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August 1989
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August 19
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August 25
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The Soft Spot
by: Cliffe O'Neil
Metroline
WASHINGTON— In an unexpected and
unprecedented development, the Bristol-
Myers pharmaceutical company has an
nounced the it has agreed to widely distribute
ddl, an experimental anti-HIV drug, to AIDS
patients as part of an innovative dmg disper
sion program developed by AIDS activists.
The drug, ddl, is a close relative of the
highly toxic AZT, currently the only anti-
HIV drug available on the market, but it is
much less toxic than its precursor. The drug
completed Phase I clinical trials at the FDA,
where it was tested for toxicity levels, and
will begin Phase II trials where it will be
tested for efficacy.
In recent weeks, AIDS activists have
lobbied federal AIDS officials and pharma
ceutical companies to have them accept a
new drug distribution program, called a
“parallel track” program, where experimen
ts therapies are made widely accessible at no
charge to AIDS padents who otherwise would
not qualify for Phase II clinical trials.
At a New York City conference on com
munity-based research inidadves, where the
parallel track studies are expected to be
conducted, both NadonS Institute for Aller
gies and Infecdous Diseases Director An
thony Fauci and NadonS Cancer Institute
Director Broder endorsed the parSlel track
program.
“I think it’s a major victory for AIDS
activists,” stated Peter Staley, spokesperson
for the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power
(ACT UP/New York), which has done much
of the front work on the parallel track pro
gram. “It remains to be seen how widely
distributed this drug will be on compassion
ate use or parallel track—the names are inter
changeable in this case. It depends on who
you talk to. The stumbling block will be
Ellen Cooper at the FDA.
Copper, who the AIDS aedvists have met
with on the parallel track program, is the
chief person at the FDA in charge of research
on andviral drugs and has alternately sup
ported AIDS activists and lobbied against
the program.
“I think her heart is not with us on this,”
Stanley added. “And I think there’s a good
chance she’ll be dragged into it.”
The program protocol will be written in
coming weeks in discussions between Fauci,
Cooper, Bristol-Myers and AIDS activists.
Once approved, the dispersement program
would begin in Septemlrcr.
The unprecedented development came as
a welcome surprise to AIDS activists who
did not expect the drug company to agree to
the program this quickly. Bristol-Myers
officials have echoed the activists arguments
nodng that the program will provide the FDA
with more research data faster, will help treat
more patients who would not have received
the drug and may speed the approval process
for the drug, points the company and activists
suggest will offset the cost of distributing the
drug for free.
Citing major differences with AZT, Jim
Eigo, from ACT Up/New York, suggested
that the program may hot necessarily result
in high prices for the drug, once it would be
approv^.
“In regard to ddl, there are many facts that
would work against a high price,” he said.
Under that agreement, the government has
some say in the final pricing. What that
means. I’m not exactly sure. But it will not
be an AZT, or we will make a bigger stink
that we did with AZT.”
This article is reprinted from Metroline,
Hartford, CT.
Mortician Becomes Escort ’Whiz Kid
f
by: Bill Dedmon
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - In an isolated comer
jf West Virginia in 1986, Henry Vinson, the
state’s youngest medical examiner, had a
few problems.
First the 25-year-old funeral director
was charged with making harassing phone
calls to a competing funeral home. Later the
state claimed he was overcharging on pauper
funerals. Then there was the small matter of
the exhumed coal miner’s remains he didn’t
rebury for 42 days. He finally left town.
Within two years the stocky sandy haired
coal miner’s son was calling himself Dr.
Henry Vinson and mnning Washington’s
largest homosexual escort service. With
computerized client lists, credit card proc
essing and a toll-free 800 telephone number,
he had plans for a nationwide business.
Henry Vinson may have been too so
phisticated for his own good.
On Feb. 28, police and Secret Service
agents broke down the door to his Chevy
Chase, Md., house, where they claim in court
records he was operating a prostitution ring
under the names “Man to Man,” “Jack’s
Jocks” and “Dream Boys..” Following a
tantalizing trail of credit card receipts and
computer discs from Washington to West
Virginia, police have interrogated his friends
and searched his family’s homes. Vinson,
who denies any involvement in prostitution,
has gone into hiding.
The Vinson case has become more than
an ordinary vice raid. On June 29, The
Washington Times began a series of reports
with the headline: “Homosexual Prostitu
tion Probe Ensnares Officials of Bush,
Reagan.” The Times said the case raised the
possibility “ of threats to national security
from the blackmail of homosexuals in sensi-
tivegovemmentpositions.” The story named
as clients only low-level government em
ployees and Craig Spence, a Washington
lobbyist who the paper said took prostitutes
and friends on late-night tours of the White
House and “served drugs, sex at parties
bugged for blackmail.”
With all the publicity, fundamental
questions have not b^n answered by previ
ous accounts, not the least of which is: How
did a fallen West Virginia mortician become
the central actor in a Washington summer
time sex scandal?
The Washington Post has interviewed
Vinson and employees of the service, exam
ined credit card, bank and telephone records,
and discussed the investigation with knowl
edgeable sources. The Post found:
- Investigators have found no evidence
of any high-level government officials pro
curing prostitutes through the service. Au
thorities also have no evidence of blackmail
or espionage.
- Rather than customers, the operators of
the service, principally Vinson, are the focus
of the investigation The exception appears to
be lobbyist Spence. Vinson said in an inter
view that Spence called for escorts, who later
told Vinson they had engaged in sex with
Spence and military officers. Spence could
not be reached for comment.
- The Secret Service, which joined the
investigation because it has authority over
allegations of credit card fraud, is conducting
a separate, internal probe of two uniformed
officers who allowed Spence to make late-
night White House tours. One officer has
admitted accepting a Rolex watch from
Spence and giving him a piece of Truman
china.
SEE Mortician page 10
Liaisons Open for Business
by: Christian Alexander
Q-Notes Staff
Coming out of the dust of, the now de
funct Steven’s Cafe, new owners Linda
Swinson and Pat Sizemore have raised up
Liaison’s Restaurant with a new mission: to
provide “something that the gay community
has never had before...[but] certainly de
serves”, says Swinson.
After much effort, many changes, and
very little time Swinson and Sizemore, their
staff and many friends are well on the way to
accomplish the mission.
When structural damage to the building
necessitated major renovations, the new crew
began the hearty tasks of gutting and com
pletely rebuilding the kitchen, recondition
ing the bar, and performing the tedious but
obvious cosmetic surgery to all areas of the
building. While all the clean up and renova
tion work took a mere two weeks time, eve
rything but the electrical and plumbing du
ties were performed by the staff and friends
who had more than their share of 3 a.m.
nights, Swinson boasted.
But structural changes are only the begin
ning.
The bar and dining room offer two dis
tinctively different menus so that there is
something available for every pallet and every
budget. The bar, open from 4 pm until 1 am,
carries a variety of appetizers, sandwiches
and assorted munchies (priced from
$2.50-5.(X)). While the downstairs dining
room offers French Continental fare includ
ing a nice selection of pasta, chicken and beef
specialties, salads, appetizers, and of course
a”Chefs Choice”. The chefs choice, al
though itchanges periodically, is soup, salad,
appetizer, enu-ee, dessert and wine planned
at the discretion of the house chef, Robin
Latham.
Chef Latham, from Wisconsin by way of
Greensboro, is an award winning chef who
also holds a patent for a special item dubbed
“Tour Ne Dos Rainier” which, as I under
stand it, will be available on the menu.
According to Swinson, Chef Latham and the
kitchen staff will also prepare vegetarian
dishes as well as meals for people on special
diets upon request. All this served, of course,
by a carefully selected wait staff donning
tuxedos, which Swinson stresses will be the
constant uniform; “the only thing that’s going
to change (about the server’s dress code) is
the color of their ties.” Even upstairs at the
more casual bar, where burgers and light fare
is the rule, a formally attired bar staff is there
to serve you, under the direction of Head
Bartender/Bar Manager Kathleen Earle, of
Clearwater, Florida.
Although the Grand Opening celebration
doesn’t take place until the weekend (all
weekend) of August 19-21 the restaurant and
bar and open nightly, but sincq opening on
the 15th of July, the crowds have b^n heavy
(including turning people away in order to
honor reservations), reservations are recom
mended.
Ms. Swinson said it best when she sum
marized the changes: the patrons “will no
tice a big difference all the way around.”
Ms. Swinson wanted to publicly thank the
community “for their tremendous
support...everyone involved in cleanup and
the opening preparation.” Thank everybody
for everything!”