^NOTES
Switchboard, Charlotte 704/525-6128
AIDS Hotline, Charlotte 704/333-AIDS
PFLAG Hotline, Charlotte 704/364-1474
AIDS Hotline, Columbia 803/779-PALS
Call Lin*- Wilmington 919/675-9222
March 1989
PRIDE IN PRINT!
TO ADVERTISE: 339-0679
Living With AIDS
Tom O'Connor To Speak In Charlotte
*
:K ' f'
A^’ ji.l' ii-
Mar. 3 Closetbusters on Cable
ch. 33 at 10 pm
Mar. 5 Tom O'Connor to Speak at
Temple Beth El 7:30 pm
Mar. 7 First Tuesday, CCP
House, 8 pm
Mar. 9 PFLAG
Mar. 11 Mature Gay Men, Call
882-1747 7:30pm
Mar. 17 St. Patrick's Day
Parties and shows every
where. See ads for details
Feb. 17 Closet Busters 10:00 pm
Cable Channel 3
Mar. 20 Bowling - Coliseum Lanes
9 pm
Mar. 23 Passover Seder Supper
MCC Charlotte 6:30 pm
Mar. 24 Good Friday
Mar. 26 Easter
IND
Animers, The
Page 4
Business Cards
Page 7
Calendar
Page 2
Classifieds
Page 7
Horoscopes by Korwin
Page 6
Organizations
Page 2
The Softspot
Page 4
"Torch Song" Review
Page 3
By David Prybylo
Health Educator for
Metrolina AIDS Project
Tom O'Connor, author of the book Living
with AIDS - Reaching Out, will speak at
Temple Beth El, 1727 Providence Road, on
Sunday, March 5 at 7:30 pm. The topic of his
discussion will be "Strategies for Healing
AIDS: Making AIDS a Treatable and Man
ageable Disease." The presentation is spon
sored by Metrolina AIDS Project and is free
and open to the public.
MAP Begins Women
and AIDS Group
By David Prybylo
Health Educator for
Metrolina AIDS Project
Metrolina AIDS Project, in response to a
growing need in the Charlotte area, has be
gun a support group for women who are
affected by AIDS. The Women And AIDS
Support Group had its first meeting on
Wednesday, Febmary 1, and will meet every
Wednesday at_4:00 p.m.
Lori Cardona, MAP's Coordinator of
Client Services, says MAP established the
group because they began to recognize that
some women had specific and unique needs
that were not necessarily being addressed by
MAP's other support groups. "Our other
groups deal with some topics that are not
relevant to women," she explained. "For
example, issues surrounding the gay male
experience are not consistent with women's
concerns."
"On the other hand, issues such as gyne
cological matters are not applicable to men.
More and more I saw these women with
drawing from the support system, and I real
ized that some of their specific needs were
not being met. It was clear that we needed to
begin a group specifically for them."
The group is led by Betty Debrill, atrained
counselor who is the clinical administrator at
Randolph Qinic, an out-patient alcohol re
habilitation center. loanne Stevenson, a
trained counselor at Open House, a drug re
habilitation service, acts as co-facilitator.
Both women have had extensive experience
dealing with support groups, and both feel
that the emotional issues which surround
addiction are similar to those seen in HIV-
infected people.
As with all other MAP services, the
Women And AIDS group is confidential and
free of charge. In addition, Metrolina AIDS
Project offers on-premises child care during
meeting times. If you are interested in joining
the group, or if you would like more informa
tion, call MAP at 333-2437 any weekday
between8:30amand5:00pmor7:00-10:00
pm.
Author, lecturer
and AIDS authority,
O'Connor has had
ARC for over eight
years. His experience
in managing his own
I. illrfess has provided
him a wealth of knowl
edge which he shares
freely with others. His
/\ message is one of hope
I '4 ' / and optimism, and he
w * ''' stresses that by ac
tively participating in one's own healing
process, a person can increase both the length
and quality of life.
Tom has been an active participant in
AIDS work for many years. He is co-founder
of the AIDS Healing Alliance, which has
recently begun the pilot stages of a national
study on long-term survivors. He is co
founder of the Healing Alternative Founda-
in getting the FDA to allow Dextran Sulfate
into the country. He is currently helping to
establish in San Francisco the Community
Resarch Initiative, an organization that will
help PWAs and physicians to control their
own treatment protocols. Tom was a princi
pal consultant for the founding of Project
Survival, a national networking service for
People Recovering From AIDS ("PRAs").
He also helped organize a group of patients at
Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco.
Tom is a co-founder of the San Francisco
Macro-biotic Network, which puts on a din
ner every Friday night to introduce nutri
tional support to AIDS-affected persons. Tom
practices his own unique nutritional pro
gram, which is the result of his research into
macrobiotics and other nutritional regimens.
He considers orthodox macrobiotics to have
much good information but also to be a bit
dogmatic.
See Tom O'Connor, page 4
tion, a "buyers' club" which was instmmental
LONG-TERM SURVIVORS
By Rev. Lynn Guerra
Special to Q-Notes
Most of the time the media puts forth the
word that diagnosis with HIV or ARC or
AIDS is an automatic death sentence for the
person. BUT the facts are different!
According to statistics put out by the CDC
in Atlanta there are still approximately 10%
of the persons diagnosed with AIDS in 1981
still alive today! Some of them have experi
enced what the medical community is calling
“a complete remission” of the AIDS virus.
What that means to us lay people is that the
AIDS virus has disappeared from them.
One man, the Reverend Steve Pieters, has
been on national television talking about his
healing.
Because of these facts, it is very frustrat
ing to me to see people lose all hope, and be
cause of that frustration I decided to write this
article and share some of the common factors
that these long-term survivors have.
1. Long-term survivors understand and
accept the reality of the AIDS diagnosis, but
also refuse to believe that the syndrome is an
automatic, imminent death sentence.
2. They believe that one can cope, ac
tively with the disease, and refuse to suc
cumb to a ‘helpless-hopeless’ state.
3. They make appropriate, individual
ized adjustments in personal habits and be
haviors to accommodate living with the dis
ease.
4. Long-term survivors find meaning
and purpose in life.
5. A program of exercise and physical
fitness is a common factor.
6. They report the importance of sup
port and information from other people with
AIDS, particularly shortly after diagnosis.
PFLAG Receives $1500 Grant
by Rod Thornton
Special to Q-Notes
A $1500 grant has been awarded to the
Charlotte chapter of Parents and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). The grant was
given by “Fund for Southern Communities,”
a non-profit organization based in Atlanta.
The money will be used to print and mail
a number of informative pamphlets about
lesbians and gays. Much of this information
will be directed to approximately 1 (XX) clergy,
psychologists, counselors, etc.
According to Jerry Cass of PFLAG, their
stated purpose in applying for the grant was
to supply “...accurate information to help
families to become more supportive and to
help to overcome ugly stereotyping of homo
sexual people.” A sampling of titles of some
of the pamphlets that will be published are:
“Coming Out To Your Parents,” “Why Is My
Child Gay,” “Can We Understand,” “About
Our Children.”
These pamphlets will certainly help a
great deal in combatting ignorance and fear
against gay and lesbian people. The Char
lotte community owes a tip of the hat and
many thanks to PFLAG and the Fund for
Southern Communities for their great sup
port and concern.
7. They give themselves permission to
withdraw from involvements when they need
to care for themselves.
8. Almost all ofthe survivors have found
solace in religion or some sort of spiritual
group.
9. They are fighters, often difficult pa
tients, not passive. Most used a group of phy
sicians to coordinate their care, not just one.
A majority have fired a physician, or ordered
one out of their hospital room.
10. There was no magic bullet, no single
treatment used by all of the survivors.
11. All said they needed hope to survive.
Each had to deal in some way with the me
dia’s repeated message that, once diagnosed,
everyone dies.
(These factors have been paraphrased
from articles written in ALERT, a monthly
AIDS information newsletter from UFMCC,
5300 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 304, Los
Angeles, CA 90029. Subscriptions are avail
able.)
To all of you out there who are living with
AIDS, continue to LIVE! Take care of your
selves. Don’t lose hope! Don’t give up!
Rest! Eat right! Find a support group so that
you can share your feelings. It is in keeping
feelings in or denying that they exist that the
problem arises. Most importantly, don’t lis
ten to anyone who tells you that EVERY
ONE dies from AIDS. LIVE WITH AIDS!!!
A cure may be just around the comer.
First Tuesday
Elects Board
Members
On February 7th, during their monthly
meeting. First Tuesday members elected new
board members. Serving as Co-Chairs will
be Sandra Bailey and Matt. I. Board mem
bers Pat W. and Rod Thornton were ap
pointed respectively as Treasurer and Secre
tary. Don King was appointed as Media
Representative, although he did not wish to
serve as a Board Member.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with
First Tuesday, the group organized last year
to "...serve as an advocate for societal and
political concerns for the gay and lesbian
community." Also, "to interact with other
organizations to further human rights...To
provide politicians and the media with a
perspective on gay/lesbian issues."