AU

S column

IT’S INTERESTING that in sharing his views on ‘‘the
distorted politics of AIDS” in his Oct. 8 column, Trevor
Latens’ sole quoted source of information is the
September issue of Reader’s Digest.

In a column apparently designed
to inform readers, Lautens in-
tersperses highly selective statistics
with potshots (watch out for those
“*bully-boy gays,’’ he would ad-
vise us) and references to sodomy.

He does this to convince us that
we are the victims of a homosex-
ual conspiracy which exaggerates
the dangers of AIDS to divert
funds from other areas. :

A lot of mischief has been done
in the past by groups and individ-
uals using allegations of conspir-
acy to justify their positions.

So-called humanity is littered

“with individuals like Jim Keegstra,
Sen. Joe McCarthy and Ronald
Reagan who were threatened by
groups who were unlucky enough
to be different.

Anyone who reads history —
and presumably Lautens has read
some — knows that homosexuals
are one of the most hated and
_ feared minorities.

In partnership with another col-
umnist in this newspaper, Lautens’
column fuels all those who would
punish the sodomists.

He advances arguments about
AIDS ~— yet it seems Lautens

ine

JUST R

didn’t feel the need to talk to
anyone at one of the most
respected centres for AIDS treat-
ment in North America, the Brit-
ish Columbia Centre for Ex-
cellence in HIV/AIDS, at St.
Paul’s Hospital.

Instead, he used the figures and
viewpoints provided by the author
of the Reader’s Digest article,
Celeste McGovern.

Third crossing: time to

get the wheels in motion

. Dear Editor:

A better crossing over the Bur-
tard inlet. is on. every North
Shore-Vancouver. commuter’s
mind as they make their
gridiocked drive. |
_ In the early 1980s big ideas were
put forth to impreve the existing
scene. : .

Over -a ‘decade Jater and the:

problem is still before us. But
why? Co, ‘
. Seldom do we look at the paths
which took us right back to where
we came from as just what they
are, interesting outings.
» No actual product of a better
bridge or a new crossing came
about. .
‘. - ] proposed that a single individ-
ual be given the task of coor-
dinating and forwarding the best
proposal to be viewed by the cities

Give choppers
flying orders

Dear Editor:

In July, when helicopters
were employed by the GVRD
to work in the watershed
area, they were noisy, low-
flying and anything but con-
siderate of neighboring resi-
dents,

1 hope, this time, that the
GVRD_ shows consideration
for residents by providing the
helicopter company and pilots
with explicit instructions .to
avoid flying over nearby resi-
dential areas on both sides of
Capilano canyon, and main-
tain appropriate heights while
approaching and leaving the
watershed.

Barbara Wulhr:z
North Vancouver

involved, and then finally the plan
to go to the site for construction.

Putting a task of this nature to
the average citizen who knows rel-
atively nothing about bridges and
cities would be foolhardy.

So that would eliminate 99% of
the politicians.

Any special interest group
would only throw prejudice into
the issue and committees would be
just as bad; millions of dollars are
spent on study groups with no
result. .

The only person, in my opinion,
who should be given the task is a
city manager with the experience
and proven foresight to get the
jobdone. |

In this case the job is the
choosing of a better crossing.

I personally would like to see
the ideas of the former North
Vancouver city manager of 20
years, Gerry Brewer.

As far as I know, no other city
manager worked harder and more
intelligently than Brewer.

Who else can boast a city
reserve almost large enough to
cover North Van's share of the
new crossing?

So let’s see someone get the hat
and get the job started!

Tibor Palatinus
Vancouver

Sixteen Years

of Serving You!

For Reservations or,
Party Arrangements

926-8922

Central to the McGovern-
Lautens argument is that, in 1992,
75,000 Canadians died of car-
diovascular diseases, 58,300 of
cancer and 909 of AIDS.

In her article, McGovern, like
Lautens, never quotes a doctor or
researcher working in the field to
make sense of the statistics.

If Lautens had talked to a
statistician like epidemiologist
Steffanic Strathdee at St. Paul's
Hospital, she would have told him
that AIDS has only been around
for approximately 10 years, and .
because of that we haven’t yet
seen its full effects.

McGovern and Lautens also ne-
glect to mention that the pro-
gression from contracting the H1V
virus to AIDS is eight to 10 years,
and that from AIDS to death is
approximately two years.

Strathdee also points out that,
despite the fact that AIDS has
been with us for such a relatively.
short period of time, a St. Paul’s
study found that, from 1987 to
1992, AIDS was the leading cause
of premature mortality (ie.
cumulative years’ life-expectancy
lost} in males in Vancouver —
exceeding deaths from accidents,
heart disease and malignancies.

Lautens also fails to mention
that while “‘only”’ 8,232 AIDS
cases had been reported to Health
and Welfare Canada as of July
1993, an estimated 30,000 Cana-
dians are infected with HIV, most
of whom will develop AIDS.

And AIDS is nearly always
fatal.

Friday, October 22, 1

pamee

overlooked facts for pots!

Many of those infected don’t
know they're infected — they in-
clude intravenous drug users,
young male homosexuals,
heterosexuals and women — and
continue to engage in high-risk’
behaviors.

That is why leading AIDS
researchers consider the current
number of full-blown AIDS cases
as the ‘‘tip of the iceberg.”

By expending column inches to
sermons on sodomy (to read
Lautens, homosexuals have a
monopoly on perversion), he
doesn’t mention that the most im-
portant risk groups for HIV in-
fection in Canada are intravenous
drug users and their sexual part-
ners, ‘‘many of whom are women,
adolescents and persons of color,’
according to Strathdee.

And, unlike breast cancer and
heart disease, they can pass it on
to people of either sex. ;

Lautens also completely ignores
the fact that women — especially
those who sleep with intravenous
drug users and bisexual men —
are increasingly at risk in devel-
oping AIDS.

Since 1981, 406 Canadian
women have developed AIDS, but
20% to 30% of cases aren’t
reported.

The Centre for Excellence
estimates that 600 B.C. women are
HIV positive.

In slamming government fund-
ing for AIDS, Lautens fails to
point out the central characteristic

that distinguishes AIDS from car- :

diovascular disease and cancer — -

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AIDS is an epidemic of worldwide
proportions that will continue to
spread in the absence of funds for
education and research.

According to the World Health |
Organization, an estimated
cumulative total of 19.5 million
HIV infections had likely occurred
by January 1993 (an estimated
71% of the infected were
heterosexual).

By January 1996, the
cumulative global total is pro-
jected to exceed 28 million.

To read Lautens, one wouid
think that all gay'men are still
engaging in dangerous sexual
practices.

This is not the finding of the
longest-running study of gay men
in Canada.

The Vancouver Lym-
phadenopathy AIDS Study .in-
dicates that (probably thanks to -
government-funded education and
information) new HIV infections
among the studied group of
homosexuals are currently less
than 1% per year.

In his efforts to ensure that ;
readers know they’ve been tricked;
by homosexuals, Lautens makes i
clear that he’s not homophobic.

His proof? He drinks a toast ”
annually tothe memory of “
‘homosexual icon Oscar Wilde.”’

It’s pretty easy to accept”
homosexuals if they’re dead liter-
ary heroes. It’s a lot harder to do
so if you’re more worried about
sodomy than about presenting an
opinion based on fact.

y has

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an option to’ paying the tol.

NORTH VANCOUVER
988-6321