Baltimore Alternative, September 1989

ТЬе ВаЫмояе SEpTEMbsR 1 989 ALTERNATIVE AnotUer Voi'ce, AnotUer ChoicE... FREE Rep. Barney Frank Requests Ethics Investigation Himself Openly Gay Congressman Wants to Make Sure 'Record is Clear' 100,000 AIDS Cases: The Crisis Continues Financial Woes, Complacency the New Enemies by Cliff O'Neill WASHINGTON— Openly gay Rep. В яг- ney Frank (D-MA) has sent a letter to a House ethics panel requesting that they in¬ vestigate his employment of a male prostitute as a personal assistant and charges that the prostitute ran gay and bisexual escort servic¬ es our of Frank’s Washington. D.C. home. "Questions have been raised about my employment of a personal assistant during the penod between 1985 to 1987,” wrote Frank in an official letter to Reprcsentivc C. Dixon (D-CA), chair of the ethics panel. “I have publicly responded to these questions and have expressed regret for the mistaken judgement involved.” “In order to ensure that the record is clear, I hereby request that the Committee on Standards and Official Conduct conduct an investigation into these matters.” The letter comes in the wake of revela¬ tions that Frank hired male prostitute and pimp Steven L. Gobie as a housekeeper and chauffeur in- 1985 after initially paying him S80 cash for sex and further revelations that Gobie ran prostitution services out of *7 hadn’t thought that gross stupidity was a violation of House rules Frank’s Capitol Hill apartment for two years afterwards. Frank has stated that he fired Gobie in August 1987, after he learned Gobie was running the service out of the apartment. House ethics inquiries may be launched whenever a House member believes another has done something which could reflect poorly on the body. Of the inquiry, Frank told The Washing¬ ton Post, “I hadn’t thought that gross stupid¬ ity was a violation of House rules.” When the Post asked him if he thought his actions were stupid, he responded, “Yes, in two ways. First, by trying to resolve my own emotional feelings by using a prosti¬ tute, and by delivering your life into the hands of someone who wanted to be the Mayflower Madam.... Shame on me for not knowing better.” see REP. BARNEY FRANK page 7 by Cliff O' Neill The nation recently passed through a somber threshold. With little attention, the American population has witnessed the achievement of a morbid milestone. On July 1, 1989, the 100,000lh case of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome was reported to the Centers for Disease Con¬ trol. With an average of 189 AIDS cases re¬ ported to the CDC ever)- day, AIDS has hit a SHOT FOR SEX What Happened in Druid Hill Park? What’s Going to Be Done? by Garey Lambert A warm Friday afternoon in August, and two men, hungry for sex, find each other and seek their comfort in a secluded area near the Baltimore Zoo’s Reptile House in Druid Hill Park. What the men did not know as they dis¬ robed in the warm sunshine, and as their clandestine, anonymous relationship became intimate, was that they were being watched. Two Northern District vice cops, in plainclothes, assigned to the park following “citizen complaints,” had seen these men meet, followed them as they retreated to their secluded rendezvous, watched as they disrobed, and waited until their bodies touched. Then, and only then, did they re¬ veal themselves. Both men, apparendy shocked and terrified, ran. The first was apprehended rather easily, according to the few public statements about the incident released by the police. But the second man was pursued for quite a distance before being caught — then shot. The shooting was accidental, say the po¬ lice. They say that Sergeant Robert O'Connell’s service revolver “slipped” from his waistband and that he “managed to catch it.” They say that when the “suspect” was apprehended, the two men fell, and that the impact of the fall caused the pistol to dis¬ charge. The “suspect” was struck once in the “...this just couldn’t have happened the way the police say it did. " upper left arm. The wound was not fatal, or even critical. Because an internal investigation must be conducted following any incident during which a policeman fires his weapon, the po¬ lice reports have not been made available to the press. Police spokeswoman Arlene Jenkins told the Evening Sun that “preliminary details in¬ dicate that the shooting is in no way related to a person’s sexual preference.” see SHOT FOR SEX page 4 new and grim landmark: six digits. With eight years of mounting caseloads and gruesome predictions, many in the gay/ lesbian community have become desensi¬ tized to the ever-rising numbers. Which often makes it difficult to understand, or even to accept them. So what does 100,000 repre¬ sent? One hundred-thousand represents the en¬ tire population of Alexandria, VA; of Fimqj- lon, CA; of Davenport, IA. One hundred- thousand represent the total number of peo¬ ple employed by McDonnell Douglas, Exx¬ on or Xerox. One hundred-thousand repre¬ sent the entire number of dentists in America, all the active duty officers in the U.S. army or the Air Force, or the total amount of pediatricians and general practi¬ tioners in the U.S. combined. And of those 100,000, there have already been over 60,000 deaths, well over the total number of deaths in cither the Vietnam or Korean Wars. Today, the numbers represent not only the staggering numbers in cities like New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles; they arc 84 people in steel town Allentown, PA, 122 residents of the New West’s Tulsa, OK, 76 in the breadbasket’s Omaha, NE, 105 lives in Old New England’s Springfield, MA, and an overwhelming 1,564 souls in the Caribbean’s San Juan, PR. “But the devastating meaning of the [100,000] number reaches far beyond the stark reality of lives lost and lives now at risk," stated Jean McGuire, executive direc¬ tor of the AIDS Action Council. “The real news today is that what took eight years to happen so far will sadly be repeated within fifteen months when the next 100,00 cases are reported.” ) AIDS CASES page 33 NEWS When the Gridlock Break „ Senate Disabilities Discrimination Bill . FDA Advisory Panel OKs Parallel Track . Across America . P- 5 p.6 HEALTH Touching AIDS Through The Soul . Alcohol, Drugs and AIDS The Best Drug For AIDS AIDS UPDATE ART Safe Sex At Spotlighter’s p. 31 1989 Gay World Series p. 35