Dear Editor:

I can’t sit still. I am so enraged by the
letter from M. Carey in Essex Junction that
you printed in the February 1991 issue of
OITM.

Apparently Carey thinks that people
living with AIDS are supposed to go qui-
etly to their graves without raising aracket.
We’re supposed to do this because 500,000
cancer patients are also going quietly to
their graves.

AIDS activists and cancer patients are
NOT at war with each other. We both want
improved medical care for everyone in the
U.S.A.

Carey is ashamed of his/her “gay
brothers and sisters” who participated in a
die-in in Burlington. Let me say right now,
Carey is no sibling of mine. If he/she gets
upset by a little vulgar language, she/he
should try to get a major pharmaceutical
company to release an AIDS drug or a
government agency to release funding for
AIDS education and research. He/she
should watch friends die of AIDS for a
while.

Is Carey the same kind of yuppie scum
who would have been ashamed of the trans-
vestites and hustlers who protested at
Stonewall in ‘69?

Carey is happy to blame the victim for
his/her disease. So much hatred for gay
men and lesbians and IV drug users! Where
did Carey get all this internalized homo-
phobia? This person needs help! Does
Carey blame women who get breast cancer
for their disease? Does Carey think that he/
she will never be ill if he/she leads a clean,
STRAIGHT life of pure safe sex? Eventu-
ally some disease will triumph and death
will win - even against Carey.

I am ashamed of Carey and of OITM. If
you continue to publish such horseshit, I
will not allow your paper in my home. I
don’t need the grief.

Silence equals death.

Action equals life.

Signed,
. Charles Bedard
Marlboro, Vermont

_ P.S. Ididn’t notice any safe sex guide-
lines in 01 TM. How aboutdoing something
about that besides printing nasty letters?

No Sibling of Mine"

The Editor responds:

First of all, M. Carey writes on his/her
own behalf and does not necessarily repre-
sent the views of OITM. This disclaimer is
clearly printed in each issue of the paper.
While I also found myself personally at
odds with much of what Carey said in his/
her letter, I also believe in a free press, par-
ticularly in our own community. Rather
than respond to the letter at the time of its
printing, I left it to you, our readers, to
respond with your own opinions and feel-
ings, which we also print here uncensored.

I do take issue with the postscriptof the
above letter, however, since OITM has
been printing safe sex articles on a monthly
basis for some time now. If you didn’tnotice
them, they were in the “Health" section of
the February issue, pages 7-9.

Help Out the ACLU

Dear Editor:

I regularly read OITM; in fact, I for-
ward it to a friend in Maine, and I approve
of your cause and your standards of altema-
tive journalism. _

As a member of the board of the
American Civil Liberties Union of Ver-
mont, I appreciate your acknowledgement
of Vermont ACLU’s role in promoting
antidiscrimination legislation.

May I add an item to your list of “What
you can do to help get a gay rights bill
passed?” Join, support, and work for the
ACLU of Vermont!

Sincerely,
Valerie White
Hyde Park, Vermont

Dykes Worth the Price

Dear Friends:

I was thrilled that OITM managed to
interview Bill T. Jones before his Flynn
appearance. It’s great to see you scooping
the Free Press. Come to think of it, your
comics are better, too — "Dykes to Watch
Out For" is worth the price of the subscrip-
tion alone. 0ITM’s revival over the past
year has been wonderful to watch. Thanks
for all your hard work.

Carrie Coy
Burlington, Vermont

March 1991

 

SHIATSU

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