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AIDS FOCUS The following is an excerpt from Ward 5B: Voices of AIDS by Rebecca Ranson to be published by Viking Penguin Press in 1989. The interviews for the book were completed in 1984. Jesse had received his AIDS diagnosis a few hours before. He had Kaposi's but none of his lesions were evident to me. He had known when he left New York that he had ADS. He left home to die in San Francisco. Jesse had led a double life - family man and gay man. He could not bear for his family to know the truth. He said that he had made their lives hard enough already by being an alcoholic and he would not put them through ADS. So he boarded a plane under an assumed name and disappeared, giving his family and friends no warning and no way to trace him. I asked him if he felt that was fair to them and he told me that it was more fair than having his mother, his wife, his children know that he had slept with other men and was dying from AIDS. I asked about his lover. Jesse said there had been no lover, just multiple sexual partners in public places with no exchange of names. I asked if he didn't want someone with him for the duration of the disease. He said that he had always done everything alone and he could do AIDS alone. He talked about how supportive the people on the ward were, said that he had been given this robe, a toothbrush and soap from the supplies that had been donated by the community. That seemed to please him. Jesse had read about 5B in New York so he knew where he was coming when he left the city. He said that pacing the hall wasn't restlessness but the need for a drink. He laughed, told me they were putting him in a detoxification program the next day. "I don't know," he said. "I don't know how the drunks are going to react to a gay man with ADS. It could be pretty rough." He paced the room. "I mean the hell of it is that I'm going to be sober for the first time in twenty years just so I can die with ADS." He got tears in his eyes, talked about the drinking, said he always worked and he always kept a bottle with him, that the drink on the plane might have been his last. "Hell of a time to give up drinking." He said that he might just drink himself to death when things got rough, then he said he didn't want to die drunk. I asked Jesse what he would do if he got well enough to get out of the hospital for a while. He didn't know. He didn't know one person in San Francisco. He thought the Shanti people might be able to help. "I don't know about this dying stuff," he said. "I've thought alxtut suicide." Jesse asked me what 1 would do if I was dying. I had spent some time thinking about it I found it impossible not to think about dying while watching people around me die. I had talked to another man whose lover had AIDS and the lover had decided to commit suicide if he got to the place where the pain was terrible. They had a pact that they would make the decision together and if that time came, they would do it as a ritual, plan it, make it beautiful. The lover's death would be something they would share. I told Jesse that story. We talked religion a few minutes; whether God would be angry if Jesse took his own life, whether he would have the nerve to do it, what it would feel like to know you were going to die in the next few minutes. Jesse looked tired. He had stopped pacing around and was very still, very thoughtful. "I can't believe this is all there is," he said. I gave him my address and phone number. "If you want to talk or something, call me collect," I said. He never called. I have no idea what happened to Jesse. - Rebecca Ranson Updates 24 Hour AIDS Rally Scheduled for May 6-7: YOUR HELP IS CRUCIAL The Atlanta March Committee is organizing Atlanta’s participation in the nationwide Spring AIDS Action '88. The Spring AIDS Action is coordinated nationally by the ACT NOW network, as nine consecutive days of AIDS awareness activities focusing on particular related topics. Atlanta's activities will include a Women and AIDS forum at Charis Books and Mere on May 5th and a 24-hour rally at the State Capitol beginning at noon on May 6th and culminating with a speaker's rally at noon on May 7th. Featured speakers include Michael Lomax, Dazan Dixon (Feminist Women's Health Center, Doris Burke (Outreach, Inc.), representatives from the Atlanta Chapter of the NAtional Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA), the Georgia Nurses Association, Red Cross, Department of Human Resources, AID Atlanta, Living AIDS Memorial Project (LAMP), and many others. WE NEED YOUR HELP! Our goal is to have 200 people at the State Capitol at all times during the 24-hour time period in order to demonstrate our concern about the lack of response by our state government on this critical public health issue. We need people to make a committment to be present and bring their friends, lovers, family and organizations. We need people to work, to help us publicize the event and to help with events taking place at the Capitol. You name it, we need it. Our next meeting is at the Highland Branch Library on the comer of St. Charles Ave.and North Highland Ave. on Tuesday April 12th at 7:30 PM. If you can't be present, call Cathy Woolard at 377-8312 for more information on how you can be involved. In the meantime, let your friends know that you plan to be there and that they should be too! Florida Gov. Calls for AIDS Quarintine Tallahassee, Fla. - Gov. Bob Martinez issued a histrionic call for quarantine of people with ADS (PWA's) during his annual State of the State address before the joint Florida General Assembly April 5, 1988. In his budget request for fiscal year 1988, the governor has asked for $20 million dollars to fight AIDS. Over 4,000 cases of AIDS have been reported in Florida since 1981, with 28,000 more cases of the deadly disease expected by 1991. "The time has come to quarantine those whose character and conduct are a clear threat to scoiety," said Martinez. He continued, "AIDS carriers who refuse to stop spreading this fatal disease should no more be allowed to roam free than criminals armed with a deadly weapon." The Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS) and Martinez are apparently enamored of quarantining PWA's which they first tried legally in June of 1987. Since that first attempt, which was shouted down by a chorus of gay/lesbian, AIDS, and human rights advocates, HRS and Martinez have come up with the current proposal which would place the responsibility for arresting "AIDS carriers" in the hands of the police, and require the court system to identify persons as public health risks. Athough no report was available on the criteria HRS espouses for determining public health risks, a first-time offender would be subject to a form of house arrest - limited activities and restricted associations. Upon arrest for a second offense, a person "would be placed in a round-the-clock supervised living arrangement similar to a half-way house.” Soviet Doctors Urge Construction of ADS Hospital Moscow - Doctors in the Soviet Union want to build a special center for the treatment of AIDS patients, but construction could take four years to start Moscow Radio interviewed a leading Soviet AIDS expert who spoke of the plans, saying the building would be used to periodically treat PWA's for one or two weeks at a time. Valentin Pokrovsky, director of the Epidemiological Research Institute, complained that plans are moving too slowly, and Boston-]n an unprecedented cooperative effort, the publishing industry has joined together to make a free AIDS book available to consumers this June. The bode, titled You Can Do Something About AIDS, contains forty-five short chapters, each outlining specific ways that individuals can help in the fight against AIDS. Every chapter has been contributed by a different person; the writers range from local AIDS activists to nationally known figures. Among them are Elizabeth Taylor, Harvey Fierstein, John Preston, Whoopi Goldberg, Jody Powell, and Greg Louganis. Sasha Alyson, head of Alyson Publications, has donated most of his time for the past nine months to coordinate the project. ''The book industry has never before contributed money and services to provide a free book to the public," said Alyson. predicted the disease would start spreading more rapidly in the Soviet Union. He stated that in December of 1987 there were 230 people in the USSR carrying the virus, and reported in the interview that one Soviet citizen was undergoing treatment for AIDS, while fifty other Soviets are registered as infected. Another doctor quoted during the interview reportedly said that plans for the requested building have been sent to the Moscow City Council where the project is moving extremely slowly. Ad Atlanta Benefit Sale On Sunday, April 17th, AID Atlanta will hold a benefit sale. AID Atlanta provides education to the community and social services to people with AIDS. The hours of the sale are from 10:00AM to 6:00 PM, at American Legion Hall, 1071 Piedmont Ave. Rain date is set for Sunday, May 1. All donations are tax deductible. For more information call 524 4875 or 493-9321. Page 12