Newspaper Page Text
Role
Reversal
Artist Robert
Sherer is
creating
headaches for
censors with
his male nudes.
Sherer, they
say, has no right to paint the male
body in traditional female poses.
It's a weenie thing. Page 27
Party On
Ru Paul will
be home in
Atlanta for New
Year's Eve.
Read about it
and other party
ideas for the last
night of '94 in
Nightmoves. Page 29
PLEASE RECYCLE
TAKING PRIDE
N OUR CULTURE
DECEMBER 29/1994
Pass the pills, please
Drug use and abuse
among gay men and
lesbians continues to be
a stubborn fact of life in
Atlanta and across the
country
by ADAM J. SANK
"I've done everything," says
Jason, grinning ironically, "let's
see, I've done coke and crystal,
and X and K, acid, mushrooms—
but coke was my drug of choice—
coke and Ecstasy."
Jason, a rather handsome 28-
year-old marketing director is sit
ting with me in a courtyard out
side his office talking about drugs
in the gay community. A month
ago I saw Jason at local gay club
and asked him if he'd speak to me
for an article I was writing. At the
time, he was X-ing, under the in
fluence of Ecstasy, and he said he'd
be more than happy to impart his
drug experiences. Now, dressed in
a business suit at midday, he's just
as willing to self-disclose, yet his
mood is noticeably more somber.
"When I was in college, we
would do coke at the gay bars con
sistently," he says, "because.. .you
don't lose control on it. It's a con
trol freak's drug. You don't wig
out like any other drug."
I ask Jason, who has partied
with both gay and straight groups,
if he finds drug use more preva
lent in the gay community. "Ab
solutely," he says, "more drugs,
more often, more frequently."
Why is that, I want to know.
Jason offers that it's "escapism
.. .on the whole, I think it's just be
cause we really fuckin' want to
party. We had some rough times
when we were young, and we
come out and we find this new
way of life, and it's just so liberal
and so free that drugs are easy to
do and easy to get."
But not so easy to handle, Ja
son has discovered. "There's eu
phoria, there's superiority kind of,
you just feel like you're cool...but
[with cocaine] you can't stop, you
always want more. I worked full
time through college, and I would
be using all night and then go to
work the next day, and then I'd use
that day to get through the day, so
that I could sleep the next night."
What about sex, I ask. Was it
better on drugs for Jason? "I'm dif
ferent from most people because I
don't have sex on drugs...because
one, you do stupid things like have
unprotected sex, and two, it inca
pacitates you...coke and X both
do, and it's harder to get a hard-
on."
But he knows plenty of people
that have used sex and drugs con
currently. "People [will] use drugs
during sex and it's definitely a
kicker to practice unsafe sex...at
the time, you're feeling invincible"
Jason soon found that his own
cocaine use was out of his control.
"I was definitely one of the people
that used it long enough and of
ten enough that my social use be
came too intense and I had more
of an addiction. I'd go out to the
^ Continued on Page 16
Skandalakis chooses
conservative Christian
as policy advisor
Fulton County Commission
Chair Mitch Skandalakis
by KC WILDMOON
Atlan ta—Fulton
County Chairman Mitch
Skandalakis has added a
policy advisor with close
ties to the Christian Coali
tion to his staff. Josh
Kenyon comes to the
county from the Southeast
ern Legal Foundation, a
conservative group cur
rently providing legal as
sistance for state Rep. Billy
McKinney's legal chal
lenge to the city of
Atlanta's domestic part
nership and sexual orien
tation ordinances. Kenyon
is now one of four policy
advisors to Skandalakis.
"Obviously [Skanda
lakis] is a commissioner for
the entire county," Kenyon said.
"He's got to hear the voice of ev
eryone."
Kenyon, whose area of focus
is public works, said he doubted
he would have any say over gay
and lesbian issues in the county.
The exception to that, Kenyon
said, would be if Skandalakis
"seriously considers a domestic
partnership ordinance for the
county" which he would op
pose. He added that he would
"try to get [Skandalakis] to at
tend a few more conservative
events."
"I'll be trying to make sure
he's got a balance between the
conservative and more moder
ate voices," he said. "I'll advise
him, but there's no guarantee
he'll take my advice."
The conservative newsletter
Bill Shipp's Georgia speculated
that hiring Kenyon was a calcu
lated move aimed at shoring up
support of the state's religious
conservatives for a possible
statewide run in 1998. Kenyon
said that the Christian Coalition
does have a much stronger in
fluence in areas outside of the
metropolitan Atlanta area, but
also said that his being on the
staff is no guarantee of Coali
tion support.
Karen Webster, Skanda
lakis' chief of staff, said
Kenyon's hiring was part of the
chairman's effort "to reach out
to all the Fulton County citi
zens."
"[The staff] is almost like
Noah's Ark," she said. "We
have one of everything. I think
that's wise for a politician to
do."
Mary Louise Upshaw, an
open lesbian who coordinates
the Ryan White CARE Act
funds for the county, said that
Skandalakis still intends to
launch a lesbian and gay advi
sory panel early next year. She
said her work toward that has
been put on hold while she fo
cuses her effort on battling the
incoming Republican Con
gress, which has threatened to
> Continued on Page 3