Newspaper Page Text
Hotlanta
Raft Race
events
Hotlanta Raft
Race, the an
nual event that
put Atlanta on
the circuit-party
map, is just
around the comer, with disco divas like
Lonnie Gordon and more parties than
ever. PAGE 14
PLEASE RECYCLE
A new life
for'Out in
Atlanta'
John Ishmael,
producer of the
local cable TV
show, discusses
new directions
for the show—
and for him personally—since the
death of his life/work partner, Leif
Eric Spivey. PAGE 25
AUGUST 3/1995
Fighting
AIDS
month
by
month
The Elton John AIDS
Foundation launches a slide
rock 'n'jollcqlendnicto raise
fundsior AfiJS^hafitTes
by DON JOHNSTON*
Although it's still a little warm
in the year to be thinking about next
year's calendar, the Elton John
AIDS Foundation has already un
veiled its 19% "Fight the Fight" cal
endar. The calendar, which features
sometime Atlantan Elton on its
cover, includes interior glossy color
photographs of rock 'n' roll stars
from Slash to Sting to Springsteen.
Sarah McMullen, who heads
the foundation's Beverly Hills of
fice, explains that the project was
originally designed to be a coffee
table book of music legends, but
that a rock 'ri' roll calendar became
the more obvious vehicle when it
was decided to target teens
through their heroes.
"I thought, 'Well, maybe a cal
endar with some pf their idols in
it with at least a subtle message on
each month,"' McMullen says,
thereby fulfilling the foundation's
double mission of raising funds for
AIDS and increasing awareness.
McMullen enlisted such rock
legends as the Rolling Stones and
Neil Young to participate in the
project, as well as younger bands
likeR.E.M., Red Hot Chili Peppers
and Sheryl Crow. Printed beneath
each picture are factoids such as
"Almost two-thirds of teenage
girls with AIDS were exposed
from heterosexual contact."
But the grim statistics are care
fully balanced with motivational
>• Continued on Page 12
■mg concessions to conservati ve
Sen Jesse Helms; the Senate voted I
Julv 27 overwhelmingly to renew I
for a i tther it i in. t Federal
program of medical care and sup- I
, port for people with AIDS <
By a %ote of 97 3, the Senate I
authorized the program through
fiscal year 2000 for carrying out
tht 199t 1 White \RI A i I
Funding for the program would I
be set in trie appropriations pro- £
*' ' The Senate 'made a doat choice'
But lirsl the Senate .,i ■ lot unbiased AIDS policy, said
Jjby 54-15 an amendment by HRCf'i Elunfeeth Birch.
j. Helms tK-\ C) to bat am use of
ft choice by adopfing^b^'l.
n e" In most u ill v ir ,uy rn J r ng I
'nous drug use. It also agreed, 76- anybody for disaruiiriation or ex
2 l.ier language offered by (ude gay Americans from much *
Sen Nancy Kassebaum (R Kan) needed medical care ' ' ’wfl
that opposes funding for pro "The greater support for j
grams that encourage any sexual Kassebaum s amendment is a
•c activity homosexual or hetero- - sign that sound public health
sexual Tire conflicting amend- policy will not be held hostage to
ments will be worked out in con- Sen. Helms prejudices/' said
ferencecommittee. Kerry Label, denutv director of IM
The Human Rights Cam- Ni LTF.
Local doctor accused of practicing aversion therapy on transsexuals
by KC WILDMOON
Atlanta—Jeremiah Gold-
Hopton didn't understand
what he was feeling. He wasn't
Jeremiah then, and he wasn't
"he"—how he felt about his
gender identity just didn't
make sense. His doctor didn't
quite understand either, so last
fall Gold-Hopton was referred
to a psychiatrist who special
ized in "sexual disorders."
Dr. Gene Abel of the Behav
ioral Medicine Institute of Atlanta
asked Gold-Hopton how Jong
he'd had "transgendered feel
ings"—since age 4, Gold-Hopton
replied. Dr. Abel then said he
needed to speak with his new
patient's patents.
. "I was 31 at the time," Gold-
Hopton recalled. "It didn't make
sense."
Little else in that session made
sense either—Abel's first ques
tions were about Gold-Hoptpn's
sexual fantasies, and by the end
he'd asked Gold-Hopton to come
back for "lab tests" designed to
test his sexual reaction to erotic
pictures.
"I came back home from that
first session, and my spouse said,
1 don't think you should go back
there,"' Gold-Hopton said. "He
was supposedly file expert, but I
felt like I went in asking about
appfes/and he was asking about
oranges. It was real confusing."
Confusing, Gold-Hopton said,
because he already knew his gen
der identity had nothing to do
with sexuality. Gold-Hopton was
simply a woman who identified as
a man, a female-to-male trans
sexual.
Fortunately, Gold-Hopton
soon found the American Educa
tional Gender Information Service
(AEGIS), support groups, and
doctors and therapists who un
derstood the issues of gender
identity better, he felt, than Dr.
Abel.
Gold-Hopton told his story
to a Queer Planet meeting last
month, and the group planned
a protest at Abel's office last
week. The protest fell through at
the last minute, but QP did not
rule out a future protest
Abel did not return a phone
^ Continued on Page 4
