Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN
\OCE
Living and Dying
Legal Concerns for
Lesbians & Gays
Part I of a II-part series
Page 13
Vol. 1, No. 20
Taking Pride in Our Culture
November 24,1988
Spin Magazine Shocks Supermarket
Browsers with Free Condom
Spin magazine, the rock-and-roll
monthly, tested the publishing world's
commitment to AIDS education by
distributing a condom inside each
newsstand copy of its November issue. So
far, over 90 locations have declined to carry
the issue, and four national chains have
refused to accept copies.
Editor and publisher Bob Guccione, Jr.
said in a letter to magazine distributors that
"(Inclusion of the condom) is an immensely
important and responsible statement: that
safe sex can save lives."
In a November 16th telephone interview,
Guccione acknowledged that this issue of
the magazine was going to lose money for
his company, but said he felt that getting the
word out on safe sex was a moral issue not
open to compromise. He also professed that
he was amazed at the "extent of the hysteria.
"Some of the distributors did ask us to do
that (remove the condoms)," he said. "But I
flat-out refused. We made a statement, not a
half statement."
Guccione noted that anyone whose
magazine did not have the condom attached
could request a free sample through the mail.
Among the retail chains refusing to carry
the issue in Atlanta are A & P, Big Star
Foods, Eckerds Drugs, Ingles, Kroger,
Majik Drugs, Reed Drug, 7-11, Treasury
Drugs, Walden Books, and Winn Dixie.
The AIDS Coalition To Unleash
Power/Atlanta (ACT UP/Atl) was planning
at press time to stage a "die-in" action outside
of Walden Books at Lenox Square Mall, and
to urge customers to boycott the chain.
The free offer is a joint effort between
Spin and Carter-Wallace, the makers of
Trojan condoms.
A card-stock insert titled "And play by
the rules" inside the issue lists ten explicit
instructions on the proper usage of a
condom. The condom is attached to this
page.
Guccione acknowledged that he has been
criticized for the fact that the usage
instructions are specifically penile-vaginal, but
denied that it was homophobic in any way.
"I've never agreed with the ghettoizing of
AIDS-restricting references to AIDS to the
gay or IV drug (populations)," he said.
Quoting himself from an earlier radio
interview, Guccione said, "We're just trying
to teach people how to dress the penis, where
you take it afterward is really up to you."
He added that the instructions were
provided by Carter-Wallace, and said that
no specific attempt to bias the copy towards
heterosexuals or homosexuals had been
made to his knowledge.
Although Guccione admitted that he lovec
publicity gimicks, he denied that putting the
condom in the issue was such a stunt
"We won't capture (our) audience by
putting a condom in the magazine," he said.
Sales of the magazine are extremely
brisk at area stores that agreed to stock the
issue, however. Oxford Books has reported
that they have to wrap copies of this issue in
shrink-wrap plastic to keep people from
taking the condom.
Guccione is extremely proud of his
magazine's coverage of AIDS and AIDS
issues over the past year, noting that Spin is
the only "mainstream magazine" to devote
at least one column a month to the subject.
"This is pure journalism," he said.
"AIDS is the Vietnam of our time-to not
cover it is to ignore the plight of our fellow
man."
-Chris Duncan
Deidre McCalla, just one of the talented musicians with Olivia Records who
brought the house down at Olivia's 15th anniversary concert at Center Stage
on Nov. 19. See page 11 for a complete review.
JO GIRAUDO
ACT UP protesters zapped Walden Books November 19th for "censoring" the
November issue of Spin magazine. The bookstore chain refused to carry the
magazine because it contained a free condom and gave explicit safe sex advice.
The action on Saturday lasted 30 seconds before Lenox Square security
officers reached the scene. ACT UP then leafleted cars, sneaking back into the
mall while officers cleaned the windshields. See related story this page.
Atlantans - Gay & Straight - Protest
Departure of Journal/Consitution Editor
Atlanta- Atlanta residents - including a
sizable contingent of gays and lesbians -
joined to voice their outrage at the Atlanta
Journal!Constitution, following the paper's
acceptance of editor Bill Kovach's
resignation.
Kovach announced his resignation on
Friday, November 4, after a confrontation
with publisher Jay Smith, citing a lack of
"mutual trust" between himself and the
paper's owners, Cox Enterprises. Neither
Kovach nor Cox officials have offered
details of the dispute, but insiders say
Kovach's aggressive brand of journalism
angered the city's leading corporate citizens
who found their companies under the
vigilant eye of the paper.
The Journal/Constitution recently
published stories on discrimination against
blacks by major banks; bribing of foreign
officials by Coca-Cola employees, and
illegal campaign contributions by Georgia
Power personnel. Publisher Jay Smith
denies those stories contributed to the
conflict, saying the center of the dispute was
control of Cox's Washington bureau.
But critics point to the ouster of editor
Eugene Patterson almost twenty years ago
after he published attacks on a proposed rate
increase by Georgia Power. The paper had
won its last Pulitzer Prize under Patterson
two decades ago. Since then, it has built a
solid reputation of mediocrity.
That quickly changed as Kovach, widely
regarded as one of the top editors in the
nation, tried to rebuild the
Journal!Constitution. He came to Atlanta
from the New York Times in December,
1986 and quickly made his mark, earning
the admiration of employees and new
respect for the paper. Last year, after
twenty years without a Pulitzer, the Atlanta
papers received five nominations -- the
most ever for any newspaper - and
cartoonist Doug Marlette won the award.
Many noticed that sensitive coverage of
the gay and lesbian community and of
issues such as the AIDS crisis increased
substantially over the last two years.
Maury Weil, head of the Georgia AIDS
Legislative Coalition, pointed out that
without the informed, compassionate and
courageous stand of the Constitution during
the last legislative session, "We couldn't
have accomplished what we did." If the
Cont'd Page 3