letters tothe editor

Find someplace else to do it

To the Editors:

While I certainly feel bad about what happened to Edward Pugh [“Cruising man assaulted in store parking lot," Nov. 26], um, has he ever heard of a bathhouse [membership] card? If he is horny, it may come in handy.

He was cruising a grocery store parking lot at 3 am. And he was beaten. That is horrible, but that grocery store happens to be in my neighborhood. I own property on Clifton and frankly, most people are tired of the "3 am brigade" of cruising. They park. They circle the block. They walk.

Mr. Pugh describes the officer who took his statement as "very rude." Was the officer supposed to say, "I know you want to get sucked off and I guarantee your protection until you do"?

People cruise all the time, but do they pay Giant Eagle or National City Bank for the privilege of parking their car on private property? From a homeowner on Clifton Boulevard: Mr. Pugh, find someplace else to do it.

Randy Sindelar Corturillo

Cleveland

Shame on the Dispatch

The following was sent to the Columbus Dispatch after a series of November stories on the arrests of men cruising in parks.

To the Editors:

After reading about your lack of good judgement with regards to your publishing the names and addresses of the 43 individuals accused of lewd public behavior, we have decided to boycott your newspaper. Even the National Enquirer isn't as disgusting and hypocritical as your publication. For they do not pretend to be something they're not.

Shame on you for reaching new depths. We are saddened and disgusted.

GAY PEOPLE'S

Fausto Alegado Thomas Fisher Columbus

Chronicle

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Honor accepted, but not quietly

The following was sent to the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

To the Editors,

I hope that you are reading this on World AIDS Day (1 December) 1999. I and 17 other people from the Cleveland area are being honored by the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland today.

Each one of us is being honored for our voice during the 18 years of the AIDS pandemic. While I know the correct thing to do is to accept the honor graciously, it would be unconscionable to do so quietly.

I have AIDS. Just last week [Nov. 24], the Plain Dealer ran an article on page 10A announcing that in the year 1999 alone 2.6 million people will die from complications of AIDS. One in every 20 deaths on this planet this year will be caused by AIDS.

I have to ask: Why we are being honored, when our time and energy would be better spent vilifying those who have allowed this to happen? You see, all of us old ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) people are not dead.

The obvious targets, some say, are not as easy to find as they were in the first years of the plague. I disagree. Where is Dr. Ho now? He was Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1996. He prematurely, and I feel immaturely, announced to the world at the International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver, that he was able to eradicate HIV from those living with AIDS.

One of my dear friends died one year later with an undetectable viral load. He must not have gotten the news. Keeping viral load in check in the bloodstream is not a cure. Not one person has been cured of AIDS!

Dr. Ho made the front page. The 2.6 million people who will die from AIDS this year get page 10A. Dr. Ho may be the only person in this country to have done more harm to people living with HIV/ AIDS than Ronald Reagan.

Who to vilify on a local level? You would have to be an idiot not to know this one. On my way home from Lily Tomlin's "Search for Intelligent Life," the depth and the cause of the list became clear to me. Many people believe that everyone living with HIV/AIDS has had a better life since the advent of the drug combinations Dr. Ho announced in Vancouver.

Nationally, death rates plummeted, but when these statistics are broken down by region, race and gender, you find that those most in need in our community never realized the full benefit of these drug combinations.

Most people with AIDS on this planet can not even get an aspirin. What good are these drugs if no one can afford them?

Our Cleveland City Council wielded $1 million in city funds promised to the HIV/ AIDS community as a weapon to bring the mayor under control.

What have they done with this money and why is that not front page news?

Mike White: Why not save the best for last? Here is a mayor in a city that has a population which all statistics tell us is at grave risk. What has he done? My sources in City Hall tell me that they are not even able to get a qualified candidate to fill the job of AIDS coordinator for the City of Cleveland to take them seriously, because of this administration's lack of concern.

What a surprise! Our mayor has surrounded himself with a bunch of wizened old white men who know so little of life that they are spending their last days on this planet financially raping a city that they will not even live in. Of course they do not know how valuable your children are!

do.

I am honored that someone thinks that I

Gil Kudrin, Jr. Cleveland

GAY PEOPLE'S

Chronicle

Volume 15, Issue 23

ISSN

1070-177X

Publisher: Martha J. Pontoni

Business Manager: Patti Harris Editorial Boards Brian DeWitt, Christine Hahn, Patti Harris, Dawn Leach, Martha Pontoni Associate Editor: Brian DeWitt

Senior Staff Writer: Dawn E. Leach Staff Writers: Denny Sampson, Michelle Tomko Reporters & Writers:

Doreen Cudnik, Mubarak S. Dahir, Beren deMotier, Bob Findle, John Graves, Mark J. Huisman, Kaizaad Kotwal, M.T. Martone, Jeffrey Newman, Kirk Read, Eric Resnick, Bob Roehr, Harriet L. Schwartz, Rex Wockner, Jeff Woodard, John Zeh

Art Director: Christine Hahn Photographer: LeeAnn McGuire

Advertising Manager: David A. Ebbert National Advertising:

Rivendell Marketing 212-242-6863 David A. Ebbert 800-426-5947

The Gay People's Chronicle is dedicated to providing a space in the Ohio lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender 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 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people with a forum to air grievances and express joys.

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