Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN
VOCE
A Look at
Little 5 Points
Page 6
Vol. 1, No. 6
■ ■ . -
News in Brief-just what it says.
Chicago researchers have
announced the discovery of a factor
in saliva that destroys HIV. Atlanta
attorney Gil Robison joined the
growing number of gay men and
lesbians seeking elected office.
And lesbian leaders discussed the
importance of a visible presence as
lesbians. Plus much more! Page 2.
Little 5 Points gamers the spotlight
in this first of a continuing series
about the eclectic intown
community which is quickly
becoming the next "in spot" Pages
6&7. •
I Tiie Registry is the UCbl IVaAIUIVA/ lit
town for gay men and lesbians to
find their place(s) in the
community. Adanta's largest listing
of organizations, the Registry
contains 34 groups waiting to hear
from you. Page 10.
Counterculture pulls you behind
the scenes to reveal the latest
appearance of lesbians and gay men
in the mass media. "Heartbeat," a
medical "LA Law," introduced two
lesbian characters on ABCs attempt
to catch prime-time viewers.
"inside/OUT" is the gay/lesbian
alternative to NPR. The half-hour
nationally syndicated radio show,
the first of its kind, airs weekly on
WRFG-FM 89.3 during K.C.
Wildmoon's show, "Still Ain't
Satisfied." Page 11.
Mandatory AIDS testing flops!
In states that have attempted to
mandate testing for HIV, the
expense has forced them to consider
changing their policy less than one
year after the policy was instituted.
Page 12.
Personals and Classifieds grow in
Adanta's best deal on classifieds.
Our classifieds cost you $3.00 for 3
weeks for 30 words and reach
thousands of lesbians and gay men
every other week. Kinda silly to
loaf at $ 17.00 for one week in a
straight publication, huh?
Taking Pride in Our Culture May 12,1988
AIDS Vigil Sends Message to Gov. Harris
Spring Atns Af*inR '88 drew the concerned and the angry to the State Capitol steps for a 26-hour vigil to
protest Gov. Harris' negligence in the face of the AIDS crisis. Photos by Pam Cole, Rhonda Mensen.
Surrounded by strips of masking tape representing
outlined bodies, a sign affixed to the steps of the Capitol
Saturday morning read, "Georgia State Capitol: Same of
the Crime 1988."
A little further up the steps, m front of the imposing
statue that looks out over Washington Street, lay a
banner entitled, "Send The Governor a Message about
AIDS." One of the many handwritten inscriptions read,
"I voted for you. God, if I had only known that you
would forsake so many."
The occasion was an all-night vigil sponsored by the
Atlanta March Committee to protest the cutting of ADS
funding by Gov. Joe Frank Harris, and what speaker
Janet Callum of the Feminist Women's Health Center
described as "punitive measures and meager funding"
from legislators.
Supporters began arriving shortly before noon Friday,
and more than 100 were still on hand the fallowing
morning when Fulton County Commission chaiiman
Michael Lomax and several representatives from social
service agencies dealing with AIDS addressed the crowd.
The March Committee's Johnny Veimont read a
statement which said, in part, "In a state which has the
seventh highest number of people with ARC/AIDS,
Georgia remains near the lowest in its per capita AIDS
Gov. Harris slashed by 75% the recent
requests of the Department cf Human Resources for $2.6
million for the most minimal statewide AIDS funding."
The statement went on to call for "massive allocations
of state funds" to provide education statewide, as well as
housing, mental health services, and care arrangements
forARC/PWA's.
Lomax told listeners they must continue to make
legislators aware of these needs. "We need you to speak
out loudly," he said.
He admitted that although state and municipal
government is "doing some things right... we're doing
too many things wrong or not doing them at all."
In addition to providing fimmal support to AID
Atlanta, Lomax said the city erf Atlanta is also working
toward an expansion of Grady Memorial Hospital, which
will include some 60 beds earmarked for AIDS patients.
A separate facility for those patients is also a possibility.
The Board of Commissioners has approved the hiring
of two consultants who will design an "AIDS plan of
action" fa the city. An AIDS task force will be
established that, according to Lomax, will be "a
progressive force in the commimity."
Lomax is particularly concerned with the need to
expand AIDS education beyond the gay and lesbian
commimity. Intravenous drug users and low-income
communities make up "a very much larger population
than know that they're at risk," he said.
According to Callum, women have also received
insufficient attention and education. "AIDS education,
up to this point, has been largely tmavailable to women,"
she said.
Bruce Gamer, president of AID Atlanta's board of
directors, said that agency's caseload now stands at
around 550 active clients, with 30-40 being added per
month.
Gamer stressed the importance of making the public
at large more aware of the situation, saying, "If that
happens, then AID Atlanta will cease to exist, and I will
be glad of that." ,
Although the Georgia legislature has legalized
mandatory testing in some instances, Linda McSwarn of
the Geotgia Nurses Association said that organization
believes voluntary screening is the key to slowing the
spread of AIDS. She emphasized that results must be
kept completely confidential, saying, "Being seropositive
is not a crime, but discrimination is."
The only speaker to receive hostile reactions from the
crowd was Jane Carr of the’Georgia Department of
Continued on Page 3
Methodists Reject Gays & Lesbians
United Methodist
delegates voted 676-293
May 2,1988, to uphold a
1984 ban preventing
"self-avowed, practicing
homosexuals" from
serving as clergy.
Delegates to the 1988
General Conference, held
in St. Louis, Missouri,
also voted to keep in its
Book of Discipline the
statement that "the
practice of homosexuality
is incompatible with
Christian teaching." This
statement was originally
included at the 1972
General Conference.
"I'm disappointed,"
said Rev. Sally V. Daniel,
pastor of the Grant Park-Aldersgate United
Methodist Church, "but I'm not surprised that
they voted to keep the position." The Grant
Park-Aldersgate church submitted a petition to
the Conference stating the congregation's
desire that the ordination of homosexuals be
allowed.
"You can't write off one million
Methodists," Rev. Daniel said. "If statistics for
the Church hold, then approximately 10
percent of all United Methodists are gay or
lesbian. They are a presence that is going to be
heard."
The General Conference meets every four
years to determine Church policy. Delegates
are sent from each conference across the
country as representatives. Atlanta-area United
Methodist churches are members of the North
Georgia Conference which sends 11 clergy and
11 lay delegates to the Conference.
Rev. Rex Kaney, senior minister at Trinity
United Methodist Church in downtown
Atlanta, said that he is "disappointed that the
Church has made the issue
of homosexuality a focal
point for so long."
"The Church needs to be
open to looking at current
medical and psychological
findings about
homosexuality," Rev.
Kaney said. "I hope this
isn't the end of it"'
Grant Park-Aldersgate
is one of 32 reconciling
congregations in the United
Methodist Church. A
reconciling congregation is
one which accepts gay men
and lesbians openly. In its
"Statement of
Reconciliation," the Grant
Park-Aldersgate
congregation says, "We
affirm lesbians and gay men as full participants
in our congregation. We will advocate their
rights as human beings and as Christians."
"The position that we have taken is not
wildly extreme," Rev. Daniel said of her
congregation's reconciliation statement "There
are many people who feel as we do."
The next General Conference will be held in
1992. While individual churches may make
statements of their own in the interim, no
official statements from the United Methodist
Church concerning the issue of homosexuality
or any other issue may be made except at
General Conference.
"My prayer is that some day all of the
business about homosexuals is simply out, that
there is simply nothing said," Rev. Daniel said.
"And I think that day will come."
- Sharon D. Blalock
Rev. Sally Daniel
Photo by Kathie deNobriga