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Welcome
back,
dear
readers,
to
another
exciting
edition
of
South
Florida
Blade.
Our
little
neck
of
the
woods
is
hitting
the
national
news
this
week,
and
for
once
it's
not
for
hurricane
flooding
or
some
hideous
disaster.
At
last,
we
can
put
on
our
good
shoes,
smile
for
the
cameras,
and
put
our
collective
best
foot
forward.
First,
on
Monday,
John
McCain
paid
a
visit
to
Miami,
delivering
speeches
with
promises
that
he'll
fix
the
economy,
etc.
We
could
dissect
what
he
said
about
the
massive
pile
of
rubble
that
is
the
South
Florida
real
estate
market;
we
could
analyze
his
opinions
on
the
failures
of
our
financial
systems.
But
such
details
are
secondary.
His
appearance
was
important
first
and
foremost
to
remind
the
public
that
it
is
he,
not
Sarah
Palin,
who
is
running
for
President.
Nice
to
see
you
again,
Mr.
McCain.
If
a
gay
person
supports
John
McCain,
in
light
of
the
negative
comments
he
makes
towards
the
GLBT
community,
is
that
person
automatically
voting
against
his/her
best
interests?
How
high
does
“gay
pride”
rise,
in
the
hierarchy
of
self-interests?
A
majority
of
the
GLBT
community
is
quick
to
dismiss
the
politics
of
the
conservative
party,
saying
Republicans
work
against
our
best
interests.
As
a
result,
their
opinions
are
often
ignored,
with
groups
such
as
the
Log
Cabin
Republicans
ridiculed
as
“self-hating”
because
they
side
with
those
who
denounce
them.
In
the
gay
community,
much
of
the
great
steps
forward
towards
social
equality
came
from
drastic
efforts,
from
protests
and
lawsuits
and
public
battles.
But
changes
can
occur
quietly,
nevertheless
pushing
forward
from
the
inside.
Fort
Lauderdale
has
landed
in
the
spotlight
as
well:
this
weekend
is
the
US
Conference
on
AIDS,
sponsored
by
the
National
Minority
AIDS
Council.
Several
thousand
activists,
caregivers,
and
generally-concerned
citizens
will
converge
on
the
Broward
Convention
Center
for
four
days
of
seminars
and
training
sessions
on
the
latest
developments
in
this
all-too-familiar
epidemic.
Back
in
my
days
as
an
HIV
counselor,
I
was
drafted
to
work
on
a
research
study
tracking
the
demographics
of
infection
rates.
The
federal
government
had
just
issued
a
startling
new
finding:
HIV
infections
were
no
longer
the
realm
of
gay
white
men,
as
had
been
the
case
for
so
many
years.
For
some
reason,
there
was
a
shift
looming
on
the
horizon,
with
new
infections
mostly
amongst
“men
of
color,”
specifically
blacks
and/or
Latinos;
there
was
also
an
increase
in
infections
amongst
minority
women.
But
although
the
CDC
could
see
this
shift,
they
didn't
know
(a)
why
it
was
happening,
or
(b)
what
to
do
about
it.
So
they
enlisted
minions,
such
as
myself,
to
stomp
around
and
collect
data,
asking
questions
and
scribbling
notes.
I
was
assigned
to
a
community
association
that
consisted
of
church
pastors,
from
predominately-black
churches
in
the
inner
cities,
who
had
volunteered
out
of
concern
about
these
new
statistics.
The
pastors
were
undeniably
uncomfortable
talking
about
topics
such
as
men
having
sex
with
men—especially
considering
many
of
these
men
were
known
to
be
involved
with
women—but
this
virus
had
entered
their
social
circles,
and
it
was
obviously
going
to
get
worse.
HIV
is
not
a
virus
that
infects
indiscriminately;
it
works
its
way
into
a
certain
sect
of
society,
traveling
in
social
circles.
The
trick
is
to
break
the
circle,
somewhere,
so
it
stops.
Gay
men
hadn’t
learned
how
to
stop
it;
but
infection
rates
amongst
gay
men
had
leveled
off.
So
they
(we)
knew
how
to
slow
it
down,
if
nothing
else.
Despite
their
displeasure
in
the
topic,
these
church
leaders
learned
how
to
correctly
utilize
terms
such
as
“MSM”
(men
who
have
sex
with
men),
addressing
the
fact
that
many
of
these
men
do
not
identify
as
“gay”;
they
adapted
their
ideologies
to
endorse
the
realities
of
“safer
sex,”
despite
their
disapproval
of
such
relations
outside
of
marriage.
Their
interest
in
moralizing
against
the
GLBT
“lifestyle”
was
quieted,
in
the
interest
of
focusing
on
more
important
issues
at
hand.
After
all,
it
was
those
people—including
gay,
white,
from-the-suburbs
me—who
walked
into
their
congregations
and
taught
them
a
thing
or
two
about
how
to
keep
their
communities
healthy
and
safe.
Suddenly,
we
weren’t
so
bad
after
all.
Try,
as
some
people
may,
to
squash
their
adversaries,
the
fallen
tend
to
pick
themselves
back
up
someplace
else.
There
is
no
benefit
in
strong-arming
anyone
into
silence,
because
that
silence
is
always
short-lived.
Wayne
Besen,
this
week’s
columnist
would
disagree
with
my
assertions,
as
...
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