established 1986 Vol. XX. No. 7 AUG!) , too willing to ‘ discrimination, t has been a long time now since AIDS was the tragedy holding us- together and tearing us apart. Since the pandemic has reached across the globe mostly in heterosexual interac- tions, there has been a concerted effort to divorce the gay community from the image of the disease. 7 Okay, there were good rea- sons for that, then.*It was the second phase, after the beautiful boys died, the young men at too early an age, their needs neglected by a government and corporations look the other way because, after all, it was just queers and “manageable” disease, like dia- betes they say. Well, not exactly. Few diabetics are fired for their condition. Few are taunted or denied housing because of having a disease. But despite continuing HIV/AIDS now seems to get merely a more — or less — sympa- thetic shrug of the ‘shoulders, even within our com- munities. But there’s no reason now to let our communities’ health needs, or our risk to contract HIV/AIDS, be ignored and made invisi- ble once again. Yet it’s happening every- where from Burlington to‘ Brattleboro to A San Francisco to Kansas City to Houston and Miami to Washington, DC. Everywhere programs are being turned away from the proven safer sex, con"- doms, and harm reduction strategies that Everywhere programs are being turned away‘ from the proven safer sex, condoms, and harm reduction strategies that infections over the past decade, toward ideologi- cally driven “abstinence only until marriage” messages, gay men’s needs for information and assistance are being made invis- ible once again. Get onthe Bus have lowered the numbers of new infec- tions over the past decade, and toward ideologically driven “abstinence only until marriage” messages, gay men’s needs for information and assistance are . being made invisible once again. Everywhere that programs are being cut because the Ryan White Care Act has not been fully funded, gay menls needs are being ignored once again. Soon, there will almost certainly be no funds for case manage- ment, to pay the salary of the person who helps clients services and .medical atten- druggies and they tion they need. “deserved” their Soon the pool fate. numbers Qf ngw of ADAP funds Now AIDS is a ‘ —— providing access to expen- sive drug treat- ments that are keeping’ alive people living with HIV/AIDS and helping them be engaged in their communities — are likely to shrink again. These cuts leave more of our neighbors, friends, and lovers to fend for themselves in an often. unfriendly healthcare sys- tem (that has become a nearly wholly-owned subsidiary of the pharmaceutical indus- try), to become ill again, to teeter on the brink of health crisis after health crisis. Unless Unless we all get on the Bus. The.Bus is just the most visible and concrete effort of the Campaign to End AIDS. Nine Buses will be wending their way toward Washington DC to make actually get the /. clear, practical, and do-able demands of legislators and pharmaceutical CEOs. One of those nine Buses is leaving from St. Mike’s College on Friday, September 30 (it’s actually an RV, but it might as well be a bus), carrying Vermonters who have HIV/AIDS, Vermonters who work in agencies that serve PWAs and try to prevent the spread of the disease, and Vermonters who work on state and V national policies that affect the agencies, their employees, and the people they serve. The Bus is actually a caravan. And we can all join it: by supporting Vermont CARES, ACORN, the AIDS Project of S‘outhem Vermont, the Vermont People With AIDS Coalition, and other nonprof- it organizations with our dollars and our .Volunteer.,,time and energy. r We’ can join it by writing letters to th mainstream press and our legislators protesting the underfunding of the‘Ry‘a‘n White Care Act and the subversion of prevention funds from proven strategies into impotent compulsory marriage pro- grams. , We can join it by paying attention when a friend tosses off a remark about his lost weekend on meth. We can join it by spending a day — or even part of a day — with the actual cara- van at its stops in Johnson, Hardwick, Montpelier, and White River on September 30. Get on the Bus: our lives are still at stake. V Euan Bear Information on the Vermont Campaign to End AIDS (CZEA) is available via email to vtc2ea@yaho0.com. Check out the national campaign at www.C2EA.0rg.