. The Living Room is now open! A "Garden Party" celebration of its Grand Opening will be held Sunday, May 21, between 2 and 6 p p.m. at the Living Room, 1410 West 29th Street, on the back patio behind the Center. Admission will be free. Come and enjoy a good time on this important occasion.

The Living Room is a drop-in center for people with AIDS and ARC, and for HIV-positive men and women. Ongoing programs will include recreation, support, counseling and education. All services are free, and the Living Room is open Monday through Friday, 12-6 p.m.

Over 140 separate pieces of literature are available, including over 40 books. Topics include guidelines for PWAs with pets and information about the latest AIDS treatments and therapies.

As the Living Room opens, Paul Whitehurst joins the staff as Volunteer

Coordinator. Paul has been an active leader in AIDS services in Akron, and is presently suing a former employer for HIV discrimination. In keeping with the empowerment philosophy of the Living Room and similar facilities around the country, both Paul and Dan Morril, the Program Coordinator, are within the HIV spectrum.

Men In Touch. A new Men In Touch group has begun and will continue to the end of May. Group discussions focus on gay male identity, intimacy and communication. The group is closed during this period, but if you'd like to participate in the next group, call the Hotline and leave your name and number.

Men In Touch made a presentation April 27 at the AIDS Task Force Conference sponsored by the Ohio Department of Health. The presentation was made at the state's request, in hopes that it will inspire similar groups around Ohio. The speakers representing Men In Touch were Ed Magiste and Jeff Wobbecke.

National Lesbian and Gay Health Conference. Five people represented the Center in San Francisco April 5-9 at the 11th National Lesbian and Gay Health Conference. In attendance were Aubrey Wertheim, director of services for the Center, one representative from the Living Room and three members of PRYSM (Presence and Respect for Youth in Sexual Minority).

May, 1989 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE Page 5

Northern Ohio Coalition, Inc. (NOCI) was instrumental in helping two youth to attend with a $700 contribution. Other financial support come from the Cleveland Department of Health, Parkside Travel, and the National GayLesbian Health Foundation. There will be a forum May 17 at 7:30 with a report from the International Conference, in which news on the many lesbian-gay and health agenda issues will be presented.

Lavender Elephant Sale. The Center will hold a Lavender Elephant Sale during Pride '89 on Sunday, June 18. Saleable items are needed to help raise funds for the Center. If you have that perfect item, please bring it to the Center anytime.

Bingo! Get ready--the Center wants to start a Bingo game, but we need someone to pull it together. This one should be fun, so volunteer!

Finally, the Center wants to thank the Excalibur Motorcycle Club for their fundraiser for the Living Room. They raised $300. Thanks.

Hotline Training. Volunteers are needed to help staff the phones at the Hotline. We need people who are good listeners and available one night each week. The next Hotline training sessions begin Tuesday, May 9, at 7 pm. and will continue Tuesday and Thursday nights for six weeks. If you're interested, just show up at the Center May 9.

Gay unit at

local ACLU

The Cleveland ACLU is in the process of forming a Gay Rights SubChapter to address the problems and needs of the lesbian-gay community in Cleveland.

After a meeting at the Center March 27, another meeting is planned to discuss how best the American Civil Liberties Union can serve the community.

The ACLU's policy on homosexuality states that "Homosexuals are entitled to the same rights, liberties, lack of harassment and protections as are other citizens." The policy also states that "The ACLU supports the legal recognition of gay and lesbian relationships."

Peter Joy, ACLU board member and law professor, will address the next meeting May 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the Center. He will answer questions about the ACLU policy and other community concerns.

The goal of the meeting is to lead to a program and direction the ACLU can follow.

The Center is located at 1418 W. 29th St., at Detroit Ave. For more information, call Loretta at 781-6276. ▼

NSIDE THE WASHINGTON LOBBY:

by Laura Markowitz

and Chai Feldblum

The 1990 AIDS Budget

Next year's federal budget is not in the news yet, but it is in the works in Congressional committees.

The game of drawing up a budget is intricate and even many Washington players have a hard time keeping up with its twists and turns. Yet the budget has an enormous impact on each of us since it determines where our tax money will be spent.

For those concerned about funding for AIDS research, treatment and education, it is vital to know the budgetmaking process and to stay on top of developments.

AIDS funding has increased steadily over the past few years, but with overall Bush administration budget cuts, AIDS lobbyists are keeping an eye on the process to ensure that funds will continue to rise.

The budget really is a three-part process. First, the president proposes a budget. Bush's FY 90 budget (meaning fiscal year 1990) was presented to Congress in January. He proposed $1.6 billion to be allocated for AIDS-about $1.1 billion for research and $500 million for education, prevention and patient

care.

This figure is $300 million more than last year's budget and shows Bush is treating AIDS differently than other domestic programs right now. Almost all other programs are subject to Bush's "flexible freeze" approach, which means they are frozen at the funding level they received this year.

There is another catch. Bush has earmarked some categories, such as AIDS, for an increase and specified that those funds have to come out of other domestic programs. He leaves it up to Congress to decide what programs to cut to come up with the money for increases.

Part two of the process sometimes seems to be only mildly related to the first part. Congress gets the president's budget and then proceeds to create its own budget. The budget resolution process was created in 1974 to put some structure into budget development. Con-

gress passes a budget resolution in the spring that establishes maximum spending levels in broad, general areas such as defense, education and health. The appropriations committees then fill in the specifics, such as how much money the National Institutes of Heath and the Centers for Disease Control will receive for AIDS research, or how much the Food and Drug Administration will get for drug development.

In the House, the Budget Committee is broken down into task forces that make recommendations. The Task Force on Human Resources, chaired by Rep. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., held hearings in March at which people testified about the need for money for AIDS research and education. It is unusual for one disease to get this type of focused attention-and it demonstrates that, for some members of Congress, AIDS is real priority in the health care arena.

Outside advocates and members of Congress presented recommendations to the task force. Rep. Henry Waxman, DCalif., known as the 'guru of health care' as chairman of the legislation, testified at the hearing, requesting $2.2 billion for AIDS funding.

Outside advocates have organized themselves into a group called National Organizations Responding to AIDS, a coalition of more than 100 organizations. They have their own appropriations task force, co-chaired by the AIDS Action Council and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which proposed a budget and testified before the House Budget Task Force.

Their budget called for $2 billion in allocations for AIDS-about $1.3 billion for research and $700 million for education, prevention and other services. NORA also will propose its budget to the Senate Budget Committee.

The NORA coalition will be an active force as the Appropriations Committee process develops.

Congress is scheduled to vote on the budget resolution by April 15. Although the resolution is supposed to be general, the Budget Committee also issues a report that sometimes notes how much money it assumes will be needed for certain projects. It is likely that AIDS will be dealt with specifically in the budget report.

While the assumptions in the report are not binding, recognition by the Budget Committee of a need for increased money for AIDS could strengthen the hand of AIDS lobbyists when the Appropriations Committee ultimately decides allocations for AIDS research and education.

When the budget resolution passes, lobbyists for AIDS funding will turn their attention to the House and Senate appropriations committees.

In the past, appropriations bills have been the source of anti-gay amendments. In 1988, it was Jesse Helms' Education Amendment. In 1989, we defeated the Humphrey amendment that provided that no money could go to any organization describing homosexuality as normal, natural, or healthy. We assume there will be some anti-gay amendments on the floor during June and July when the FY 90 bill is being debated and voted on.

The appropriations committees already have begun hearings. AIDS probably will be highlighted in a separate section in the appropriations bill, in which funding for agencies that deal with AIDS will be laid out. The House should vote on an appropriations bill sometime in June, while the Senate develops its own appropriations bill at about the same time. Differences in the House and Senate versions will then be resolved in a conference session to produce the final congressional bill.

But the game's not over yet. The country will not have a spending pro-

Horizons

gram for AIDS until Bush signs the bill, his veto is overridden by a two-thirds majority, or another budget is proposed that meets with his approval.

Also looming over the process is the Gramm-Rudman law, which makes it illegal to have a budget that has a deficit of more than $100 billion for FY 90. If tax revenues are low and inflation goes up, so does the deficit. If it goes above $100 billion, a system of cuts automatically kicks in, freezing everything at last year's spending level and taking a flat percentage out of all programs. This would be the worst thing to happen to the AIDS budget because, even under the current Bush plan, the AIDS budget would increase for FY 90.

So the budget game in Washington is full of processes and procedures, politics and personalities. In recent years, AIDS has fared relatively well in the with game, Congress, and even the president, recognizing the need for increased funding to deal with the epidemic. Constant pressure from constituents and the lobbying efforts of AIDS advocates working in coalition hopefully will result in strong final figures.

Laura Markowitz is an editor of a national magazine and a lesbian activist.

Chai Feldblum is an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union AIDS Project.▼

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(216) 845-9011