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TO ADVERTISE:
VOLUMElJ^yMBER12^DECEMBER 1987__;TRiMiNPRWlT”
704/339-0679
I Published Monthly By QCQ As A Public Service I
Next
Month
Charlotte’s
Own
Kevin
Scott
the NEW
“Mr. Gay
America”
AIDS Coalition Responds to New Disease Law
By Bob Johnson
Q-Notes Staff
The North Carolina AIDS Service
Coalition met Friday, November 13, in
Charlotte at Metrolina AIDS Project
(MAP) offices to discuss the proposed
rules which will accompany North Car
olina’s recently proposed communicable
disease law. The head of North Caroli
na’s AIDS Control Program, Dr.
Rebecca Meriweather in conjunction
with Ronald H. Levine, M.D., State
Health Director have scheduled state
wide public hearings to obtain com
ments and/or criticism on the proposed
rules.
The proposed rules are calling for
mandatory contact notification. This
means that when an individual goes to
the health department or to his/her
private physician and has the HIV
antibody test done and the results are
positive, he/she MUST provide a list of
sexual contacts for the previous year.
The outcry over this provision is com
ing from city, regional and statewide
leaders in the gay community, as well as
from various social service representa
tives and civil liberties activists.
“The main problem,’’ said Les Kooy-
man of MAP, “with this program is that
individuals will shy away from being
tested because they will not want to list
their sexual partners.” Kooyman went
on to say that “the fear of providing
such a list will prevent people from
being tested and thus hinder the at
tempts to better understand how wide
spread this disease is.”
The proposed rule changes concern
ing AIDS Control Measures reads as
follows:
(d) The following are the control
measures for the Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and Hu
man Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
infection:
(1) Infected persons shall;
(A) refrain from sexual intercourse
unless condoms are used: exer
cise caution when using con
doms due to possible condom
failure;
(B) never share needles or syringes;
(C) not donate or sell blood,
plasma, platelets, other blood
products, semen, tissues, or
gans, or breast milk;
(D) have a skin test for tuberculosis;
(E) not breastfeed;
(F) notify future sex partners of the
infection;
(G) if the time of initial infection is
laiown, [shall\ prepare, on a
form prepared by the Division, a
list of previous sex and needle
partners who would have been
exposed; if the date of initial
infection is unknown, prepare,
on a form provided by the Divi
sion, a list of sex and needle
partners for the previous year;
the infected person shall place
the list in an envelope, seal the
envelope and give it to the at
tending physician; (emphasis
added.)
Of course, the first question is to whom
and where does this list go? Per the statute,
the doctor is to inform you of the above-
mentioned control measures and then the
rule continues as follows:
(2) The attending physician shall:
(B) obtain the list required by (d)
(1) (G) from the patient; the
physician shall sign the enve
lope and forward it to the Divi
sion of Health Services; the
Division of Health Services
shall retain the list until the
Division has undertaken to no
tify the partners; the patient
may notify the partners prior to
the Division undertaking to do
so;
C. Everette Koop, the US Surgeon Gen
eral has made no secret of how he feels on
the issue of MANDATORY testing. It’s
recorded in the Congressional Record and in
his 1986 Surgeon General’s Report on
AIDS. This report for one of the first times,
was written in public health terms, with no
political iimuendos, overtones or partisan
ship. In part, he felt that compulsory identi
fication of virus carriers and any form of
quarantine would be useless in fighting the
disease, Koop concluded. His extensive re
search led him to some inevitable findings.
Mandatory testing would do “little more
than frighten away from the public health
establishment the people most at risk for
AIDS,” the people who most “needed to be
tested.”
He stressed again what health officials
had been saying for almost two years: “large
scale testing would not be feasible until
people did not have to worry about losing
their jobs or insurance policies if they took
the test. A push for more testing should be
accompanied by guarantees of confidential-
QCQ Election To Be Held In January
Just as national political elections are
holding the spotlight in the nati9nal
press, you also have a local responsibil
ity with QCQ.
For those who don’t know, QCQ is
the local gay answer to the United Way.
This is the group of people who raise
flinds to help local organizations. QCQ
is administered by a board of directors
who are elected from the local commu
nity. What makes this board position so
important is the fact that the people
who are elected will decide where the
money is raised and how it is spent. It is
the board that decides the direction to
be taken by the organization in the
following year.
Jim Yarborough, this, year’s presi
dent, has asked that all persons inter
ested in being nominated or interested
in nominating someone to be on the
ballot, please contact him at: QCQ, PO
Box 221841, Charlotte, NC 28222 or
call 339-0679.
Please don’t treat these nominations
in light fashion, as QCQ raises much
money every year and decides where to
spend it. Expenses include the Gay and
L^bian Switchboard’s phone lines (at
the commercial business rate from Ma
Bell) and they are the publishers of this
newspaper (they pay the bills) and dis
tribute it for you as a public service to
the greater Charlotte gay community.
The elections proper will be held at
the January meeting of the board and
will be held at The Carolina Commu
nity Projects building at 2300 East 7th
Street. Exact time and date will appear
in the January issue of Q-Notes. So,
keep an eye peeled for that info next
month.
Once again let me emphasize how
important the nominations and elec
tions are. These people run the organi
zation. They raise the money. They
decide where to spend it. You are one of
the “theys,” but only if you get in
volved. If you don’t get involved, then
you don’t have the nght to bitch next
year when things don’t go your way.
If I’ve prodded you to get involved,
please contact Jim at the address above
or give him a call.
ity and nondiscrimination. Koop is on rec
ord as having said that such antidiscrimina
tion laws for people with AIDS or the AIDS
virus were tools with which the epidemic
could be fought.
Randy Shilts says in his book. And the
Band Played On: People, Politics and the
AIDS Epidemic, “The testing issue allowed
conservatives to seize the AIDS issue as
their own with rhetoric implicitly arguing
that those thoughtless homosexuals were so
awful that they should be forced to submit to
testing, to protect all the good people who
weren’t infected with the viras. ^blic opin
ion polls shows most Americans favored
massive AIDS testing.
Mr. Shilts goes on to say that Koop,
accepting an award from Elizabeth Taylor of
/kmFAR (American Federation for AIDS
Research; started by Rock Hudson’s
$250,000 donation), at the awards dinner
closing the 3rd Annual International AIDS
Conference in Washington last May, glanced
at the president when he, Koop, endorsed
“voluntary” testing with guarantees of confi
dentiality and nondiscrimination.
The following explains the North Caro
lina AIDS Service Coalition’s concerns and
outlines an alternative program to manda
tory testing:
Overview: The North Carolina AIDS Ser
vice Coalition believes that a comprehensive
and adequately funded program can control
the spread of AIDS in North Carolina. Such
a program should include education, coun
seling, anonymous testing, effective contact
notification, protections apinst discrimina
tion and care in alternative settings. Ade
quate funding for a comprehensive program
must be made immediately by the Gover
nor.
The General Assembly must appropriate
sufficient funds to sustain a comprehensive
program in future years. The NC AIDS
Service Coalition has proposed a six-point
program to control AIDS.
Education: A thorough, scientifically-
based and objective statewide AIDS educa
tion program should be the state’s first
See Coalition, page 7
Gay TV In Charlotte
AI Carwile, of Gay and Lesbian Forum, operates a studio camera at Cablevision.
In a studio at the facilities of Cable-
vision of Charlotte a group of men and
women gather. They are the elements
which make up Closet Buster Produc
tions. They are here with a purpose: to
reach out to the gay and straight com
munities through education and com
munication and enlighten them to what
it is like to be a lesbian or gay man.
Closet Busters is a voice with a homo
sexual perspective, out to break stereo
types and present the wide varieties of
same sex lifestyles. Additionally, Closet
Buster Productions is an informational
service for gays and lesbians.
Closet Buster Productions has taken
advantage of public access television.
Their show, “The Gay/Lesbian Fo
rum,” is aired on the fourth Monday of
each month at 7:00 p.m. on local cable
channel 3. This prime time slot has
brou^t the group many good responses
and has the potential of reaching a far
wider audience than the printed page.
Ironically, restrictions placed on them
by Cablevision disallows the promotion
of homosexuality. Also, Closet Buster
Productions may not ask for funds on
the air, therefore, they seek funds in
more traditional manner. Recently, they
received funds from Queen City Coor
dinators.
Closet Buster Productions is presently
soliciting volunteers who are interested
in any phase of broadcasting. Each
volunteer has the opportunity to fill any
capacity within Closet Buster Produc
tions. Th^.c are many behind-the-
scenes responsibilities, so volunteers
may, but do not have to, appear on
camera, and no names are required.
Cablevision requires a one-day training
seminar for each segment of production
in which a volunteer wishes to be
involved, such as camera operation,
remote operations, or directing. Once a
volunteer has been through the appro
priate training, he or she may become a
camera person, part of the writing staff,
or even a director or producer. If you
are interested in volunteering, contact
Closet Buster Productions at (704) 376-
1490.
Some topics of recent shows have
been: homosexuality and religion, the
goals and directions of MLAP, the lives
of gays and lesbians, coming out, same
sex relationships, parents of gays and
lesbians, local theatre, and counseling
available for families and children of
homosexuals. Tentative shows will deal
with lesbian issues, the black homosex-
See Gay TV page 5