IT’S PRETTY hard to

get away from jokes:

about AIDS these days.

Mostly they aren't really
jokes about AIDS at all, of
course, Mainly they are
jokes about homosexuals.

Whatever the Charter of
Rights may say, Canada is
a place where prejudices
survive in many forms, you
may have noticed. No big
deal, 1 suppose. Every
country is more or less the
same. Heck, in some coun-
tries they discriminate
against regular white guys
like me.

- TAKE FLACK

‘If you’re outside the
herd of mainstream in any
society, you’re outside the
herd or mainstream.
You're going to take a bit
of flack.

1 know about this first-
hand. I’ve. been nearly
beaten by groups of black
youths in American ghet-

toes because of the color of |

my skin. And once upon a
time, long ago, I had Jong
heir. That proved to be

very.. unpopular in tough.

little Texas town, where I

| also bad no business being. -

_. Now: T’m.one of those
“people who like to laugh. I
laugh. at other people’s
f jokes easily. I laugh at my
_own. Laughing is fun.

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. 4 > Sunday, October 27, 1985 -.North Shore News

fSaes A

Yet when I hear myself
laughing at a joke about
AIDS, a twinge ripples
_ across my conscience. Hey,
don't tell me I’m a wimp!

1 should say 1 try not to
laugh at
although every once in a
while somebody tells one
that’s so funny I can’t help
it. I used to try not to
laugh at sexist jokes either,
but again sometimes I can’t
help it. There are just too
many good jokes about

women. And nearly as
many, nowadays, about
men.

. My oldest daughter has
hit me with some great fe-
male chauvinist jokes.

To tell the truth, 1 even
know a couple of jokes
about old people. But not
many about multiple scle-
rosis and not many About
Bubonic Plague or even
measies.

I think, generally speak-
ing, people don’t tell too
many jokes about diseases.
A few, sure, but they are
rare.

So why is AIDS so hilar-
ious? Well, because it gives
us a chance to pick on fag-
gots. Simple like that.

I know several people
who are gay. There are a
few I would call friends

and one at least who is an-

old and trusted ally, nearly

_ a brother.

race jokes,.

Bob Hunter
| strictly personal °

tet

I don’t happen to give a
damn what people’s per-
sona] sexual habits are, by
the way. It truly is none of
my business. All sex is a bit
bizarre. In the crunch, we
look equally funny when
we're getting it on,
however we do it. At least
from what I can tell from
the pictures.

MORE GIRLS

The way I look at it
from my hetero male
perspective is, the more
men who are gay the more
girls there are left for the
Test of us. As simple as
that!

So. what's the problem?
The problem, of course, is
that a serious new medical
threat has emerged, and
that homosexuals, in
greater proportions than
others, have been one of
the links in a chain going
back to an unknown
source,
links, however. Would you
blame all Haitians?

.The most compelling
AIDS origin theory I have
heard is the one suggesting
it grew out of experiments
on great apes in the former

‘French territories in West

Africa, Wouldn't that be
ironic? Somehow almost
fitting.

Everybody must know
by now roughly what not

Richmond Centre.

276-2606

Just one of the -

to do to avoid AIDS,
homosexuals most of all.
Why kick them when
they're down? It would
obviously be a very agoniz-
ing situation to find
yourself in the high-risk
category after X number of
years of homosexual pro-
miscuity.

Their only crime,
however — let’s keep this
in perspective — was mak-
ing love with a consenting
adult, never mind what sex
or whatever way who does
what to whom. One good
thing Trudeau did say was
that the state had no
business in our bedrooms.
Anybody’s bedroom.

‘Make no mistake. AIDS
jokes aren’t about AIDS.
And if you are really going
to allow yourself to hate —
or encourage hatred of — a
vulnerable, unpopular
group like gays, you are
being anything but Chris-
tian or moral or even just

‘plain decent like Cana-

dians, you know, are at
icast supposed to try to be,
thank you.

AIDS isn’t funny for the
people who are dying. To
joke about it is the

equivalent of making jokes
about cancer. No, we don’t
do that, do we? Come on,
when was the last cancer
joke you heard?

Bad taste, eh?

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