GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE SEPTEMBER 17, 1993

On the outside of the 'fishbowl,' looking in

Continued from Page 1

first minute. The word "down" is deliberate: not only was there an immediate sense of separation, the feeling was also one of belittlement and dismissal, although in this intimate setting, the speakers were only a few feet away.

For the next two hours the audience was held in suspense as the four talked with each other, voicing their frustration and slamming the "all-inclusive" platitudes spoken by white people desperate for token minority representation in their organizations. White men were frequently cited as much more the problem than white women, although Cella pointed out that "white women who want to be like white men" were just as insensitive.

This theater-in-the-round was not a script, not role playing, but came from the heart. If anything, it was a self-empowering cry to throw off the roles that the speakers had assumed for so long as an oppressed people.

The agenda had those in the fishbowl share "things we want never to hear again," their views of the Center's leadership, and why they continued to stay when others did not. During parts of the meeting, SOAR

volunteers recorded the speakers' suggestions on flip charts for later use.

Over and over again the speakers individually and collectively voiced anger, frustration and outrage at how Center personnel dealt with minority issues. Other institutions, specifically bars--both gay male and lesbian-that blatantly practice racism, were critiqued; and the Center was chided for not working to eliminate the prejudice shown by others.

Coming a close second to white misunderstanding and insensitivity was the Center's physical location in Ohio City. Quite simply, the speakers all agreed, it is in a part of the city where many black people feel unwelcome and threatened.

An eye-opening part of the program was the visualization that everyone was urged to try:

"Imagine the Center, with the same budget, but run by us," said Smith Malone. "Where would it be located, what would it look like, what programs would it have?” Personal visions and those voiced by the four speakers were far different from the current building and organization. With this group in charge, the Center would be on the East Side next to a bus line, with a much

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warmer atmosphere: frequent get-togethers, an all-day drop-in center, food being cooked and served, day care, and Afrocentric decor in at least one of the sitting rooms.

When the speakers' part of the program was finished, the four left the room, along with the black people in the audience. Now it was the white population's turn; not to critique or introduce a white opinion, but to repeat back what they heard.

Individuals recalled and in some cases reacted to what was said; again, the observations were summarized on flip charts. For the staff and board of the Center, the evening was particularly difficult; it was they who were frequently singled out as being crass and racist. Emotions were very close to the surface and several people admitted to having trouble dealing with what they heard. A brief period where the audience broke up

into pairs and spoke back and forth to each other helped relieve the tension.

In closing, the white participants made personal commitments as to how they would begin incorporating what they heard into their own lives.

This session was not the end of the process, simply the beginning. Another meeting has been scheduled on September 20 for those who attended the Fishbowl to create some action plans from the ideas recorded during the evening.

As one of the SOAR women commented, the four speakers this night "gave us a gift" by sharing their perspective. They also gave the white audience a challenge to re-assess their attitudes, biases and feelings, and an ultimatum to make committed, inclusive plans for the Center's and the gay and lesbian community's future.

Senate passes stricter 'ban-plus' gay policy

Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, spoke out in the Senate in support of President Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" policy on gays in the military. But he was on the losing side when the Senate voted 63-33 on September 9 to endorse a more restrictive policy which writes into law for the courts and commanders that homosexuality is incompatible with military service.

Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, did not vote. Before the vote, Metzenbaum told the Senate "this so-called codification is a return to the status quo... Homosexuals will be hunted down and run out."

The House is expected to follow the Senate's lead. The codified ban is part of the overall defense budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The Clinton administration already signaled last month that it was willing to accept the new policy.

Liberals made futile appeals for preserving Clinton's compromise policy, but did so without the support of the Senate Democratic leadership, and a White House eager to see the controversial issue disappear.

The legislative policy states that Congress has the constitutional right to make rules for the military, that the armed forces are unique and that "persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unaccept-

able risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline." The legislation makes no mention of orientation or witch hunts, and says a future defense secretary could reinstate the policy of asking recruits their sexual orientation.

Clinton's compromise policy, unveiled July 19, left much of the original ban intact, but stated that sexual orientation is not a bar to military service. It ended the practice of asking recruits and service members if they are gay, but it allowed the military to continue to discharge openly gay or lesbian servicemembers.

The president's plan also called for an end to witch hunts to ferret out gays. It urged evenhanded enforcement of sexual provisions in the Uniform Code of Military Justice for both heterosexuals and homosexuals, a provision sought by gay rights groups.

Republicans and Democrats agreed that the policy passed by the Senate is more restrictive than Clinton's. GOP lawmakers touted it as "ban-plus," and liberals were sharply critical.

Leading proponents of the military's original ban on gays, Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., the Armed Services Committee chairman, and Republican Sen. Dan Coats, R-Indiana, crafted the Senate policy, which makes no reference to evenhanded enforcement of the Uniform Code, nor prohibits witch hunts.

New Mexico forum discusses non-HIV AIDS theory

Las Cruces, N.M.-A September 9-11 health conference here discussed a theory that AIDS may not be caused by HIV after all.

"It's important to bring this out and let people know," said organizer Ernie Brown, director of the HIV-AIDS Advocacy Project with the Protection and Advocacy office in Albuquerque, N.M. "I get asked all the time by people working in communities on AIDS education, 'What about this new theory?' "Well, I don't know if it is true. I don't know if it is false," Brown said. "But I do know that we're 11 years into this epidemic and we still have no drugs that are effective. It seems it is time to rethink AIDS." Brown said some people are angry about the conference topic.

"The whole AIDS establishment is built on the HIV theory," Brown said. "All we're doing is questioning that theory. If we don't know what's going on, let's just admit it and find out what is going on.'

State AIDS epidemiologist Michael Samuel disputes the theory.

"I feel it's my responsibility to attend," Samuel said after the Sept. 9 session got under way, "but I don't think it's a very

good topic to spend money on or two whole days discussing."

Samuel, citing a 1984 long-term study he helped conduct with the National Institutes of Health, said there is a scientific consensus HIV causes AIDS.

The NIH research tracked two random samples of San Francisco-area residents, one with HIV and one without. Seven of the 367 who did not contract HIV died of other causes, such as heart attacks, while 169 of the 400 people who were infected with HIV died.

However, the 1992 International Conference on AIDS revealed hundreds of people who have AIDS do not have HIV, challenging the conventional wisdom the virus is solely responsible for AIDS.

Peter Duesberg of the University of California at Berkeley, a retrovirus researcher who began disputing the HIV theory in 1987, said there are an estimated 4,621 cases of AIDS worldwide in which the HIV antibody is not present.

Some speculate HIV is not responsible because it doesn't act like other autoimmune diseases that usually trigger an immediate response when the body is invaded by an infectious agent.