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Page 8 Alabama Forum October 1988

LETTERS

Dear Editor,

The American Foundation for AIDS Research
(AmFar), nationally chaired by Elizabeth Taylor,
is the only national privately funded organization
devoted to AIDS research. AmFar is the primary
source in the United States of private funding of
grants for research on AIDS.

Elizabeth Taylor, as national chairperson, has
spearheaded efforts which in two short years have
raised over ten million dollars and provided 130
grants for rescarch on AIDS in an effort to find
cure and improved drug therapics.

AmFar fills the gap in research. It does not duplicate
the efforts of the government. Am Far provides
research scientists seed moncy to test innovative
ideas and develope new mothods. In this
way, AmFar broadens the research parameters,
funding projects that might lead to breakthroughs
in AIDS research. AmFar can put money into the
hands of grant recipients within 60 days of recieving
their applications. By contrast, the government
takes 12 to 18 months to fund AIDS research
proposals. In this emergency, time saved
may mean lives saved.

If you share the view that research offers the best
solution which will help end the suffering and further
destruction caused by AIDS, then please jion
caring people with support for AmFar. Contributions
and requests for additional information may
be sent to:

AmFar
40 West 57th St.
Suite 406
New York, New York 10019-4001

Recently I recieved a copy of the Forum from
friend who lives in Birmingham. I hope you can
print my letter as I think this is an important organization
in the area of research. am not affiliated
with AmFar except as a private contributor.

Sincerely,
Gary Johnson
Kansas City, MO.

Dear Forum:
Enclosed please find the two Sept. 88 writeups that
impressed me so very much.

Number 1: "Rushton Park Not Safe" (Letters,
pp.3): This is important. Let's all work to help
make Rushton Park safe. This park has helped me
so very much in the past. Ten years ago I came to
Birmingham, Alabama from Delaware-So.
Philadelphia, Penn. Rushton park was where I
would go to be with my people.

I would "write to my parents" or just "think". I was
long way from home, but my people were all
around.

Please help us. "the Gay People" in Birmingham,
to keep safe and be free to go to Rushton Park
safely.

Number two, Coming Out (Stories, pg.4): Thank
God! Your "Coming Out" stories may help lots of
people. I know have one or twO special friends
who are married straight but like sex with men.
They have not come out, but hopefully someday
they will.

Thank you for your help. Please, let's fight back
for our freedom and Rushton Park.

Sincerely,
Gary J. Walls

the OUTREACH
AIDS HELPLINE 322-0757
Birmingham AIDS Outreach
P. O. Box 550070
Birmingham, Al. 35255

Why They Have Power

(Continued from pg. 2)the "system", and that you
must "work with" the system to advance your
cause. But they also work to persuade you that
you must be like them to get into the system, to
become a part of the system yourself in order to
bc able to "work together" with them. And because
they have the power of the system, they can
co-opt (buy or hire) you, if you want what they
have. That is, you don't co-opt yourself first.

They have power over us because they represent,
they are, the system that has the only power most
of us were taught to recognise: the power of physical
force and the power of the dollar, the power
of the law to punish and prohibit, and the power
of the jail cell to confine. And of course the context
was also projected to include the power of the
Supreme Ruler, outside nature and people, to save
or damn us according to whether we are "good" or
"bad". The system has what we believe we nced to
survive, and it can withhold it or take it away. It
can confer or deny legitimacy and "legality" on
our lives and our unions. And it can deny uS the
very protections we fund it to provide us.

They have the power over us because so many of
us are trained to respond automatically to the "authority"
of the "law', the "state", the dollar, the
jail cell, and of course, the gun. Because again
and again we accept the context without question.
And because our training has taught us to use that
power, if and when we get it, over each other.
They have power over us because they've
taught us to accept their fear of diversity, of nature,
of sex, of themselves, and of life itself.

They have power over us because they can weaken
us from within. They have power over us because
they are us.

You have to decide if change is possible. If you
want it.

The 100 th Lesbian
by Kay Crutcher

October! What a wonderful month to be queer
Halloween and National Coming Out Day! I've
just been reading from Judy Grahn's 'Another
Mother Tongue", and I am struck by the following
connections between Hallowe'en and coming out.
On All-Spirit's Eve, the Witches' New Year, we
are allowed to ask, "What do I want to be?", We
impersonate aspects of ourselves that we might
not reveal the rest of the year. According to
Grahn, the ancient Celtic Hallowe'en, for
"Sarnhain (pronounced "Sah-wan")...was the most
important of their holidays. It is the time when the
New Year begins, and therefore the time when
two different worlds come together.....The qualities
of impersonation and the dangerous business
of crossing over from one world to another help
explain why (it) is the most significant Gay holiday."

When we come out, we reveal ourselves clearly as
Gay or Lesbian to someone who has not previously
acknowledged that reality, we walk the same
dangerous and exciting line. We all live in two
worlds (to varying degrees) and coming out is
magickal act of slipping "between the worlds".
We reveal the presence of one world to an inhabitant
of the other. Or perhaps we reveal our residence
in the Gay world to someone clse who lives
here, but has been hidden from us. At the same
time we unmask ourselves, we make our daily
charades dangerously obvious.

On All Hallows, our masks serve to mock our ordinary,
daily disguises. When we come out, we
challenge the others' perception of those same
disguises. But in the process, we destroy the old
mask. It will no longer fit. It is singularly irreversible
action, one to be undertaken with as
much awareness. self-respect and humor as we
can muster.

In this important October, when there is a national
conciousness of the spaces "between the worlds",
would like to wish each of you an enlightening
experience for Coming Out Day, and a very happy
and lively New Year. Blessed be!

Kay Crutcher is a lesbian and a computer pro-
grammer, among her many other guises. Another
Mother Tongue" by Judy Grahn is available at
Lodestar Books.

MONDAY NIGHT
October31st
at 6P.M.

HALLOWEEN PARTY
SPECIAL HALLOWEEN SHOW
COSTUME CONTEST
$50 1ST PRIZE
$25 2ND PRIZE
HAPPY HOUR TIL
9 PM

BILL'S CLUB
208 NORTH 23RD STREET
BIRMINGHAM, AL 35203