STEVE SACHS TELLS GBBA:
Organize, Fight, Be Strong,
and Raise Hell!
15 Questions
We Asked
The Alternative: l noticed there are some
empty chairs at the front of the room and
standing room only in the back of the room,
i think that’s because a lot of people are
afraid of being seen on television. And
they are afraid because I think they fear
they are going to lose their job if it's known
that they are here tonight. What do you
propose to do as Governor that will protect
people from having that fear of being Fired
because they are Gay or Lesbian?
Sachs: I would do everything I could
which includes the sponsorship of legisla¬
tion. and includes the issuance of an execu¬
tive order that makes it explicit which 1
believe is already implicit. And that is the
sexual preference is a non-merit factor, an
impermissable factor and ought to be an
illegal factor in hiring and firing decisions.
jusi a» race. »ex. religious conviction, or
other non-merit reasons are. And so that
is not some new position I’ve just come
to. It's a position I've held ever since the
issue came into my consciousness many
years ago. Continued on next page
On March 18, Steve Sachs, candidate
for Governor, addressed the Greater Bal¬
timore Business Association at Ethel's
Place before a capacity crowd. Steve was
born in Baltimore. He went to Baltimore
public schools. Then he went to Friends
School. He graduated in 1950. He then
went to Hartford College and graduated
in 1954, was given a Fulbright Scholarship
and went to Oxford, England. He was in
the Army for two years as an enlisted per¬
son. Graduated in I960 from Yale Law
School, he became an assistant and U.S.
Attorney General for Maryland. He went
into private practice. Elected as Attorney
General in 1978. he was reelected in 1982.
The following are his remarks after an in¬
troduction by Dr. Michael Kaplan, presi¬
dent of GBBA.
Let me thank you all for inviting me.
I’m glad you did and I'm glad to be here
to talk to you for awhile about what I think
the stakes are in this election. And some
particular reference of the concerns of the
Gay and Lesbian community as well as the
larger community of the state.
The Supreme Court vs.
George State Law
by Lisa M. Keen
The U.S. Supreme Court heard
oral arguments in Hardwick v Bowers, a
case which challenges the constitutionality
of the Georgia sodomy law. By the time the
one-hour proceedings were over. Gay legal
activists were expressing confidence in the
strength of the challenge and optimism
about the high court’s eventual ruling.
Activists’ confidence was boosted in part
by a stilted and unsteady performance by
the State of Georgia's counsel. Senior
Assistant Attorney General Michael Hobbs.
Hobbs, who seemed retiring and
intimidated throughout the proceeding,
presented a toned-down argument on behalf
of the state’s sodomy statute, which
prohibits both heterosexual and
homosexual sodomy. Where the state’s
written brief had included strong language
deriding homosexual sodomy as “an act of
sexual deviancy” which “epitomizes moral
delinquency,” Hobbs’ language Monday
was much more subdued, focusing instead
on the “traditional heritage” of the family in
America.
Without naming homosexual sodomy
specifically, Hobbs said the Georgia law
could be justified because “society can
express its condemnation for liaisons
outside of marriage,” and said that such
laws are needed to “maintain a decent and
moral society.”
But Hobbs ran into trouble early on when
Justice Lewis Powell (Nixon appointee)
asked how many times the State of Georgia
had prosecuted persons under the statute.
Hobbs hesitated for a moment, then
acknowledged that he didn’t know. Pressed
further, Hobbs speculated that the last
prosecution occurred in the “1930s or 40s.”
Asked by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor
(Reagan appointee) if the statute would
permit the prosecution of married couples,
Hobbs replied that the law did “not
differentiate between homosexual or
heterosexual couples.” But asked by Justice
John Paul Stevens (Ford appointee)
whether the application to married couples
might be unconstitutional, Hobbs replied,
“Probably. Yes."
Stevens, more than any other justice,
interrogated Hobbs about the need for the
statute. Noting that Hobbs had argued the
law was necessary to maintain a decent and
moral society, Stevens asked why then the
state did not prosecute Michael Hardwick,
the Atlanta Gay man who had been arrested
on the sodomy charge.
Again Hobbs hesitated, then said he did
“not know what was in the mind of the
district attorney” who originally handled,
and dropped, the case. Stevens said he found
it “puzzling” that Georgia decided not to
prosecute the case, yet considered the law
necessary to protect the public interest.
First of all, I run on a record. I run on
a record of which I'm really very proud.
I ran for the office of Attorney General,
saying that the office ought to be indepen¬
dent. And we kept that promise. I said the
office ought to be a strong advocate of the
consumer and we've kept that promise.
Ask Luskin! I said we would be a strong
advocate for the environment and we’ve
kepi that promise. Ask Fairchild! Ask
American Recovery! I said we would be
a strong advocate for competition in the
market place and we have been. Ask Blue
Cross and Blue Sheild.
We've stepped on some toes. There are
some folks who are not crazy about the
idea that Steve Sachs be the Governor of
Maryland. But we have seen to it that equal
justice under law is not just an empty
phrase in Maryland. We have seen to it
that the law has been an advocate. Particu¬
larly for those who are vulnerable.
I am as proud as proud can be of what
we have done to advance the claims to
equality and to be given the benefits that
the law promises of those in our society
who are disabled, of women, of racial
Continued on Page , 4
AIDS-1 00%
NOT 100%
by Dr. Stephen S. Caiazza
Dr. Stephen S. Caiazza, MD, internist
with special training in immunology in pri¬
vate practice in Manhattan, since 1982 he
has been specializing in AIDS disorders
(HTLV-III diseases); Chairman, NY Com¬
mittee of Concern Physicians: Member oj
the New York Governor's Committee on
Bathhouses; Inactive member of AIDS task
force of American Physicians for Human
Rights.
On Tuesday, March 18th, Dr. Caiazza
spoke to a small group of University oj
Maryland students in the Stamp Union s
Atrium. The comments made in this 35 -mi¬
nute speech formed the basis for this arti¬
cle. Dr. Caiazza spoke at length by tele¬
phone with us from his office in New York
on the issue of AIDS, Health Care in
America, and the war within the medical
community.
With proper public health efforts, in¬
cluding appropriate public health control
methods along with rather massive educa¬
tion methods, this disease, because of the
way it is transmitted, is 100% preventable.
This disease could be ended, immediately!
Preventable,
Lethal
Because of the very specific and very
difficult ways the virus goes from one per¬
son to another person it's a disease that is
100% preventable. It’s not air borne, food
borne, water borne. It's not like measles
orchickenpox or hepatitis or tuberculosis.
No one not infected today has to be in¬
fected tomorrow. There is nothing inevit¬
able about it.
The Problem Wilh Research
The health care system in the United
States is breaking down, especially in your
large urban areas. AIDS is perhaps the
straw that’s breaking the camel’s back and
perhaps the catalyst that’s going to make
this happen five or ten years sooner. But
it would have happened anyway.
There is a great deal of talk about spend¬
ing millions and millions and millions of
dollars on research to find a vacine, cure,
the cause of a disease the epidemiology of
which we know so well and is so well
understood that we can prevent it today.
(In response to the NIH genetic splicing
research of the smallpox vaccine and it’s
implications). For technical reasons a vac¬
cine may well be impossible. The anti¬
bodies produced by virus or any antigen
_ _ .H.,P,gr4 _
