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FACT SHEET - Page 2

[[underlined]] O'CONNOR (cont.) [[/underlined]] Cannibal? - The hierarchy of the American Church appears to have dug in for the long last supper.

[[underlined]] Rep. WILLIAM DANEMEYER (R-CA.) [[/underlined]] Recently asked President Bush to denounce a federal study of suicide containing research by a San Francisco social worker that links young gays' and lesbians' suicidal tendencies with alienation from a society largely unaware of their existence. The Congressman's latest homophobic volley charged that the inquiry " adds legitimacy to the heretofore crime of child molestation." 
Lesbian and Gay young people who take their own lives account for 30% or more of [[underlined]] all [[/underlined]] U.S. suicides; according to San Francisco psychotherapist Paul Gibson. Dannemeyer called on Bush to "affirm traditional family values by denouncing the portion of the report that deals with homosexuality."

In the report, Gibson said: the root problem of Gay youth suicide is a society that discriminates against and stigmatizes homosexuals while failing to recognize that a substantial number of its youth has a Gay or Lesbian orientation. (Contact Gregory King of the Human Rights Campaign Fund regarding a news release dated Nov. 5, 1989) (202) 628-4160

- Dannemeyer is a long-time homophobic crazy regarded as a nut-case by his Congressional colleagues. Also author of a book that declares homosexuality to be a curable illness; something that contributes to violence against Lesbians and Gays.

[[underlined]] STEPHEN JOSEPH: [[/underlined]] Shut down bathhouses in N.Y.C. rather than treat them as possible places where education about AIDS and safer-sex possibilities could take place. Not long ago, in epidemiology so shoddy it shocked even the establishment, his Health Department had revised its estimate of HIV-infected gay and bisexual men in N.Y.C. - from 250,000 to 50,000! Why? The city's evolving Party Line now said the epidemic was one of drug users and their families. The city could not afford to recognize that, measured in the mounting body count, the epidemic among Gays was far from over. This new ideology (and the attendant specter of funding cuts) had required a new epidemiology. In his performance on the witness stand Joseph had given the department's de facto homophobia his inimitable chilly imprint.

- He uses irrelevent analogies from San Francisco figures thereby refusing to accurately count HIV+ Gay men. Refused as does the Center for Disease Control to acknowledge that Lesbians are at risk and have contracted AIDS.
- He hasn't pressured Bd. of Ed. to do a [[underlined]] real [[/underlined]] AIDS education program in the schools.
- Hasn't insisted on declaring a state of emergency.
- Has pushed testing and contact tracing as opposed to prevention and treatment; especially treatment.
- Wanted to to outlaw anonymous testing and institute mandatory contact tracing. Has been nothing but a stooge for Koch. Luckily for N.Y. he resigned recently.

[[underlined]] JESSE HELMS: [[/underlined]] One of the more dangerous homophobes in the continental United States. Finds the human body, itself, obscene. Was responsible for the original N.E.A. flap and has made thinly disguised racist statements detailing his reactions to certain Mapplethorpe photographs; statements concerning inter-racial couples. Sends out photographs of himself to citizens and newspapers in a tireless self-promoting