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NEWS
HIV+ Dental Student's
Patients Tested in Augusta
GAC says healthcare worker testing
likely to top legislative action list
Augusta—A dental student at the
Medical College of Georgia (MCG) has
been removed from taking any further part
in clinical care of patients because he has
tested positive for HIV antibodies.
The student, whose name has not been
released, had an HIV test as part of diag
nostic procedures for unspecified medical
problems according to Ingrid Heggoy of
the MCG. He reported his condition in
accordance with MCG policy requiring
students to report any communicable dis
eases from which they may be suffering.
Heggoy said that the student, though not
seeing patients, is still enrolled in MCG
and that school's administration is looking
for an alternative method for the student to
continue his curriculum and ultimately
receive a degree.
The MCG has sent letters to all of the
163 patients who the student worked on;
the letters notify the patients of the the stu
dent's HIV status and offer free antibody
testing and counseling. As of last
Thursday, about 60 patients had responded
to the testing offer.
When asked if the incident might result
in the the school requiring HIV antibody
testing for all incoming and present stu
dents, Heggoy replied that "the Dean
[David R. Myers] has said that he will look
at these and other options." She was not
able to elaborate on the options.
Mandatory HIV antibody testing for
healthcare providers has been a topic of
considerable discussion since this past
summer when the CDC reported that an
HIV-infected Florida dentist may have
passed the virus on to one of his patients.
Patrick McCrary of the Georgia AIDS
Coalition(GAC)—the group which lobbies
the legislature on AIDS issues—says that
he expects defeating legislation which
would mandate HIV testing of healthcare
workers to be one of the most difficult
tasks that his group will face in the upcom
ing General Assembly session.
According to McCrary, GAC, which
previously had announced that it might not
have sufficient funds to hire a lobbyist, has
now received sufficient pledges to contin
ue with the selection process. As this issue
went to press, GAC's Cathalene Tehan
reported that the group was in the process
of offering a contract to a potential lobby
ist. "We should be able to announce the
appointment early next week," she said.
Also likely to be introduced this ses
sion, according to McCrary and Tehan, is
legislation which "mandates the release of
AIDS Confidential Information to to sher
iffs deputies, police officers and others
transporting HIV-positive individuals from
one 'institutional care facility' to another."
And they expect that health care workers
will try to amend current "commitment"
legislation to include HIV positive individ
uals who decline to cease or limit high risk
activity, as defined by the committing
authorities.
While Georgia seems on the brink of
eroding HIV confidentiality rights, the
Pennsylvania legislature has unanimously
enacted an HIV Confidentiality Law. The
law states that one must have written per
mission from an individual before per
forming any HIV-related test on them, with
the sole exception of involuntary testing of
"source patients." No person working with
Continued on page 4
Texas Judge
Trashes Sodomy
Statute
Austin—State District Judge Paul Davis
has ruled the Texas 1879 sodomy law—
which targets only gays and lesbians
—unconstitutional. Davis ruled on a civil
lawsuit, Morales et. al. v. Texas, which
challenged section 21.06 of the Texas
Penal Code. The plaintiff, Morales, was
sponsored by the Texas Human Rights
Foundation (THRF). Austin attorney
Patrick Wiseman represented the plaintiffs.
The Texas sodomy law, a misdemeanor,
is punishable by a $200 fine.
THRF filed the suit on the grounds that
the law was an invasion of privacy; a
denial of due process and equal protection;
and violated the Equal Rights Amendment
to the Texas Constitution.
Because none of the plaintiffs had actu
ally been criminally charged under the law,
the suit was brought in civil court.
Attorneys for the state argued that Texas'
bifurcated court system, with its distinct
separation between civil and criminal
courts, made the case invalid, but Davis
disagreed. He issued a summary ruling on
Dec. 10 after hearing short verbal argu
ments. A written ruling, which will actual
ly strike down the law, is expected early in
January.
According to the Dallas Voice, the only
evidence the state offered in defense of the
law was testimony by psychologist Dr.
Paul Cameron who was expelled from the
American Psychological Association in
1976 over concerns he was deliberately
misrepresenting research about homosexu
ality.
Observers reported that the state did not
seem particularly concerned with trying to
defend the law under which arrests are sel
dom made. The sodomy law has, however,
been used to to paint lesbians and gay men
as de jure criminals and thus support dis
crimination in employment, adoption and
child custody cases. The Dallas Police
Department recently used the law as justi
fication not to hire openly lesbian Mica
England. England is suing the DPD, and
Davis' ruling is expected to help her case.
There is some question about whether
Davis' ruling is valid only in Travis County
where he sits, or whether—because Travis
County is home to the state capitol,
Austin—the action affects the entire state.
Texas Attorney General-elect Dan
Morales is expected to appeal the ruling as
part of his job to uphold and protect the
laws of the state. But Morales is generally
considered good on gay and lesbian issues
and, in fact, won community support in his
recent election by saying he was opposed
to the sodomy statute.
livETT Bennett
Frohnmayer: "The treatment which I
personally have received from members
of the gay and lesbian community
(whether they are associated with
NGLTF, I do not know) has been
demeaning, inaccurate, and unwarrant-
ed-often exhibiting the very characteris
tics which those members would not
have directed toward themselves." he
wrote. "Understanding of differences is
fundamental both to the acceptance of
art and to all of our ability to live togeth
er in this nation."
Frohnmayer Fires
Blistering Missive
To Task Force
by Cliff O’Neill
Wzs/ungfon-National Endowment for
the Arts Chairman John E. Frohnmayer
has finally responded to request for a
meeting with gay and lesbian activists with
a scathing letter in which he charges that
he has been terribly mistreated by gay and
arts activists.
Writing to Peri Jude Radecic, lobbyist
for the National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force, Frohnmayer (who referred to the
lobbyist as Ms. Rednick) insisted that the
"charge that anti-lesbian/gay discrimina
tion exists at the [NEA] is without founda
tion," arguing that the basis for giving
grants "is now and always has been artistic
excellence and artistic merit based on the
broad guidelines in our enabling legisla
tion."
In his letter, Frohnmayer openly offered
to meet with gay activists, a development
Radecic welcomed. As of press time, a
meeting between the two was "in negotia
tions," according to Radecic, but would
probably not happen until at least January.
Frohnmayer, who was out of the coun
try until mid-December, was unavailable
for comment.
Frohnmayer repudiated suggestions that
he has refused to meet with gay activists,
pointing to a "broadly representative
group" he met with last year in conjunction
with the national "Day Without Art" effort.
He further pointed out that his staff mem
bers have on occasion spoken to Radecic.
Radecic initially requested a meeting
with Frohnmayer last April in a letter seek
ing to discuss his then-recent revocation of
NEA grants from one feminist and three
gay and lesbian oriented performance
artists. Although Radecic and another les
bian activist met with a high ranked NEA
staffer shortly afterwards, repeated
requests for a meeting with Frohnmayer
went unanswered.
The chairman's November 23 letter
marks the first official communication
from the Endowment chairman to the gay
and lesbian lobbying group since Radecic's
spring request for a meeting.
"I think the fact that he responded final
ly is significant," said Radecic afterwards.
"I think what Mr. Frohnmayer is saying is,
Let's put some things behind us and let's
negotiate the future.' ... I think that on a
very basic level, we're on the same side.
And we need to establish that and figure
out where we need to go and that we're
both saying the same thing."
Gay and arts activists have, over his
nearly 18-month tenure, had a tenuous
relationship with Frohnmayer, who while
personally standing up for the
Endowment's granting of funds for a gay
and lesbian film festival and a series of les
bian-oriented poems, also cancelled (and
later restored) funding to an AIDS-oriented
project in New York and was pivotal in the
spring decision to cancel the grants to the
four performance artists.
Bush Signs
Immigration Bill
Act voids gay ban immediately,
orders Sullivan to revise disease list
by Cliff O'Neill
Washington—President Bush has
signed into law a broad-based immigration
reform bill which includes a provision
striking the U.S.'s longstanding ban on gay
immigrants and visitors and effectively
ordering removal of the three-year-old pro
hibition against entry by foreigners with
AIDS and HIV infection.
The bill was signed at a White House
ceremony in which the President also gave
his formal approval to a stack of other
measures approved in the final moments of
the 101st Congress.
Unlike two other signing ceremonies
this year for bills of interest to the gay and
AIDS communities, representatives from
gay groups were not invited to attend.
"This bill is good for families, good for
business, good for crime fighting and good
for America," Bush said of the measure.
The act dramatically changes the quotas
of immigrants which will be allowed in
from a variety of nations, and more than
doubles the numbers of immigrants
allowed into the country for specific pur
poses of employment.
But most notable to gays and lesbians
worldwide is that the measure at last
strikes this nation's ban on immigration by
gays and lesbians.
"I am...pleased to note that this act
facilitates immigration not only in numeri
cal terms, but also in terms of basic rights
of those beyond our borders," said Bush.
"[This bill] revises the politically related
'exclusion grounds' for the first time since
their enactment in 1952. These revised
grounds lift unnecessary restrictions on
those who may enter the United States. At
the same time, they retain important
administrative checks in the interest of
national security as well as the health and
welfare of U.S. citizens.”
The bill also effectively lifts the federal
ban on immigration by people with AIDS
and HIV infection by ordering Health and
Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan
to throw out the existing list of "dangerous
contagious diseases" for which one may be
denied entry and replace it with a list of
diseases of "public health significance"
crafted by public health experts.
2 Southern Voice/December 20, 1990