The Washington Blade, January 1, 1988

              .1.118161•Vot,
' ••• • .4- - •V-4,
§..putekWaiti
1988 budget doubles funding for AIDS
But some dark clouds still loom over AIDS education and insurance
by Lisa M. Keen
There was good news and bad news in
the mammoth FY 88 funding package
signed by President Reagan last week and
released in printed form Tuesday.
The bad news is that language preserved
on one amendment introduced by anti-Gay
Sen. Jesse Helms may still pose problems
for funding safe sex materials geared to Gay
0 men. And the language of the appropria-tions
section involving the District of
Columbia also strongly urges the D.C. City
Council to act quickly on a new AIDS
insurance bill which D.C. Gay activists and
others oppose.
The good news is that Congress has again
ordered the Reagan administration to
accomplish a previously approved national
mailing on AIDS to every American
household by June 30, 1988. The budget
law language also sets aside $6.7 million for
outpatient facilities for people with AIDS
and directs Health and Human Services to
establish an Advisory Board for AIDS with
emphasis on "ensur[ing] minority represen-tation."
The overall spending appropriation for
AIDS totaled $931,229,000—more than
double the estimated $447,375,000 spent
on AIDS in FY 87.
The Health Resources and Services
Administration got one of the largest
increases this year—from $11.9 million in
FY 87 to $36.9 million in FY 88. HRSA has
been instructed to use $6.7 million of that
appropriation to renovate and construct
outpatient facilities for people with AIDS.
The money will be allocated through grants
under the Public Health Service.
The Centers for Disease Control got the
second largest increase in AIDS funding—
up from $121 million last year to $304
million this year. The conference committee
report accompanying the budget package
directed CDC to use the funds appropriated
by Congress last year to "distribute an
AIDS mailer to every American household
by June 30, 1988. ."
While the report stopped short of
accusing the Reagan administration of
having stalled the national mailing, the
conferees did say they were "concerned
about reports of long delays in the
processing of AIDS proposals" at the
National Institutes of Health. The report
directs NIH and the Alcohol, Drug Abuse,
Continued on page 9
Chatham: The original 'Whitman-Walker Clinic'
Chatham, the impressive eighteenth century mansion that served as a hospital after the
Union Army's crushing defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg.
Poet, surgeon both
tended injured soldiers
near here in Civil War
by Craig Howell
When the leaders of what had been
called the Gay Men's VD Clinic
reorganized themselves in the mid-1970s
to expand the scope and depth of their
services, they searched for a new name as
well. They wanted the new name to
honor two hist° 'cal figures, one man
and one wo n, who could be
associated widi the Gay community,
who were iTiolved with medical care,
and who 4ad spent some time in the
Washingtdn, D.C. area.
After some debate, the organizers
decided to recognize Walt Whitman and
Dr. Mary Walker. Although Whitman is
obviously more famous for his poetry, he
also served as a nurse for numerous
wounded Union soldiers during the Civil
War. Getting fired right after that war
from his clerk's job with the U.S. Interior
Continued on page 11
Georgetown granted a
Christmas Eve reprieve 3
Companies want D.C. to
drop insurance law 3
Maryland governor nixes
AIDS council proposals 8
AIDS quilt going on the
road again 13
Downwardly mobile post-hip
anarchists 15
Gay activist Frank Kameny said the
Defense Department has routinely
asked Gay security clearance appli-cants
about sexual positions.
Defense Dept.
to stop asking
Gay applicants
about sex lives
by Lou Cbibbaro Jr.
The head of counterintelligence pro-grams
for the Department of Defense, in an
internal memorandum, has ordered DOD
investigators to discontinue asking Gays
who apply for security clearances about
intimate details of their sex lives.
The memorandum, a copy of which was
obtained by D.C. Gay activist Frank
Kameny, directs DOD's "component"
agencies to "refrain from questioning
homosexuals concerning irrelevant details"
such as "who-did-what-to-whom.".
The memorandum, written by John F.
Donnelly, assistant deputy under secretary
of defense for counterintelligence and
Continued on page 6
Custody denied man with 'AIDS dementia'
by Lou Clubbaro Jr.
A Gay man who has AIDS had hoped a Montgomery County
Circuit Court judge would give him an early Christmas present last
week by restoring his right to joint custody of his nine-year-old son.
But the Christmas present did not materialize.
Judge Leonard Ruben ruled on Dec. 23 that the Gay man,
referred to in court papers as "John Roe," should be temporaril
denied joint custody of his son because he has AIDS-re
neurological symptoms that could interfere with his ability to
for the boy.
Ruben, in an oral ruling from the bench, conceded that he
his decision on the "barest of evidence." However, he said that until
the time of a full trial, scheduled in April, "the child's best interests
are maintained by [his] staying with the birth mother."
The case, known as Jane Doe v. John Roe, could prove to be
.important in determining how. courts, in.the Washingtonarea and
elsewhere decide on precedent-setting child custody disputes
involving a parent who has AIDS, according to Gay rights attorney
Susan Silber, who is representing John Roe.
Silber said that although the Doe v. Roe case has the potential of
causing emotional pain for both parents, some of the explosive
issues have been removed, at the agreement of both sides.
In a special stipulation submitted to the court, at Silber's
suggestion, Doe agreed that her former husband's sexual orientation
should not be an issue in the case. Doe also agreed to accept the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control statement that AIDS cannot be
contracted through casual contact, thus ruling out the potential
accusation that the child could catch AIDS from his father.
The Doe v. Roe case began in November, when Doe took her
former husband to court in an attempt to dissolve a joint custody
agreement that had been in effect since the couple's divorce five
Cmpitued .pp,page 4
0
•