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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