[2001] Tulsa Family News, September 2001; Volume 8, Issue 9
Title
[2001] Tulsa Family News, September 2001; Volume 8, Issue 9
Subject
Politics, education, and social conversation toward Tulsa’s Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual communities.
Description
Tulsa Family News was a monthly newspaper; No. 1 issued December 1993-January 1994. The final issue available was published in September 0f 2001 (Volume 8, Issue 9).
The newspaper brings up important, evolving topics of marriage, Pride, TOHR, HIV/AIDs, events, advice, and politics all at the local and national level.
This document is available in searchable PDF attached. It is also available to be seen at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center with permission.
The newspaper brings up important, evolving topics of marriage, Pride, TOHR, HIV/AIDs, events, advice, and politics all at the local and national level.
This document is available in searchable PDF attached. It is also available to be seen at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center with permission.
Creator
Tulsa Family News
Source
https://history.okeq.org/collections/show/24
Publisher
Tom Neal
Date
September 2001
Contributor
James Chrsitjohn
Karin Gregory
Barry Hensley
J.P. Legrandbouche
Lamont Lindstrom
Esther Rothblum
Mary Schepers
Hughston Walkinshaw
Karin Gregory
Barry Hensley
J.P. Legrandbouche
Lamont Lindstrom
Esther Rothblum
Mary Schepers
Hughston Walkinshaw
Rights
Tom Neal/Tulsa Family News
Relation
Tulsa Family News, August 2001; Volume 8, Issue 9
Format
Image
PDF
Online text
Online text
Language
English
Type
newspaper
periodical
periodical
Identifier
https://history.okeq.org/items/show/616
Coverage
Tulsa(Oklahoma)---newspaper
Tulsa---Oklahoma
Oklahoma---Tulsa
United States Oklahoma Tulsa
United States of America (50 states)
Tulsa---Oklahoma
Oklahoma---Tulsa
United States Oklahoma Tulsa
United States of America (50 states)
Text
:9th Annual Feast For Friends i Was Death Sentence
: And Other Community Events i Based onAnti-Gay Bias?
¯
¯ TULSA (TFN) - September is shaping up as a mostly quiet : OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A federal appeals court
month with only The NAMES Project Tulsa Area Chapter’s ¯ upheld the death sentence of an Oklahoma death row ¯ annual Feast for Friends as amajor event on Saturday, the 29th. ¯ inmate convicted ofkilling four people during a 1984 ¯ The event features private dinners at homes as wall as larger " bank robbery. ¯
dinners sponsored by community organizations and churches " The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver
¯
where contributions are encouraged to support The NAMES ~ split 2-1 in upholding Jay Wesley Neill’s death sen-
" Project Tulsa Area Chapter’s programs. ¯ tenceforthemurdersduringtherobberyofaGeronimo
¯ After each dinner, guests gather for dessert at theGreat Hall of " bank. Thedissentingjudge,Carlos LuceroofAlamosa, ¯
the Allan Chapman Activity Center at the University of Tulsa, " Colo., said the penalty phase of Neill’s trial was not
¯ 5th Street and Gary Avenue, from 8:30 till 10:30. There will be ¯ fair because Comanche County District Attorney
: a silent auction, entertainment, information about The NAMES : Robert Schulte repeatedly toldjurors that Neill was a
¯ Project and portions of the Quilt as well. " homosexual. ¯
To register a dinner, call The NAMES Project Tulsa Area ¯ ’The prosecutor’s blatant homophobic hate mon-
¯ gering at sentencing has no pl~,,cein the courtrooms of
¯ a civilized society, and Neill s (original) appellate
¯ connsd’s failure to raise the issue.., constitutes clear
~ and plain prejudicial neglect," Lucero wrote.
¯ Schulte, of Lawton, said he presented evidence ¯
¯ about Neill’s homo,sexuality because it was .relevant
to how he and his co-defendant used some. of the
: $17,000 they stole. ’‘i do not recall emphasizing or
¯ calling for _th~,,,t penalty because of his homosexual ¯
relationships, he said. "It was because of the grue-
~ some nature of the crime." His statements about
efll s homosexuahty came m 1992 at a retrial. The
¯ first conviction was overturned because the two de-
" fendants were not tried separately.
¯ The appellate judges who formed the majority,
~ Deanell R. Tacha of Lawrence, Kan. and Bobby
¯ Baldock of Roswell, N.M., concluded that none of
The NAMES ProjectAIDS Memorial Quilt at the Fair Grounds. " Neill’s claims of misconduct by Schulte have merit.
¯
Chapter at 748-3111 or e-mail to info@TulsaQuilt.org Admis- : Tsahyeiynigsstuheadt aS2c7h-upl.ateg,es dceocmismioennftosr "thweesriex-rsetlaetveacnoturtto,
sion to the dessert extravaganzais free for dinnerhosts and quests ¯ both the (prosecution’s) case and Neill’s defense
and others are welcome see Feast, p. 8 " theory."
¯ Gay Tulsan In Military Exhibit " Agmn a Hope ForVaccine
." Poem of Kicked Out Sailor in Smithsonian Show " ATLANTA (AP) - The scientists trying to create a
." WASHINGTON (AP) - A Smithsonlan Institution exhibit on " vaccine to prevent AIDS suddenly seem optimistic,
¯ submarines includes apoemby asailorwhowas kicked out of the " even bullish, words that have not been heard much in ¯ Navy for being Gay. "It’s kind oflike a validation ofmy service," " this perennially gloomy field. For the first time, many
¯ said Tim Beauchamp, a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who lives in ] researchers appear confident a vaccine is possible.
¯ Washington. ’’I was considering the Navy as a career." ¯ More than anything else, the monkeys are respon-
: Beauchamp, a yeoman who served in the Navy for more than : sible for the change in attitude. Scientists have long
¯ four years, wrote "Sub Sailor’s Views on ’Glasnost’ "in Decem- " used monkeys to test theories about AIDS treatment
~¯ ber 1987 on board the USS Henry Clay, a nuclear submarine " and prevention. But in two decades of trying, they
patrolling the North Atlantic. could not concoct a vaccine that would safely protect
¯ The poem is part of the exhibit "Fast Attacks & Boomers: : a monkey from dying of AIDS. Until now.
¯ Submarines in theColdWar" at theNational MuseumofAmeri- ¯ bloNnodw, 4t-hyeeraer-aorledmmoanckaeqyuselliikveinGgoidnotth,ealehvaenlds2obmioe-,
can History. A copy of it is displayed.on a sailor’s bunk in a part :
." of the exhibit dealing with daily life on a submarine, hazard containment facility at the Yerkes Regional
." Harkeuing back to the days of the ColdWar, thepoemindudes " Primate Research Center on the leafy fringes of
lines like, "Reagan and Gorbacliev back and forth volley while : Emory University. Just over a year ago, Godot got a
Nancy and Ralsa put on their best. Capitalist!Commuuist - " big dose of SHIV, an especially nasty lab-made
Political’folly! What does it matter? It’s East against West." amalgam of HIV and SIV, the human and monkey
Eight months after writing the poem, Beauchamp, now 36, ~ versions of the AIDS virus. Ordinarily, he would be
received an honorable discharge from the Navy after his superi- dead in six to eight months.
~,di’seovered,he’ was Gay. Before his discharge, Beauchamp " , A~.yone entering Godot’s living space must dress
oeen awaraea a Good Conduct Medal, a Sea Service Ribbon n.eao to toe in protective clothing, because SHIV
and a letter of commendation. ~ cxrculates in his bloodstream. But his curious, alert
’The fact that such a committed and rule-bound serviceman ~ .stare at visitors peeking through a window shows he
was kicked out of the Navy for no other reason than being Gay ." ~s outwardly unscathed. Godot is infected but otberillustrates
the stupidity and,wastefulness of our current policy wise healthy.
toward Gays in the military, saidRep. BameyFrank, D-Massa_ " Sevenmonthsbeforehewasinfected, Godotgotan
chusetts, an openly Gay member of Congress. 7 experimental new AIDS vaccine, see Vaccine, p. 2
When Beanchamp was in the military, homosexuals were "
prohibited fromserving. Under the current "don’t ask, don’ t tell,, ¯ Ill DIRECTORY P. 2 policy, homosexuals can serve so long as they do not engage in :
homosexual conduct or state their sexual preference. ~ EDITORIAL P. 3
: ~ US & WORLD NEWS P. 4 Beauchamp, whohas worked since his discharge as a computer -.
systems analyst and a writer, said he’d forgotten about the poem : ~ HEALTH NEWS P. 6 until he came across it in an old notebook from his days as a ¯
submariner. It was included in the exhibit after Beauchamp’s ; Z ENTERTAINMENT + MORE P. 8
partner brought it to the attention of the curator. ¯ ~ GAY STUDIES/R. LESBIAN P. 10/11
OKC Sets Up Censorship :
Because of Gay Banners ¯
OKLAHOMACITY (AP)- City officials willconsider :
regulating advertising messages on bus-stop benches
and .on. banners flying from city-owned light poles after "
receiving numerous complaints about a Gay-pride flag. ¯
A new law that will be brought before the City ¯
Council would allow only messages that would "pro- "
mote or celebrate the city, its civic institutions, orpublic "
activities or events in the city of Oklahoma City." This ¯
could prohibit messages promoting prayer, voting or "
drug-abuse prevention. Oklahoma City has 1,240 ban- "
her locations that are available for use by community -."
groups to promote activities. ¯
MayorKirkHumphreys and City ManagerJim Couch °
sought the new law after the city spar~ed controversy ."
earlier this year when it took down, triton put back up, ¯
banners promoting Gay pride. The banners, paid for by
the Cimarron Alliance Foundation, drew numerous ¯
complaints at City Hall. see Censor, p. 2 "
Murderer Now Claims
"Homosexual Panic’"
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A Mexican citizen on
Oklahoma’s deathrow is seeking anew trial after a state
psychiatrist recanted his testimony, saying new information
shows Gerardo Valdez suffered from brain
damage, paranoia and "homosexual panic" when he
killed another man in 1989.
Psychiatrist Cecil F: Mynatt said it is now his conclusion
that Valdez was unable to control his ownbehavior
or was "temporarily insane" when Valdez killed Juan
Barron. "Mr. Valdez suffers fromparanoia, specifically
triggeredin this instance by homosexual panic," Mynatt
said. "Additionally, he is brain damaged and was under
the influence of alcohol."
Mynatthadpreviously testified that Valdez was competent
to stand trial. He said he changed his mind after
reviewing information provided by Valdez’s attorney,
including opinions of two neurophsychologists and a
medical report.
Attorney Robert Nance is asking for anew trial based
~hn arecent deeisionby the International Court ofJustice
at deplored the 1999 execution in Arizona ofGerman
brothers Walter and Karl LaGrand. The court held that
the brothers were denied their rights underinternational
law to access thor consul after their arrest. Nance said
the world court s decision prevents domestic procedural
rules from interferin~ with judicial review of
cases involving international law violations.
The applicationwas filed with theOklahoma Court of
Criminal Appeals, on the same day Amnesty International
officials and other death penalty foes renewed
theirdemandthatGov. FrankKeating commute Valdez’s
sentence.
Keating has granted two stays, while rejecting Fox’~
request and a parole board recommendation of clemency
for Valdez, 41. Keating granted a second 30-day
stay for Valdez, see Valdez, p.2
¯
¯
¯
¯
¯ .
. .
Tulsa Clubs& Restaurants
*Bamboo Lounge, 7204 E. Pine
*CW’s, 1737 S. Memorial
*Play-Mor, 424 S. Memorial
Polo Grill, 2038 Utica SCluare
*Renegades/Rainbow Room, 1649 S. Main
*St. Michael’s Alley Restaurant, 3324-L E. 31st
*Schatzi’s, 2619 S: Memorial
*The Star, 1565 Sheridan
*TNT’s, 2114S. Memorial
*Tool Box II, 1338 E. 3rd
*Vortex, 2182 S. Sheridan
832-1269
610-5323
838-9792
744-4280
585-3405
745-9998
280-1316
834-4234
660-0856
584-1308
835-2376
*The Yellow Brick Road Pub, 2630 E. 15th 749-1563
Tulsa Businesses, Services, & Professionals
Assoc. in-Med. & Mental Health, 2325 S. Harvard 743-1000
Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 8620 E. 71 250-5034
Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 5231 E. 41
Body Piercing by Nicole, 2722 E. 15
*Borders Books & Music, 2740 E. 21
*Borders Books & Music, 8015 S. Yale
Brookside Jewelry, 4649 S. Peoria
*CD Warehouse, 3807c S. Peoria
*Cheap Thrills, 2640 E. 1 lth
Cherry St. Psychotherapy, 1515 S. Lewis
665-4580
712-1122
712-9955
494-2665
743-5272
746-0313
295-5868
58120902, 743-4117
Community Clearfing, Kerby Baker 622-0700
Tim Daniel, Attorney 352-9504, 800-742-9468 "
*Deco to Disco, 3212 E. 15th 749-3620 "
Doghouse on Brookside, 3311 S. Peoria 744-5556 ."
*Elite Books & Videos, 821 S. Sheridan 838-8503 ¯
Encompass .Travel, 13161H N..,~/I.emorial 369-8555 "
Ross Edward Salon 584-0337, 712-9379 "
Events Unlimited, 507 S. Main 592-0460,"
Floral Design Studio, 3404 S. Peoria 744-9595
Four S~ar Import Automotive, 9906 E. 55th P1. 610-0880 "
Cathy Furlong, Ph.D., 1980 Utica Sq. Med. Ctr. 628-3709 ¯
Gay & Lesbian Affordable Daycare 808-8026 :
*Gloria Jean’s Gourmet. Coffee, 1758 E. 21 st 742-1460
Leanne M. Gross, Insurance & financial planning 459-9349 "
Mark T. Hamby, Attorney 744-7440 ~
*Sandra J. Hill, MS, Psychotherapy, 2865 E. Skelly 745-1111 ¯
*International Tours 341-6866 "
Jacox Animal Clinic, 2732 E. 15th 712-2750 "
*Jared’s Antiques, 1602 E. 15th 582-3018 "
David Kauskey, Country Club Barbering 747-0236 ¯
The Keepers, Housekeeping & Gardening 582-8460 "
*Ken’s Flowers, 1635 E. 15 599-8070 "
Kelly Kirby, CPA, 4021 S. Harvard, #210 747-5466 ¯
*Living ArtSpace, 308 South Kenosha 585-1234 ¯
*Midtown Theater, 319 E. 3rd - 584-3112 "
Mingo Valley Flowers, 9720c E 31 663-5934 "
*Mohawk Music, 6157 E 51 Place 664-2951,"
Puppy Pause II, 1060 S. Mingo 838-7626
*The Pride Store 743-4297 "
Rainbowz on the River B+B, PUB 696,74101 747-5932 ¯
Richard’s Carpet Cleaning 834-0617 ~
Teri Schutt, Ellen & Co. 834-7921, 748-0224 ¯
*Tulsa Comedy Club, 6906 S. Lewis 481-0558 "
Venus Salon, 1247 S. Harvard 835-5563 ¯
Fred Welch, LCSW, Counseling 743-1733
*Wherehouse Music, 5150 S. Sheridan 665-2222
*Whittier News Stand, 1 N. Lewis 592-0767
www.gaytulsa.org - website for Tulsa Gays &Lesbians
Tulsa Agencies, Churches, Schools & O niversities
AIDS Walk Tulsa, PUB 4337, 74101 579-9593
All Souls Unitarian Church, 2952 S. Peoria 743-2363
Black & White, Inc..PUB 14001, Tulsa 74159
Bless The Lord at All Times Christian Center, 2207 E. 6
B/L/G/T Alliance, Univ. of Tulsa United Min. Ctr.
Chamber of Commerce Bldg., 616 S. Boston
*Chapman Student Ctr., University of Tulsa, 5th P1.
Church of the Restoratio~ UU, 1314 N.Greenwood
*Community of Hope Church, 2545 S. Yale
*Community Unitarian-Universalist Congregation
Council Oak Men’s Chorale
*Delaware Playhouse, 1511 S. Delaware
*Democratic Headquarters, 3930 E. 31
587-7314
583-7815
583-9780
585-1201
& Florence
587-1314
747-6300
749-0595
748-3888
712-1511
742-2457
918.583.1248, fax: 583.4615
FOB 4140, Tulsa, OK 74159, e-mail: TulsaNews@earthlink.net
Publisher + Editor: Tom Neal
Writers + contributors: James Christjohn, Karin Gregory, Barry
Hensley, J.-P. Legrandbouche, Lamont Lindstrom, Esther
Rothblum, Mary Schepers, Hughston Walkinshaw
Member of The Associated Press
Issued around the 1st of each month, the entire contents of this
publication are protected by US copyright 2001 by Tulsa
Family News and may not be reproduced either in whole or in
part without written permission from the publisher. Publication
of a name or photo does not indicate a person’s sexual
orientation. Correspondence is assumed to be for publication
unless otherwise noted, must be signed & becomes the sole
property of Tulsa Family News. Each reader is entitled to 4
copies of each edition at distribution points.
Additional copies are available by calling 583-1248.
Dignity/Integrity of Tulsa- Lesbian & Gay Catholics &
Episcopalians, PUB 701475, 74170-1475 355-3140
*Fellowship Congreg. Church, 2900 S. Harvard 747-7777
*Free SpiritWomen’s Center, call for location&info: 587-4669
Friend For A Friend, PUB 52344, 74152 747-6827
Friends in Unity Social Org., PUB 8542, 74101 582-0438
*Tulsa C.A.R.E.S., 3507 E. Admiral 834-4194
HOPE, HIV Outreach, Prevention, Education 834-8378
*HouseoftheHoly SpiritMingtries,1517S. Memorial 224-4754
*MCC United, 1623 N. Maplewood 838-1715
NAMES Project, 3507 E Admiral PI. 748-3111
NOW, Nat’I Org. for Women, PUB 14068, 74159 365-5658
OK Spokes Club (bicycling), PUB 9165, 74157
*OSU-Tulsa
PFI_AG, POB 52800, 74152 749-4901
*Planned Parenthood, 1007 S. Peoria 587-7674
Prime-Timers, P.O. Box 52118, 74152 627-2359
R.A.I.N., Regional AIDS Interfaith Network 749-4195
*Red Rock Mental Center, 1724 E. 8 584-2325
St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, 4045 N. Cincinnati 425-7882
St. Dunstan’s Episcopal, 5635 E. 71st 492-7140
*St. Jerome’s Parish Church, 205 W. King 582-3088
Soulforce-OK, Rt.4,#3534, Stigler74462 587-3248,452-2761
*Tulsa Area United Way, 1430 S. Boulder 583-7171
*TNAAPP (Native American men), Indian Health Care 582-7225
Tulsa County Health Department, 4616 E. 15 595-4105
Confidential H_IV Testing - by appt. on Thursdays only
Tulsa Okla. for Human Rights, Gay Comm. Center 743-4297
TUL-PAC, PositiveAdvocacy Coalition, POB2687,Tulsa 74101
T.U.L.S.A. Tulsa Uniform/Leather Seekers Assoc. 298-0827
*Tulsa City Hall, Ground Floor Vestibule
*Tulsa Community College Campuses
*Tulsa Gay Community Center, 21 st &Memorial 7434297
Unity ChurchofChristianity, 3355 S. Jamestown 749-8833
BARTLESVILLE
Bartlesville Public Library, 600 S. Johnstone 918-33%5353
TAHLEQUAH
Stonewall League, call for information:. 918-456-7900
Tahlequah Unitarian-Universalist Church 918-456-7900
Green Country AIDS Coalition, PUB 1570 918-453-9360
EUREKA SPRINGS, ARKANSAS
Autunm Breeze Restaurant, Hwy. 23 501-253-7734
Jim & Brent’s Bistro, 173 S. Main 501-253-7457
DeVito’s Restaurant, 5 Center St. 501-253-6807
Emerald RainbOw, 45 &l/2 Spring St. 501-253-5445
Heart of the Hills B&B, 5 Summit St. 501-363-9203
MCC of the Living Spring 501-253-9337
Geek to Go!, PC Specialist, PUB 429 501-253-2776
Old Jailhouse Lodging, 15 Montgomery 501-253-5332
Positive Idea Marketing Plans 501-624-6646
White Light, 1 Center St. 501-253-4074
JOPLIN, MISSOURI
Spirit of Christ MCC, 2639 E. 32, Ste. U134 417-623-4696
* is where you canfindTFN. Notall are Ga_y-ownedbutallare Gay-friendly.
¯ torch with a rainbow flame over the
¯¯ foundation’s name.
The city’s staff granted a permit for
¯ Cimarron Alliance banners to be put on 44
: poles. City leaders decided to take the ban-
. hers down after receiving complaints, but
¯ they had to put them backup after attorneys
¯ representing the alliance threatened to sue.
: Bill Rogers, an attorney and a member of
", the Cimarron Alliance, said the banners
¯ were legally protected free speech. ’The
¯ city has provided a forum for speech and it
¯ must not prohibit speech unless there is a
~ compelling governmental interest in doing ’
¯ so," he said "It would be very difficult to
¯ demonstrate such an interest in these cir-
,* cumstances."
’, Humphreys contends the banners go be-
¯ yond the concept of public speech because
¯ the city requires.groups who want to use the ¯
poles to provide the banners and to pay for
¯ their installation and removal. He said many
advertisers choose not to carry certain rues-
"- sages, and that Oklahoma City can, too.
¯ The city has notrespondedto the alliance’ s
¯ request to hang banners on city poles for
Gay and Lesbian History Month, which
takes places in October, Rogers said. The
: group’s earlier banners finally came down
¯ in mid-July after the time the alliance had
¯ reserved for them ran out.
Besides promoting pride, they featured a
¯
while saying he had not changed his mind
¯ that the execution should go forward.
¯ Keating has apologized for a violation of
the article of the Vienna Convention that
: guarantees foreign nationals, upon arrest,
the right to contact their country’s consul.
~ Keating said that did not change Valdez’s
¯ guilt the slaying.
; An Amnesty International report said all
¯ 15 foreign nationals executed in the U:S.
since 1993 were denied theright to consular
¯ access.
¯, Valdez admits killing Barron after Barron
made advances toward him in abar. Valdez
~ took Barron home, forced him to strip, and
¯
shot him twice in the head before burning
¯ his body.
¯ one experts hopewill be themodel for a shot
to control the worldwide epidemic.
Two other variations of the same approach
have been tested on monkeys at
Harvard Medical School and Merck & Co.
," with similar results. The Merck vaccine is
" already in first-stage human testing, and the
-" Yerkes and Harvard versions should start
: within six months.
¯ Vaccine discovery has been a notoriously
~ discouraging areaofAIDS research, clouded
~ by doubts that such a thing is even scientifi-
¯" cally thinkable. Butoverthepastyear, thanks
¯
to this impressive series of monkey experi-
" ments, many researchers have grown up-
:beat.
An AIDS vaccine is still no sure bet, they
," say. But many believe they are at least on a
¯ rational path toward finding one.
: The chances of success? "Ve~. _good,"
cells by the billions, taking over their machinery, forcing
them tobuildnew copies ofthevirus and obliterating then~
- ~ in theprocess. Eventually, though, the killer cells awaken ."
’ and destroy most 6f the infected cells before they can "
: release more virusl Virus levels fall and then level off. : by Tom Neal, publisher/editor
!n~volving~eca Q.odor an,d _a__~t. 80..o.th.er, monkeys...Wl~.y? .: In the years that fsollotw,athelwear ismnearlyaa t.e.. : Well,maybe. You’ve got tofigure that The TulsaWorld
. us~ ot me mo,nKey,s: she says. ~re are not all tlmt , The body produces new hel cells almost as mckl as " has to love The Dail Okl " " "
dif~ __ . . . per . .. q . y . . y .ahoman, its sister rag in Olda-
~~erm.en~unk2~Yns; _ ~. ,., , : ~e-v.~..rams,~.em. ~ut ,g~.,,d.ually;, their levels slide too :homaC.ity. After all, anything The World does, nomatter
m~, m,~l~w u ~.~ Lrom monkeys ls Key. anaa : Iar._ _A_t tl~s point, .vtr~.s kilh,n~..arugs can restore the : ho..w ~ss-.ix?or a~_d.pro.vm~al it might be, is going to be
~veOf~~.anlong sclen,ttsts. So,,me,wonder ft. these . bal,,~ance; butoth_e~wise theresultls AIDS and dentla.., betterthantimtot wlmthasbeendeelaredAmericaYsworst
~ .:~~gtvenmega~aoses oi lao-~’ownvlri~: , . lne new :¢aceines are desi~.,ned tostart .the .ot~min~ .... news~aoer-Tbatbein,,.~id it’l~tillru~ %unt Wns mc a.y, f we hel -7 .World f bl :. So ,here homdwesmin this our
...................au ;.,~a,,,~,~o~,~ _ t_ --___,_~~ ¯ muem:towerieveL.. -~y. oomg reaanvety su0tle,thmgs .’-- (besides TFNtn ourmodest way and Lordknows,..we’re
~S-’-~’s,":"~7:"~,’=~°~’ki~’g’,,mb°th_m_.°~,m,~eyan,.,um~n~ i du ", ~thefirstho.urs~ to w_ee.ks of infection, wethinkwe : certainly a David to their Goliath)? .
~emnv~ne~e~u~_~_s ~ts_~n_,m_s ce.,ns, aert~.~aat.oranea)~t,the . .can havea, dramatic pay~off m allowing the body’s own : ’ We’renotreallypickingon them- someone’sgot toffy
,_ mtvuut¢unt:s..mmonkeys, mevaccme seems to munt ¯ ~mmuneres nseoverthelonehanltocontalnthisv’rzl , tokeen
tilt.s attack. M.a.yb.e.itwl!l in,,~,le. too-. ¯ mfecuon sa ......... " ¯ . - . , ,. , . y.s Le~twn. , , . .... , , . esO. and it ShOt as though The World doesnt criticize
: ~Sudde~l.Ythere~sasensef°r.thefirst:ttmcthatperhaps : Instead~ofdyingfromAIDS, vac~nated peoplewhoget :. , everyone else in theireditorialpages. " ,, . ,, - s .bLt t : liv,o,w!th vi ,s for decades or even a :, , My’favorite waste of newsprint is our local "society,
¯~.mv,~.~.,.,_~.,,,~.~uymm~_" 0t mr:. r~tv epl~mmlc, says.., -menme. ires como atso slow ~ svread of,the disease; . column the wo k¢~-l~
rmrvaro s L~r.Norman Letvm. ’~low there is an.absolute ¯ because when virus levels are low. ~ie are much les~ : but wonde~ ff M~V~i~o%~’~t ~’a’~’~’~r~e’~ ....v and all
predicts Dr. Harriet Robinson, who oversaw experiments
stampede to get these technologies into humans and ask : likely to pass .on HIV. ¯ ofthe rest of us, a whole lotof trouble ffinstead of listing
the question: Can we-translate these monkey findings into :
the human situation?" ¯ and Merck differ, but all involve the same strategy: First
Researchers hope to know soon whether these experimental
shots launch the same early immune system defenses
seem in vaccinated monkeys. This would be an
encouraging hint of the vaccine’s eventual power. Some
answers could beoffered at an international AIDS vaccine
conference in early September..
However, vaccine development is frustratingly slow.
Even if all goes flawlessly, Robinson estimates it will be
2905before large-scale experiments begin with her vacone.
Learning whether it truly prevents AIDS will take
another two years. Many estimate these vaccines are still
a decade or more away.
So with clear answers so far off, is all’this optimism
realistic? ’~I ask myself whether it is justified based on the
science," says Dr.. Peggy Johnston, assistant director for
AIDS vaccines at the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases. "And my conclusion is yes."
One reason is that scientists have lowered the bar. Until
now, all useful vaccines prevented infections. However,
the human immune system cannot mm back an HIV
infection, and no one knows how to make a vaccine that
accomplishes something the human body cannot do for
itself.
So thenew vaccines are designed to accomplish thenext
best thing- train theimmune defenses to hold an infection
in Check without preventing it entirely.
"For a long time, people assumed that the only successfnl
vaccine would completely prevent infection," says Dr.
Robert Schooley of the University of Colorado. ’The new
studies suggest that a vaccine might also have a moderab
ing influence on the disease process itself."
Scientists agree that blocking an infection requires the
production, of powerful antibodies. This is how standard
vaccines work: They show the immune system a protein
that is unique to the germ. If the bug ever gets into the
body, the defenses will blaze back with antibodies that
latch onto the protein, blocking the germ and destroyingit.
HIV, however, is amoving target. It mutates so fast that
it constantly changes the proteins on its surface. So a
vaccine that triggers an attack against one strain of HIV
may be powerless against another. Furthermore, the virus
covers its surface with sugar, whichhides its proteins from
antibodies.
When all of this became clear in the 1990s, scientists
went back to basics. How is it, they asked, that people
often live with HIV for eight or 10 years beforefalling sick
with AIDS? And why do some never seem to get ill at all? "
The answer turns out to be another line of defense ¯
against germs, the killer cells. Unlike antibodies, which "
guard against free-floating microbes, the killer cells rec- "
ognize infected cells and destroy them. ¯
HIV’s favorite target is a blood cell called the helper "
cell. This complicates matters enormously, since one of
the hel.per cells’ most important jobs is nourishing and :
managing the killer cells.
In the first days ofaninfection, HIV burrows into helper "
Details of the vaccines developed by Yerkes, Harvard
come injections of several HIV genes, which are taken in
by muscle cells that use them as blueprints to make viral
proteins. Next comes an immune system booster, such as
a smallpox virus that has been rebuilt to carry some of the
HIV genes. The ultimate goal is still a vaccine that will
block HIV infection. But in the meantime, many believe
wide use of the latest vaccines could reduce spread of th~
disease, especially in parts of the world where it is rampant.
Experts believe a vaccine is the only thing tlmt will
tame an epidemic that has already killed 20 million people
and infects 15,000 more daily.
Dr. Gary Nabel, director of the National Institutes of
Health’s Vaccine Research Center, says that even if the
first versions are only modestly effective, tinkering will
probably make them better. ’"vVe’ll start with a Model T
and hope to get to a Mercedes fast."
While much of the attention is on novel strategies, a
more traditional vaccine is already in final-stage testing.
The AIDSVax, developed by VaxGen, has been given to
7,900 volunteers in North America, Europe and Thailand
The vaccine is made from the outer wrapper ofthe AIDS
virus and is intended to trigger antibodies to prevent
infection. Many AIDS experts are skepti,c01, because the
approach has been disappointing in monkeys, and some
early volunteers contracted HIV after being vaccinated.
However, VaxGen’s president, Dr. Donald Francis,
says more promising data from chimp experiments suggest
it has as good a chance as any other approach,
Researchers will take their first look at the results in
November, but unless it proves surprisingly effective, the
experiment will condnue until at least the end ofnext year.
Next in development is an Aventis Pasteur vaccine. It
consists of a canarypox virus engineered to carry HIV
genes, followed by a boost with AIDSVax. The Walter
Reed Army Institute of Research plans to start testing on
16,000 volunteers in Thailand next summer.
Even ifaaone of these works out, other ideas are in the
development pipeline. The National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases, the biggest vaccine backer, is
financing two dozen different possible vaccines.
Still, a few dozen healthy monkeys like Godot do not
prove anAIDS vaccine is on the horizon. Somein the field
worry that the wishforonehas dissolved~bealthy scientific
skepticism.
"We tend to swing from momentous lows to momentous
highs in the AIDS field," says Dr. Mark Mulligan of
the University ofAlabama at Birmingham. ’’Wemaybe in
an Alan Greenspan time ofirrational exuberance, because
we need this so desperately."
~ all the people who attend Tulsa events, she would simply
:. say that all the usual people were there - since it is the
: same-cast of criminals in column after colunm That
: would that reduce her column to a size .appropriate to its
¯ usual level of content, as well as saving someone the
¯
trouble of typing in all those names, over and over.
¯ Actually, as much as I hate to admit it, I find Ms.
.. Walker’s colulnn somewhat useful, if vulgar. In a town as
¯ screwed up and elitist/racist/homophobic as Tulsa is, it
never hurts to know who among Tnlsa’s "social elite" is
¯ in bed with each other, figuratively speaking.
¯ Top World editor JoeWorley took umbrage about TFN ¯
calling The Worm a country club newspaper some years
" back. My response is just read Ms. Walker’s column, see
¯ how much space it regularly commands and try to argue
¯ with me. Imagine if The Worm devoted as much space to
¯
international news regularly as they do to Ms. Walker!
Another interesting aspect of Tulsa Worm "reporting"
is the flagrant disregard for professional ethics in some
~
cases. Recently The World published an article about a
¯ new image/fundraising campaign~oyq~ulsa~ s most pron~i-
¯ nent non-profit organization. The only problem was that
the information in the article had/has yet to be released to
¯ the public. The "reporter" was privy to the information
¯
because s/he serves on an advisory committee for the non-
" profit and took theinformation direcdy out ofanonpublic
meeting without permission. Even first year journalism
¯ students would recognize that this was obtained and used
¯ improperly - and The World reporter who did this should
¯ know better.
¯ But part of the incestuous nature ofTulsais that the non-
" profit will likely tolerate just about anything The World
¯ does because The World donates so very many dollars a
." year. Given this compromised financial relationship, it’s
little surprise that this non-profit only gets promotional
¯
newscoverage from The WorM. And incompetence at the
¯ helm of this non-profit has been covered up for years by all
¯ of Tnlsa’s news outlets. ¯
But shoddy journalism should hardly be a surprise to
¯
thosewho’vebeenrcading The World’sreligioncoverage
¯ for some months. Thefirst clue that The WorMhas thrown
¯ journalistic balance out JoeWorley’s window onto Main ¯
Street is that World religion "reporter" Bill Sherman
¯
allegedly is a "Promise-Keeper".
Being a member of this rightwing, misogyuistic and
¯ anti-Gay organizationwouldbe consideredradicallycorn_ ¯
promised as a journalist by most news organizations but
¯
not at The WorM, apparently.
¯ Since Sherman took over the religion post, stories about
¯ evangelical and fundamentalist groups have dominated
¯ Wormcoverage while newsworthy stories coming out of
other moreprogressive traditions.have been ignored. And
: Tulsa’s moderate and progressive religious leaders have
¯ given up hope for fair coverage from The World.
¯
But at TFN, we always hold out hope for redemption,
¯ and note that Shermanis asking for stories aboutmiracles.
¯ Here, we’re just hoping for fair and accurate reporting
from The World. Now that would be a miracle, indeed.
Newspaper, Chain Offers
Partner Benefits
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) - Gannett Co., the nation’s
largest newspaper publisher, will soon offer full medical
benefits to same-sex partners who live together, the
company announced. The company also will offer
benefits to unmarried domestic partners of the opposite
sex. The benefits for partners will become available
inJanua~ 2002. Tobeeligible, partners mustfirst
havehad a 12-month relationship. They mustalso sign
an affidavit that declares there is financial dependence
between them.
Gannett spokeswomanTara Connell said there have
been several requests from empl,oyees for equal coverage
for domestic partners. "We ve been looking at it
for years," Connell said. She said the company’s rapid
growth last year slowed the process of revamping the
benefits. Gannett employs about 53,400 people at 98
newspapers in the United States. The company also
owns about 23 television stations.
Unlike married couples of the opposite sex, an
employee claiming the benefits will still have to pay
taxes on the amount used to insure his or her partner.
The IRS does not extend tax exemptions for medical
benefits to domestic partners.
Gannett’s decision was hailed by Gay and Lesbian
groups. ’q~o stay competitive youhave to provide good
benefits," said Sherry Boschert, a board member of
The National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.
"It just makes good business sense."
Cincinnati Schools
AddressAnti-Gay Attacks
CINCINNATI (AP) - Public,school students who
xntimidate others because of sexual orientation or
disability can be suspended or expelled. The board of
education voted 6-1 to add those two provisions to the
Cincinnati Public Schools’ discipline policy. Board
lawyer John Concannon said principals and assistant
principals were trained to pr.operly enforce the new
policy during in-service sessxons two weeks ago.
Mindy Sandfort, a spokeswoman for the Gay, Lesbian
and Straight Education Network, urged the board
to teach educators how to recognize, prevent and
discipline harassment based on sexual identity, which
is not explicitly mentioned in the new policy. ’q~eachers
need to understand the difference between gender
identity and sexual orientationandhow to deal withthe
harassment that comes with both situations," she said.
Concannon said he believes gender identity is covered
under the current policy. The policy applies to
serious incidents ofharassment, intimidation or threatening,
he said. It does not apply to incidents that
involve free speech rights.
If a student says, "I’m opposed to homosexuality
because God says homosexuality is a sin," it is not a
violation of the policy, Concannon said.
Australian Gay Partners .
To Be Recognized .
PERTH, Australia (AP) -De facto partnerships, including
homosexual relationships, will be recognized
in the same way as marriages under new propertyrights
legislation to be introduced in a state parliament.
Western Australia state Attorney General Jim
McGinty said the legislatiqnwouldallow thoseheterosexual
and same-sex couples whose relationships .are
recognized by the state to have property disputes
settled through the Family Court rather than having to
go to the Supreme Court.
Australia has a vibrant and vocal Gay community.
Sydney each year plays host to the Gay and Lesbian
Mardi Gras, one of the largest international Gay pride
- festivals.
Under Australian law, when a de facto relationship
ends there is no specific legQ, right allowing a person
to claim a share of property. A significant and growing
proportion of couples living together in Western
Australia have no access to the Family Court if their
relationship ends," McGinty said. "Instead, they must
argue their case before the Supreme Court, resorting to
principles of equity that can be expensive, time consuming,
public and uncertain." McGinty said the legislation,
which will be introduced in Parliament this
week, would also ensure all de factor couples can ask
for alimony, just as married couples can.
The legislation comes after Prime Minister John
Howard said that he would not support homosexual
weddings and that same-sex couples should not have
the same legal status as married couples.
Teens Held in Gay Killing
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -Abeating and arson that killed
a 58-year-old Wichita man began with him making
sexual advances to two teen-agers now charged with
killing him, witnesses said. The co-defendants - 18-
year-old Zachary Steward and 17-year-old Brandon
Boone - blamed each other for repeatedly striking
Marcell Eads on his head, according to testimony
presented at a preliminary hearing.
District Court Judge Joseph Bribiesca ruled there
was enough evidence to charge the two with firstdegree
murder, aggravated arson, aggravated burglary
and aggravated robbery. The judge also ruled that
Boone, 16 when the crimes occurred, would be tried as
an adult. Innocent pleas have been entered for both
men. Trial was set for Oct. 8.
Early the morning of June 29, firefighters found the
body of Eads on the floor of his smoldering home.
Although Eads was beaten severely, it was the fire that
killed him, Deputy Coroner Jaime Oeberst said. Eads
was burned over 60% to 70% of his body and inhaled
smoke that left alethal level of carbon monoxide in his
blood, he said.
Testimony showed that sex and sexual orientation
appeared to be key factors in the motive. Police Det~-
tive Blake Mumma said Steward gave a statement m
which he said that Eads had made sexual advances
toward him and Boone - prompting Boone to start
beating Eads with a broomstick, and later with the end
of a table and a rock. Steward also admitted to striking
Eads, Mumma said. According to Steward’s statement
to police, the two teens returned to Eads’ house and
Boone started the fire.
Eads, a hairstylist, was openly Gay, said neighbor
Zusan Livingston. She said Eads toldherhewas having
an affair with Steward. Steward and his father had
come to Eads for haircuts. Steward grew up in Riverside,,
several blocks west of F_ads’ bungalow.
Rachel Mroczkowsk, Boone’ s 15-year-old girlfriend,
testified she heard Steward say the night of the killing
that he was angry because he had gone to aman’s house
andthe man,had grabbed the area around his genitals
and propositioned him. She said Steward used a slur to
.describe the man and said he wanted Boone to go with
him to beatthe man and steal things from his home.
Under Kansas law, if it can be shown that someone
was a crime victim because of his sexual orientation, a
judge can use that to justify a harsher sentence.
US Women Wed
In Netherlands
PROVINCETOWN, Mass. (AP) - Two women from
Provincetown were married last month in the Netherlands,
but it is unclear whether their marriage will be
legally recognized in Massachusetts.
Heather Wishik and Susan Donegan said they will
not fight for their overseas mamage to be legal in
Massachusetts, but Gay civil fights advocates predict
state courts may soon be forced to confront the issue of
same-sex couples who marry or are joined in a civil
union out of state or overseas.
MCC United
MetropolRan Coctmltardgy C~urch United is a cor-,gre~jaUon ofthe
Univer~a~ Fellowship of Metropcdita~ Community ~hurcl~,s
Sharing the
~oodness of the
Lord with our
community.=
Sunday Morning
Traditional
11:00 AM
Wednesday EvenJn,
Contemporary
7:00 PM
Rev. Cathy Elliott, Pastor
"1623 N. Maplewood (918) 838-1715 mcctulsa@aoLcotn
Community
Unitarian Universalist
Congregation
at Community ofHope
2545 South Yale, Sundays at llam, 749-0595
A Welcoming Congregation
HOUSE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Sun. Worship, 10:45 am, Sunday School, 9:30 am
Wed. Bible Study, 7 pm, Sunday Eve. Service, 6pm
1517 S. Memorial, 628-0802, lnfo: 224-4754
The Open Arms Project
Young Adult Support Group
Outreach Program Thurs. Nights
Meet Others in a Safe Enviroment
Call for meeting times and place:
918-584-2325
Mingo Valley Flowers
9413 E. 31st St., Tulsa 74145
918-663-5934, fax: 663-5834, 800-A.A,A.-5934
Family Owned & Operated
Trinna L. W. Burrows, LSW, ACSW
Child, Family, Individual & Couple Psychotherapy
(918) 743-9559
2121 South Columbia, Suite 420
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74114-3518
The Pride Store
21st Street & Memorial
Tulsa Gay Community Services Center
743-GAYS (743-4297)
6-9 pm, Sunday - Friday
12-9 pm, Saturday, all sales benefit the Center
Heart of the Hills
Bed & Breakfast
5 Summit, Eureka Springs, Arkansas
501 - 363 - 9203
Come Stay Us for the Next
Diversi~. Celebration, Nov. 2 - 4
Red Rock Tulsa
Free Confidential HIV Testing
Walk-in Clinics
Tues. & Thurs., 5 -8 pm
at the Center; 1307 East 38th
Daytime appointments available.
Call for more information:
918-584-2325
e i
I v
r
American Red Cross
American Red Cross
Tulsa Area Chapter~
10151 East Eleventh
Tulsa 74128
Dannette Mclntosh
Diversity Co-ordinator
838-1100
OPENARMS
OPEN MINDS
OPEN I-IFAI~S
Saint Aidan
4045 N. Cincinnati, 425-7882
Saint John
4200 S. Atlanta Place, 742-7381
Saint Dunstan
5635 East 71st, 492-7140
Trinity
501 S. Cincinnati, 582-4128
The Episcopal Church Welcomes You
A lawsuit recently filed in Suffolk Superior Court
challenges the rights of same-sex couples to marry in
Massachusetts. Five’months ago, the Netherlands became
the first country to allow same-sex marriage.
"For us, our Dutch marriage is simply that - it’s a
Dutch marriage entered into for very personal reasons,"
Donegan said. "We did not get married as a
political or legal challenge to Massachusetts or to the
United States."
Mary Bonauto, staff attorney for Gay and Lesbian
Advocates and Defenders, said she had not yet seen
couples married in the Nefherlands or joined in civil
union in Vermont go to court in Massachusetts to
extend the legal recognition.
But Bonauto said she has seen same-sex couples
who went to Vermont for a civil union return to
Massachusetts and successfully negotiate employee
benefits with employers or family rates with clubs.
"It’s evolving in its own way," she said.
European Scouts
Do Accept Gays
During the last European Conference of Scouts and
[gift] Guides, at the initiative of the Belgian delegation
a resolution was approved not to consider homosexuality
as a discriminatory factor, neither inside nor
outside scouting. This resolution was a reaction by
Belgium to the recent troubles with the Boy Scouts of
America regarding the exclusion of gay members, on
account of which Steven Spielberg, among others,
resigned from the organization.
The European Conference of Scouts and Guides,
which took place from 7 - 12 July in Prague, was
attended by more than 400 representatives from
throughout Europe. Belgian delegates represented the
five Belgian scouts and guides organizations, which
have around 150,000 members.
Scouting and Guiding is active in 41 European
countries, with approximately 3.5 million boys and
gifts participating. Worldwide the organization counts
around 35 million scouts and guides in 216 countries,
and the Jamboree, to be held next year in Thailand, is
its most eye-catching international initiative.
The Belgian proposal to avoid discrimination based
on sexual preference opened with the charter of fundamental
rights of the child adopted by the European.
Unionin Nice in December 2000. Further, the amendment
pointed out evolutions in present day society and
the fact that scouting and guiding always follow the
tendencies of youth culture, put to the test of the
principles of the movement.
Following this it was stated that ’l~olebis" (the
Belgian abbreviation for Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals)
are to be universally accepted within European
society and that this cannot be used as an exclusionary
criterion by national (scouting) federations. The Belgian
proposal was approved by a large majority of the
conference representatives.
Turkey, Greece, Romania, Portugal, Cyprus, and
Malta voted against the initiative. The five Belgian
"scouts and guides organizahons (VVKSM, FOS, FCS,
GCB, and SGP) hope that the approval of this resolution
will have an impact on other regions of the world.
The American observer at the conference was "not
really happy" with the result [of the vote on the
initiative]. However, news is trickling out that the
scouting movement in the United States is.coming
under pressure from, among others, gigantic sponsors
such as Levis and Coca Cola, to revise its policy
against Gays.
Washington State Court
Upholds Partner Benefits
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - The city of Vancouver can
keep providing health benefits to domestic partners of
Gay and Lesbian city employees, the Washington
¯ Supreme Court has ruled. The 8-1 decision will likely
¯ stretch beyond the city’s borders. Other cities, includ-
¯
ing Seattle, and the state have similar policies, along
¯ withlocal governmentsinatleastfourotherstates.The
¯ policy allows domestic partners, including same-sex
: partners, to receive health insurance benefits. It also
¯ allows employees to use theii sick leave to care for
¯ partners or partners’ children.
Vancouver resident Roni Heinsma challenged the
¯
policy soon after it was adopted in 1998, arguing that
: the city was creating akind of mini-marriage in viola-
. tion of the state law against same-sex marriage.
But thejustices agreed with the city’s argument that
¯ regulation of employee benefits is alocal matter. ’’We
¯ conclude that the city’s recognition of domestic part-
. nershipis limited and that the program does not uncon-
¯ stitutionally interfere with the Legislature’s ability to
¯ regulate familial relationships on a statewide level,"
¯ Justice Susan Owens wrote for the majority.
Heinsma’s challenge was argued by the Northstar
¯ Legal Center, a conservative nonprofit law firm m
Fairfax, Va., which challenged the city’s argnment
that the benefits were necessary to recruit and retain
good workers. ’The city or county that enacts this is
¯ saying that we do not agree with the state Legislature’s
decision to ban same-sex marriage," said Jordan
Lorence, the Northstar attorney who argued the case.
¯ ’q-his isn’t based on need, it’s based on a political
¯ agenda."
Similar polices in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver and
Broward County, Fla., have been upheld by other state
supreme courts, Lorence said. Policies in Minneapo-
¯ lis, Boston, and Arlington County, Va., were struck
¯ down. Courts are still considering cases in Philadel-
¯ phia and Montgomery County, Maryland.
¯ "Every time we get domestic partner benefits like
¯ this, the fight wing swoops in and raises some kind of
challenge," said Pat Logue, senior counsel for the
¯ Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a Gay
civil fightsgroup. "I think the courts recognize that
: domestic partnership is not marriage."
¯ In Washington, King County and the cities of Seattic,
Olympia and Tumwater have similar policies.
: The Public Employees Benefits Board approved a
: similar policy for state workers last year at Gov. Gary
Locke’s request.
¯ Since Vancouver’s policy was initiated in 1998, ¯
about 30 domestic partnerships have been registered
and approved. The city paid more than $20,000 to
¯ cover the cost of the policy in 1998. "A lot of private ¯
businesses have similar policies," said Ted Gathe,
¯ Vancouver’s city attorney. "It was felt by the city that
¯. recruiting and retaining employees is important, and
this was one of the benefits that should be included in
: our package."
¯ Gay Friendly Governor
i To Run for US Senate
: NEWBURY, N.H. (AP) - Democratic Gov. Jeanne
¯ Shaheen, New Hampshire’s first female governor and
¯ the first to openly support abortionfights, took the first
official step toward running for Senate. Shaheen, a
¯ social liberal and fiscal conservative, filed papers
." creating an exploratory committee for a run for the seat
¯ now held by conservative Republican incumbent Bob ¯
Smith.
¯ Shaheen has signed bills protecting Gay civil rights
in housing, jobs and public accommodations and re-
. pealing a ban on Gay adoptions.
¯ "Democrats, independents and Republicans all have
told me that they want a U.S. senator who will be a
¯ champion for them in Washington and take action on
the real problems they face," Shaheen said in a state-
" merit. Democrats have held a 50-49-1 advantage in the
¯ Senate since Jim Jeffords of Vermont switched from
¯ the GOP to independent in June. Shaheen said she
¯ won’t officially decide whether to run until next year.
_" She is serving her third two-year term as governor.
So. Africato Provide
Free AIDS Drug
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) -
The governmentmade a verbal agreement
with a German drug company to accept a
key AIDS drug for free in pilot projects
aimed at reducing the number of babies
born withHIV,company officials released
recently. The deal to provide free
nevirapine for the prevention of motherto-
child transmission of HIV at pilot
projects in the country was tentatively
accepted, said Kevin McKenna, technical
director ofBoehringer-Ingelheimin South
Africa.
The.company made the offer of free
Nevirapine to more than 100 developing
countries last year, provided it was part of
a properly managed, comprehensive
mother-to-child Transmission prevention
program. The government had been criticized
for not taking up the offer. AIDS
activists and doctors sued the government
demanding the immediate administration
of nevirapine nationwide.
About 200 babies are born with HIV
every day in South .africa and the drug
could slash that number in half. By refusing
to make nevirapine widely available to
HIV-infected pregnant women, the government
is denying women .and children
¯ their constitutional rights to health care,
the suit filed in the Pretoria High Court
claimed.
The government, which is reviewing
the suit, says it stands by its policy of first
distributing nevirapine on a small scale
¯ through pilot programs to test its effects~
Young So. Africans
Speak of AIDS
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - In a
steady voice, 16-year-old Jabu tells how
her father raped her repeatedly, infecting
her with the HIV virus. Once too scared to
speak out, she encouraged others to fight
anti-AIDS discrimination in South Africa
at the first national meeting of children
who are either infected or who have relatives
with the virus.
An estimated 4.7 million South Africans,
about 11% of the population, are
infected with HIV. The country has
700~000 AIDS orphans. Those infected
are often stigmatized by a society who
considers it a shameful illness, Infected
children at the meeting spoke of being
shunnedby theirpeers,abandonedby their
own families and even blamed by health
care workers for contracting the virus.
Jabu, who asked to be identified only by
her first name, encouraged the young
people to speak out. ’%’ou don’t have to
keep quiet," Jabu told the group of about
90 children. The children, aged seven to
18, gathered from across the country in
this coastal city and read anonymous testimonials
out loud.
Participants told of having to leave
school to care for their infected siblings.
Rejected by their families, others spoke of
having to support themselves by collectl’
ng fi¯ rewood and tendi"ng cattle. "My rdafives
discriminate between me and their
children," wrote one of the children in a
testimonial. "It’s like I am a slave."
Monene, 14, lost her mother to the disease.
She said she frequently goes hungry
and does not have proper clothes to wear.
Monene, who asked to be identified only
by her firstname, urged the government to
build more orphanages. "If they don’t do
that, what are we going to become in the
future?" she asked.
TheSouthAfrican governmenthasbeen
ambasted for an inconsistent policy on
combatting AIDS and for refusing to provide
anti-retroviral drugs through the public
health system.
At the meeting, Dr. Nono Simelela, who
heads the health department’s AIDS program,
told the children the government
was doing the best it could. "It’s dear that
a~ore resources as going to be needed,"
Simelela said. "As far as humanly possible,
we are responding to these challenges,
(but) the processes are slow."
Partners agree to joint ownership of patents
for first AIDS vaccine specifically
designed for Africa
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Three partners
developing and testing thefirstHIV/AIDS
vaccine specifically designed for an African
strain of the disease have agreed to
joint ownership of the drug’s patents.
The three-year agreement settles one of
the hurdles that had earlier threatened to
delay testing the vaccine to combat the
viral strain most common in eastern Africa:
Kenyan trials of the vaccine started
several months later than expected, partly
because of wrangling over ownership and
patent rights.
’q~nis was a delicate matter, requiring a
lot of patience and compromise from all
parties," said Francis Gichaga, vice chancellor
of theUniversity ofNairobi. Gichaga
and Seth Berkley, president of the New
York-based International AIDS Vaccine
Initiative, signed the agreementin Nairobi.
Britain’ s Medical Research Council signed
it in England earlier last month. ’q~he task
force was guided by the principle of.fairness,
equal partnership and need to equitably
apportion credit and any revenues that
may accrue from this project," Gichaga
said.
The groups have been working since
November 1998 to develop a double vac,
cine, basing much of their research on
prostitutes from a Nairobi slum who appear
to be immune to the HIV virus that
causes AIDS.
The first component is a simple_DNA
vaccine that delivers the genetic information
on HIV. The second component,
known as MVA~ is a vaccine that delivers
the same genetic information but uses a
weakened smallpox virus to carry it to the
cells.
The DNA vaccine is in its first phase of
testingonbothKenyans andBritons. Tests
of the MVA vaccine are being conducted
in England and are expected to begin in
Kenya in September or October, said G_ilbert
Camathan, project manager at the
vaccine initiative, which is funding the
research. Trials combining the components
are expected to begin later this year
in Britain and in early 2002 in Kenya,
Camathan said.
There is no HIV virus in the injections.
The safety tests will determine whether
they have any toxic effects. Once the combination
vaccine has proven safe, it will be
Power
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questions - and better access to service.
Now it’s easier for you to inquire
about your monthly electric bill.
Or report a power outage. Or
arrange tohave your
power turned on or
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To provide faster response
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Attorney at Law
An Attorney who will fight for justice
& equality for Gays & Lesbians
Domestic Partnership Planning,
Personal Injury, Criminal Law & Bankruptcy
1-800-742-9468 or 918:352-9504
128 East Broadway, Drumright, Oklahoma
Weekend and evening appointments are available.
tested to see if it actually wards off AIDS.
The process is expected to take several
years.
Berkley will sign an agreement with the
Uganda Vaccine Research Institute soon
that will pave the way for testing there of
an orally administered version of the vaccine,
CamathantoldTheAssociated Press.
Tests so far have "not only been safe, but
also generated surprisingly good immune
responses," Berkley said.
Africa, the world’s poorest continent, is
ground zero in the fightagainstHIV/AIDS.
More than 24 million Africans live with
the vires butmost cannot afford expensive
drugs designed to slow its effects. Health
officials estimate that more than 2.6 million
Kenyans alOne have HIV/AIDS, and
700 more are infected each day. Other
vaccines-target strains prevalent in Europe
and North America.
AIDS Activist Sees
Less Harassment
SHANGHAI, China (AP) - The threatening
phone calls and summons by angry
officials areover. Governmentleaders who
once shunned her now smile and say hello
inpublic. Thereversal represents a victory
ofsorts forGao Yaojie, aretired gynecologist
who publicized the spread of AIDS
through illegal blood buying in rural villages
in the central Chinese province of
I-Ienan.
After years of official attempts to conceal
the deadly outbreak, the government
is acknowledging that hundreds of villagers
are infected and that dozens have already
died.
Gao said a deputy governor of Henan
even went out ofhis way last week to greet
her at an art exhibition. The government
still hasn’t broken down and told Gao she
was right. Butithas stopped treating her as
if she were trying to reveal state secrets,
Gao, 74, told The Associated Press by
telephone. ’‘itrs so quiet now," she said.
"A couple of months ago, I was getting
phone calls from government officials almost
every day."
Gao stumbled onto the hidden epidemic
in 1996, when one of her patients tested
positive for the virus that causes AIDS.
Gao was able to link the infection to an
illegal blood-buying industry in rural
Henan. Since the 1980s, collectors had
been paying villagers for their blood, extracting
the valuable plasmaand then reinjecting
what was left back into donors’
veins. Donated blood was often pooled
together, facilitating Transmission ofHIV.
Gao printed more than 300,000 flyers
and 100,000 booklets to warn the villagers
about the danger. She also paid for the
treatment of infected children. She said
she has spent more than $25,000 of her
ownmoney over thelastfive years. Health
officials at first ignored her and then grew
hostile as her efforts drew Chinese and
foreign media attention, she said.
In May, officials at the hospital where
she had worked in Zhengzhou, Henan’s
capital, blocked her application for a passport
to visit the United States to accept an
award for anti-AIDS activism. Officials
accused her of collaborating with "anti-
Chinese foreign organizations," she said.
Butthis month:the governmentabruptly
reversed itselfand announced it was sending
a team of health officials to open a
clinic in the worst-hit village, Wenlou.
More recently, a vice minister of health
said an April survey of 1,645 Wenlou
villagers found that 318 - or 19% - were
HIV-positive. Among villagers who sold
blood, an even larger proportion were infected
- 244 out of 568, or 43%
Officials are now examining blood supplies
in all hospitals and donor centers in
Henan, the Health Ministry’s newspaper-
Health News - said Friday. Police also are
searching for illegal blood-buyers, known
as "bloodheads," and government officials
who helped them, it said.
"It’s a good start that the government is
beginning to acknowledge this problem
and take action against it," Gao said. ’’I am
not sure how effective the crackdown will
be or if theproblem will just reappear after
the campaign is over, but at least it’s much
better than before when the officials did
nothing at all."
Brazil Strips Patent
On AIDS Drug
¯ RIO DEJANEIRO, Brazil (AP)-Brazil’s
: decision to disregard patent protections
¯ and begin manufacturing a genetic ver-
¯’ sion of a powerful anti-AIDS drug could
¯ open the way for other developing coun-
." tries to follow suit, experts said in August.
¯¯ Brazil has become the first country to
strip the patent on an anti-AIDS medica-
¯ tion. Health Minister Jose Serra said gov-
¯ ernment laboratories would begin manu- ¯
facturing Nelf’mavir, an anti-AIDS drug
¯ made by the Roche group and sold under
¯ the trade name Viracept. Serra justified
¯ the move, saying six months of negotia-
¯ tions with Roche failed to lower the drug’s ¯ price sufficiently for Brazil to be able to
~ distribute the drug free of charge to all in
¯ need. Brazil, has the highest number of
: AIDS victimsin Latin America, with about
¯ 203,000 people with the disease.
¯ Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Cen-
¯ ter for Economic Policy and Research, a
: Washington-based think tank, hailed
¯ Brazil’s decision and said it could prompt
¯ other countries to do the same. "I think
¯ you’regoing to seemoredeveloping coun- ¯
tries resisting these attempts to enforce the
¯ U.S. patent law all over the world. Very
." often, this is the ease: When one country
¯ challenges these laws, the U.S. backs ¯
down," he said. Weisbrot points to U.S.
¯ decisions to back away from attempts at
¯ stricterpatent enforcementonAIDS drugs ¯
in South Africa and Brazil.
¯
The law also contains clauses that allow
¯ patents to be stripped in cases of national
¯ emergency or when the company has been
~ judged to employ abusive pricing. Serra
~ used the abusive pricing clause in justify-
." ing this move.
Roche spokesman Daniel Piller said the
: company was not expecting Brazil’s latest
_" move. "We were surprised to hear the
¯° news from the Brazilian government. We
really think the government of Brazil ~s
~ really committed to combatting this dread-
." ful disease, andin ourpoint ofview, we are
¯ stillinnegotiations withthe Health Minis-
." try," Piller said by telephone from the
¯ company’s headquarters in Switzerland.
This year’s New Genre Festival, Octo~ ¯
her 3-7,-2001, will present a diverse range "
of artists, many of whom cross disciplin- "
ary lines to create exciting new art works.. ¯
These works push the limits of traditional "
media while incorporating the new media "
madepossiblebytoday’s technology. New ¯
Genre Festival is a program ofLiving Arts
of Tulsa.
This year the following art venues have ¯
chosen to collaborate on promoting corn ¯
temporary art in Tulsa: Living ArtSpace,
Nightingale Theatre, Philbrook Museum "
of Art, SoBo 2, TulsaModem Art Center, ¯
Tulsa Performing Arts CenterTrust, Tulsa
Pror~e~ ¯ le, University of Tulsa School of "
Art, Utica Square "
Since 1969, Living Arts of Tulsa has
been steadfast inits mission of"presenting ¯
and devdoping contemporary artforms in "
Tulsa." Living Arts is interested in newly "
evolving ideas and concepts, and in sharingits
interests withthe communitythrough "
creative workshops, performances, exhi- "
bitions, films/videos, demonstrations of ",
current art, lectures, related educational
activxties and research.
Living Arts has two principal goals: 1) ¯
to bring Outside artists and works to Tulsa
who are pushing their media to its limit
and, 2) to present opportunities and. challenges
for local artists to develop and
present new, exploratory works,which are
not normally seen in Tulsa.
’~3rrrl Power" Elizabeth.Whitney is one
of this year’s emcees and she will be
making several appearances throughout
the festival: Thursday at the Performance
Open; Friday at Die Audio Gruppe - 8pro
andatA.K.A. - 10pro; and Saturday atJos4
Torres Tama - 8pm.
Grrrls: Subversive Performances of
Femininity Utilizing multiple perso_~,ae
(Rizzo - tough girl, Barbie, Miss Flizabeth,
Bridesmaid, and Ethyl), Elizabeth
Whitney leads us through many aspects of
stereo typed women today - only with a
twist!
ncSis theotherof this year’ s emcees and
they will be making several appearances/
performances throughout the festival:
Thursday at the Performance Open - 8pm;
Friday at Jos4 Torres Tama- 10pro Saturday
at Die Audio Gruppe - 8pro
he5 had its .begin~,~,n,gs as a band. Always
"very theatrical for a rock group, it
wasn’t until the dialmmer quit that the
remaining band members decided to ditch
the gigs and dive into theatrical
experimentaion. Utilizing various disciplines,
technology and whatever else they
can find, nc5 strives to incorporate the
energy of a rock concert into their performances.
On Wednesday, Oct. 3, 5-Spin will feature
’q’he Culture of Breath," an interactive
computer projection insthllation by
Chicago Art Institute Professor of New
MediaTiffany Holmes whichinvestigates
the physiological, the biological, and the
~psychological aspects of breathing.
It opens at Living ArtSpace, 308 S
Kenosha. The installation continues on
display through October 25. The act of
breathing is presented as a series of visual
layers: physical, biotic, and psychological.
On the physical level, the artist reminds
us that we can consciously hold our
breath and halt the automatic process of
breathing for a short period of time until
the body revolts and reasserts control. The
act of breathing creates a dynamic interface
between our exterior and interior environments.
OnThursday, Oct. 4, Willy Le Maitre&
Eric Rosenzveig will present "The Appearance
Machine"- a live video installation
which begins in New York City with
the collection of trashfrom the streets. The
garbage starring in the drama is manipulated,
analyzed, videotaped and then
streamed in realtime over the internet directly
to the Alexandre Hogue Gallery,
Phillips Hall, University of Tulsa, 2935 E
5th St. It opens from 5-Tpm and continues
through October 25. Eric Rosenzveig also
will give a talk at TU about the work and
other artworks using new technologies at
6pro.
Chris Wildrick of ’~2funBasTards" from
Madison, Wisconsin will perform Local
Reality Test: Temporal Continuity Test,
an out-of-theater performance by walking
around Tulsa from 9-5pm asking people
what timeitis. He will then check this time
against his watch, marking down the difference
in minutes and his location. He
will also check times fOund on public
docks. Throughout the day he will accumulate
avast amount of data regarding the
discrepancies between time and space m
Tulsa.
A ground-breaking new program of the
New Genre Festival this year, the Performance
Open allows for several short performance
artworks by artists from Tulsa
and around the country to be seen at one
venue, The Nightingale Theatre, 1416 E
4th St8:00pm $8. ($6. students) onThursday,
Oct. 4.
The amazing Berlin-based multimedia
artgroup, DieAudioGruppe,buildelectroacoustic
clothing and then perform using
them. Studio Performances at the Tulsa
Performing Arts Center, Doenges Theater,
2rid. & Cincinnati, 8:00pm.$12. ($6.
students) Friday/Saturday, Oct. 5/6. Reservations
are required through the PAC at
596-7111 or www.tnlsapac.com.
A workshop will be offered, "Making
Electro-acoustic Clothing" with inventor
Ben0it Manbrey on Monday, Oct. 1,
7:00pro at Living ArtSpaee.
Also on "Oct. 5/6, Living Arts will
feature ’qm Exile Close to the Equator -
Personal Stories of Universal Truths in a
Search for the "American Dream." In this
autobiographical verbal and visual coil
lage, performance artist Jos~ Tortes Tama
: returns to Tulsawith awork that combines
: personal stories and incantations withdra-
~ matic movement and visual tableaus.
¯ Moving rapidly from poetic drama to the
hilariously absurd, he creates a dynamic
¯ piece that explores the immigrant experience
and rites-of-passage in urban Ameri-
] can culture.
¯ The New Genre Festival also will offer
: anumber more events. For moreinforma-
¯¯ tion, call 918-585-1234 or check out:
www.livingarts.org. Living Arts of Tulsa
¯
is located at 308 S Kenosha.
It’s too expensive."
You can subscribe to
Tulsa Opera’s entire
season for as little
as $13 per opera.
That’s cheaper than a
ballgame and at
that price you can
even bring a date.
]’re sure to score.
Herland
Fall Retreat
September 14-16
Roman Nose State Park
Featuring entertainers
Mary N Bright
Mary Catherine Reynolds,
-Kristall Bright and Nancy Nesser
Herland, 2312 NW 39th
Oklahoma City, www.herlandsister.org
THE GILDED AGE
Treasuresfrom the Smitbsonian American Art Museum
9 SEPTEMBER -- 4 NOVEMBER 2OO1
THE PHILBROOK MUSEUM OF ART
2727 SOUTH ROCKFORD ROAD
Hungry for Atlantic Herring or
A Prince in a Shetland?
by Deborah J. Hunter
If you like Stephen McCauley (Object
ofMyAffection, Easy Way Out, Man ofthe
Houseand TrueEnough) you’ll love Louis
Bayard. I read Bayard’s two novels, En-
"dangered Species (2001) and Fool’s Errand
(1999) back to back. I get hungry for
good writing with peculiar characters that
happen to be Gay.
Bayard gives us both
in a feast of storytelling
about thirty-something
Nick Broome who hasurges
toward parenthoodandPatrick
Beaton
who is in search of
- "PrinceCharming"orin
this case "Prince Shetland."
Like McCauley,
Bayard gently bashes
stereotypes in favor of
people "like you and
me" (and some not so
like anyone I have ever
met) that are trying to
make alife that on most daysdoesn’t seen
the least bit-"altemative."
Nick Broome’s experience with sperm
banks and finding out his own motility
rates are hilarious. Thephysiclan s assistant..,
leads me down along hallway with
shell-colored carpet...She hands me three
medium-size glass vials, abox ofKleenex
and a back issue of Pro Wrestling magazine."
He evolves from wanting to propagate
to wanting to parent. His search for a
¯Lesbian co-parem, or finally, a surrogate
but are asked to donate $10 at the door.
Earlierin September,TulsaOklahomans
for Human Rights (TOHR) will kick off
theplanningfor Diversity Celebration2002
from 5:30 to7pmonThursday, Sept. 6th at
Renegades in the Rainbow Room. The
public is welcome and for more information,
call 743-4297, or e-mail to
community@tohr.org
Looking forward to the end of October,
TOHR will be hosting a Rocky Horror
Masquerade Ball featuring Helga’s
Horribles to benefit the Pyramid Project
(the-ftm.draising effort for a permanent
commumty center) at the Downtown
Doubletree on the 27th. More details will
be available in October.
HRC Announces Grant to
Oklahoma Group
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Human
Rights Campaign (HRC) madeannounced
decisions about its first round of Equality
Fund grants to Gay state lobbying groups
in 10 states.
Amoung these grants (totaling $47,000)
is one to Oklahoma’s Cimarron Alliance
Foundation of $4,000 to conduct the first
poll in Oklahoma to guidedevelopment of
public outreach messages, with special
emphasis on hate crimes, discrimination
"... Like MeCauley,
Bayard gently
bashes stereotypes
in favor
of people
’like you and me’
"(and some not
so like anyone I
have ever met)..."
¯ mother, takes him on a journey that in-
: eludes a cast of ordinary but uncommon
¯ people. His thoughts turn from Atlantic
¯ herring, "These are fish that travel inlarge
" schools and reproduce as casually as I
untangle phone cords," to other species,
" "Cowbirds have beenonmindlately. They
¯ are brown-headed creatures that decline
: the honor of building nests and instead lay"
¯ eggs in thenests of other birds. Some birds
pick up on the ruse, but
most will happily incubate
the new eggs as
one of their own."
In Fool’s Errand,
Patrick Beaton learns to
hate naps and learns to
love Seth. He thinks
Seth is helping him find
themaninthe cranberry
Shetland sweater. He
thinks their days spent
in the parking lots of
discount stores and their
nights spent in bars are
in search of a "Scottish
Prince" who Patrick
barely met on~ sleepy
¯ afternoon in someone’s den.
¯" That Seth is the ex-boyfriendofPatrick’ s
¯ ex-boyfriend, Alex only adds to the flavor
¯¯ of the stew, as does the long visit from
Patrick’ s bi-polar father who ends up mar~
¯ rying his best friend Marianne.
: Fool’s Errand is a long book and the
¯ yearning for love is there under the esca-
¯ pades and in every day. Like Endangered
¯ Species, the search is what gives life its
¯ substance, the finding is what helps bring ¯
life’s meaning.
: and other equality issues such as domestic
¯ partnership.
¯ Prior, HRC had issued $114,000 in
¯ Equality Fundgrants and also gave $5,000
¯ to the Federation of Statewide Political
¯ Advocacy Organizations. These grants
." helped to fund essential state house lobby
¯ work, such as Maryland’s non-discrimi-
¯ nation and Texas’ hate crimes bills.
¯ Others receiving grants include:
." Texas’ Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby
¯ which got a $5,000 grant to support their ¯
lobby program, including to continue to
." defeat attempted bans on same-sex mar-
.¯ riage and civil unions and to advance their
safe schools initiative.
¯ Unity Utah will receive $4,000 to lobby
." the Salt Lake City Council to codify an
¯ existing mayoral executive order which
¯ prohibits discrimination in city employ-
" ment based on sexual orientation. This
¯ local project is an important first poliltical
...step for this organization, and also is an
¯ important first step towards state level
: advocacy.
¯ Vermonters for Civil Unions Legisla-
: tive Defense Fund is getting $5,000 for
¯ lobbying and polling efforts to keep the
¯ legislature from denigrating the legal stares
of civil unions as a marriage-equiva-
¯ lent.
: A number of other organizations also
¯ received grants or are still under consider-
¯ ation for aid.
¯
Creator of the universe has sown a very
Well, kind of. I was a Boy Scout. The : important fluid. This fluid is the most
years, 1965 - 1970; the place, Martinez, : wonderful material in all the physical
CA,Troopl81.And,nowadays, I amGay. ¯ world. Some parts of it f’md their way into
ButwhenI was a ldd; I had yet to hear any : theblood, andthroughthebloodgivetone
oftheearlynotesbftoday’s - ~ -~ : to the muscles, power-to~
elaborated language of -":-. ~;~outs havealways~- thebrain, and : strength to .
Gayness and;eve~ii,~-Ihad, - ]md ~ex and aender ~ " the nerves:. This fluid"isthe :
I probably ,wouldn thave - ........¯ ~’~ -sex fluid ’Am habit
ldentifiedmyselfwlth.lt.A ¯ mind; An explleit~l ....whichaboyhas thatcauses .
GayBoyScout,backthen,.. o[ the o~,anJ=atloi~ is to this fluid robe discharged
wasanthinkable.Wenever .. ~ .’ . ,. " ’ ¯ from the body tends-to .
once "sniggered at.: the turn boys into men ~.~ :’weaken his $[rength,"to "
double entendre, so obvi- men-o[ a imrt-leu]ar tTl~, makehimlessabletoresist
by Lamont Lindstrom
~ous today, in thefinal.lin,~e dmt I~. I w~’t alone
of theBoy Scout oath: ’I--
promise .... to keepmyself my Troop. Several
physically strong, mentally
awake and morally
straight."
The Boy Scouts of
America, backed by five
U.S. Supreme Court Justices,
have recently affirmed
their legal right to
scout mates a|so ~rew
into Gayness. Many
parents, I’m sure, prayed
tlmt scouting would
toughen up their
worrisome sons.... "
disease :. ~to yield:means
to Sacrifice strengthS,and
power and m~liness.
Jeez,we~ought. Could
we even survive our teens.’?
Scoutmasterly duties,~
given Boy Scout dogma,
included the regulation of
boyish sexuality and this
task could be approached
withall shades ofinterest. I
discharge Gay Scoutmasters
and perhaps also (although this is less
clear) boys who affirm ahomosexual identity.
The Gay community andbeyondhave
condemned this invidious policy as harmful,
But theScouts, clearly, are in a dicey
position. We might try to understand, although
not necessarily sympathetically,
the orgardzati0n’s problems in ha,vigating
the dangerous American cultural ~hoals of
childhood and sex.
The Boy Scouts have always had sex
and gender in mind. An explicit goal of the
organization is to turn boys into men -
men of a particular type, that is. I wasn’t
alone in my Troop. Several of my scout
mates also ~ew into Gayness. Many pareats,
I’m sure, prayed that scouting would
toughen up their worrisome sons.
The Boy Scouts, !ike the Marines, Little
League sports, and certain small fundamentalist
Christian colleges, are a last resort
of desperate parents hoping to make a
man out of one. My fellow Scouts ranged
from the ambitiously normal to hopeless
twinks (although we didn’t have that word
back then either): The proto-gangbangers
at my school, who wouldn’t be caught
dead in the Boy Scouts, weren’t fooled by
our organized protestations of masculinity.
All those silly (if sometimes still surprisingly
useful) ropes and knots.
AlthoughTroop 181 hadno language of
Gayness, this does not mean that there
were no sexual frissons - a sexuality that,
in an all-male organization, is at least by
default homosexual. Such currents surely
feed the organization’s recent touchiness
about Gayness.
I remember friends giggling over the
Boy Scout Handbook’s warnings against
masturbation. When I got my first HandbookIeagerly
soughtoutthoseparagraphs.
The Handbook, subsequently, wo~tld be
somewhat liberalized. My 1960’ s edition,
however, hadn’t progressed much beyond
these 1927 admonitions published under
the subtitle ’~onservation" (which, in the
1970’s, would acquire a more ecological,
less Taoist gignificance): "In the body of
every boy who has reached his teens; the
.... spent part of four s||mmers
¯¯ atWolfboro, a camp in the Sierra Nevada.
Oar leaders trooped us up river to "Bare-
" Ass Slide" and ordered to take off our
,. clothes and slide down shallow, mossy
¯ river rapids. On one 50-mile hike, buck-
" naked Scoutmaster Bob chased five of us
¯ boys, equally buck-naked, squealing
¯ through the woods because we refused to
¯ hop into the icy aver.
¯ Innocent male hi-jinks, of course. But
¯ some of this past must inform the Boy ¯
Scouts’ present sexual bad conscious. Itis
¯ sweet irony,’as many have noted (e.g., see
¯ Tim Neal’s biography The Boy-Man), that
¯ -the founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Rob-
. eft Baden-Powell, was obsessed with
¯ "boyology," had a 30 year relation with a
¯ younger man, K~uneth McLaren- whom
¯ he called The Boy - and adored watching
his lithesome Scouts swim nude.
¯ Postmodem theorists warn that the past
(life-long male friend) is often misunder-
" stood in contemporary terms (Gay). Still,
Baden-Powell and some of his Scoutmaster
successors clearly appreciated boys in
¯ complicated ways.
¯ Pricking this Boy Scout bad conscious,
¯ Americais currently onthe warpath against
any sort of child sexuality; When I was a
¯
kid, we had never heard of the term sexual
harassment let alone sexual abuse. These
¯ notions, like Gay, had yet to hit Martiuez. ¯
In that heyday of the miniskirt, my 7th
¯ grade Algebra teacher used to force those
¯ 12-year old gifts who wore the shortest
¯ minis to sit in the front row of his class so ¯
he could gawk up their skirts. (He also
¯ used to hang troublesome boys out his
¯ second-story window by the scruffs of
their neck.) Today? Run, don’t walk, to
your nearest hungry lawyer.
¯ Thereasons for America’s recent child-
* sex pamc are complex, reflecting, prob-
" ably, parental guilt about working morns
¯
and about divorce. Nowadays, with suspi-
¯ cious parents and enterprising lawyers all
¯o around, theBOy Scouts have their backs to
the wall. You can see why they mightnot
¯ want to get in bed with us Gays. We
¯ remindthemoftoomuch, seeScout,p.11
KellyKirby, CPA, PC
Certified Public Accountant
a professional corporation
Lesbians and Gay men face many special
tax situations whether single or as couples.
Electronic filing is available for faster refunds.
747-5466
4021 South Harvard Avenue, Suite 210, Tulsa 74135
IGTA
member ~~
Call 341.6866
International
TOH~formoreinformation.
TULSA COUNTY
DEMOCRATIC
PARTY
Country Club Barbering
Custom Styling for Men & Women
David Kauskey
3310 E. 51st, 747-0236, Tues.-Fri., 8-5:30, Sat. 8-5pro
College Hill
Presbyterian Church
In response to God’s Love,
College Hill Presbyterian Church
is a community of God’s people
called to tell others the
Gospel of Jesus Christ
through worship,
service, and evangdism.
To nurture our faith, we gather for
worship~ prayer,
study and fellowship.
¯ Trusting in a living, loving God,
we seek to become a compassionate
voice for peace and justice.
Our congregation welcomes all
persons who respond in trust and
obedience to God’s grace
in Jesus Christ, and desire to become
part of the membership and ministry
of Christ’s church.
Membership is open to all people
regardless of race, ethnic origin,
worldly condition, marital status, or
sexual orientation.
Sunday Worship, 11am
712 S. Columbia Ave., 592-5800
(One block west of Delaware and the
University of Tulsa Campus)
Tulsa’s only
professional
body-piercing
On September 3oth, something brand
new is hitting the Tulsa scene!
Soulful Sundown
is an alternative worship experience that celebrates
the mystery and wonder of life,
within a non-dogmatic context.
Soulful Sundown combines live music, inspirational readings., video, and
audience participation to create an experience that
moves, challenges, transforms and
connects people to e~tch other and the ~¢orld.
Soulful Sundo.wn
happens at All Souls Unitarian Church at 5:3oPM on
Sundays starting September 3oth and continuing
through the rest of the year. All people are welcome!
All Souls Unitarian Church
2952 S. Peoria, 743-2363.
Karmajust bitmein the ass! Here I was,
pining for something I thought I’d never
have, when lo and behold, a woman told
me she was in love with me. Ofcourse this
was three hours after meeting he_r, so you
can imagine how frightened I was, thinking
I’druninto Psycho LesbianFrom Hell.
RememberMiss No-Longer-Interested-
In-Me? Well, she stir isn’t. But that’s not
the point. Miss No-Longer-Interested-In-
Me and I reached an agreement and have
done what many Lesbian couples do (or
non-couples, in this case) and become
friends.
I know what you’re saying. ’Raging
Lesbian, this is just a way to get to see
her!" I could tell you how much we click
on a friendship level; how much we value
that friendship; how much werespect each
other, etc. OK- it’s a way to get to see her!
I never knew how she felt because no
one’s ever said those three little words to
me. I found out how she felt the other
weekend when I heard them whispered
into my ear.
Youneed toknow rightnow thatinternet
acquaintances should be a slow process.
No need to rush into meeting her after
writing to her once or twice. She might
turn into a Karin, and you might become a
Miss No-Longer-Interested-In-Me.
The other weekend was my first date
since Miss No-Longer-Interested-In-Me
told me that, well, she was no longer
interested in me.
It was the first time sinceMay that I even
thought of trying to move on. I didn’t
realize I’d meet Miss U-Haul Lesbian. My
experiences since coming out have been
with users until I met Miss No-Longer-
Interested-In-Me. This explains why she’s
making yet another starring role in the
column. Her honesty disarmed me and
made me realize I hadn’t been honest with
the most important person in my life--me¯
How could I be honest with her, or anyone
else,.for that matter?
Timing tndy sucks sometimes. Had I
met Miss U-Haul,. fallen for her, learned
my lesson, then met Miss No-Longer-
Interested-In-Me, perhaps... No, I won’t
go there. We fill our lives with so many
’~vhat-ifs" and "if onlys" that we don’t see
the people in front of us.
The person in front of me now is a
woman who would do anything for me.
Scary, huh? But don’t we look for this all
our lives? Here is it, staringmein the face,
and I’m feeling very different than I did in
April¯ I feel like Miss No-Longer-Interested-
In-Me.
I let my new-found "friend" in on what
was happening. She told me never to say
anything to Miss U-Haul I didn’t mean.
Wise advice which I learned from her
through first-hand experience. I’ve told
Miss U-Haul aboutmy recent history, and
I also let her know that I don’t think I can
realm her feelings. She says I will. Umm,
no, I don’t think so.
What’ s she like? Besides living in outer
Dallas anddressinginmen’ s clothing (well,
somewhat), she’s kind, caring, and listens
to my every word¯ Where I was almost a
non-entity with Miss No-Longer-Interested-
In-Me, Iama"Diamond" to Miss UHaul.
In fact, that’s her name for me.
So what is myproblem? I didn’tfeel that
"something"; that immediate feeling that
Miss No-Longer-Interested-In-Me was
looking for with "us". I always thought
you grew into it. But she’s right. The
spark, if you will, just isn’t there. I can
wish for it all I want, but Miss U-Haul
doesn’t do itfor me. Yes, I HAVEbecome
Miss No-Longer-Interested-In-Me, with a
vengeance!
And yet I still see Miss U-Haul. Why?
My immediate response? No one’s cared
for me this much, or treated me this wall
since.... ever. Certainly not since I’ve
become active in this life. I shouldn’t let
that sway me, or confuse Miss U-Haul.
Above all, I don’t want to hurt her. I
don’t want anyone to feel what I have the
past few months - hurt, lonely, confused,
desperate, despairing, you get the drill.
And yet, I don’t see.any other way. As I
perceive it, Miss No-Longer-Interested-
In-Me had three choices: A. Hurt me; B.
Hurt me; C. Hurt me; D. All of the above.
That she chose D for a triple shot of hurt
annoys me, but whatcan you do? Try NOT
to repeat her pattern.
It really doesn’t help that the townspeople
where Miss U-Haul lives dre telling
her that I may be "I’he One."
I’ve already let her in on my Love-OMeter
¯ You know, the thing that lets you
comprehend, unequivocally, that you’re
in love? A friend asked me about a month
ago, what I would have told my mother if
Miss No-Longer-Interested-In-Me and I
had a different experience: in other words,
if she returned my feelings.
"I would say, ’Mother, this is Miss Interested-
In-Me. We’reinlove.’"Myfriend
asked what I would do after my mother
fainted. Oh please. She knows. Even MY
mother can’t be THAT naive!
I guess what I’m trying to say is that
until that woman comes along again (IF
she ever comes along again) who makes
me want to come out to my family, then it
ain’t love.
Sure, I may love being with her, talking
to her, and heating how wonderful I am.
The sex may be great (yes, Horny Lesbian
strikes again!), but the feding’s not there.
Does that make me a terrible person? I
think not. I certainly hope not.
I told Gay Felix one night, after Miss UHaul
letmeknow (as have so many others)
that Miss No-Longer-Interested-In-Me
used me, that only the two people in that
relationship truly understand what went
on between them. Miss No-Longer-Interested-
in-Me didn’t use me. Being in her
shoes now, I honestly believe that. Only
She and I comprehend the feelings and the
loss¯ I’m sure Miss U-Haul’s neighbors
and friends will one day say that I used her.
I hope she understands a simple truth - I
met a wonderful woman whose feelings I
can’t return.
As Miss No-Longer-Interested-In-Me
said recently, ’q’here are a billion reasons
why someone wouldfall inlove withyou."
Unfortunately, I’m afraid I’ll be saying the
same thing soon to Miss U-Haul. Love, no
matter which side you’re on, is often the
most difficult and most agonizing feeling
in the world. - by Karin Gregory
Gregory is a Ft. Worth based writer.
The NAMES Project Tulsa Area Chapter
3507 East Admiral Place
Tulsa, OK. 74115-8211
(918) 748-3111
www.TulsaQuilt.org
MEMORIAL
Feast with Friends® in TVLand
Saturday, September 29, 2001
Following the individual Dinner Parties, join us for the
Dessert Extravaganza
8:30 to 10:30 PM
Allan Chapman Activity Center, University of Tulsa, 5th and Gary,
Admission js free for Dinner Hosts and their guests;
others may attend for a $10.00 donation at the door
: And Other Community Events i Based onAnti-Gay Bias?
¯
¯ TULSA (TFN) - September is shaping up as a mostly quiet : OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A federal appeals court
month with only The NAMES Project Tulsa Area Chapter’s ¯ upheld the death sentence of an Oklahoma death row ¯ annual Feast for Friends as amajor event on Saturday, the 29th. ¯ inmate convicted ofkilling four people during a 1984 ¯ The event features private dinners at homes as wall as larger " bank robbery. ¯
dinners sponsored by community organizations and churches " The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver
¯
where contributions are encouraged to support The NAMES ~ split 2-1 in upholding Jay Wesley Neill’s death sen-
" Project Tulsa Area Chapter’s programs. ¯ tenceforthemurdersduringtherobberyofaGeronimo
¯ After each dinner, guests gather for dessert at theGreat Hall of " bank. Thedissentingjudge,Carlos LuceroofAlamosa, ¯
the Allan Chapman Activity Center at the University of Tulsa, " Colo., said the penalty phase of Neill’s trial was not
¯ 5th Street and Gary Avenue, from 8:30 till 10:30. There will be ¯ fair because Comanche County District Attorney
: a silent auction, entertainment, information about The NAMES : Robert Schulte repeatedly toldjurors that Neill was a
¯ Project and portions of the Quilt as well. " homosexual. ¯
To register a dinner, call The NAMES Project Tulsa Area ¯ ’The prosecutor’s blatant homophobic hate mon-
¯ gering at sentencing has no pl~,,cein the courtrooms of
¯ a civilized society, and Neill s (original) appellate
¯ connsd’s failure to raise the issue.., constitutes clear
~ and plain prejudicial neglect," Lucero wrote.
¯ Schulte, of Lawton, said he presented evidence ¯
¯ about Neill’s homo,sexuality because it was .relevant
to how he and his co-defendant used some. of the
: $17,000 they stole. ’‘i do not recall emphasizing or
¯ calling for _th~,,,t penalty because of his homosexual ¯
relationships, he said. "It was because of the grue-
~ some nature of the crime." His statements about
efll s homosexuahty came m 1992 at a retrial. The
¯ first conviction was overturned because the two de-
" fendants were not tried separately.
¯ The appellate judges who formed the majority,
~ Deanell R. Tacha of Lawrence, Kan. and Bobby
¯ Baldock of Roswell, N.M., concluded that none of
The NAMES ProjectAIDS Memorial Quilt at the Fair Grounds. " Neill’s claims of misconduct by Schulte have merit.
¯
Chapter at 748-3111 or e-mail to info@TulsaQuilt.org Admis- : Tsahyeiynigsstuheadt aS2c7h-upl.ateg,es dceocmismioennftosr "thweesriex-rsetlaetveacnoturtto,
sion to the dessert extravaganzais free for dinnerhosts and quests ¯ both the (prosecution’s) case and Neill’s defense
and others are welcome see Feast, p. 8 " theory."
¯ Gay Tulsan In Military Exhibit " Agmn a Hope ForVaccine
." Poem of Kicked Out Sailor in Smithsonian Show " ATLANTA (AP) - The scientists trying to create a
." WASHINGTON (AP) - A Smithsonlan Institution exhibit on " vaccine to prevent AIDS suddenly seem optimistic,
¯ submarines includes apoemby asailorwhowas kicked out of the " even bullish, words that have not been heard much in ¯ Navy for being Gay. "It’s kind oflike a validation ofmy service," " this perennially gloomy field. For the first time, many
¯ said Tim Beauchamp, a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who lives in ] researchers appear confident a vaccine is possible.
¯ Washington. ’’I was considering the Navy as a career." ¯ More than anything else, the monkeys are respon-
: Beauchamp, a yeoman who served in the Navy for more than : sible for the change in attitude. Scientists have long
¯ four years, wrote "Sub Sailor’s Views on ’Glasnost’ "in Decem- " used monkeys to test theories about AIDS treatment
~¯ ber 1987 on board the USS Henry Clay, a nuclear submarine " and prevention. But in two decades of trying, they
patrolling the North Atlantic. could not concoct a vaccine that would safely protect
¯ The poem is part of the exhibit "Fast Attacks & Boomers: : a monkey from dying of AIDS. Until now.
¯ Submarines in theColdWar" at theNational MuseumofAmeri- ¯ bloNnodw, 4t-hyeeraer-aorledmmoanckaeqyuselliikveinGgoidnotth,ealehvaenlds2obmioe-,
can History. A copy of it is displayed.on a sailor’s bunk in a part :
." of the exhibit dealing with daily life on a submarine, hazard containment facility at the Yerkes Regional
." Harkeuing back to the days of the ColdWar, thepoemindudes " Primate Research Center on the leafy fringes of
lines like, "Reagan and Gorbacliev back and forth volley while : Emory University. Just over a year ago, Godot got a
Nancy and Ralsa put on their best. Capitalist!Commuuist - " big dose of SHIV, an especially nasty lab-made
Political’folly! What does it matter? It’s East against West." amalgam of HIV and SIV, the human and monkey
Eight months after writing the poem, Beauchamp, now 36, ~ versions of the AIDS virus. Ordinarily, he would be
received an honorable discharge from the Navy after his superi- dead in six to eight months.
~,di’seovered,he’ was Gay. Before his discharge, Beauchamp " , A~.yone entering Godot’s living space must dress
oeen awaraea a Good Conduct Medal, a Sea Service Ribbon n.eao to toe in protective clothing, because SHIV
and a letter of commendation. ~ cxrculates in his bloodstream. But his curious, alert
’The fact that such a committed and rule-bound serviceman ~ .stare at visitors peeking through a window shows he
was kicked out of the Navy for no other reason than being Gay ." ~s outwardly unscathed. Godot is infected but otberillustrates
the stupidity and,wastefulness of our current policy wise healthy.
toward Gays in the military, saidRep. BameyFrank, D-Massa_ " Sevenmonthsbeforehewasinfected, Godotgotan
chusetts, an openly Gay member of Congress. 7 experimental new AIDS vaccine, see Vaccine, p. 2
When Beanchamp was in the military, homosexuals were "
prohibited fromserving. Under the current "don’t ask, don’ t tell,, ¯ Ill DIRECTORY P. 2 policy, homosexuals can serve so long as they do not engage in :
homosexual conduct or state their sexual preference. ~ EDITORIAL P. 3
: ~ US & WORLD NEWS P. 4 Beauchamp, whohas worked since his discharge as a computer -.
systems analyst and a writer, said he’d forgotten about the poem : ~ HEALTH NEWS P. 6 until he came across it in an old notebook from his days as a ¯
submariner. It was included in the exhibit after Beauchamp’s ; Z ENTERTAINMENT + MORE P. 8
partner brought it to the attention of the curator. ¯ ~ GAY STUDIES/R. LESBIAN P. 10/11
OKC Sets Up Censorship :
Because of Gay Banners ¯
OKLAHOMACITY (AP)- City officials willconsider :
regulating advertising messages on bus-stop benches
and .on. banners flying from city-owned light poles after "
receiving numerous complaints about a Gay-pride flag. ¯
A new law that will be brought before the City ¯
Council would allow only messages that would "pro- "
mote or celebrate the city, its civic institutions, orpublic "
activities or events in the city of Oklahoma City." This ¯
could prohibit messages promoting prayer, voting or "
drug-abuse prevention. Oklahoma City has 1,240 ban- "
her locations that are available for use by community -."
groups to promote activities. ¯
MayorKirkHumphreys and City ManagerJim Couch °
sought the new law after the city spar~ed controversy ."
earlier this year when it took down, triton put back up, ¯
banners promoting Gay pride. The banners, paid for by
the Cimarron Alliance Foundation, drew numerous ¯
complaints at City Hall. see Censor, p. 2 "
Murderer Now Claims
"Homosexual Panic’"
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A Mexican citizen on
Oklahoma’s deathrow is seeking anew trial after a state
psychiatrist recanted his testimony, saying new information
shows Gerardo Valdez suffered from brain
damage, paranoia and "homosexual panic" when he
killed another man in 1989.
Psychiatrist Cecil F: Mynatt said it is now his conclusion
that Valdez was unable to control his ownbehavior
or was "temporarily insane" when Valdez killed Juan
Barron. "Mr. Valdez suffers fromparanoia, specifically
triggeredin this instance by homosexual panic," Mynatt
said. "Additionally, he is brain damaged and was under
the influence of alcohol."
Mynatthadpreviously testified that Valdez was competent
to stand trial. He said he changed his mind after
reviewing information provided by Valdez’s attorney,
including opinions of two neurophsychologists and a
medical report.
Attorney Robert Nance is asking for anew trial based
~hn arecent deeisionby the International Court ofJustice
at deplored the 1999 execution in Arizona ofGerman
brothers Walter and Karl LaGrand. The court held that
the brothers were denied their rights underinternational
law to access thor consul after their arrest. Nance said
the world court s decision prevents domestic procedural
rules from interferin~ with judicial review of
cases involving international law violations.
The applicationwas filed with theOklahoma Court of
Criminal Appeals, on the same day Amnesty International
officials and other death penalty foes renewed
theirdemandthatGov. FrankKeating commute Valdez’s
sentence.
Keating has granted two stays, while rejecting Fox’~
request and a parole board recommendation of clemency
for Valdez, 41. Keating granted a second 30-day
stay for Valdez, see Valdez, p.2
¯
¯
¯
¯
¯ .
. .
Tulsa Clubs& Restaurants
*Bamboo Lounge, 7204 E. Pine
*CW’s, 1737 S. Memorial
*Play-Mor, 424 S. Memorial
Polo Grill, 2038 Utica SCluare
*Renegades/Rainbow Room, 1649 S. Main
*St. Michael’s Alley Restaurant, 3324-L E. 31st
*Schatzi’s, 2619 S: Memorial
*The Star, 1565 Sheridan
*TNT’s, 2114S. Memorial
*Tool Box II, 1338 E. 3rd
*Vortex, 2182 S. Sheridan
832-1269
610-5323
838-9792
744-4280
585-3405
745-9998
280-1316
834-4234
660-0856
584-1308
835-2376
*The Yellow Brick Road Pub, 2630 E. 15th 749-1563
Tulsa Businesses, Services, & Professionals
Assoc. in-Med. & Mental Health, 2325 S. Harvard 743-1000
Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 8620 E. 71 250-5034
Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 5231 E. 41
Body Piercing by Nicole, 2722 E. 15
*Borders Books & Music, 2740 E. 21
*Borders Books & Music, 8015 S. Yale
Brookside Jewelry, 4649 S. Peoria
*CD Warehouse, 3807c S. Peoria
*Cheap Thrills, 2640 E. 1 lth
Cherry St. Psychotherapy, 1515 S. Lewis
665-4580
712-1122
712-9955
494-2665
743-5272
746-0313
295-5868
58120902, 743-4117
Community Clearfing, Kerby Baker 622-0700
Tim Daniel, Attorney 352-9504, 800-742-9468 "
*Deco to Disco, 3212 E. 15th 749-3620 "
Doghouse on Brookside, 3311 S. Peoria 744-5556 ."
*Elite Books & Videos, 821 S. Sheridan 838-8503 ¯
Encompass .Travel, 13161H N..,~/I.emorial 369-8555 "
Ross Edward Salon 584-0337, 712-9379 "
Events Unlimited, 507 S. Main 592-0460,"
Floral Design Studio, 3404 S. Peoria 744-9595
Four S~ar Import Automotive, 9906 E. 55th P1. 610-0880 "
Cathy Furlong, Ph.D., 1980 Utica Sq. Med. Ctr. 628-3709 ¯
Gay & Lesbian Affordable Daycare 808-8026 :
*Gloria Jean’s Gourmet. Coffee, 1758 E. 21 st 742-1460
Leanne M. Gross, Insurance & financial planning 459-9349 "
Mark T. Hamby, Attorney 744-7440 ~
*Sandra J. Hill, MS, Psychotherapy, 2865 E. Skelly 745-1111 ¯
*International Tours 341-6866 "
Jacox Animal Clinic, 2732 E. 15th 712-2750 "
*Jared’s Antiques, 1602 E. 15th 582-3018 "
David Kauskey, Country Club Barbering 747-0236 ¯
The Keepers, Housekeeping & Gardening 582-8460 "
*Ken’s Flowers, 1635 E. 15 599-8070 "
Kelly Kirby, CPA, 4021 S. Harvard, #210 747-5466 ¯
*Living ArtSpace, 308 South Kenosha 585-1234 ¯
*Midtown Theater, 319 E. 3rd - 584-3112 "
Mingo Valley Flowers, 9720c E 31 663-5934 "
*Mohawk Music, 6157 E 51 Place 664-2951,"
Puppy Pause II, 1060 S. Mingo 838-7626
*The Pride Store 743-4297 "
Rainbowz on the River B+B, PUB 696,74101 747-5932 ¯
Richard’s Carpet Cleaning 834-0617 ~
Teri Schutt, Ellen & Co. 834-7921, 748-0224 ¯
*Tulsa Comedy Club, 6906 S. Lewis 481-0558 "
Venus Salon, 1247 S. Harvard 835-5563 ¯
Fred Welch, LCSW, Counseling 743-1733
*Wherehouse Music, 5150 S. Sheridan 665-2222
*Whittier News Stand, 1 N. Lewis 592-0767
www.gaytulsa.org - website for Tulsa Gays &Lesbians
Tulsa Agencies, Churches, Schools & O niversities
AIDS Walk Tulsa, PUB 4337, 74101 579-9593
All Souls Unitarian Church, 2952 S. Peoria 743-2363
Black & White, Inc..PUB 14001, Tulsa 74159
Bless The Lord at All Times Christian Center, 2207 E. 6
B/L/G/T Alliance, Univ. of Tulsa United Min. Ctr.
Chamber of Commerce Bldg., 616 S. Boston
*Chapman Student Ctr., University of Tulsa, 5th P1.
Church of the Restoratio~ UU, 1314 N.Greenwood
*Community of Hope Church, 2545 S. Yale
*Community Unitarian-Universalist Congregation
Council Oak Men’s Chorale
*Delaware Playhouse, 1511 S. Delaware
*Democratic Headquarters, 3930 E. 31
587-7314
583-7815
583-9780
585-1201
& Florence
587-1314
747-6300
749-0595
748-3888
712-1511
742-2457
918.583.1248, fax: 583.4615
FOB 4140, Tulsa, OK 74159, e-mail: TulsaNews@earthlink.net
Publisher + Editor: Tom Neal
Writers + contributors: James Christjohn, Karin Gregory, Barry
Hensley, J.-P. Legrandbouche, Lamont Lindstrom, Esther
Rothblum, Mary Schepers, Hughston Walkinshaw
Member of The Associated Press
Issued around the 1st of each month, the entire contents of this
publication are protected by US copyright 2001 by Tulsa
Family News and may not be reproduced either in whole or in
part without written permission from the publisher. Publication
of a name or photo does not indicate a person’s sexual
orientation. Correspondence is assumed to be for publication
unless otherwise noted, must be signed & becomes the sole
property of Tulsa Family News. Each reader is entitled to 4
copies of each edition at distribution points.
Additional copies are available by calling 583-1248.
Dignity/Integrity of Tulsa- Lesbian & Gay Catholics &
Episcopalians, PUB 701475, 74170-1475 355-3140
*Fellowship Congreg. Church, 2900 S. Harvard 747-7777
*Free SpiritWomen’s Center, call for location&info: 587-4669
Friend For A Friend, PUB 52344, 74152 747-6827
Friends in Unity Social Org., PUB 8542, 74101 582-0438
*Tulsa C.A.R.E.S., 3507 E. Admiral 834-4194
HOPE, HIV Outreach, Prevention, Education 834-8378
*HouseoftheHoly SpiritMingtries,1517S. Memorial 224-4754
*MCC United, 1623 N. Maplewood 838-1715
NAMES Project, 3507 E Admiral PI. 748-3111
NOW, Nat’I Org. for Women, PUB 14068, 74159 365-5658
OK Spokes Club (bicycling), PUB 9165, 74157
*OSU-Tulsa
PFI_AG, POB 52800, 74152 749-4901
*Planned Parenthood, 1007 S. Peoria 587-7674
Prime-Timers, P.O. Box 52118, 74152 627-2359
R.A.I.N., Regional AIDS Interfaith Network 749-4195
*Red Rock Mental Center, 1724 E. 8 584-2325
St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, 4045 N. Cincinnati 425-7882
St. Dunstan’s Episcopal, 5635 E. 71st 492-7140
*St. Jerome’s Parish Church, 205 W. King 582-3088
Soulforce-OK, Rt.4,#3534, Stigler74462 587-3248,452-2761
*Tulsa Area United Way, 1430 S. Boulder 583-7171
*TNAAPP (Native American men), Indian Health Care 582-7225
Tulsa County Health Department, 4616 E. 15 595-4105
Confidential H_IV Testing - by appt. on Thursdays only
Tulsa Okla. for Human Rights, Gay Comm. Center 743-4297
TUL-PAC, PositiveAdvocacy Coalition, POB2687,Tulsa 74101
T.U.L.S.A. Tulsa Uniform/Leather Seekers Assoc. 298-0827
*Tulsa City Hall, Ground Floor Vestibule
*Tulsa Community College Campuses
*Tulsa Gay Community Center, 21 st &Memorial 7434297
Unity ChurchofChristianity, 3355 S. Jamestown 749-8833
BARTLESVILLE
Bartlesville Public Library, 600 S. Johnstone 918-33%5353
TAHLEQUAH
Stonewall League, call for information:. 918-456-7900
Tahlequah Unitarian-Universalist Church 918-456-7900
Green Country AIDS Coalition, PUB 1570 918-453-9360
EUREKA SPRINGS, ARKANSAS
Autunm Breeze Restaurant, Hwy. 23 501-253-7734
Jim & Brent’s Bistro, 173 S. Main 501-253-7457
DeVito’s Restaurant, 5 Center St. 501-253-6807
Emerald RainbOw, 45 &l/2 Spring St. 501-253-5445
Heart of the Hills B&B, 5 Summit St. 501-363-9203
MCC of the Living Spring 501-253-9337
Geek to Go!, PC Specialist, PUB 429 501-253-2776
Old Jailhouse Lodging, 15 Montgomery 501-253-5332
Positive Idea Marketing Plans 501-624-6646
White Light, 1 Center St. 501-253-4074
JOPLIN, MISSOURI
Spirit of Christ MCC, 2639 E. 32, Ste. U134 417-623-4696
* is where you canfindTFN. Notall are Ga_y-ownedbutallare Gay-friendly.
¯ torch with a rainbow flame over the
¯¯ foundation’s name.
The city’s staff granted a permit for
¯ Cimarron Alliance banners to be put on 44
: poles. City leaders decided to take the ban-
. hers down after receiving complaints, but
¯ they had to put them backup after attorneys
¯ representing the alliance threatened to sue.
: Bill Rogers, an attorney and a member of
", the Cimarron Alliance, said the banners
¯ were legally protected free speech. ’The
¯ city has provided a forum for speech and it
¯ must not prohibit speech unless there is a
~ compelling governmental interest in doing ’
¯ so," he said "It would be very difficult to
¯ demonstrate such an interest in these cir-
,* cumstances."
’, Humphreys contends the banners go be-
¯ yond the concept of public speech because
¯ the city requires.groups who want to use the ¯
poles to provide the banners and to pay for
¯ their installation and removal. He said many
advertisers choose not to carry certain rues-
"- sages, and that Oklahoma City can, too.
¯ The city has notrespondedto the alliance’ s
¯ request to hang banners on city poles for
Gay and Lesbian History Month, which
takes places in October, Rogers said. The
: group’s earlier banners finally came down
¯ in mid-July after the time the alliance had
¯ reserved for them ran out.
Besides promoting pride, they featured a
¯
while saying he had not changed his mind
¯ that the execution should go forward.
¯ Keating has apologized for a violation of
the article of the Vienna Convention that
: guarantees foreign nationals, upon arrest,
the right to contact their country’s consul.
~ Keating said that did not change Valdez’s
¯ guilt the slaying.
; An Amnesty International report said all
¯ 15 foreign nationals executed in the U:S.
since 1993 were denied theright to consular
¯ access.
¯, Valdez admits killing Barron after Barron
made advances toward him in abar. Valdez
~ took Barron home, forced him to strip, and
¯
shot him twice in the head before burning
¯ his body.
¯ one experts hopewill be themodel for a shot
to control the worldwide epidemic.
Two other variations of the same approach
have been tested on monkeys at
Harvard Medical School and Merck & Co.
," with similar results. The Merck vaccine is
" already in first-stage human testing, and the
-" Yerkes and Harvard versions should start
: within six months.
¯ Vaccine discovery has been a notoriously
~ discouraging areaofAIDS research, clouded
~ by doubts that such a thing is even scientifi-
¯" cally thinkable. Butoverthepastyear, thanks
¯
to this impressive series of monkey experi-
" ments, many researchers have grown up-
:beat.
An AIDS vaccine is still no sure bet, they
," say. But many believe they are at least on a
¯ rational path toward finding one.
: The chances of success? "Ve~. _good,"
cells by the billions, taking over their machinery, forcing
them tobuildnew copies ofthevirus and obliterating then~
- ~ in theprocess. Eventually, though, the killer cells awaken ."
’ and destroy most 6f the infected cells before they can "
: release more virusl Virus levels fall and then level off. : by Tom Neal, publisher/editor
!n~volving~eca Q.odor an,d _a__~t. 80..o.th.er, monkeys...Wl~.y? .: In the years that fsollotw,athelwear ismnearlyaa t.e.. : Well,maybe. You’ve got tofigure that The TulsaWorld
. us~ ot me mo,nKey,s: she says. ~re are not all tlmt , The body produces new hel cells almost as mckl as " has to love The Dail Okl " " "
dif~ __ . . . per . .. q . y . . y .ahoman, its sister rag in Olda-
~~erm.en~unk2~Yns; _ ~. ,., , : ~e-v.~..rams,~.em. ~ut ,g~.,,d.ually;, their levels slide too :homaC.ity. After all, anything The World does, nomatter
m~, m,~l~w u ~.~ Lrom monkeys ls Key. anaa : Iar._ _A_t tl~s point, .vtr~.s kilh,n~..arugs can restore the : ho..w ~ss-.ix?or a~_d.pro.vm~al it might be, is going to be
~veOf~~.anlong sclen,ttsts. So,,me,wonder ft. these . bal,,~ance; butoth_e~wise theresultls AIDS and dentla.., betterthantimtot wlmthasbeendeelaredAmericaYsworst
~ .:~~gtvenmega~aoses oi lao-~’ownvlri~: , . lne new :¢aceines are desi~.,ned tostart .the .ot~min~ .... news~aoer-Tbatbein,,.~id it’l~tillru~ %unt Wns mc a.y, f we hel -7 .World f bl :. So ,here homdwesmin this our
...................au ;.,~a,,,~,~o~,~ _ t_ --___,_~~ ¯ muem:towerieveL.. -~y. oomg reaanvety su0tle,thmgs .’-- (besides TFNtn ourmodest way and Lordknows,..we’re
~S-’-~’s,":"~7:"~,’=~°~’ki~’g’,,mb°th_m_.°~,m,~eyan,.,um~n~ i du ", ~thefirstho.urs~ to w_ee.ks of infection, wethinkwe : certainly a David to their Goliath)? .
~emnv~ne~e~u~_~_s ~ts_~n_,m_s ce.,ns, aert~.~aat.oranea)~t,the . .can havea, dramatic pay~off m allowing the body’s own : ’ We’renotreallypickingon them- someone’sgot toffy
,_ mtvuut¢unt:s..mmonkeys, mevaccme seems to munt ¯ ~mmuneres nseoverthelonehanltocontalnthisv’rzl , tokeen
tilt.s attack. M.a.yb.e.itwl!l in,,~,le. too-. ¯ mfecuon sa ......... " ¯ . - . , ,. , . y.s Le~twn. , , . .... , , . esO. and it ShOt as though The World doesnt criticize
: ~Sudde~l.Ythere~sasensef°r.thefirst:ttmcthatperhaps : Instead~ofdyingfromAIDS, vac~nated peoplewhoget :. , everyone else in theireditorialpages. " ,, . ,, - s .bLt t : liv,o,w!th vi ,s for decades or even a :, , My’favorite waste of newsprint is our local "society,
¯~.mv,~.~.,.,_~.,,,~.~uymm~_" 0t mr:. r~tv epl~mmlc, says.., -menme. ires como atso slow ~ svread of,the disease; . column the wo k¢~-l~
rmrvaro s L~r.Norman Letvm. ’~low there is an.absolute ¯ because when virus levels are low. ~ie are much les~ : but wonde~ ff M~V~i~o%~’~t ~’a’~’~’~r~e’~ ....v and all
predicts Dr. Harriet Robinson, who oversaw experiments
stampede to get these technologies into humans and ask : likely to pass .on HIV. ¯ ofthe rest of us, a whole lotof trouble ffinstead of listing
the question: Can we-translate these monkey findings into :
the human situation?" ¯ and Merck differ, but all involve the same strategy: First
Researchers hope to know soon whether these experimental
shots launch the same early immune system defenses
seem in vaccinated monkeys. This would be an
encouraging hint of the vaccine’s eventual power. Some
answers could beoffered at an international AIDS vaccine
conference in early September..
However, vaccine development is frustratingly slow.
Even if all goes flawlessly, Robinson estimates it will be
2905before large-scale experiments begin with her vacone.
Learning whether it truly prevents AIDS will take
another two years. Many estimate these vaccines are still
a decade or more away.
So with clear answers so far off, is all’this optimism
realistic? ’~I ask myself whether it is justified based on the
science," says Dr.. Peggy Johnston, assistant director for
AIDS vaccines at the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases. "And my conclusion is yes."
One reason is that scientists have lowered the bar. Until
now, all useful vaccines prevented infections. However,
the human immune system cannot mm back an HIV
infection, and no one knows how to make a vaccine that
accomplishes something the human body cannot do for
itself.
So thenew vaccines are designed to accomplish thenext
best thing- train theimmune defenses to hold an infection
in Check without preventing it entirely.
"For a long time, people assumed that the only successfnl
vaccine would completely prevent infection," says Dr.
Robert Schooley of the University of Colorado. ’The new
studies suggest that a vaccine might also have a moderab
ing influence on the disease process itself."
Scientists agree that blocking an infection requires the
production, of powerful antibodies. This is how standard
vaccines work: They show the immune system a protein
that is unique to the germ. If the bug ever gets into the
body, the defenses will blaze back with antibodies that
latch onto the protein, blocking the germ and destroyingit.
HIV, however, is amoving target. It mutates so fast that
it constantly changes the proteins on its surface. So a
vaccine that triggers an attack against one strain of HIV
may be powerless against another. Furthermore, the virus
covers its surface with sugar, whichhides its proteins from
antibodies.
When all of this became clear in the 1990s, scientists
went back to basics. How is it, they asked, that people
often live with HIV for eight or 10 years beforefalling sick
with AIDS? And why do some never seem to get ill at all? "
The answer turns out to be another line of defense ¯
against germs, the killer cells. Unlike antibodies, which "
guard against free-floating microbes, the killer cells rec- "
ognize infected cells and destroy them. ¯
HIV’s favorite target is a blood cell called the helper "
cell. This complicates matters enormously, since one of
the hel.per cells’ most important jobs is nourishing and :
managing the killer cells.
In the first days ofaninfection, HIV burrows into helper "
Details of the vaccines developed by Yerkes, Harvard
come injections of several HIV genes, which are taken in
by muscle cells that use them as blueprints to make viral
proteins. Next comes an immune system booster, such as
a smallpox virus that has been rebuilt to carry some of the
HIV genes. The ultimate goal is still a vaccine that will
block HIV infection. But in the meantime, many believe
wide use of the latest vaccines could reduce spread of th~
disease, especially in parts of the world where it is rampant.
Experts believe a vaccine is the only thing tlmt will
tame an epidemic that has already killed 20 million people
and infects 15,000 more daily.
Dr. Gary Nabel, director of the National Institutes of
Health’s Vaccine Research Center, says that even if the
first versions are only modestly effective, tinkering will
probably make them better. ’"vVe’ll start with a Model T
and hope to get to a Mercedes fast."
While much of the attention is on novel strategies, a
more traditional vaccine is already in final-stage testing.
The AIDSVax, developed by VaxGen, has been given to
7,900 volunteers in North America, Europe and Thailand
The vaccine is made from the outer wrapper ofthe AIDS
virus and is intended to trigger antibodies to prevent
infection. Many AIDS experts are skepti,c01, because the
approach has been disappointing in monkeys, and some
early volunteers contracted HIV after being vaccinated.
However, VaxGen’s president, Dr. Donald Francis,
says more promising data from chimp experiments suggest
it has as good a chance as any other approach,
Researchers will take their first look at the results in
November, but unless it proves surprisingly effective, the
experiment will condnue until at least the end ofnext year.
Next in development is an Aventis Pasteur vaccine. It
consists of a canarypox virus engineered to carry HIV
genes, followed by a boost with AIDSVax. The Walter
Reed Army Institute of Research plans to start testing on
16,000 volunteers in Thailand next summer.
Even ifaaone of these works out, other ideas are in the
development pipeline. The National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases, the biggest vaccine backer, is
financing two dozen different possible vaccines.
Still, a few dozen healthy monkeys like Godot do not
prove anAIDS vaccine is on the horizon. Somein the field
worry that the wishforonehas dissolved~bealthy scientific
skepticism.
"We tend to swing from momentous lows to momentous
highs in the AIDS field," says Dr. Mark Mulligan of
the University ofAlabama at Birmingham. ’’Wemaybe in
an Alan Greenspan time ofirrational exuberance, because
we need this so desperately."
~ all the people who attend Tulsa events, she would simply
:. say that all the usual people were there - since it is the
: same-cast of criminals in column after colunm That
: would that reduce her column to a size .appropriate to its
¯ usual level of content, as well as saving someone the
¯
trouble of typing in all those names, over and over.
¯ Actually, as much as I hate to admit it, I find Ms.
.. Walker’s colulnn somewhat useful, if vulgar. In a town as
¯ screwed up and elitist/racist/homophobic as Tulsa is, it
never hurts to know who among Tnlsa’s "social elite" is
¯ in bed with each other, figuratively speaking.
¯ Top World editor JoeWorley took umbrage about TFN ¯
calling The Worm a country club newspaper some years
" back. My response is just read Ms. Walker’s column, see
¯ how much space it regularly commands and try to argue
¯ with me. Imagine if The Worm devoted as much space to
¯
international news regularly as they do to Ms. Walker!
Another interesting aspect of Tulsa Worm "reporting"
is the flagrant disregard for professional ethics in some
~
cases. Recently The World published an article about a
¯ new image/fundraising campaign~oyq~ulsa~ s most pron~i-
¯ nent non-profit organization. The only problem was that
the information in the article had/has yet to be released to
¯ the public. The "reporter" was privy to the information
¯
because s/he serves on an advisory committee for the non-
" profit and took theinformation direcdy out ofanonpublic
meeting without permission. Even first year journalism
¯ students would recognize that this was obtained and used
¯ improperly - and The World reporter who did this should
¯ know better.
¯ But part of the incestuous nature ofTulsais that the non-
" profit will likely tolerate just about anything The World
¯ does because The World donates so very many dollars a
." year. Given this compromised financial relationship, it’s
little surprise that this non-profit only gets promotional
¯
newscoverage from The WorM. And incompetence at the
¯ helm of this non-profit has been covered up for years by all
¯ of Tnlsa’s news outlets. ¯
But shoddy journalism should hardly be a surprise to
¯
thosewho’vebeenrcading The World’sreligioncoverage
¯ for some months. Thefirst clue that The WorMhas thrown
¯ journalistic balance out JoeWorley’s window onto Main ¯
Street is that World religion "reporter" Bill Sherman
¯
allegedly is a "Promise-Keeper".
Being a member of this rightwing, misogyuistic and
¯ anti-Gay organizationwouldbe consideredradicallycorn_ ¯
promised as a journalist by most news organizations but
¯
not at The WorM, apparently.
¯ Since Sherman took over the religion post, stories about
¯ evangelical and fundamentalist groups have dominated
¯ Wormcoverage while newsworthy stories coming out of
other moreprogressive traditions.have been ignored. And
: Tulsa’s moderate and progressive religious leaders have
¯ given up hope for fair coverage from The World.
¯
But at TFN, we always hold out hope for redemption,
¯ and note that Shermanis asking for stories aboutmiracles.
¯ Here, we’re just hoping for fair and accurate reporting
from The World. Now that would be a miracle, indeed.
Newspaper, Chain Offers
Partner Benefits
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) - Gannett Co., the nation’s
largest newspaper publisher, will soon offer full medical
benefits to same-sex partners who live together, the
company announced. The company also will offer
benefits to unmarried domestic partners of the opposite
sex. The benefits for partners will become available
inJanua~ 2002. Tobeeligible, partners mustfirst
havehad a 12-month relationship. They mustalso sign
an affidavit that declares there is financial dependence
between them.
Gannett spokeswomanTara Connell said there have
been several requests from empl,oyees for equal coverage
for domestic partners. "We ve been looking at it
for years," Connell said. She said the company’s rapid
growth last year slowed the process of revamping the
benefits. Gannett employs about 53,400 people at 98
newspapers in the United States. The company also
owns about 23 television stations.
Unlike married couples of the opposite sex, an
employee claiming the benefits will still have to pay
taxes on the amount used to insure his or her partner.
The IRS does not extend tax exemptions for medical
benefits to domestic partners.
Gannett’s decision was hailed by Gay and Lesbian
groups. ’q~o stay competitive youhave to provide good
benefits," said Sherry Boschert, a board member of
The National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.
"It just makes good business sense."
Cincinnati Schools
AddressAnti-Gay Attacks
CINCINNATI (AP) - Public,school students who
xntimidate others because of sexual orientation or
disability can be suspended or expelled. The board of
education voted 6-1 to add those two provisions to the
Cincinnati Public Schools’ discipline policy. Board
lawyer John Concannon said principals and assistant
principals were trained to pr.operly enforce the new
policy during in-service sessxons two weeks ago.
Mindy Sandfort, a spokeswoman for the Gay, Lesbian
and Straight Education Network, urged the board
to teach educators how to recognize, prevent and
discipline harassment based on sexual identity, which
is not explicitly mentioned in the new policy. ’q~eachers
need to understand the difference between gender
identity and sexual orientationandhow to deal withthe
harassment that comes with both situations," she said.
Concannon said he believes gender identity is covered
under the current policy. The policy applies to
serious incidents ofharassment, intimidation or threatening,
he said. It does not apply to incidents that
involve free speech rights.
If a student says, "I’m opposed to homosexuality
because God says homosexuality is a sin," it is not a
violation of the policy, Concannon said.
Australian Gay Partners .
To Be Recognized .
PERTH, Australia (AP) -De facto partnerships, including
homosexual relationships, will be recognized
in the same way as marriages under new propertyrights
legislation to be introduced in a state parliament.
Western Australia state Attorney General Jim
McGinty said the legislatiqnwouldallow thoseheterosexual
and same-sex couples whose relationships .are
recognized by the state to have property disputes
settled through the Family Court rather than having to
go to the Supreme Court.
Australia has a vibrant and vocal Gay community.
Sydney each year plays host to the Gay and Lesbian
Mardi Gras, one of the largest international Gay pride
- festivals.
Under Australian law, when a de facto relationship
ends there is no specific legQ, right allowing a person
to claim a share of property. A significant and growing
proportion of couples living together in Western
Australia have no access to the Family Court if their
relationship ends," McGinty said. "Instead, they must
argue their case before the Supreme Court, resorting to
principles of equity that can be expensive, time consuming,
public and uncertain." McGinty said the legislation,
which will be introduced in Parliament this
week, would also ensure all de factor couples can ask
for alimony, just as married couples can.
The legislation comes after Prime Minister John
Howard said that he would not support homosexual
weddings and that same-sex couples should not have
the same legal status as married couples.
Teens Held in Gay Killing
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -Abeating and arson that killed
a 58-year-old Wichita man began with him making
sexual advances to two teen-agers now charged with
killing him, witnesses said. The co-defendants - 18-
year-old Zachary Steward and 17-year-old Brandon
Boone - blamed each other for repeatedly striking
Marcell Eads on his head, according to testimony
presented at a preliminary hearing.
District Court Judge Joseph Bribiesca ruled there
was enough evidence to charge the two with firstdegree
murder, aggravated arson, aggravated burglary
and aggravated robbery. The judge also ruled that
Boone, 16 when the crimes occurred, would be tried as
an adult. Innocent pleas have been entered for both
men. Trial was set for Oct. 8.
Early the morning of June 29, firefighters found the
body of Eads on the floor of his smoldering home.
Although Eads was beaten severely, it was the fire that
killed him, Deputy Coroner Jaime Oeberst said. Eads
was burned over 60% to 70% of his body and inhaled
smoke that left alethal level of carbon monoxide in his
blood, he said.
Testimony showed that sex and sexual orientation
appeared to be key factors in the motive. Police Det~-
tive Blake Mumma said Steward gave a statement m
which he said that Eads had made sexual advances
toward him and Boone - prompting Boone to start
beating Eads with a broomstick, and later with the end
of a table and a rock. Steward also admitted to striking
Eads, Mumma said. According to Steward’s statement
to police, the two teens returned to Eads’ house and
Boone started the fire.
Eads, a hairstylist, was openly Gay, said neighbor
Zusan Livingston. She said Eads toldherhewas having
an affair with Steward. Steward and his father had
come to Eads for haircuts. Steward grew up in Riverside,,
several blocks west of F_ads’ bungalow.
Rachel Mroczkowsk, Boone’ s 15-year-old girlfriend,
testified she heard Steward say the night of the killing
that he was angry because he had gone to aman’s house
andthe man,had grabbed the area around his genitals
and propositioned him. She said Steward used a slur to
.describe the man and said he wanted Boone to go with
him to beatthe man and steal things from his home.
Under Kansas law, if it can be shown that someone
was a crime victim because of his sexual orientation, a
judge can use that to justify a harsher sentence.
US Women Wed
In Netherlands
PROVINCETOWN, Mass. (AP) - Two women from
Provincetown were married last month in the Netherlands,
but it is unclear whether their marriage will be
legally recognized in Massachusetts.
Heather Wishik and Susan Donegan said they will
not fight for their overseas mamage to be legal in
Massachusetts, but Gay civil fights advocates predict
state courts may soon be forced to confront the issue of
same-sex couples who marry or are joined in a civil
union out of state or overseas.
MCC United
MetropolRan Coctmltardgy C~urch United is a cor-,gre~jaUon ofthe
Univer~a~ Fellowship of Metropcdita~ Community ~hurcl~,s
Sharing the
~oodness of the
Lord with our
community.=
Sunday Morning
Traditional
11:00 AM
Wednesday EvenJn,
Contemporary
7:00 PM
Rev. Cathy Elliott, Pastor
"1623 N. Maplewood (918) 838-1715 mcctulsa@aoLcotn
Community
Unitarian Universalist
Congregation
at Community ofHope
2545 South Yale, Sundays at llam, 749-0595
A Welcoming Congregation
HOUSE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Sun. Worship, 10:45 am, Sunday School, 9:30 am
Wed. Bible Study, 7 pm, Sunday Eve. Service, 6pm
1517 S. Memorial, 628-0802, lnfo: 224-4754
The Open Arms Project
Young Adult Support Group
Outreach Program Thurs. Nights
Meet Others in a Safe Enviroment
Call for meeting times and place:
918-584-2325
Mingo Valley Flowers
9413 E. 31st St., Tulsa 74145
918-663-5934, fax: 663-5834, 800-A.A,A.-5934
Family Owned & Operated
Trinna L. W. Burrows, LSW, ACSW
Child, Family, Individual & Couple Psychotherapy
(918) 743-9559
2121 South Columbia, Suite 420
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74114-3518
The Pride Store
21st Street & Memorial
Tulsa Gay Community Services Center
743-GAYS (743-4297)
6-9 pm, Sunday - Friday
12-9 pm, Saturday, all sales benefit the Center
Heart of the Hills
Bed & Breakfast
5 Summit, Eureka Springs, Arkansas
501 - 363 - 9203
Come Stay Us for the Next
Diversi~. Celebration, Nov. 2 - 4
Red Rock Tulsa
Free Confidential HIV Testing
Walk-in Clinics
Tues. & Thurs., 5 -8 pm
at the Center; 1307 East 38th
Daytime appointments available.
Call for more information:
918-584-2325
e i
I v
r
American Red Cross
American Red Cross
Tulsa Area Chapter~
10151 East Eleventh
Tulsa 74128
Dannette Mclntosh
Diversity Co-ordinator
838-1100
OPENARMS
OPEN MINDS
OPEN I-IFAI~S
Saint Aidan
4045 N. Cincinnati, 425-7882
Saint John
4200 S. Atlanta Place, 742-7381
Saint Dunstan
5635 East 71st, 492-7140
Trinity
501 S. Cincinnati, 582-4128
The Episcopal Church Welcomes You
A lawsuit recently filed in Suffolk Superior Court
challenges the rights of same-sex couples to marry in
Massachusetts. Five’months ago, the Netherlands became
the first country to allow same-sex marriage.
"For us, our Dutch marriage is simply that - it’s a
Dutch marriage entered into for very personal reasons,"
Donegan said. "We did not get married as a
political or legal challenge to Massachusetts or to the
United States."
Mary Bonauto, staff attorney for Gay and Lesbian
Advocates and Defenders, said she had not yet seen
couples married in the Nefherlands or joined in civil
union in Vermont go to court in Massachusetts to
extend the legal recognition.
But Bonauto said she has seen same-sex couples
who went to Vermont for a civil union return to
Massachusetts and successfully negotiate employee
benefits with employers or family rates with clubs.
"It’s evolving in its own way," she said.
European Scouts
Do Accept Gays
During the last European Conference of Scouts and
[gift] Guides, at the initiative of the Belgian delegation
a resolution was approved not to consider homosexuality
as a discriminatory factor, neither inside nor
outside scouting. This resolution was a reaction by
Belgium to the recent troubles with the Boy Scouts of
America regarding the exclusion of gay members, on
account of which Steven Spielberg, among others,
resigned from the organization.
The European Conference of Scouts and Guides,
which took place from 7 - 12 July in Prague, was
attended by more than 400 representatives from
throughout Europe. Belgian delegates represented the
five Belgian scouts and guides organizations, which
have around 150,000 members.
Scouting and Guiding is active in 41 European
countries, with approximately 3.5 million boys and
gifts participating. Worldwide the organization counts
around 35 million scouts and guides in 216 countries,
and the Jamboree, to be held next year in Thailand, is
its most eye-catching international initiative.
The Belgian proposal to avoid discrimination based
on sexual preference opened with the charter of fundamental
rights of the child adopted by the European.
Unionin Nice in December 2000. Further, the amendment
pointed out evolutions in present day society and
the fact that scouting and guiding always follow the
tendencies of youth culture, put to the test of the
principles of the movement.
Following this it was stated that ’l~olebis" (the
Belgian abbreviation for Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals)
are to be universally accepted within European
society and that this cannot be used as an exclusionary
criterion by national (scouting) federations. The Belgian
proposal was approved by a large majority of the
conference representatives.
Turkey, Greece, Romania, Portugal, Cyprus, and
Malta voted against the initiative. The five Belgian
"scouts and guides organizahons (VVKSM, FOS, FCS,
GCB, and SGP) hope that the approval of this resolution
will have an impact on other regions of the world.
The American observer at the conference was "not
really happy" with the result [of the vote on the
initiative]. However, news is trickling out that the
scouting movement in the United States is.coming
under pressure from, among others, gigantic sponsors
such as Levis and Coca Cola, to revise its policy
against Gays.
Washington State Court
Upholds Partner Benefits
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - The city of Vancouver can
keep providing health benefits to domestic partners of
Gay and Lesbian city employees, the Washington
¯ Supreme Court has ruled. The 8-1 decision will likely
¯ stretch beyond the city’s borders. Other cities, includ-
¯
ing Seattle, and the state have similar policies, along
¯ withlocal governmentsinatleastfourotherstates.The
¯ policy allows domestic partners, including same-sex
: partners, to receive health insurance benefits. It also
¯ allows employees to use theii sick leave to care for
¯ partners or partners’ children.
Vancouver resident Roni Heinsma challenged the
¯
policy soon after it was adopted in 1998, arguing that
: the city was creating akind of mini-marriage in viola-
. tion of the state law against same-sex marriage.
But thejustices agreed with the city’s argument that
¯ regulation of employee benefits is alocal matter. ’’We
¯ conclude that the city’s recognition of domestic part-
. nershipis limited and that the program does not uncon-
¯ stitutionally interfere with the Legislature’s ability to
¯ regulate familial relationships on a statewide level,"
¯ Justice Susan Owens wrote for the majority.
Heinsma’s challenge was argued by the Northstar
¯ Legal Center, a conservative nonprofit law firm m
Fairfax, Va., which challenged the city’s argnment
that the benefits were necessary to recruit and retain
good workers. ’The city or county that enacts this is
¯ saying that we do not agree with the state Legislature’s
decision to ban same-sex marriage," said Jordan
Lorence, the Northstar attorney who argued the case.
¯ ’q-his isn’t based on need, it’s based on a political
¯ agenda."
Similar polices in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver and
Broward County, Fla., have been upheld by other state
supreme courts, Lorence said. Policies in Minneapo-
¯ lis, Boston, and Arlington County, Va., were struck
¯ down. Courts are still considering cases in Philadel-
¯ phia and Montgomery County, Maryland.
¯ "Every time we get domestic partner benefits like
¯ this, the fight wing swoops in and raises some kind of
challenge," said Pat Logue, senior counsel for the
¯ Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a Gay
civil fightsgroup. "I think the courts recognize that
: domestic partnership is not marriage."
¯ In Washington, King County and the cities of Seattic,
Olympia and Tumwater have similar policies.
: The Public Employees Benefits Board approved a
: similar policy for state workers last year at Gov. Gary
Locke’s request.
¯ Since Vancouver’s policy was initiated in 1998, ¯
about 30 domestic partnerships have been registered
and approved. The city paid more than $20,000 to
¯ cover the cost of the policy in 1998. "A lot of private ¯
businesses have similar policies," said Ted Gathe,
¯ Vancouver’s city attorney. "It was felt by the city that
¯. recruiting and retaining employees is important, and
this was one of the benefits that should be included in
: our package."
¯ Gay Friendly Governor
i To Run for US Senate
: NEWBURY, N.H. (AP) - Democratic Gov. Jeanne
¯ Shaheen, New Hampshire’s first female governor and
¯ the first to openly support abortionfights, took the first
official step toward running for Senate. Shaheen, a
¯ social liberal and fiscal conservative, filed papers
." creating an exploratory committee for a run for the seat
¯ now held by conservative Republican incumbent Bob ¯
Smith.
¯ Shaheen has signed bills protecting Gay civil rights
in housing, jobs and public accommodations and re-
. pealing a ban on Gay adoptions.
¯ "Democrats, independents and Republicans all have
told me that they want a U.S. senator who will be a
¯ champion for them in Washington and take action on
the real problems they face," Shaheen said in a state-
" merit. Democrats have held a 50-49-1 advantage in the
¯ Senate since Jim Jeffords of Vermont switched from
¯ the GOP to independent in June. Shaheen said she
¯ won’t officially decide whether to run until next year.
_" She is serving her third two-year term as governor.
So. Africato Provide
Free AIDS Drug
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) -
The governmentmade a verbal agreement
with a German drug company to accept a
key AIDS drug for free in pilot projects
aimed at reducing the number of babies
born withHIV,company officials released
recently. The deal to provide free
nevirapine for the prevention of motherto-
child transmission of HIV at pilot
projects in the country was tentatively
accepted, said Kevin McKenna, technical
director ofBoehringer-Ingelheimin South
Africa.
The.company made the offer of free
Nevirapine to more than 100 developing
countries last year, provided it was part of
a properly managed, comprehensive
mother-to-child Transmission prevention
program. The government had been criticized
for not taking up the offer. AIDS
activists and doctors sued the government
demanding the immediate administration
of nevirapine nationwide.
About 200 babies are born with HIV
every day in South .africa and the drug
could slash that number in half. By refusing
to make nevirapine widely available to
HIV-infected pregnant women, the government
is denying women .and children
¯ their constitutional rights to health care,
the suit filed in the Pretoria High Court
claimed.
The government, which is reviewing
the suit, says it stands by its policy of first
distributing nevirapine on a small scale
¯ through pilot programs to test its effects~
Young So. Africans
Speak of AIDS
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - In a
steady voice, 16-year-old Jabu tells how
her father raped her repeatedly, infecting
her with the HIV virus. Once too scared to
speak out, she encouraged others to fight
anti-AIDS discrimination in South Africa
at the first national meeting of children
who are either infected or who have relatives
with the virus.
An estimated 4.7 million South Africans,
about 11% of the population, are
infected with HIV. The country has
700~000 AIDS orphans. Those infected
are often stigmatized by a society who
considers it a shameful illness, Infected
children at the meeting spoke of being
shunnedby theirpeers,abandonedby their
own families and even blamed by health
care workers for contracting the virus.
Jabu, who asked to be identified only by
her first name, encouraged the young
people to speak out. ’%’ou don’t have to
keep quiet," Jabu told the group of about
90 children. The children, aged seven to
18, gathered from across the country in
this coastal city and read anonymous testimonials
out loud.
Participants told of having to leave
school to care for their infected siblings.
Rejected by their families, others spoke of
having to support themselves by collectl’
ng fi¯ rewood and tendi"ng cattle. "My rdafives
discriminate between me and their
children," wrote one of the children in a
testimonial. "It’s like I am a slave."
Monene, 14, lost her mother to the disease.
She said she frequently goes hungry
and does not have proper clothes to wear.
Monene, who asked to be identified only
by her firstname, urged the government to
build more orphanages. "If they don’t do
that, what are we going to become in the
future?" she asked.
TheSouthAfrican governmenthasbeen
ambasted for an inconsistent policy on
combatting AIDS and for refusing to provide
anti-retroviral drugs through the public
health system.
At the meeting, Dr. Nono Simelela, who
heads the health department’s AIDS program,
told the children the government
was doing the best it could. "It’s dear that
a~ore resources as going to be needed,"
Simelela said. "As far as humanly possible,
we are responding to these challenges,
(but) the processes are slow."
Partners agree to joint ownership of patents
for first AIDS vaccine specifically
designed for Africa
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Three partners
developing and testing thefirstHIV/AIDS
vaccine specifically designed for an African
strain of the disease have agreed to
joint ownership of the drug’s patents.
The three-year agreement settles one of
the hurdles that had earlier threatened to
delay testing the vaccine to combat the
viral strain most common in eastern Africa:
Kenyan trials of the vaccine started
several months later than expected, partly
because of wrangling over ownership and
patent rights.
’q~nis was a delicate matter, requiring a
lot of patience and compromise from all
parties," said Francis Gichaga, vice chancellor
of theUniversity ofNairobi. Gichaga
and Seth Berkley, president of the New
York-based International AIDS Vaccine
Initiative, signed the agreementin Nairobi.
Britain’ s Medical Research Council signed
it in England earlier last month. ’q~he task
force was guided by the principle of.fairness,
equal partnership and need to equitably
apportion credit and any revenues that
may accrue from this project," Gichaga
said.
The groups have been working since
November 1998 to develop a double vac,
cine, basing much of their research on
prostitutes from a Nairobi slum who appear
to be immune to the HIV virus that
causes AIDS.
The first component is a simple_DNA
vaccine that delivers the genetic information
on HIV. The second component,
known as MVA~ is a vaccine that delivers
the same genetic information but uses a
weakened smallpox virus to carry it to the
cells.
The DNA vaccine is in its first phase of
testingonbothKenyans andBritons. Tests
of the MVA vaccine are being conducted
in England and are expected to begin in
Kenya in September or October, said G_ilbert
Camathan, project manager at the
vaccine initiative, which is funding the
research. Trials combining the components
are expected to begin later this year
in Britain and in early 2002 in Kenya,
Camathan said.
There is no HIV virus in the injections.
The safety tests will determine whether
they have any toxic effects. Once the combination
vaccine has proven safe, it will be
Power
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Domestic Partnership Planning,
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1-800-742-9468 or 918:352-9504
128 East Broadway, Drumright, Oklahoma
Weekend and evening appointments are available.
tested to see if it actually wards off AIDS.
The process is expected to take several
years.
Berkley will sign an agreement with the
Uganda Vaccine Research Institute soon
that will pave the way for testing there of
an orally administered version of the vaccine,
CamathantoldTheAssociated Press.
Tests so far have "not only been safe, but
also generated surprisingly good immune
responses," Berkley said.
Africa, the world’s poorest continent, is
ground zero in the fightagainstHIV/AIDS.
More than 24 million Africans live with
the vires butmost cannot afford expensive
drugs designed to slow its effects. Health
officials estimate that more than 2.6 million
Kenyans alOne have HIV/AIDS, and
700 more are infected each day. Other
vaccines-target strains prevalent in Europe
and North America.
AIDS Activist Sees
Less Harassment
SHANGHAI, China (AP) - The threatening
phone calls and summons by angry
officials areover. Governmentleaders who
once shunned her now smile and say hello
inpublic. Thereversal represents a victory
ofsorts forGao Yaojie, aretired gynecologist
who publicized the spread of AIDS
through illegal blood buying in rural villages
in the central Chinese province of
I-Ienan.
After years of official attempts to conceal
the deadly outbreak, the government
is acknowledging that hundreds of villagers
are infected and that dozens have already
died.
Gao said a deputy governor of Henan
even went out ofhis way last week to greet
her at an art exhibition. The government
still hasn’t broken down and told Gao she
was right. Butithas stopped treating her as
if she were trying to reveal state secrets,
Gao, 74, told The Associated Press by
telephone. ’‘itrs so quiet now," she said.
"A couple of months ago, I was getting
phone calls from government officials almost
every day."
Gao stumbled onto the hidden epidemic
in 1996, when one of her patients tested
positive for the virus that causes AIDS.
Gao was able to link the infection to an
illegal blood-buying industry in rural
Henan. Since the 1980s, collectors had
been paying villagers for their blood, extracting
the valuable plasmaand then reinjecting
what was left back into donors’
veins. Donated blood was often pooled
together, facilitating Transmission ofHIV.
Gao printed more than 300,000 flyers
and 100,000 booklets to warn the villagers
about the danger. She also paid for the
treatment of infected children. She said
she has spent more than $25,000 of her
ownmoney over thelastfive years. Health
officials at first ignored her and then grew
hostile as her efforts drew Chinese and
foreign media attention, she said.
In May, officials at the hospital where
she had worked in Zhengzhou, Henan’s
capital, blocked her application for a passport
to visit the United States to accept an
award for anti-AIDS activism. Officials
accused her of collaborating with "anti-
Chinese foreign organizations," she said.
Butthis month:the governmentabruptly
reversed itselfand announced it was sending
a team of health officials to open a
clinic in the worst-hit village, Wenlou.
More recently, a vice minister of health
said an April survey of 1,645 Wenlou
villagers found that 318 - or 19% - were
HIV-positive. Among villagers who sold
blood, an even larger proportion were infected
- 244 out of 568, or 43%
Officials are now examining blood supplies
in all hospitals and donor centers in
Henan, the Health Ministry’s newspaper-
Health News - said Friday. Police also are
searching for illegal blood-buyers, known
as "bloodheads," and government officials
who helped them, it said.
"It’s a good start that the government is
beginning to acknowledge this problem
and take action against it," Gao said. ’’I am
not sure how effective the crackdown will
be or if theproblem will just reappear after
the campaign is over, but at least it’s much
better than before when the officials did
nothing at all."
Brazil Strips Patent
On AIDS Drug
¯ RIO DEJANEIRO, Brazil (AP)-Brazil’s
: decision to disregard patent protections
¯ and begin manufacturing a genetic ver-
¯’ sion of a powerful anti-AIDS drug could
¯ open the way for other developing coun-
." tries to follow suit, experts said in August.
¯¯ Brazil has become the first country to
strip the patent on an anti-AIDS medica-
¯ tion. Health Minister Jose Serra said gov-
¯ ernment laboratories would begin manu- ¯
facturing Nelf’mavir, an anti-AIDS drug
¯ made by the Roche group and sold under
¯ the trade name Viracept. Serra justified
¯ the move, saying six months of negotia-
¯ tions with Roche failed to lower the drug’s ¯ price sufficiently for Brazil to be able to
~ distribute the drug free of charge to all in
¯ need. Brazil, has the highest number of
: AIDS victimsin Latin America, with about
¯ 203,000 people with the disease.
¯ Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Cen-
¯ ter for Economic Policy and Research, a
: Washington-based think tank, hailed
¯ Brazil’s decision and said it could prompt
¯ other countries to do the same. "I think
¯ you’regoing to seemoredeveloping coun- ¯
tries resisting these attempts to enforce the
¯ U.S. patent law all over the world. Very
." often, this is the ease: When one country
¯ challenges these laws, the U.S. backs ¯
down," he said. Weisbrot points to U.S.
¯ decisions to back away from attempts at
¯ stricterpatent enforcementonAIDS drugs ¯
in South Africa and Brazil.
¯
The law also contains clauses that allow
¯ patents to be stripped in cases of national
¯ emergency or when the company has been
~ judged to employ abusive pricing. Serra
~ used the abusive pricing clause in justify-
." ing this move.
Roche spokesman Daniel Piller said the
: company was not expecting Brazil’s latest
_" move. "We were surprised to hear the
¯° news from the Brazilian government. We
really think the government of Brazil ~s
~ really committed to combatting this dread-
." ful disease, andin ourpoint ofview, we are
¯ stillinnegotiations withthe Health Minis-
." try," Piller said by telephone from the
¯ company’s headquarters in Switzerland.
This year’s New Genre Festival, Octo~ ¯
her 3-7,-2001, will present a diverse range "
of artists, many of whom cross disciplin- "
ary lines to create exciting new art works.. ¯
These works push the limits of traditional "
media while incorporating the new media "
madepossiblebytoday’s technology. New ¯
Genre Festival is a program ofLiving Arts
of Tulsa.
This year the following art venues have ¯
chosen to collaborate on promoting corn ¯
temporary art in Tulsa: Living ArtSpace,
Nightingale Theatre, Philbrook Museum "
of Art, SoBo 2, TulsaModem Art Center, ¯
Tulsa Performing Arts CenterTrust, Tulsa
Pror~e~ ¯ le, University of Tulsa School of "
Art, Utica Square "
Since 1969, Living Arts of Tulsa has
been steadfast inits mission of"presenting ¯
and devdoping contemporary artforms in "
Tulsa." Living Arts is interested in newly "
evolving ideas and concepts, and in sharingits
interests withthe communitythrough "
creative workshops, performances, exhi- "
bitions, films/videos, demonstrations of ",
current art, lectures, related educational
activxties and research.
Living Arts has two principal goals: 1) ¯
to bring Outside artists and works to Tulsa
who are pushing their media to its limit
and, 2) to present opportunities and. challenges
for local artists to develop and
present new, exploratory works,which are
not normally seen in Tulsa.
’~3rrrl Power" Elizabeth.Whitney is one
of this year’s emcees and she will be
making several appearances throughout
the festival: Thursday at the Performance
Open; Friday at Die Audio Gruppe - 8pro
andatA.K.A. - 10pro; and Saturday atJos4
Torres Tama - 8pm.
Grrrls: Subversive Performances of
Femininity Utilizing multiple perso_~,ae
(Rizzo - tough girl, Barbie, Miss Flizabeth,
Bridesmaid, and Ethyl), Elizabeth
Whitney leads us through many aspects of
stereo typed women today - only with a
twist!
ncSis theotherof this year’ s emcees and
they will be making several appearances/
performances throughout the festival:
Thursday at the Performance Open - 8pm;
Friday at Jos4 Torres Tama- 10pro Saturday
at Die Audio Gruppe - 8pro
he5 had its .begin~,~,n,gs as a band. Always
"very theatrical for a rock group, it
wasn’t until the dialmmer quit that the
remaining band members decided to ditch
the gigs and dive into theatrical
experimentaion. Utilizing various disciplines,
technology and whatever else they
can find, nc5 strives to incorporate the
energy of a rock concert into their performances.
On Wednesday, Oct. 3, 5-Spin will feature
’q’he Culture of Breath," an interactive
computer projection insthllation by
Chicago Art Institute Professor of New
MediaTiffany Holmes whichinvestigates
the physiological, the biological, and the
~psychological aspects of breathing.
It opens at Living ArtSpace, 308 S
Kenosha. The installation continues on
display through October 25. The act of
breathing is presented as a series of visual
layers: physical, biotic, and psychological.
On the physical level, the artist reminds
us that we can consciously hold our
breath and halt the automatic process of
breathing for a short period of time until
the body revolts and reasserts control. The
act of breathing creates a dynamic interface
between our exterior and interior environments.
OnThursday, Oct. 4, Willy Le Maitre&
Eric Rosenzveig will present "The Appearance
Machine"- a live video installation
which begins in New York City with
the collection of trashfrom the streets. The
garbage starring in the drama is manipulated,
analyzed, videotaped and then
streamed in realtime over the internet directly
to the Alexandre Hogue Gallery,
Phillips Hall, University of Tulsa, 2935 E
5th St. It opens from 5-Tpm and continues
through October 25. Eric Rosenzveig also
will give a talk at TU about the work and
other artworks using new technologies at
6pro.
Chris Wildrick of ’~2funBasTards" from
Madison, Wisconsin will perform Local
Reality Test: Temporal Continuity Test,
an out-of-theater performance by walking
around Tulsa from 9-5pm asking people
what timeitis. He will then check this time
against his watch, marking down the difference
in minutes and his location. He
will also check times fOund on public
docks. Throughout the day he will accumulate
avast amount of data regarding the
discrepancies between time and space m
Tulsa.
A ground-breaking new program of the
New Genre Festival this year, the Performance
Open allows for several short performance
artworks by artists from Tulsa
and around the country to be seen at one
venue, The Nightingale Theatre, 1416 E
4th St8:00pm $8. ($6. students) onThursday,
Oct. 4.
The amazing Berlin-based multimedia
artgroup, DieAudioGruppe,buildelectroacoustic
clothing and then perform using
them. Studio Performances at the Tulsa
Performing Arts Center, Doenges Theater,
2rid. & Cincinnati, 8:00pm.$12. ($6.
students) Friday/Saturday, Oct. 5/6. Reservations
are required through the PAC at
596-7111 or www.tnlsapac.com.
A workshop will be offered, "Making
Electro-acoustic Clothing" with inventor
Ben0it Manbrey on Monday, Oct. 1,
7:00pro at Living ArtSpaee.
Also on "Oct. 5/6, Living Arts will
feature ’qm Exile Close to the Equator -
Personal Stories of Universal Truths in a
Search for the "American Dream." In this
autobiographical verbal and visual coil
lage, performance artist Jos~ Tortes Tama
: returns to Tulsawith awork that combines
: personal stories and incantations withdra-
~ matic movement and visual tableaus.
¯ Moving rapidly from poetic drama to the
hilariously absurd, he creates a dynamic
¯ piece that explores the immigrant experience
and rites-of-passage in urban Ameri-
] can culture.
¯ The New Genre Festival also will offer
: anumber more events. For moreinforma-
¯¯ tion, call 918-585-1234 or check out:
www.livingarts.org. Living Arts of Tulsa
¯
is located at 308 S Kenosha.
It’s too expensive."
You can subscribe to
Tulsa Opera’s entire
season for as little
as $13 per opera.
That’s cheaper than a
ballgame and at
that price you can
even bring a date.
]’re sure to score.
Herland
Fall Retreat
September 14-16
Roman Nose State Park
Featuring entertainers
Mary N Bright
Mary Catherine Reynolds,
-Kristall Bright and Nancy Nesser
Herland, 2312 NW 39th
Oklahoma City, www.herlandsister.org
THE GILDED AGE
Treasuresfrom the Smitbsonian American Art Museum
9 SEPTEMBER -- 4 NOVEMBER 2OO1
THE PHILBROOK MUSEUM OF ART
2727 SOUTH ROCKFORD ROAD
Hungry for Atlantic Herring or
A Prince in a Shetland?
by Deborah J. Hunter
If you like Stephen McCauley (Object
ofMyAffection, Easy Way Out, Man ofthe
Houseand TrueEnough) you’ll love Louis
Bayard. I read Bayard’s two novels, En-
"dangered Species (2001) and Fool’s Errand
(1999) back to back. I get hungry for
good writing with peculiar characters that
happen to be Gay.
Bayard gives us both
in a feast of storytelling
about thirty-something
Nick Broome who hasurges
toward parenthoodandPatrick
Beaton
who is in search of
- "PrinceCharming"orin
this case "Prince Shetland."
Like McCauley,
Bayard gently bashes
stereotypes in favor of
people "like you and
me" (and some not so
like anyone I have ever
met) that are trying to
make alife that on most daysdoesn’t seen
the least bit-"altemative."
Nick Broome’s experience with sperm
banks and finding out his own motility
rates are hilarious. Thephysiclan s assistant..,
leads me down along hallway with
shell-colored carpet...She hands me three
medium-size glass vials, abox ofKleenex
and a back issue of Pro Wrestling magazine."
He evolves from wanting to propagate
to wanting to parent. His search for a
¯Lesbian co-parem, or finally, a surrogate
but are asked to donate $10 at the door.
Earlierin September,TulsaOklahomans
for Human Rights (TOHR) will kick off
theplanningfor Diversity Celebration2002
from 5:30 to7pmonThursday, Sept. 6th at
Renegades in the Rainbow Room. The
public is welcome and for more information,
call 743-4297, or e-mail to
community@tohr.org
Looking forward to the end of October,
TOHR will be hosting a Rocky Horror
Masquerade Ball featuring Helga’s
Horribles to benefit the Pyramid Project
(the-ftm.draising effort for a permanent
commumty center) at the Downtown
Doubletree on the 27th. More details will
be available in October.
HRC Announces Grant to
Oklahoma Group
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Human
Rights Campaign (HRC) madeannounced
decisions about its first round of Equality
Fund grants to Gay state lobbying groups
in 10 states.
Amoung these grants (totaling $47,000)
is one to Oklahoma’s Cimarron Alliance
Foundation of $4,000 to conduct the first
poll in Oklahoma to guidedevelopment of
public outreach messages, with special
emphasis on hate crimes, discrimination
"... Like MeCauley,
Bayard gently
bashes stereotypes
in favor
of people
’like you and me’
"(and some not
so like anyone I
have ever met)..."
¯ mother, takes him on a journey that in-
: eludes a cast of ordinary but uncommon
¯ people. His thoughts turn from Atlantic
¯ herring, "These are fish that travel inlarge
" schools and reproduce as casually as I
untangle phone cords," to other species,
" "Cowbirds have beenonmindlately. They
¯ are brown-headed creatures that decline
: the honor of building nests and instead lay"
¯ eggs in thenests of other birds. Some birds
pick up on the ruse, but
most will happily incubate
the new eggs as
one of their own."
In Fool’s Errand,
Patrick Beaton learns to
hate naps and learns to
love Seth. He thinks
Seth is helping him find
themaninthe cranberry
Shetland sweater. He
thinks their days spent
in the parking lots of
discount stores and their
nights spent in bars are
in search of a "Scottish
Prince" who Patrick
barely met on~ sleepy
¯ afternoon in someone’s den.
¯" That Seth is the ex-boyfriendofPatrick’ s
¯ ex-boyfriend, Alex only adds to the flavor
¯¯ of the stew, as does the long visit from
Patrick’ s bi-polar father who ends up mar~
¯ rying his best friend Marianne.
: Fool’s Errand is a long book and the
¯ yearning for love is there under the esca-
¯ pades and in every day. Like Endangered
¯ Species, the search is what gives life its
¯ substance, the finding is what helps bring ¯
life’s meaning.
: and other equality issues such as domestic
¯ partnership.
¯ Prior, HRC had issued $114,000 in
¯ Equality Fundgrants and also gave $5,000
¯ to the Federation of Statewide Political
¯ Advocacy Organizations. These grants
." helped to fund essential state house lobby
¯ work, such as Maryland’s non-discrimi-
¯ nation and Texas’ hate crimes bills.
¯ Others receiving grants include:
." Texas’ Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby
¯ which got a $5,000 grant to support their ¯
lobby program, including to continue to
." defeat attempted bans on same-sex mar-
.¯ riage and civil unions and to advance their
safe schools initiative.
¯ Unity Utah will receive $4,000 to lobby
." the Salt Lake City Council to codify an
¯ existing mayoral executive order which
¯ prohibits discrimination in city employ-
" ment based on sexual orientation. This
¯ local project is an important first poliltical
...step for this organization, and also is an
¯ important first step towards state level
: advocacy.
¯ Vermonters for Civil Unions Legisla-
: tive Defense Fund is getting $5,000 for
¯ lobbying and polling efforts to keep the
¯ legislature from denigrating the legal stares
of civil unions as a marriage-equiva-
¯ lent.
: A number of other organizations also
¯ received grants or are still under consider-
¯ ation for aid.
¯
Creator of the universe has sown a very
Well, kind of. I was a Boy Scout. The : important fluid. This fluid is the most
years, 1965 - 1970; the place, Martinez, : wonderful material in all the physical
CA,Troopl81.And,nowadays, I amGay. ¯ world. Some parts of it f’md their way into
ButwhenI was a ldd; I had yet to hear any : theblood, andthroughthebloodgivetone
oftheearlynotesbftoday’s - ~ -~ : to the muscles, power-to~
elaborated language of -":-. ~;~outs havealways~- thebrain, and : strength to .
Gayness and;eve~ii,~-Ihad, - ]md ~ex and aender ~ " the nerves:. This fluid"isthe :
I probably ,wouldn thave - ........¯ ~’~ -sex fluid ’Am habit
ldentifiedmyselfwlth.lt.A ¯ mind; An explleit~l ....whichaboyhas thatcauses .
GayBoyScout,backthen,.. o[ the o~,anJ=atloi~ is to this fluid robe discharged
wasanthinkable.Wenever .. ~ .’ . ,. " ’ ¯ from the body tends-to .
once "sniggered at.: the turn boys into men ~.~ :’weaken his $[rength,"to "
double entendre, so obvi- men-o[ a imrt-leu]ar tTl~, makehimlessabletoresist
by Lamont Lindstrom
~ous today, in thefinal.lin,~e dmt I~. I w~’t alone
of theBoy Scout oath: ’I--
promise .... to keepmyself my Troop. Several
physically strong, mentally
awake and morally
straight."
The Boy Scouts of
America, backed by five
U.S. Supreme Court Justices,
have recently affirmed
their legal right to
scout mates a|so ~rew
into Gayness. Many
parents, I’m sure, prayed
tlmt scouting would
toughen up their
worrisome sons.... "
disease :. ~to yield:means
to Sacrifice strengthS,and
power and m~liness.
Jeez,we~ought. Could
we even survive our teens.’?
Scoutmasterly duties,~
given Boy Scout dogma,
included the regulation of
boyish sexuality and this
task could be approached
withall shades ofinterest. I
discharge Gay Scoutmasters
and perhaps also (although this is less
clear) boys who affirm ahomosexual identity.
The Gay community andbeyondhave
condemned this invidious policy as harmful,
But theScouts, clearly, are in a dicey
position. We might try to understand, although
not necessarily sympathetically,
the orgardzati0n’s problems in ha,vigating
the dangerous American cultural ~hoals of
childhood and sex.
The Boy Scouts have always had sex
and gender in mind. An explicit goal of the
organization is to turn boys into men -
men of a particular type, that is. I wasn’t
alone in my Troop. Several of my scout
mates also ~ew into Gayness. Many pareats,
I’m sure, prayed that scouting would
toughen up their worrisome sons.
The Boy Scouts, !ike the Marines, Little
League sports, and certain small fundamentalist
Christian colleges, are a last resort
of desperate parents hoping to make a
man out of one. My fellow Scouts ranged
from the ambitiously normal to hopeless
twinks (although we didn’t have that word
back then either): The proto-gangbangers
at my school, who wouldn’t be caught
dead in the Boy Scouts, weren’t fooled by
our organized protestations of masculinity.
All those silly (if sometimes still surprisingly
useful) ropes and knots.
AlthoughTroop 181 hadno language of
Gayness, this does not mean that there
were no sexual frissons - a sexuality that,
in an all-male organization, is at least by
default homosexual. Such currents surely
feed the organization’s recent touchiness
about Gayness.
I remember friends giggling over the
Boy Scout Handbook’s warnings against
masturbation. When I got my first HandbookIeagerly
soughtoutthoseparagraphs.
The Handbook, subsequently, wo~tld be
somewhat liberalized. My 1960’ s edition,
however, hadn’t progressed much beyond
these 1927 admonitions published under
the subtitle ’~onservation" (which, in the
1970’s, would acquire a more ecological,
less Taoist gignificance): "In the body of
every boy who has reached his teens; the
.... spent part of four s||mmers
¯¯ atWolfboro, a camp in the Sierra Nevada.
Oar leaders trooped us up river to "Bare-
" Ass Slide" and ordered to take off our
,. clothes and slide down shallow, mossy
¯ river rapids. On one 50-mile hike, buck-
" naked Scoutmaster Bob chased five of us
¯ boys, equally buck-naked, squealing
¯ through the woods because we refused to
¯ hop into the icy aver.
¯ Innocent male hi-jinks, of course. But
¯ some of this past must inform the Boy ¯
Scouts’ present sexual bad conscious. Itis
¯ sweet irony,’as many have noted (e.g., see
¯ Tim Neal’s biography The Boy-Man), that
¯ -the founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Rob-
. eft Baden-Powell, was obsessed with
¯ "boyology," had a 30 year relation with a
¯ younger man, K~uneth McLaren- whom
¯ he called The Boy - and adored watching
his lithesome Scouts swim nude.
¯ Postmodem theorists warn that the past
(life-long male friend) is often misunder-
" stood in contemporary terms (Gay). Still,
Baden-Powell and some of his Scoutmaster
successors clearly appreciated boys in
¯ complicated ways.
¯ Pricking this Boy Scout bad conscious,
¯ Americais currently onthe warpath against
any sort of child sexuality; When I was a
¯
kid, we had never heard of the term sexual
harassment let alone sexual abuse. These
¯ notions, like Gay, had yet to hit Martiuez. ¯
In that heyday of the miniskirt, my 7th
¯ grade Algebra teacher used to force those
¯ 12-year old gifts who wore the shortest
¯ minis to sit in the front row of his class so ¯
he could gawk up their skirts. (He also
¯ used to hang troublesome boys out his
¯ second-story window by the scruffs of
their neck.) Today? Run, don’t walk, to
your nearest hungry lawyer.
¯ Thereasons for America’s recent child-
* sex pamc are complex, reflecting, prob-
" ably, parental guilt about working morns
¯
and about divorce. Nowadays, with suspi-
¯ cious parents and enterprising lawyers all
¯o around, theBOy Scouts have their backs to
the wall. You can see why they mightnot
¯ want to get in bed with us Gays. We
¯ remindthemoftoomuch, seeScout,p.11
KellyKirby, CPA, PC
Certified Public Accountant
a professional corporation
Lesbians and Gay men face many special
tax situations whether single or as couples.
Electronic filing is available for faster refunds.
747-5466
4021 South Harvard Avenue, Suite 210, Tulsa 74135
IGTA
member ~~
Call 341.6866
International
TOH~formoreinformation.
TULSA COUNTY
DEMOCRATIC
PARTY
Country Club Barbering
Custom Styling for Men & Women
David Kauskey
3310 E. 51st, 747-0236, Tues.-Fri., 8-5:30, Sat. 8-5pro
College Hill
Presbyterian Church
In response to God’s Love,
College Hill Presbyterian Church
is a community of God’s people
called to tell others the
Gospel of Jesus Christ
through worship,
service, and evangdism.
To nurture our faith, we gather for
worship~ prayer,
study and fellowship.
¯ Trusting in a living, loving God,
we seek to become a compassionate
voice for peace and justice.
Our congregation welcomes all
persons who respond in trust and
obedience to God’s grace
in Jesus Christ, and desire to become
part of the membership and ministry
of Christ’s church.
Membership is open to all people
regardless of race, ethnic origin,
worldly condition, marital status, or
sexual orientation.
Sunday Worship, 11am
712 S. Columbia Ave., 592-5800
(One block west of Delaware and the
University of Tulsa Campus)
Tulsa’s only
professional
body-piercing
On September 3oth, something brand
new is hitting the Tulsa scene!
Soulful Sundown
is an alternative worship experience that celebrates
the mystery and wonder of life,
within a non-dogmatic context.
Soulful Sundown combines live music, inspirational readings., video, and
audience participation to create an experience that
moves, challenges, transforms and
connects people to e~tch other and the ~¢orld.
Soulful Sundo.wn
happens at All Souls Unitarian Church at 5:3oPM on
Sundays starting September 3oth and continuing
through the rest of the year. All people are welcome!
All Souls Unitarian Church
2952 S. Peoria, 743-2363.
Karmajust bitmein the ass! Here I was,
pining for something I thought I’d never
have, when lo and behold, a woman told
me she was in love with me. Ofcourse this
was three hours after meeting he_r, so you
can imagine how frightened I was, thinking
I’druninto Psycho LesbianFrom Hell.
RememberMiss No-Longer-Interested-
In-Me? Well, she stir isn’t. But that’s not
the point. Miss No-Longer-Interested-In-
Me and I reached an agreement and have
done what many Lesbian couples do (or
non-couples, in this case) and become
friends.
I know what you’re saying. ’Raging
Lesbian, this is just a way to get to see
her!" I could tell you how much we click
on a friendship level; how much we value
that friendship; how much werespect each
other, etc. OK- it’s a way to get to see her!
I never knew how she felt because no
one’s ever said those three little words to
me. I found out how she felt the other
weekend when I heard them whispered
into my ear.
Youneed toknow rightnow thatinternet
acquaintances should be a slow process.
No need to rush into meeting her after
writing to her once or twice. She might
turn into a Karin, and you might become a
Miss No-Longer-Interested-In-Me.
The other weekend was my first date
since Miss No-Longer-Interested-In-Me
told me that, well, she was no longer
interested in me.
It was the first time sinceMay that I even
thought of trying to move on. I didn’t
realize I’d meet Miss U-Haul Lesbian. My
experiences since coming out have been
with users until I met Miss No-Longer-
Interested-In-Me. This explains why she’s
making yet another starring role in the
column. Her honesty disarmed me and
made me realize I hadn’t been honest with
the most important person in my life--me¯
How could I be honest with her, or anyone
else,.for that matter?
Timing tndy sucks sometimes. Had I
met Miss U-Haul,. fallen for her, learned
my lesson, then met Miss No-Longer-
Interested-In-Me, perhaps... No, I won’t
go there. We fill our lives with so many
’~vhat-ifs" and "if onlys" that we don’t see
the people in front of us.
The person in front of me now is a
woman who would do anything for me.
Scary, huh? But don’t we look for this all
our lives? Here is it, staringmein the face,
and I’m feeling very different than I did in
April¯ I feel like Miss No-Longer-Interested-
In-Me.
I let my new-found "friend" in on what
was happening. She told me never to say
anything to Miss U-Haul I didn’t mean.
Wise advice which I learned from her
through first-hand experience. I’ve told
Miss U-Haul aboutmy recent history, and
I also let her know that I don’t think I can
realm her feelings. She says I will. Umm,
no, I don’t think so.
What’ s she like? Besides living in outer
Dallas anddressinginmen’ s clothing (well,
somewhat), she’s kind, caring, and listens
to my every word¯ Where I was almost a
non-entity with Miss No-Longer-Interested-
In-Me, Iama"Diamond" to Miss UHaul.
In fact, that’s her name for me.
So what is myproblem? I didn’tfeel that
"something"; that immediate feeling that
Miss No-Longer-Interested-In-Me was
looking for with "us". I always thought
you grew into it. But she’s right. The
spark, if you will, just isn’t there. I can
wish for it all I want, but Miss U-Haul
doesn’t do itfor me. Yes, I HAVEbecome
Miss No-Longer-Interested-In-Me, with a
vengeance!
And yet I still see Miss U-Haul. Why?
My immediate response? No one’s cared
for me this much, or treated me this wall
since.... ever. Certainly not since I’ve
become active in this life. I shouldn’t let
that sway me, or confuse Miss U-Haul.
Above all, I don’t want to hurt her. I
don’t want anyone to feel what I have the
past few months - hurt, lonely, confused,
desperate, despairing, you get the drill.
And yet, I don’t see.any other way. As I
perceive it, Miss No-Longer-Interested-
In-Me had three choices: A. Hurt me; B.
Hurt me; C. Hurt me; D. All of the above.
That she chose D for a triple shot of hurt
annoys me, but whatcan you do? Try NOT
to repeat her pattern.
It really doesn’t help that the townspeople
where Miss U-Haul lives dre telling
her that I may be "I’he One."
I’ve already let her in on my Love-OMeter
¯ You know, the thing that lets you
comprehend, unequivocally, that you’re
in love? A friend asked me about a month
ago, what I would have told my mother if
Miss No-Longer-Interested-In-Me and I
had a different experience: in other words,
if she returned my feelings.
"I would say, ’Mother, this is Miss Interested-
In-Me. We’reinlove.’"Myfriend
asked what I would do after my mother
fainted. Oh please. She knows. Even MY
mother can’t be THAT naive!
I guess what I’m trying to say is that
until that woman comes along again (IF
she ever comes along again) who makes
me want to come out to my family, then it
ain’t love.
Sure, I may love being with her, talking
to her, and heating how wonderful I am.
The sex may be great (yes, Horny Lesbian
strikes again!), but the feding’s not there.
Does that make me a terrible person? I
think not. I certainly hope not.
I told Gay Felix one night, after Miss UHaul
letmeknow (as have so many others)
that Miss No-Longer-Interested-In-Me
used me, that only the two people in that
relationship truly understand what went
on between them. Miss No-Longer-Interested-
in-Me didn’t use me. Being in her
shoes now, I honestly believe that. Only
She and I comprehend the feelings and the
loss¯ I’m sure Miss U-Haul’s neighbors
and friends will one day say that I used her.
I hope she understands a simple truth - I
met a wonderful woman whose feelings I
can’t return.
As Miss No-Longer-Interested-In-Me
said recently, ’q’here are a billion reasons
why someone wouldfall inlove withyou."
Unfortunately, I’m afraid I’ll be saying the
same thing soon to Miss U-Haul. Love, no
matter which side you’re on, is often the
most difficult and most agonizing feeling
in the world. - by Karin Gregory
Gregory is a Ft. Worth based writer.
The NAMES Project Tulsa Area Chapter
3507 East Admiral Place
Tulsa, OK. 74115-8211
(918) 748-3111
www.TulsaQuilt.org
MEMORIAL
Feast with Friends® in TVLand
Saturday, September 29, 2001
Following the individual Dinner Parties, join us for the
Dessert Extravaganza
8:30 to 10:30 PM
Allan Chapman Activity Center, University of Tulsa, 5th and Gary,
Admission js free for Dinner Hosts and their guests;
others may attend for a $10.00 donation at the door
Original Format
newspaper
periodical
periodical
Files
Citation
Tulsa Family News, “[2001] Tulsa Family News, September 2001; Volume 8, Issue 9,” OKEQ History Project, accessed April 18, 2024, https://history.okeq.org/items/show/616.