Metropolitan Baltimore Alternative, June 1986

'krtMAJ-' №>-j Business Guide Inside for Friends The Metropolitan, Baltimore JUNE 1986 Alternative To his memory / Л - T \ \ 11= AJ The Wit, PBIDE Wisdom , A Bit of Crisp Quentin Crisp. Author, ancient deity, Pysche, Superstar, survivor, shaman of the consciousness is over 80 years young and still very much in posses¬ WEEK sion of his british accent (not all that incredi¬ ble considering he's only been here since 78). But to maintain the mother tongue after such an intense exposure to it’s bastard son (native New Yorkers) seems more than remarkable and more than civilized. He sounds much like the actor, John Hurt, who portrayed him in the film version of his book of the same name. The Naked Civil Servant. The interview took place, over the telephone on a Monday morning, a few days away from his much publicized performance as part of Pride Week. Although arranged the day before, in the midst of his entertain¬ ing (to which we apologized for disrupting), was not as hurried as was the preparations for the interview. Mr. Crisp sounded very cordial and relax¬ ed but responded quickly and alert to each inquiry as though he'd long sirwe reasoned his replies. Midway in the interview we began to feel very emjiathetic toujard him. Empathetic. sympathetic, sad. and powerless to do something that which would add to the quality and joy of his life. He lives in a group home and has very little money to ■support himself. One can easily personalize his cir¬ cumstances and want to respond to them as though he were the antediluvian patriarch or long discarded grand perefrom one's past. We can only hope that his wisdom and humor might somehow convey to the reader those same feelings of empathy, sympathy, and sadness as well. And while we may have felt powerless you may conceive a solution that we could not conceive. t M 1 2 Pride Week Activities Continued on Page 13 Saturday May 31st: Cruise aboard the M/V Port Welcome 7:30 - Midnight. Ship docked in front of Light Street Pavillionlnner Harbor Sunday June 1st: Aids Healing Service at 5:00 pm. First and Franklin Sts the Presbyterian Church, Park Avenue at Madison St. Sponsored by the Baltimore Ci¬ ty Council of Churches Monday June 2nd: Lecture - Politics by David Sconders, Boston City Counil. GLCCB 241 West Chase St at 7:30 pm Tuesday June 3rd: Lecture - AIDS UPDATE by Dr. Frank Polk, Johns Hopkins University Hospital. GLCCB 241 West Chase St at 7:30 pm Wednesday June 4th: Lecture - Women Centering St Johas Methodist Church 27th Street at St Paul 7:30 pm Glitter and Be gay - featuring the Baltimore Men’s Chorus 1900 St Paul Street 8:00 pm Thursday June 5th: Film Screening Charles Theatre: Parting Glances 7:30 pm to benefit GLCCB Lecture - Forward Together by Brian McNaught St Johns Methodist Church 27th Street at St Paul 7:30 pm The NGLTF s Anti-Gay Violence Report: Part I Anti-gay violence, a longstanding pro¬ blem in America, continued to be widespread in 1985. More than two thou¬ sand acts of anti-gay violence and victimiza¬ tion across the United States were reported to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF). Documented by organizations in 44 communities an by the National GayLes- bian Crisisline, these episodes are a very small fraction of the actual number that oc¬ curred during the year, organizations reporting to NGLTF observed that anti-gay violence occurred more fre¬ quently in 1985 than in 1984, and attributed at least part of the increase to "AIDS backlash." Incidents in 1985 reported to NGLTF in¬ clude the following: — In Jacksonville, Florida, arsonists twice set fire to the local Metropolitan Community Church, a Christian church serving the gay and lesbian community. Attacks against the church became so frequent that bulletproof windows had to be installed. —Screaming “Die AIDS faggot!" a man accompanied by several others threw a beaker of acid at a lesbian employee of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center. The victim sustained serious burns on her face and torso. —In Vermont, a gay man was stabbed to death by a man who later said, "I killed him because he looked like a fag.” In addition to the incidents reported to NGLTF, surveys released by seven organiza¬ tions in 1985 further demonstrated the per¬ vasiveness of anti- gay violence. All surveys showed high rates of victimization, com¬ parable to those documented in NGLTFs national study. Despite lobbying efforts by NGLTF. fedral agencies dealing with crime and its victims failed to take steps to study or remedy the problem. Many state and local governments likewise failed to take ap¬ propriate action. Co-ta-ollP4e ,4 ИНДИИ - — — ". 1 Photos by Сарру Jackson for Felipe INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Schaefer’s Speech Buddies Event Review Protection Suggestions Why Baltimore Was Left Out ! Business Guide Inside for Friends AIDS — Not 100% Lethal Stephen S. Caiazza, MD. Internist and former Nil l (National Institutes of Health) Research Fellow in immunology. Now in private practice in Manhattan. Specializing since 1982 in AIDS and AIDS-related disorders, what Dr. Caiazza refers to as the Spectrum of HTLV-3 Disease. Chairman, New York Committee of Concerned Physi¬ cians ; Member, New York State AIDS Ad¬ visory Council Sub-committee on Commer¬ cial Sex Establishments; Member, AIDS Task Force American Association of Physi¬ cians for Human Rights; Member, Interna¬ tional Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War; Attending Physician, Cabrini Hospital Medical Center. ed. note— The first article by Dr. Caiazza published in our first issue drew criticism both the doctor and we were surprised to receive. We stand by our article but are reprinting the doctors commeftts with more elaboration and with a fuller text of his com¬ ments. Subscribers to and readers of the New England Journal of Medicine may be more familiar with the controversy surrounding the following information. Somethings are infinitely clear, however. They are: AIDS is 100% preventable, that everyone with the HTLV-III antibody will not necessarily die, and individuals with the HTLV-III antibody can repair their immune if given enough time without subsequent reexposure. The only bad news is that even if a “cure” is found for AIDS that it would not benefit in¬ dividuals with severely damaged immune systems. This indeed is a tragedy. But the greater tragedy would be to not do what can be done to eliminate the transmission of the disease. Dr. Caiazza spoke to a small group of University 0} Maryland students in the Stamp Union’s Atrium. The comments made in this 35 minute speech and the 45 minute question and answer period that followed formed the basis for this article. Dr. Caiazza spoke at length from his office in New York on the issue of AIDS, Health Care in America, and the growing conflict within the medical and research communities. There are only a few and very limited number of ways in which AIDS can be transmitted from person to person, it is ac¬ tually a very difficult disease to catch. In fact, it is 100% preventable. Therefore, pro¬ per public health policy— which would in¬ volve a combination of standard and ap¬ propriate infectious disease control measures along with a massive educational effort that would target not only those in recognized risk groups, but the general public as well, placing special emphasis on adolescents and young adults, whom we could reach through the school systems— could eliminate this disease immediately. This disease and the tradegy, suffering and strife that goes with it could be ended. No.w! It is extremely difficult to transmit the virus necessary to develop AIDS. Thus we say AIDS is not acquired through casual con¬ tact. That is, it is not airborne, food-borne, water-borne. You cannot get it from in¬ animate objects like a counter top or a toilet seat. It is not like measles or chickenpox or even hepatitis or tuberculosis. It is acquired only through the repeated exposure to two bodily products— blood and semen. And the exposure has to be such that the blood or semen carrying the AIDS virus is inoculated directly into the blood stream. This is not only difficult to do, but it is en¬ tirely dependent on behavior. That's why I often say, "You have to work to get AIDS." This is another way of saying that AIDS is 100 % preventable. For if we eliminate for the moment pediatric and transfusion associated disease, there are only two ways a person can get AIDS. Through receiving an inoculation of contaminated blood from shared needles while doing drugs and receiv¬ ing contaminated blood or semen in the rec¬ tum, mouth or vagina during sexual inter¬ course. Blood and semen. Needles and sex. That’s how AIDS is transmitted and that's why it is also preventable. No one not infected today, need be in¬ fected tomorrow. There is nothing inevitable about AIDS. Continued on Page 15