Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

PLEASE RECYCLE 75« WHERE SOLD Vol. 3, No. 26 "Taking Pride in Our Culture" February 14,1991 Read 'em Ride 'em Love 'em Audre Lorde, Michelle Parkerson and a reading list of essential African- American titles. ^ , Wranglers, not Levi's are the jeans of choice for lesbian and gay cowpersons. 11 We asked you for love poems. Here's our pick of what you sent. 32 Queer Nation Flunks the Mayor Maynard Jackson needs to take action to regain our community's trust and he needs to do it quickly. by Patrick Garvey What if we could grade the people we elect to office, the same way our teachers graded us when we were in school? The Atlanta Chapter of Queer Nation has done just that, giving Mayor Maynard Jackson an "F." Mayoral inactivity on hate-motivat ed crimes, gay civil rights, safety, domestic partnership, discrimination, and AIDS earned Jackson a numerical grade of "O" in each of those areas. "Maynard means well," Queer Nation's press release in the form of a child's report card reads, "...he says he's going to do his work, but when he turns it in, it is incom plete." Jackson has fulfilled none of the promis es he made to the gay and lesbian commu nity who helped elect him, according to Lynn Cothren of Queer Nation. "We're just asking him to do his job, to do what he promised us," explains Cothren. "Hopefully this is enough to get the ball rolling." Mayor Jackson's failing grade comes in the wake of increasing violence toward lesbians and gays: ten gay-related murders in Atlanta last year is more than any other metropolitan city in nation. In fact, Queer Nation's "F" and "0's" are inaccurate. Jackson has fulfilled some of his promises—issuing three relatively toothless executive orders and the appoint ing one openly lesbian woman to a city board. Relations between City Hall and members of the gay community are much more cordial than during Mayor Young's administration. Three "Senior Advisors" to/from the gay community have been appointed. And, despite substantial postur ing on Chief Eldrin Bell’s part, relations between the Police Department and the of housing, employment and public accommodation, we have not been made aware of it The City's lobbyist at the state legisla ture explains that neither hate crimes nor sodomy repeal are on his lobby agenda. There are questions of responsibility on NEWS COMMENTARY community show signs of improvement. But action from City Hall on more sub stantive change has been slow to non-exis tent Inclusion of sexual orientation in the city's contract compliance law (originally part of the executive order package announced last June for Pride Week) has seen no action. Ditto movement on domes tic partnership issues. A staff member says that housing for PWA's is "in process." If there has been any action towards enacting laws which would protect the rights of lesbians and gay men in the areas both sides here, but the fact remains that the city is not actively lobbying for either piece of important legislation. But where the Mayor's inattention to les bian/gay/AIDS issues really glares is in his lack of response to Queer Nation's chal lenge to "show us where we're wrong." With more than a week and a half to reply to QN's report card, the Mayor's office, claiming the pressures of daily busi ness, was either unable or unwilling to pro vide a reply in time for inclusion in this issue of Southern Voice. The Mayor's press office told us that a reply would be ready on Monday. Then Tuesday. Then Wednesday. When we explained that our deadline was already passed, Lyn May told us that the Mayor's reply would just "have to wait 'til the next issue." "We're not surprised by the lack of response," said Cothren, "because its con sistent with the way he's been behaving towards us all along." Unfortunately, we're not surprised either. We are disappointed. And increas ingly distrustful of the man who, when seeking their votes, told members of the lesbian and gay community, "I will never, never, never let you down." By being so slow to take action on his promises to us, by not getting the city actively involved in lobbying the legisla ture on hate crimes and sodomy repeal and by dragging his feet on a reply to QN, Maynard Jackson has let us down. He needs to take action to regain our commu nity's trust and he needs to do it quickly. 111 EDITORIAL Don't Ignore Lomax, Queer Nation Queer Nation's report card on Maynard Jackson's failure to attend to gay/lesbian/AIDS issues is welcome, well-timed and much needed. But, lackadaisical as Jackson may have been on our issues during his first year in office, the Mayor is a veri table ball of activist fire when compared to Fulton County Commission Chairman Michael Lomax. Lomax has relied on his continuing appearances at lesbian/gay functions, embellished rhetoric and the fact that the county gives a modicum of funds to AID Atlanta to cover up his inaction on any sort of a proac tive lesbian/gay agenda. Fulton County will soon begin disbursement of fed eral funds under the Ryan White AIDS CARE Act. Lomax will, we assume, use this redistribution of D.C.'s dollars as a smoke screen for his absolute in attention to our issues—like the broad reaching civil rights legislation that he promised us almost two years ago. Queer Nation did the right thing by issuing a report card on the mayor, but it picked the wrong student. Michael Lomax is the local politician who, when faced with the test of living up to his promises, rates a failing score. The controversy over whether it is the cause of AIDS boils over again, this time into the mainstream press. by Aubrey Bowie The 1984 pronouncement by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services that the virus causing AIDS had been isolated was a pinpoint of light in the cloud of doom under which the gay community huddled. The enemy had a name: HTLV-III (since changed to HIV.) The battle was joined. But a rumbling of dissent was heard almost before Secretary Margaret Heckler stepped away from the micro phone. That dissent has been given its clearest and most consistent voice in the New York Native, a gay paper whose publisher Charles Ortleb has remained hell-bent on proving that something other than HIV is causing hundreds of thousands of gay men to become ill and die in the prime of life. In recent months the "not HIV" rum ble has risen to a mild roar with increas ing attacks on the HIV hypothesis in sci entific journals, as well as in the main stream media. The most vocal—and most radical —dissenter is Peter H. Duesberg, a pio neer in studying the genetic structure of retroviruses, who believes that HIV is incapable of causing AIDS. He has repeatedly said he would inject himself with HIV in order to prove his point. Skeptics ask why he hasn't made good on his offer. Continued on page 21