- Title
- Baltimore Alternative, November 1989
-
-
- Identifier
- BA_89_November
-
-
- Subjects
- ["AIDS activists","LGBTQIA","LGBTQ issues","LGBTQ life","AIDS (Disease)","Baltimore (Md.)","Maryland"]
-
- Description
- The Baltimore Alternative newspaper November 1989 issue.
-
-
- Date Created
- 01 November 1989
-
-
- Format
- ["pdf"]
-
- Language
- ["English"]
-
- Collection Name
- ["Baltimore Alternative collection"]
-
Baltimore Alternative, November 1989
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Danes
Make
History:
Gays Legally
Marry
page 4
Randy
Shilts
to Speak
at Loyola
page 19
D.C. Hosts
First Gay
East Coast
Tournament
page 30
"-'-e
when 1989
LTERISATI VE
AIDS Services Perform Well After SF Quake
AIDS Service Providers Respond to Needs of All San Franciscans— Most AIDS
Services Continue Uninterrupted— Cay Enclaves Spared Major Damage— Service
Providers May Need up to $200,000 in Assistance— AIDS Action Baltimore Sends
$1500 in Relief Funds
The Castro Theater closed for
repairs due to earthquake damage.
by Garey Lambert
Only moments after San Francisco’s
earth stopped moving on October 17th,
AIDS service organizations in San Francis¬
co began to react, and tried to reach the
more than 2,000 homebound AIDS clients
in the city. Of paramount concern was the
safety of housebound or bedbound PWAs.
But, in the horrifying confusion; with no
electricity, a sinking sun and only spotty,
erratic telephone service, contacting
people — clients, volunteers, friends and
co-workers — was enormously difficult.
Though most AIDS organizations managed
to maintain their programs and services
with relatively few disruptions, volunteers
and social workers had to work in a dark¬
ened, frightened city, and travel through
chaotic, often rubble-filled streets to reach
ill, sometimes panic-stricken clients. If
their phones worked at all, many wheel¬
chair bound clients couldn’t negotiate the
debris in their apartments or homes to an¬
swer them. Volunteers told of waiting for
fifteen to twenty minutes for a dial tone,
and of dialing hundreds of times before
reaching a number — only to hear a busy
signal or to get no answer. If radio or televi¬
sion stations were on the air, many people
had no electricity with which to hear news
reports. Transportation was crippied by
massive traffic jams, no traffic signals and
no street lights. Yet clients were reached —
even moved from unsafe buildings — and no
client lives were lost
‘That isn’t to say it wasn’t dreadfully
frightening for us or our clients,” says Hol¬
ly Smith of San Francisco’s Shanti Project.
“Imagine the fear and confusion of being
very sick and bedbound, of experiencing
the Quake, of having the lights go out,
plaster fall from the ceiling maybe, no
phone service, and then having to wait in
that awful, eerie silence until finally some¬
one comes. For People With AIDS, this
earthquake was just one more awful indig¬
nity to bear.”
“We operate fourteen different houses
throughout the city that house whole
see AIDS SERVICES page 6
Pentagon Officials Blast Commission Report on Homosexuality
Paper Urged Dept, of Defense to End Its Ban on Lesbians and Gay Men
by Cliff O'Neill
WASHINGTON — After heated pres¬
sure from gay and lesbian activists and
members of Congress, a 10-month old un¬
classified report has surfaced which urges
the Department of Defense to eliminate its
ban on lesbians and gay men in the mili¬
tary. The report had been commissioned
by the Pentagon and, in memos made pub¬
lic at the same time, was roundly criticized
by the Department of Defense as wasteful,
inappropriate and excessive.
In Pentagon memos obtained by the
The ALTERNATIVE, Deputy undersecre¬
tary of Defense Craig Alderman, Jr. dispar¬
aged the report, calling it “technically
flawed.” Stating that the report was intend¬
ed to only re-examine personnel security
risks in the military, he argued that it was
waste of government resources, over¬
stepped its mandate, and opened the de¬
partment in charge to widespread criticism.
“We... believe you missed the target,”
Alderman wrote in one January memo.
“Moreover, you exceeded your authority
by extending the research effort beyond
the personnel security arena, and into an¬
other area entirely, namely suitability for
military service.”
The report, titled, “Nonconforming
Sexual Orientations and Military Suitabili¬
ty,” was commissioned by the Department
of Defense in the wake of the 1987 Walk¬
er spy incident and was to examine the
limited issue of whether homosexuals are
security risks. Written by the Defense De¬
partment’s Personnel Security Research
and Education Center (PERSEREC), the
report has been sent back to its authors to
be redone.
PERSEREC’s Dr. Theodore Sarbin,
one of the report’s two authors, has stated
that while he is now working on a “sani¬
tized report which will be limited to the
security personnel issue, it will reach the
same conclusion as in the initial report,
that homosexuals pose no greater security
risk than heterosexuals.”
Reps. Gerry E. Studds (D-MA) and Pat
Schroeder (D-CO) met with deputy under¬
secretary Alderman and report co-author
Sarbin Oct. 18th to discuss the report and
accompanying Pentagon memos which
had been obtained over the Pentagons’
objections.
Studds told The ALTERNATIVE that,
at the onset of the meeting, he made AI-
Rep. Gerry E. Studds (D-MA)
derman aware that he had independently
obtained a copy of the report so as Aider-
man would not “put his foot in his mouth”
during the meeting.
“I think it is a superb piece of work
from an academic and scholarly point of
view,” Studds stated. “It clearly, and calm¬
ly and rationally addresses a question
which needs addressing both from the per¬
spective of gay men and lesbians who
would appreciate the right to serve their
“For one wonderfully
embarrassing moment,
the Pentagon was caught
with its prejudices
down.”
—Rep. Gerry E. Studds
country if they choose, and from the per¬
spective of their country which very much
needs their services.... For one wonderful¬
ly embarrassing moment, the Pentagon
was caught with its prejudices down.”
Studds, one of two openly gay mem¬
bers of Congress, began pressuring the
Pentagon to make a copy of the
героя
available six months ago after staffers
я
the Lambda Legal Defense and Education
Fund first became aware of the report’s
existence. While conducting research aa
the case of Joseph Stcffan a gay man who
claims he was forced to resign from the
U.S. Naval Academy after he acknowl-
see PENTAGON BLASTS page 2
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