GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE APRIL 22, 1994

EDITORIAL

Primary election endorsements

It's voting time again! According to the recent Chronicle survey, more than 90 percent of our readers are registered to vote. That being the case, here are our endorsements for the upcoming May 3 primary elections in what we consider key races.

U.S. Senate (Democrat) ★ Mary Boyle Joel Hyatt

With two candidates that have openly courted the lesbian and gay community, it is somewhat harder to make a choice than when you have one supportive candidate and one homophobe. In this case we have two candidates who say they are supportive of our community.

In reality there is only one candidate who has a proven track record as a public servant and as an advocate for our community. That candidate is Mary Boyle. Boyle has worked on the county level to ensure fair employment for lesbian and gays in county government; she understood and worked on the AIDS issues while Hyatt was still being educated that AIDS is not contagious in the work place.

Many of our community have already "come out" in favor of Hyatt, citing a more "winnable candidate" in the November election. That whole question is debatable and after all (without trying to sound too idealistic) we are electing a public servant here, not trying to pick the winner of the fourth race at Thistledown.

While this paper takes exception to the Boyle campaign using the bodies of our dead friends to try to score points against her opponent-as in all the hoopla over the Philadelphia case-we hope that episode is a lesson well learned. She should have listened to her local advisor who cautioned her that such a strategy could backfire and not to the Washington insider who obviously didn't have a clue how the issue would play locally. Hyatt got more publicity for firing one gay man with AIDS than Boyle did for all the positive things she has done for

people with AIDS.

Hyatt has spoken about support for our community; he has yet to demonstrate any. Hyatt is lacking in sincerity to say the least. He wants to be elected at any cost. What he will do once he gets to Washington is another matter completely.

Boyle has been supportive of our community long before it was "popular." She has paid her dues. For the lesbian and gay community to drop their support of her now in favor of an unknown candidate would be appalling and weaken any credibility we have as a political force.

When Howard Metzenbaum leaves office, the lesbian and gay community in Ohio will be losing one of our biggest advocates for civil rights and fairness. No one will ever completely fill the enormous shoes this man leaves, but the person with the biggest feet is not his son-in-law.

Clearly the best candidate to represent our community in the general election is Mary Boyle. Her loyalty to our community, her unblemished record and her ability to continue to support us for years to come make it imperative to our community that Mary Boyle gets elected. Please help her do so.

U.S. Senate (Republican) Bernadine Healy Eugene A. Watts Michael DeWine

Now this is the kind of race we are more familiar with. Three candidates, none willing to talk about lesbians and gays.

One candidate, Eugene Watts, is an acknowledged homophobe, with an agenda to do his best to wipe us off the face of the earth, or at least deny us services in the state of Ohio.

One other candidate, Michael DeWine, father of 10, lieutenant to a soulless governor, and professed "family values" man. We don't have to continue here.

The last candidate, Bernadine Healy, could actually be the one in the bunch worth endorsing if she wasn't so afraid to speak

openly about her support for lesbians and gays. What is it about Republicans anyway? With the statewide Log Cabin Club now in existence, it seem like we might actually get an endorsable Republican candidate this year, but alas, the Log Cabin Club won't endorse Healy (although privately they will admit she is the one to vote for) because she is reluctant to admit support for our community. Kudos to the Log Cabin Club for holding their ground; boo to Healy for not even being willing to admit we have the right to exist. Make your own choice here.

U.S. House, 10th District

Helen K. Smith Francis Gaul Thomas Coyne

This race is interesting because it will decide who unseats that long time breastman Martin Hoke and restore Mary Rose Oakar's seat to the Democrats.

In this race we are endorsing Helen Smith. Smith is another longtime friend to not only this paper but to the community as a whole. In 1989, when it wasn't very popular to be on our side, Helen Smith helped the first Pride celebration get all the necessary permits. She calmed wary neighbors' fears and in general helped make the festival possible. For that alone she deserves our respect and support. But that is not all she has done for us.

Smith is the type of politician who will do what she thinks is right. Her belief in the civil rights of all people is important. She can be a strong advocate for us in the House of Representatives like Mary Rose was.

Ohio Senate, 23rd District ★ Dale Miller Dennis Kucinich Irene DeGrandis

Keeping with the theme of supporting our longtime friends, our endorsement goes to Dale Miller.

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Volume 9, Issue 21

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

Cudnik, Barry Daniels, John Graves, Charlton Harper, Joseph Morris, Martha J. Pontoni, Mike

Radice, Timothy Robson

Akron-Canton: Paul Schwitzgebel,

Jerry Kaiser

Art Director: Christine Hahn Sales Manager: Patti Harris Account Executives: David A. Ebbert, Doreen Cudnik

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P.O. Box 5426 Cleveland, Ohio 44101 216-621-5280 Fax 216-621-5282

We cannot think of a lesbian or gay event where Miller has not been supportive. He does usually miss being at Pride but has always called and explained about his family vacation schedule. He is at AIDS walks, he is at the Stonewall dinner. He is interested and concerned about our community. His grasp of the issues is astounding and we can count on him to be an advocate for our community.

So, as you go to vote, please remember that we need all the pro-lesbian and gay elected officials we can get. In the long run without the support of these people, defeating the Right will be even harder. Let's get into position all the help we will need in the long months ahead.

SPEAK OUT

The origin of AIDS, or How did we get into this mess?

The author is a founding member of the Cleveland chapter of ACT UP.

by Joe Carroccio

It's been 15 years since the first mysterious cases of a strange, never seen before, illness first appeared on our collective doorstep. For 15 years we've been nursing our friends and burying our lovers and learning how to take care of each other.

Oh yes, we've been busy these last 15 years, and many of us would agree that looking for the origin of AIDS is a futile, useless waste of time. This writer would mostly agree: why waste time finding out how it got here and let's concentrate on how to get rid of it.

However, while we've been busy doing what our government refuses to do, many more pieces of the "where the fuck did this come from" puzzle have been made available. Most of the new clues have come in the form of retrospection, as opposed to scientific discovery. This new information hasn't been handed to us, we had to search for it. When and if you decide to read this article you will come away from this with a new angle on the "how" of this nightmare.

The information that is about to be presented will show the feader that the government's explanation of how AIDS came to America is not only homophobic,

but virtually impossible. (Patient Zero, I ask you...)

The year is 1978, a year that will forever be etched in our consciousness. The year that has divided our history into before and after. The year the trucks pulled onto Christopher Street.

After homosexuality was removed from the list of mental illnesses by American physicians and we were deemed sane, the medical authorities took an unusual interest in the general health of homosexuals. According to public health statistics provided by the government epidemiologist, the homosexual community was infested with sexually transmitted diseases and hepatitis B, declaring homosexuals a health menace to the general public and themselves. Since half the gay population in New York City had been exposed to hepatitis B, the government researchers/scientists decided a vaccine experiment was in order to stem the tide of the hepatitis B epidemic in the gay community. Merck Institute made its first hepatitis vaccine in 1973, and tested it in chimps, then in infected children. When the vaccine was ready for testing, several high risk groups were considered, gays, IV drug users, mentally handicapped, Asians, indigenous Alaskans, and patients and staff of dialysis centers. After getting to know the gay community and its habits, the master-

mind behind the experiment, Dr. Wolf Szmuness, decided gay men would be the perfect specimens for his study. After much debate it was decided homosexual men would be the target group. Beginning in 1977 the New York Blood Center began taking blood donations from gay men in Greenwich Village to develop a serum for the hepatitis vaccination. The process of making the vaccine took 65 weeks, making the experimental vaccine available in the fall of 1978. The entry criteria for the hepatitis B vaccine was very selective. Gay men only, no straights, no monogamous relationships, the participants had to be very promiscuous, no lovers. The men had to be smart, young, responsible, and preferably white.

After screening 10,000 participants, 1,083 were finally selected and the injections began. A series of three inoculations was required and by October of 1979 all the study participants received the vaccination, even the placebo group. Within 10 years most of them would be dead.

Dr. Wolf Szmuness was so thrilled with the results of the initial study, that in March of 1980 the CDC supervised five more site openings in five cities with high concentrations of gays: San Francisco, Los Angels, Chicago, Dallas, St. Louis. The final solution to eliminate the homosexuals in America

had begun.

Saviors, or the doctors of death?

Who is Dr. Wolf Szmuness? Why was an immigrant who came to this country from the Soviet Union in 1969 chosen to head up the most important scientific experiment of the century? (Does the fact that Pope John Paul II was his roommate have any merit in this story?) Dr. Szmuness was schooled in the USSR and defected to this country with his family in tow, and out of nowhere acContinued on Page 12

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