4

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE OCTOBER 15, 1993

OCTOBER IS

CUSTOMER APPRECIATION MONTH THANK YOU SPECIALS

KONICA

2¢ COPIES

Limit 500 per customer,

8.5" x 11" White Bond.

49¢ FAX

Sending & Receiving,

domestic transmissions only, per page. Phone charges may apply.

$2 OFF UPS

Ground, 2-Day or Overnight & All Other UPS Services. Per customer, per day.

EMBE

LETTER

MAIL BOXES ETC.

19645 Detroit Road O Rocky River, Ohio 44116 Phone (216) 333-4810 • Fax (216) 333-4812

HOURS

Monday-Friday 9:am 6pm Saturday 9:am 2pm

Offer redeemable only at participating Mail Boxes Etc. Centers

Franchises Independently Owned & Operated.

LAWYERS THAT CARE

1992 Mail Boxes Etc.

"Jim Brown and Marcia Margolius handled my claim as if I was the most important client they had. They were not only my lawyers but my friends." G.I.

"Without Marcia Margolius I would have never won my claim for SSI. Now I get some money every month and my medical bills paid." R.P.

"I didn't know that you could get Social Security and Workers' Compensation at the same time until I retained Brown and Margolius. With Comp and Social Security I had coverage for all of my medical bills." B.B.

"When it comes to disability benefits, no one can get you every penny you deserve better than Marcia Margolius and Jim Brown." J.S.

"When Jim Brown won my Workers' Compensation claim all of my medical bills were paid, I was compensated for my time off work and I even received money after I returned to work." LP.

If you or your friends have Social Security or Workers' Compensation questions, have them call the people with the answers.

BROWN AND MARGOLIUS L.P.A.

75 Public Square 500 Cleveland, Ohio 44113-2001

216-621-2034

800-234-7792 • Fax 216-621-1908

Call for Our Free Brochures

AIDS IN A 'SECOND TIER CITY

Listening to the voices of those living with AIDS

by Charlton Harper

"HIV has opened me up to so much more," says Janis. And I believe it. She ticks with an enthusiasm for ideas and new approaches, and shows a will to push herself and others to find the answers. "It laid out everything in my life for me, showed me what I was doing, and I saw that these were things I needed to work through." Steve knows what Janis is talking about. “With all the events that have happened from this, AIDS has empowered me. You go through life like a jellyfish, floating, things happening around you, going over you. But I'm not like that anymore." Gregg extends the point to a larger context. “AIDS," he says, “is going to be the thing that will change the way we all approach life.

Redefining and re-centering life. Try to come up with some positive effect from AIDS, some glint of good within the loss and pain, and with some work, this is where you may arrive. But any genuine search starts with real self-examination. AIDS provides the perfect litmus test for sincerity because it demands an honest response, it forces a deeper exploration beyond the myths and misconceptions and well-intentioned newspaper articles; beyond remote terms like "second-tier" and "basic contact risk"; beyond ideas of "them" and "us".

Janis, Steve and Gregg have all confronted the challenge put to them in variously different ways that exhibit surprisingly similar results. They have faced a demanding issue that has required of them adaptability, responsibility and self-knowledge. But Gregg keeps things in perspective. "To me, crisis means opportunity, opportunity to change, to set up boundaries and goals, redefine. Not just getting stuck, but speaking out. But let's be real, AIDS is not a gift. I hate when I hear that. A new car, maybe a new TV, now that's a gift."

Early concerns following diagnosis vary with the individual. As a mother of two boys, Janis's first issues were her children and providing for them while also taking care of herself. "My oldest son, he's fourteen, is a gifted child. He's away at a boarding school in Colorado. I had to provide a situation for him where I didn't have to worry about him, so I could focus on getting well." Her younger son, "my buddy," lives at home with her, but that also has its problem side. Janis notes that he's often "a little old man," keenly aware of the seriousness of her situation.

But for Janis, part of the job of parenting is "preparing our children now for facing the future." She believes strongly in selfsufficiency, that we all need to know something about providing our basic needs without a lot of dependency on others. “I think a child should be able to know something about building his own house and growing his own food by the age of sixteen." But she's quick to point out that "it's also important to be children when we're children."

Gregg admits that he "overreacted" when he initially discovered he had HIV. Originally from Cleveland, he had moved to San Francisco in the '70s. "I panicked," he laughs. "I needed to be around my family, someone to take care of me. I was lucky 'cause I have a loving family. But it's a trap that people fall into, thinking they're going to move back

home and everything's going Fourth in a series to be okay. But

they have to ask themselves,

what did they have before they left?" When Gregg left Cleveland, "it was a reserved kind of place, a closeted town." As a gay African American man his concerns reach other areas and other "closets," issues of race and integration that Cleveland still struggles to face. That perception was part of his biggest fear about moving back.

Yet there was the added benefit of a slower pace to life here that drew him back. "Yeah, I had a real attitude when I moved back. And I hate to admit this, but moving back to Cleveland has been my saving grace. I was just in San Francisco, and I could slap myself for saying this, but I realized I didn't want to live there anymore." Gregg says Cleveland has given him the chance to establish healthier, fuller relationships with people, in contrast to those he had in San Francisco, where "we just lived and partied. I think because it's quieter here it helps people build intimacy better."

"I have friends who just tested positive this summer," says Steve, the frustration still in his voice."I was so pissed. I mean, they were just negative six months ago, and they should know. This is the second decade of the disease and they shouldn't have gotten it."

The kind of denial that plays a role in continued infection is something Steve knows well. "I was in denial a long time. I had a long-term job and I kept working. Plus there were other things I wasn't working through either. But then I got sober in 1988, and that was like a renaissance for me, a rebirth. I got sick in 1991, but I still ignored it and kept on working. But when I finally was hospitalized, it made me start facing up to things. F just got out of the hospital recently from being sick again. But this time I saw the signs and got help immediately and I got out faster." It wasn't easy for him. "There's no book about this, telling you everything you're supposed to do, everything you're supposed to feel. But I learned that it was a process. There is no right way or wrong way."

Staying productive and setting goals is what keeps Gregg going on a daily basis. It's also a large part of why, ten years following diagnosis, he's still here. "Part of why I've been around so long is because I've been productive. Our whole culture defines people by what they do. You've got to keep your body and mind active. I see people getting stuck, saying 'What'll I do?'

ADVANCED AUTO GLASS "Clearly the Best"

WINDSHIELD REPLACEMENT & REPAIR

INSURANCE REPLACEMENT CLAIM CENTER STONE CHIP

AUTHORIZED BY MAJOR INSURANCE COMPANIES

FAST MOBILE SERVICE

TO YOUR HOME OR OFFICE

REPAIR

$24.95

OPEN 8:30-5:00 MON-FRI OPEN SATURDAYS TIL NOON

351-6880

WEST

1080 Brookpark Rd.

Between 1-480 & Broadview

EAST 6029 Mayfield 1-271 & Mayfield