10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE SEPTEMBER 3, 1993

EDITORIALS

Walking to battle

The noticeable increase in AIDS stories in this issue was not intended, but is not surprising. The AIDS crisis-now called a plague by ACT UP-is becoming a more demanding presence in our lives.

After being in the war zone for awhile, many of us think that everyone must know as much as we do. That everyone must understand the HIV transmission routes, the safer-sex practices, the need for caring, understanding, research and treatment. After all, people have been talking about this disease for more than a decade-Elizabeth Taylor has been holding gala fund raisers, Larry Kramer has been in the bully pulpit, Dr. Ruby has dispensed thousands of condoms throughout Cleveland.

How naive can we be? Information is not going where it's needed and misinformation runs rampant. The number of AIDS cases continues to expand.

Fortunately the Cleveland Foundation and the George Gund Foundation, constantly besieged for more money, reacted to the alarming increase in AIDS-related requests. Cleveland Mayor Michael White and Cuyahoga County Commissioners Timothy Hagan, Mary Boyle and James Pietro were seeing the increased demands on agencies from AIDS and HIV cases in the area. They created the Citizens Committee on AIDS which is trying to head off a major services crisis in Northern Ohio, but the job is formidable and growing at a fierce rate.

There is so much to be done in terms of education alone that it boggles the mind and shrivels the pocketbook. In 1987, people in West Virginia drained a swimming pool after an HIV-positive person swam in it. We would like to think that sort of hysteria doesn't exist anymore, but don't bet on it. The national head of Planned Parenthood recently described the ignorance of teenagers using condoms, including the belief of some that cutting off the tip before use relieves pressure.

The national numbers of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection are tilted horribly towards young people, women and minorities. Shall the human race continue to annihilate itself out of its own ignorance? We need to educate everyone. Funding for research will never be adequate. Government is locked in an uneasy alliance with drug manufacturers. How much effort do you think these corporations apply to inventing a drug that will eliminate a disease and the profits from sales of the product? Keeping people alive longer with AZT (also in dispute) is one thing, but a cure is a bad business decision.

We must control how funding is spent.

And what of the people now in the HIV spectrum? What is our individual and collective response to the people already suffering, trying not to count the days, justify-

ing their time spent in hospitals? What have we done to show compassion, outrage, understanding, and care for those who are no longer able to function fully?

This plague is a major test for the human race. Do we shun the dying like in the days of the Black Death? Or do we raise ourselves up to a higher set of values?

This is not the government's fight. This is not the pharmaceutical manufacturers fight. This is our fight and we must conscript the government and the drug companies so that they follow our lead.

We must move into the battle to fight this disease, this plague. We must do everything in our power to save our friends, our loved ones... our species. We must help those who are now suffering.

The AIDS conference meeting in Milwaukee is an encouraging development. The "Manhattan Project" approach may be winning converts. This country's response for the past decade has not worked; we need a radically different strategy for the future.

The proverb of the long journey beginning with a single step is very appropriate now. The Cleveland AIDS Walk, "Step in the Right Direction," benefitting five of the area's AIDS service organizations, takes place in a few weeks. We all belong there, with checkbook in hand, to take some steps. What are you doing Sunday, September 26?

If you can't physically walk the 10 kilometers, make a pledge. If you feel up to

walking, bring the materials to your office, educate everyone you can about this cause. and sign up as many people, including yourself, with as many dollars as you can.

And when the walk is over, volunteer. Kamana Place is looking for volunteers and paid staff; so is the Living Room. The Health Issues Taskforce, Stopping AIDS is My Mission and the Free Clinic all desperately need volunteers to staff programs or relieve the soldiers who have been on the front lines all these years. Can't you find four hours a week to help in the struggle?

AIDS is no longer the embarrassing little disease affecting the disenfranchised. It is very close to all of us, wherever we live and whatever our circumstances. This country has an unflattering heritage of isolationism and arrogance. It's easy to ignore the reports that two million people in Uganda are infected they're not Americans. But what do we say to the estimated million-plus infected in the U.S.?

As of June 30 the Centers for Disease Control reported a total of 315,390 cases of full-blown AIDS, with 38 percent of those people still living; 62 percent dead. The clock is ticking, the war is still being fought, a cure is nowhere in sight. We don't need excuses, we don't need despair, we need you.

Bring your money to Step in the Right Direction. Bring your time and your energy to this battle. We must all work to win this one. Or die trying.

COLUMBUS VIEWPOINT

A lavender controversy

by Charles Riddle

COLUMBUS BUREAU

The controversy surrounding this year's edition of Lavender Listings has put Stonewall Union, which publishes the guide, under some particularly harsh and undeserving criticism. The full-page ad for a phone-sex line on page 1, showing a very large penis in a jock strap, raised issues of taste and image that are being addressed throughout the community. This is a necessary process as we achieve the visibility we have so long fought for.

Not so long ago, bookstores around town pulled the Advocate from their shelves in protest of the content of the explicit sex advertising. Soon thereafter, we saw a new publication hit the stands. The Advocate Classifieds was a solution which considered the interests of both the retailers and the readers. No doubt, the Advocate had an advertising policy in place for many years, but had the sense to revise it when it became

apparent that the policy was outdated. The same must be said for Stonewall and the Listings. Indeed, a policy has been in place for quite some time that has served very well. That policy disallowed only pornography or illegal material. Under those general rules, Stonewall should be commended for making the only sensible decision: to print the ad.

Stonewall should also be credited for the swiftness with which it acted to resolve the current dispute. This year's edition of the Lavender Listings began distribution in April. In June a committee was formed to draft a new advertising policy. A policy with specific guidelines and a review process is soon to be in place. Rarely do the wheels of any organization turn as fast.

The Lavender Listings is the premier publication of the gay and lesbian business community in Central Ohio. As we gain visibility we can expect the Listings to reach into those communities where acceptance of alternative lifestyles is growing. What better way to promote acceptance and un-

COMMUNITY FORUM

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Volume 9, Issue 5

Publisher: Martha J. Pontoni Business Manager: Patti Harris Managing Editor: Kevin Beaney Production Manager: Brian De Witt Reporters & Writers: Martha J. Pontoni,

Dora Forbes, Marne Harris, Kevin Beaney, Timothy Robson, Barry Daniels, Mike Radice, John DuAne Graves, John Chaich, Charlton Harper, Joseph Morris

Akron-Canton: Ted Wammes, Richard

Simonton, Jerry Kaiser, Paul Schwitzgebel, Heather Steenrod

Artist: Christine Hahn Sales Manager: Patti Harris Account Executives: David A. Ebbert, Paul Hospodar

The Gay People's Chronicle is dedicated to providing a space in the Ohio lesbian-gay community for all of its members to communicate and be involved with each other. This means that every Chronicle, to the best of its ability, will be equally dedicated to both men's and women's issues, as well as issues that affect the entire community. This balance will provide lesbians and gay men with a forum to air grievances and express joys.

The Gay People's Chronicle is copyrighted under federal law. Any reproduction of its contents is prohibited unless permission is obtained.

Any material submitted for publication will be subject to editing. The Chronicle cannot guarantee return of any such materials unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

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derstanding than through successful business relationships. Therefore, in fairness to all of those who advertise, the Listings should strive to be of unquestionable taste and character. Stonewall's recent actions are geared in just that vein.

Stonewall Union has a history of being in the forefront of service to the gay community and has been a model for the organization of other PACs around the country. Stonewall is recognized as a viable political force from local to national levels. It is reassuring to see that an organization that has reached such stature is aware of and listening to its members, and acting accordingly.

Dancin' was nothing but broken promises

To the Editors:

Festivities for Dancin' in the Streets '93 "Rodeo" were kicked-off with Melissa Ross taking the stage to lip-sync to the national anthem as members of ACT UP Cleveland paraded to the front of the stage carrying posters picturing President Clinton which were stamped with the words "Broken Promises." How telling of what the rest of the day would be like for members of the gay Country Western community. The Dancin' in the Streets organizers seem to know a great deal about broken promises.

The first broken promise was that the Dancin' organizers cut major portions of Country Western music which were agreed upon by the organizing committee and were

slated to begin each hour-long set of music throughout the day. This was completely insensitive to the time and work put in by people who came out to support this benefit for the Health Issues Taskforce. They did not care that members of the Cleveland City Country Dancers and the Rainbow Wranglers had taken time to meet with the planning committee, planned music, and spent time and money making tapes of country music for the deejays to play, while others volunteered to help teach line dances and two-step to the crowd, staff an information booth, and entertain.

Later, Melissa Ross announced the promise of Country Western music, following, however, this announcement with a voice poll of the audience asking how many wanted Country Western, and how many wanted to "party" with club dance music. When the small number of Country Western music

fans near the stage were not able to out-yell the crowd, Country Music was cut from the rest of the day's program of deejay music. I would expect such tactics from Jesse Helms, but not from leaders of Cleveland's gaylesbian-bi-transgender community.

Perhaps Melissa and the Dancin' organizers would like to poll the American public in the same way about gay and lesbian rights. I think that places like Colorado and Florida have taught us what those kind of votes will do. While so many of us are fighting for a world that includes and protects minorities and celebrates diversity, it is a shame that the Dancin' in the Streets organizers are not willing to do the same right here in our community.

The final insult came when, after being delayed and toughing out a rainstorm, members of the Cleveland City Country Dancers square dance group were stopped in the

middle of their performance and rudely informed from the stage that the rest of their performance was being cut due to the lack of time. This was done to gay and lesbian people who planned, practiced and came out to offer their talents to support a worthy

cause.

As a second rain shower came through, Melissa pleaded from the stage: "Please don't leave!" Those of us in the gay Country Western community could only answer back: "Why should we stay?" How can we expect our leadership in Washington, D.C. to be sensitive to our needs and keep their promises, when the leadership of our own community's premiere event are allowed to ignore promises that they have made and be so insensitive to a small, but vital, growing and generously contributing group within Cleveland's gay-lesbian-bi-transgender community?