Baltimore Alternative, July 1990

What You Haven't Heard About The S.F. AIDS Conference The ВлЫмояе мУ1990 ALTERNATIVE гтдг- Physicians, Scientists, and AIDS Activists collectively took their concerns to the Streets during the Sixth International AIDS Conference. Front row left to right include John Ziegler, co-chair VI International Conference, Mervyn Silverman, AmFar, Dr. June Osborn, Chair National Committee on AIDS, Dr. Jonathan Munn, and Dr. Paul Voberding, S.F. General Hospital. Inti. AIDS Conference Closing Reduced to Rubble by ACT UP Task Force Releases 1989 Anti-Gay Violence Stats Activists Call for Passage of Gay-Inclusive Hate Crimes Laws by Rex Wockner The Sixth International Conference on AIDS in San Francisco ended in chaos June 24th when about 1,000 militant AIDS activists produced half-an-hour of deaf¬ ening noise to prevent delegates from hear¬ ing a speech by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan The activists, most of whom were af¬ filiated with various chapters of ACT UP, blew whistles, blasted portable sirens, and yelled and chanted throughout Sullivan’s remarks. Not a word of Sullivan’s speech was audible in the auditorium. ACT UP members had sat quietly through the first 90 minutes of the closing ceremonies, but launched into their dem¬ onstration when Sullivan was introduced. For about 10 minutes, Sullivan re¬ mained in his chair, waiting for the com¬ motion to die down. But when it became obvious the pro¬ testors had no intention of being quiet, Sullivan went to the podium and delivered his entire address. TV viewers and radio listeners were able to hear Sullivan, but the conference hall public-address system was not able to out-blast the demonstrators. As Sullivan continued his speech, the protestors became angrier and threw wads of paper and coins at him. On several occasions, Sullivan dodged the projectiles or put up his hand to stop them. He was hit at least twice. The protestors chanted, “No more talk; we want action,” “Get out!” and other, ob¬ scene slogans. On the stage, conference chairs John Ziegler and Paul Volberding, and U.S. Na¬ tional Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci, looked uneasy throughout the protest, but made no attempt to stop it. Among government bureaucrats, Fauci is the closest thing AIDS activists have to a friend. His remarks half-an-hour earlier were greeted mosdy with applause and friendly heckling. Fauci said that ACT UP “has some¬ thing important to say and can contribute constructively to our mission.” “When it comes to clinical trials, some of them are better informed than many sci¬ entists can imagine,” Fauci said. “[But they] are mistaken when they assume or at least publicly state that scientists do not care about them.” Such charges make scientists feel “in¬ adequate” and like “failures,” Fauci con¬ tinued. ‘This is devastating to a physician or scientist who has devoted years to AIDS research.” In an interview following the attack on Sullivan, Fauci called the disruption of the closing ceremonies “not constructive.” Other scientists and delegates were less hospitable, strongly denouncing ACT UP’s protests. Meanwhile, Ziegler, in his closing re¬ marks, called the attendance of 1,000 del- See CONFERENCE CLOSING, page 6 by Cliff O' Neill WASHINGTON — Gay and lesbian Americans in 1990 continue to be the ob¬ jects of widespread prejudice, defamation and hate-motivated violence, according to a survey of anti-gay violence and vic¬ timization, released June 7th by the Na¬ tional Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “Last year the lesbian and gay com¬ munity celebrated the 20th anniversary of the modem gay rights movement,” stated Kevin Berrill, Anti-Violence Project di¬ rector for the Task Force, releasing the re¬ port. “And although we have made re¬ markable strides toward equality and freedom in that time, this report shows that we remain a community under siege, batding an epidemic of bigotry and vi¬ olence.” The Task Force reported a total of 7,031 incidents of anti-gay violence and harassment in 1989 in its fifth annual “Anti-Gay Violence, Victimization and Defamation” report Of those, 2,332 were episodes of vandalism, intimidation, phys¬ ical violence and even murder. The re¬ maining 4,709 incidents documented in the report were cases of verbal harassment. Although the 1989 numbers were “slightly lower” than those in the group’s 1988 report, Berrill stated that the “rel¬ atively small difference” between the two years’ figures and other factors suggests that “it is not possible to accurately gauge how the national scope of the problem has changed.” Berrill cited a recent survey in the San Francisco Examiner, which found that seven percent of all gay men and lesbians had been victimized in the previous year, as an indicator that the Task Force survey counts only a small portion of the possible hundreds of thousands of anti-gay in¬ cidents which occur annually. As in past years, many of the in¬ cidents — 15 percent of this year’s fig¬ ures — were classified as “AIDS-related,” an indication, Berrill stated, that AIDS “continues to be a focus for anti-gay prej¬ udice and violence.” The 1989 report marks the first such survey since this spring’s signing of the federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act, a law which orders the Justice Department to collect statistics on hate-related crimes, in¬ cluding those motivated from bias based on sexual orientation. Also on hand at the cramped press con¬ ference called to release the survey was Sen. Alan Cranston (D-CA), the sponsor of the first Senate version of the Hate Crimes bill to include “sexual orienta¬ tion.” “The enactment of the Hate Crimes Statistics Act is not simply an accounting measure by which to assess the level of See VIOLENCE REPORT page 9 Threats, Vandalism and Physical Violence Reported in 1989 Homicide* (62) 'Includes death threats, intimidation with objects or weapons, and being chased or followed; does not include bomb threats. •Includes 15 ami-gay and 47 gay-relaicd homicides. Anti-gay homicides are those identified by local groups or police departments as clearly motivated by ami-gav prejudice. Gay-related homicides are those in which victims' sexual orientation appeared to be a relevant factor, but motivation was uncertain and anti-gay prejudice was not clearly manifest •Includes threats, verbal abuse and physical assaults by police officers. 5 Includes abductions, break-ins. victims spat upon and a tear gas bombing.