Science won't

I REMEMBER distinctly the first time I came up against
fear and hatred of homosexuals.

I was 17 and in high school. I
was sitting with a male high
school friend on the grass in a
nice park in beautiful, safe Burl-
ington, Ontario.

I don’t remember how the sub-
ject of homosexuality came up,
but I still recall this fellow firing
off his views like they were warn-
ing shots against some lurking
enemy: “‘If any faggot made a
move on me I’d bust his head in.’

I didn’t have a response. Up to
then I never had a homosexual
friend or (for all I could tell)

‘knew anyone who was homosex-
ual. But I sat there in the grass,
stiff and uncomfortable with the
anger of this desperately all-
Canadian male.

Cut to seven years later,
another park, this time in Strat-
ford, Ontario. I was sitting beside
the first gay mate I could call a
friend.

By Catherine Atyeo
Contributing Writer

We were both erduring the
awkwardness of me knowing he
was gay, him wondering if i knew
he was gay and each of us unablz
to bring up the subject in any sort
of natural way.

When our conversation turned
to relationships with significant
others he said: ‘‘I think my
parents have given up on me br-
inging the little wife home.”*

An awful pause. ‘‘Do they
know you're gay?” I asked.

He told me they preferred to
ignore all the signs. Then he told
me what it was like to grow up
gay in small town Ontario. This
was my introduction to the agony
of being homosexual in our socie-

ty.

Friday, Octobur 11, 1991 - North Shore News — 7

i , e

end fear and ioathing

As a pudgy teenaged semi-nerd,
{ felt like an outsider. Now I rea!-
ized that compared with my gay
friend, I hadn’t been an outsider
at all.

Recently, the fndamental dif-
ferences that many gay people feel
exist between therm and heterosex-
uals were highiighted by the
reports of an American scientist,
Simon LeVay..

LeVay, a homosexual himself,
claims that in homosexual men,
part of the anterior hypothalamus
— a brain region that governs
sexual behavior — has the
anatomical form and size more
similar to that found in women
than to that found in heterosexual
males.

Though LeVay’s work is very
preliminary and begs further
scieatific confirmation, it has
caused a heated debate.

While many homosexuals regard
LeVay’s research as confirmation
of their feelings that they have
always felt fundamentally dif-

ferent, other gays worry that
homophobes will use the research
to argue that homosexuals are in
some way ‘‘defective.”’

While the debate about the

44 Discoveries about the
possible origins of
homosexuality, while
interesting and even important,
won't help someone who Sits
alone in an apartment waiting
to die, knowing his own father
won't telephone him to ask him
how he is. 9¥

origins of homosexuality runs on
— and scientists and non-scientists
agree that the origins of -
homosexuality are too complex to
attribute to 2 single factor — the
pain of the homosexuals around
us is escalating yet further with
saciety’s responses to AiDS.

To someone facing certain
death neither whipped-up frenzy
ner boredom seems helpful or ap-
propriate — and these are the two
main responses.

Last evening I spoke to a young
gay man I know who has AIDS,
The AZT didn’t work so he’s on a
new experimental drug.

“*T feel like four people are
standing on me kicking this s-~
out of me,’ he said.

His immediate family wants as
little contact with him as possible.
Because he’s too sick to work he’s
been almost destitute several
times.

Discoveries about the possible
origins of homosexuality, while
interesting and even important,
won’t help someone who sits
alone in an apartment waiting to
die, knowing his own father won’t
telephone him te ask him how he
is.

All the science in the world
won't end the fear, hatred and

_ Suffering.

THE PROVINCIAL election is upc us. In September the
North Shore News survey crew asked residents which
party they would vote for in the election.
On October 6 we asked again.

The first figures are from

September, the second from

October.

SOCREDS: 13.6%
down to 12.7%

NEW DEMOCRATS: 9.6%

down to 9.0%

LIBERALS:
1.9% up to 9.0%

BC. electoral system is in a ‘decrepit state _

Wilson, was initially denied a seat
at the debate forum aired on CBC. -
Dave Matthews

North Vancouver

Dear Editor: .

As I monitor the daily pro-
- gtession of B.C. politics, 1 become
increasingly .annoyed with Rita
Johnston and Mike Harcourt, as
well as the clectoral system in
general. We have created the B.C.
Circus Association.

‘Thoroughly appalling is the
audacity of the premier who con-
- sistently ignores legitimate public
criticism of her government’s per-
formance and offers only
rhetoric-infested lip-service as her
response. Further, Rita Johnston’s
campaign mandate is to courier
her from podium to podium so
she can perform irrelevant, unin-
formative speeches and childish
critiques of Mike Harcourt’s gov-
ernment and its NDP policies.

Mike Harcourt’s campaign ritu-
als have been equally devoid of
substance and integrity as any of
Rita Johnston’s. The NDP lead-
er’s issue-evasion tactics include
side-stepping public query via the
age-old craft of verbal manipula-

tion. I doubt that in Harcourt’s
case this accomplishment can be
attributed tc skili as much as to
plain inability.

Both candidates display a
flagrant disrespect for the very
people whose tax dolJars suppert
any elected pubiic official. While
Johnston and Harcourt travel
across the province of B.C., at-
tending gala events and publicity
parties, wasting vast amounts of
money on campaigns completely
lacking in concise, informative,
factual content (the only accept-
able excuses that could justify the
expenditures necessary to maintain
these campaigns) many of B.C.’s
sick children continue to suffer
trom lack of adequate medical fa-
cilities and technology due to in-
sufficient government funding.

Entertaining, but nonetheless
dispiriting in its reality, is the con-
tribution of the public in these po-
litical extravaganzas. There cer-
tainly seems to be an endless sup-
ply of fanatical vocalists and

mindless hecklers whose jibberish
and physical assaults on one
another border on insanity.

The sad, decrepit state of our

electoral systern (aka the B.C.

Circus Association) comes clearly
into focus when you consider that
the Liberal party’s leader, Gordon

NDP candidate has short memory

Dear Editor:

A short time ago there was a
letter from one of the North
Shore NDP candidates, Ms. Heien
Chaplin, calling for good fiscal
management in government. |
think that she suffers from a short
memory and should be reminded
of some of the financial disasters
perpetrated by the last NDP gov-
ernment. Voters would do well to
remember the following:

@ The government doubled their
own salaries shortly after taking
office.
@ Ms. Eileen Dailly over-spent
her departmental budget by $100
million.

@ They invested another $100
million (if my memory is correct)
of your money in an attempt to
make a going concern of Ocean
Falls Mill. It failed, of course.

We cannot afford this sort of
thing. Don’t forget, all this money
comes out of your own pocket,
not out of theirs.

Before the election was called,
Mr. Harcourt was saying that they
would work with a balanced
budget and not do anything they
could not afford. New he is stipp-
ing in the fact that the balanced
budget would be on a “‘five-year
cycle.” There’s a coincidence for
you. Governments seldom run for
the full term of five years and |

cannot see the NDP trying to
balance the books after one year
of deficit, let alone four.

When Mr. Barrett assumed
power he said that B.C. was in
good financial shape, but it wasn’t
long before the cupboard was bare
and he bad to go overseas to bor-
rew money and then he wouldn’s
reveal the source. We are proha-
bly still paying the interest.

Living beyond one’s means
spells disaster and that applies to
both private citizens and govern-
ments. Governments can use a big
stick to take money from citizens
so please think before you vote.
John Smith
West Vancouver

rr