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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