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TIA NIKOLOPOULAS
House district 46 candidate Doug Teper met with lesbians and gays at a function
hosted by former rival Dick Rhodes on August 20th. Rhodes, an openly gay man, lost
his race against Teper and a field of 6 others during the general primary. Teper will
face Holly Bates in the August 30th run-off. Teper expressed a commitment to lesbian
and gay issues when he spoke. Rhodes said he held the get-together to encourage
lesbians and gays to stay involved in DeKalb County Democratic politics.
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to voice their complaints.
Similar protests were held in other cities
last week, with a national day of protest
scheduled for Saturday, September 3rd. ACT
UP will be participating in Saturday's events,
according to Meredith, and is calling for
people to join them. The contact numbers for
ACT UP are 3774803 and 289-6358.
Circle K is the second largest chain of
retail convenience stores in the country with
4,097 stores throughout 27 states. Only the
Dallas-based Southland Corp., which operates
the 7-11 chain, is larger. Circle K has 19
stores in the Atlanta area.
The company originally agreed to
negotiate with Arizona activist Ed Buck on
the policy when they realized the strength of
the negative reaction. Company officials,
however, refused to meet with Buck at the last
minute. They issued a terse statement
explaining that all decisions concerning
corporate policy would originate from within,
and they would not negotiate with "outside
sources." They did, however, agree to
suspend implementations of the policy until
August 31st, when they would have had a
chance to review the policy.
Buck led the successful recall effort against
Arizona governor Evan Meecham for his
numerous prejudicial statements about people
with AIDS (PWAs), gays and lesbians,
blacks, orientals and other minority groups.
Although Buck had originally asked that
local groups tone down their protest while
negotiations were in progress, he stated last
Wednesday that he is now in favor of
everything short of a call for a nationwide
boycott. "If the mule sits down, sometimes
you have to take a 2 x 4 to his behind," he
said.
Meredith disagreed, and said that every
tool at the community's disposal, including a
boycott, should be used. "After seeing it
unfold, we are asking people not to spend any
money at Circle K stores. It appears to me
that when the heat was on, they wanted to
negotiate, but when we laid off, they threw us
out of the room," she said.
Charles Shoemaker, Circle K's vice
president for human resources, said of the
policy, "We felt we had to take certain steps to
help contain our medical costs, and we felt
that this was one thing we could do." He
added, "There are certain lifestyle decisions
that we are just not going to assure the results
of." The company considers AIDS, drug and
alcohol abuse related illnesses and self-
inflicted wounds to arise from "personal
lifestyle" decisions.
Despite Shoemaker's statement that the
policy was based on "valid business reasons,"
Robert Bray of the Human Rights Campaign
Fund (HRCF) charged that "Circle K is
fueling anti-gay hysteria and AIDS paranoia
surrounding the nation's major health crisis.
In addition to being blatantly homophobic, it's
also insulting to individuals who are
alcoholics, dependent on drugs or
despondently suicidal."
A DeKalb Officer Ejects ACT UP/Atl
from a Buford Highway Circle K.
Shoemaker stated that he knew of
several employees currently with the
company who were PWAs, and said that there
were no plans at the present time to take them
off coverage. He also said that women who
unknowingly contracted AIDS through a
male partner and hemophiliacs infected by
blood transfusions would continue to receive
coverage.
Since the company pays its employee's
medical expenses rather than using a third-
party insurer, it is not covered by Arizona's
anti-discrimination statutes. Buck, however,
estimated that the policy will be invalid in 20
of the 27 states where the company currently
operates.
Buck said, "I think Circle K has to realize
that the public relations they bought with this
policy are far more expensive than any
savings they might make with their policy."
-Chris Duncan
GAPACommentary
Some Primary... And Secondary... Thoughts
It seems as though for the past few months, we have heard repeatedly that this "must" be the
year in which our community achieves success in numerous areas. Well, the reasoning behind
this is sound; whenever momentum is present, it behooves one to make good use of it.
There's just one problem with that thinking. In the mad dash to accomplish, several
important things can get lost, like the wisdom that comes with adequate reflection, the even
pace that ehsures that all the necessary little steps are done, the success that will come with
adequate preparation.
TTiere's one other important consideration regarding breakneck speed; we build our own
sense of defeat when we cannot reach our goals; and we can confuse the hell out of ourselves,
simply by fotgetting that all things take time. Almost nothing has ever been accomplished
overnight. The history of our own community is ample proof of that fact Why do we impel
ourselves?
Gently, gently, my friends. In spite of the losses of the gay candidates, we have made good
progress in the last year.
Politicians are seeking us out, and our community is paying more attention. Ironically, that
progress has caused some grief for GAP AC, in recent critical feedback on our voting
recommendations. I'd like to point out some of the complexities of the candidate review
process.
Suppose you have a candidate who says all the right things, but you hear scuttlebutt that he’s
kind of a nasty guy? And you can't check it out in time? Do you stick with the empirical data,
fairly applying the same criteria for judgment to all, or do you deviate in this case? And if you
do deviate, how many more times do you do this; and what is the cutoff to disallow extra
consideration for other candidates?
Then again: suppose you have a particular candidate who in some respects is simply terrific.
But in the same race, you have another candidate who’s also acceptable, maybe even better in
regard to the overall issues...and more important, s/he is almost a sure bet to win, and would be
a far more effective representative for our community. What do you do? Go with the OK
candidate with special assets to recommend him/her, and essentially waste whatever influence
you may have? Or recommend the good candidate who will probably win and remember your
community’s support when it counts in the future?
And let's not forget the bottom-line question: should we not just give out all the information
we can, and let the voter decide for her/himself? Personally, in the best of all worlds, I believe
the latter emphatically. But the practical reality, we've been told, is that most people want just
one little thing they can carry into the booth to help them vote without much research or
thought Essentially: a gay slate. But as the above discussion indicates, publishing that slate
has its downside, including alienating a potential winner who could be good for our
community.
Then there's the question of how much information you can release before daunting the very
population you're trying to enlighten. Some people want us to "come right out and tell it like it
is." I’d love to do that: have you got all year? As simple as that sounds, the question then is,
Cont'd on Page 10
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