Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 1, No. 12
Taking Pride in Our Culture
GERALD JONES
Skinheads, neo-Nazi by-products of the Punk movement, taunt demonstrators at the Free Speech site on Sunday before the
Democratic National Convention. Skinheads claim to be "the ultimate patriots", and have ironically chosen Little 5 Points as
their base of operation. See story page 6.
MACGLO Backs Police Committee,
Rejects Gay Center Task Force
Delegates and Activists at the
Democratic Convention were forced
to make hard decisions about how
lesbian/gay goals fit into the
Democrats' scheme for regaining the
White House. While the delegates
were planning, the activists were
playing havoc with Atlanta's city
government. Pages 3 & 5..
' ■ - ■ - , ' - :
EXIT - for a good time during
Decagon ’88, the tenth anniversary
Hotlanta River Raft Race. This special
pull-out feature will guide you to
Atlanta's hottest clubs after'you float
down the'Hooch. Centerfold.
Dancers' rides to the beat of sweet
success in the heart of L5P. Based on
service, Dancers' Bicycle Shop
celebrates their tenth anniversaty as a
lesbian-owned and operated business.
Rhodes for House District 46 is the
rallying call for the first openly gay
man to run for the Georgia House of
Representatives. An interesting
interview with the man who was also
Georgia's first openly gay man to be
sent to the Democratic National
Convention. Page 13.
Atlanta-Wi\h the question of exactly who
will act as official liaison between the
gay/lesbian community and the Atlanta
police still up in the air, members of the
Metropolitan Atlanta Council of Gay and
Lesbian Organizations (MACGLO) cast their
vote 21 to 1, endorsing the revamped Police
■ Advisory Committee developed by Cathy
Woolard, president of the ACLU's Gay and
Lesbian Rights Chapter (GayCLU).
MACGLO's endorsement leaves the
Atlanta Gay Center's Task Force on Anti
Gay Violence without a stamp of approval
from the organization, which represents
almost 50 of Atlanta's gay/lesbian groups.The
AGC and the GayCLU have been struggling
for the past several months over issues of
control of the advisory committee, with both
groups meeting with Commissioner Napper.
Woolard said she has had several productive
meetings with city officials recently,but was
"somewhat alarmed" by the prospect of
having Napper continue to deal with two
separate committees.
Michael Wilson, who represented the
AGC at the meeting and cast the lone
dissenting vote, stated that a copy of the
AGC's proposal outlining their plan for the
committee was sent to all MACGLO
organizations for their consideration several
months ago. However, when asked for a
show of hands, only two representatives had
received it. Some MACGLO members
expressed resentment they had not received
the proposal, since it names MACGLO as one
body from which committee members would
be drawn, but had seen it in print several times
in the AGC's publication, The News.
"It's time for the Gay Center to join the
community," said Nick Danna, a past
president of the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay
Rights Chapter. "We’re splitting the
community when people are dying."
Danna also suggested that the AGC, if they
choose to not work with the community,
should separate themselves and make it clear
that they are only representing themselves.
The AGC's Task Force was created last
April by administrator Richard Swanson and
board member Bill Gripp, after expressing
their disapproval over the Police Advisory
Committee's response to a Midtown shooting
believed to be an incident of anti-gay
violence. "We recognized a need in the
community, and as a responsible organization,
we responded to it," Wilson said.
It was also in April that Napper,
responding to complaints by the AGC about
the Police Advisory Committee, asked
ACLU-GA executive director Gene Guerrero
to instigate an overhaul of the committee.
Guerrero turned the job over to Woolard, who
outlined her reorganization plans at the
MACGLO meeting. Woolard said she had
tried to incorporate the AGC's ideas in setting
up the committee and had named a body of
people "as representative of this community
Cont'd. Page 6
Skinheads:
Fascism on
the Rise.
Page 6
August 4,1988
$800,000 Grant
In Jeopardy At
AID Atlanta
Atlanta-AID Atlanta and its executive
director, Burcn Batson, are under fire from
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which
funded a four-year 1.6 million dollar grant to
be administered by AID Atlanta under the
AIDS Health Services Program. In a letter
circulated to AID Atlanta's Board of
Directors, Dr. Mervyn Silverman, nationally
renowned AIDS expert and director of the
AIDS Health Services Program, criticized the
internal management of AID Atlanta and sent
back the proposal for Phase II of the grant,
valued at $800,000.
Rumors had circulated prior to the
regularly scheduled held July 27th board
meeting that Batson would ask that AID
Atlanta withdraw its participation from the
program in response to the highly critical
letter. Grassroots AIDS activists rallied
quickly and packed the board meeting to
ensure that the board kept the community's
best interest at heart. Batson emphatically
denied the charges in a pre-meeting interview.
The AIDS Health Services Program is a
model that is being watched closely from
around the country. Grady Memorial Hospital
and the Visiting Nurse's Association (VNA)
receive the lion's share of the grant monies,
while AID Atlanta administers the program
and acts as a central referral point in the
system. The goal behind the program is to
reduce the overall cost of health care for each
person with AIDS (PWA).
Silverman's letter cited five areas in which
AID Atlanta's administration was lacking:
poor communication with the subcontractors
and the community, low agency morale,
undocumented minority outreach programs,
inconclusive housing and long-term care
goals, and poor reporting standards. During
the meeting, Batson and Dr. Don Smith,
secretary of the board, characterized the
charges as "common mid-course corrections"
in a grant of this size. Batson stated that
"academicians" do not know how to manage
institutions. It must be noted that Silverman
ran the San Francisco Department of Health
during the early stages of the pandemic, and
his assistant, Cliff Morrison began the model
care program Ward 5B, which incorporated
lovers and gay family in the healing and
dying process of AIDS.
"Communication within the program, to
the subcontracors and with the community,
must be improved," said Silverman. "The
perception of AID Atlanta... was that the
organization is more interested in
administering the grant than in providing
services for PWAs," he concluded. The fear
that AID Atlanta was systematically
attempting to distance itself from the
gay/lesbian community was the prime
motivating factor for the presence of many of
Cont'd. Page 3