The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same …

This week openly gay Congressman Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat, posted a story to Twitter—I refuse to call it X—that emphasized just how different things were for LGBTQ+ people not even three decades ago … and how much the same things are today.

Pocan has a framed pair of rubber gloves in his office due to an incident that occurred in 1995, when he and 49 other out gay elected officials were invited to the White House:

“While serving alongside now-Senator Tammy Baldwin on the Dane County Board of Supervisors in 1995, we were invited to the Clinton White House for a celebration of openly gay elected officials.

We headed to Washington and after some sightseeing, finally got to take a tour of the White House. As we came through the metal detectors, we noticed the security personnel wearing rubber gloves.

This took place shortly after the Oklahoma City Bombing, so we assumed security was taking extra precautions to protect themselves from increased radiation.

Not thinking much of it, we continued through the afternoon of meetings where we ultimately discovered the real reason for the gloves.

The security officials were wearing gloves out of fear that they would contract AIDS from one of the openly gay elected officials visiting the White House.

In 1995, there was still a lot of ignorance surrounding the AIDS epidemic and LGBTQI+ individuals on a larger scale.

Later that evening, Vice President Gore made a point to come around and shake all of our hands, demonstrating that this was not the official position of the Clinton White House.

A few weeks later, I received a signed letter from the president apologizing for what we had encountered at the entrance.

It’s been more than 25 years since that historic meeting of out elected officials at the White House. I held onto the invitation and the apology letter — neither of which said the word “gay” — and still have them framed in my office with a pair of those rubber gloves.

This year as we celebrate LGBTQI+ History Month, I look at them and remember how much progress we’ve made and the work we still have to do.

Whether it’s a pair of gloves, or a slew of educational gag orders seeking to ban conversations on sexual orientation and gender identities, our work to protect LGBTQI+ individuals will not be done until equality is finally and fully realized.”

The Washington Post reported on the incident in 1995 and noted that Secret Service Director Eljay Bowron regretted the “unfortunate actions” of the Secret Service agents, saying it was “not the policy of the Secret Service to wear gloves merely based on known sexual preference,” and promised a “special training session directed specifically at these matters.”

Refusing to touch people in normal and socially accepted ways has long been one of the many microaggressions faced by LGBTQ+ people, whose bodies have often been labeled disgusting or toxic. More than half of the LGBTQ+ respondents to a 2009 Lambda Legal survey on medical discrimination said that they had experienced microaggressions in a medical setting that included, among others, “health care professionals refusing to touch them or using excessive precautions.”

Sidenote: back in the 1990s Carlos was trying to get life insurance and took a physical as part of the process. His doctor called him and told him he needed to come in for a talk. Carlos arrived at the office, the last appointment for the day, and the nurse talked to him from behind the glass partition—he thought it was because the office was closing. He sat and waited to see the doctor and when he was finally called in he sat across the desk from his doctor scarcely looked at him and said:

“I’m sorry, Mr. Harris, you have AIDS and there’s nothing I can do for you.”

And that was it; nothing can be done for you. Carlos got up and left the office while a nurse came in with gloves to clean the chair he sat in, the part of the desk he touched. In the waiting room a nurse was cleaning the doorknobs and the counter and where he sat while waiting to see the doctor.

On the upside, Carlos instantly found a doctor who deals with HIV and was prescribed medications; after we moved to South Carolina, he found a doctor here who is managing his HIV. He is, and has been, undetectable for thirty-plus years.

And these Don’t Say Gay laws and anti-trans laws and banning drag laws are still doing that today, making us feel like we don’t belong, like we are somehow dirty and dangerous and riddled with disease and not worthy of being touched.

The march goes on …

LGBTQ Nation

One Step Forward .... Twenty-Six Years Back

The more things change … yada yada yada … I still remember this story from 1987 and remember how despicable people could be when they are ignorant of a situation and have no education regarding facts.

Way back when, in Florida, Clifford and Louise Ray were forced to sue the DeSoto County school system after it barred their three sons from attending Memorial Elementary School because the boys had AIDS. The result of that lawsuit was that a Federal judge ordered the boys, Richard, Robert and Randy,  reinstated in school, but then the unthinkable happened; after weeks of death threats and bomb threats and a school boycott by ignorant parents, a suspicious fire destroyed the Ray’s home just as the boys were about to return to school.

Now, had there been more education about HIV and AIDS, what causes it and how it spreads, maybe these boys and their family wouldn’t have had to endure the threat of being killed just for going to school; they wouldn’t have had to lose their home, either. And, while that was 1987, and you hope things change, you realize that ignorance and lack of education and understanding about HIV and AIDS is still out there. This time in Arkansas.

The Disability Rights Center of Arkansas, Inc. [DRC] is claiming that the Pea Ridge Public School District has removed three siblings, foster children, two of whom have disabilities, from school until the children and their foster parents prove they are not HIV-positive.

Tom Masseau, Executive Director of DRC:

“The actions taken by the Superintendent of Pea Ridge School District are appalling and is reminiscent of times past and the case of Ryan White. The fact that the foster families have to provide documentation that the children are HIV negative before entering the school is unlawful and immoral. Further, the fact the school’s attorney authorized this unlawful act is at best appalling. It stigmatizes individuals with disabilities or their ‘perceived’ disabilities as there is no indication these individuals have HIV. There is only an unlawful fear that they do.”

See, no one is saying that these children are HIV-positive — that’s not the issue. The claim is that they must prove they are not HIV-positive before they can be allowed into school.

Pea Ridge Superintendent Rick Neal would not confirm or deny the allegations but did admit that, in a letter sent to the foster parents, the district cited the Arkansas School Boards Association policy as one of the reasons for their decision.  They also say they consulted the school district attorney and a private law firm.

So, it does kind of sound like they are trying to keep these kids from school because they’re foster children and foster children need to prove their HIV status before being allowed in class with, you know, the regular kids who’d never have HIV.

This whole mess began over the summer, according to the DRC, when the school district completed a review of records and found an evaluation on one of the boys that stated that his mother and one of his siblings were HIV-positive. So, as school was starting for the new year, administrators informed the foster parents that the children could not return to school until documentation was provided proving they were HIV negative.

When the DRC stepped in, knowing that the school did not have the right to deny the boys access to education based only on suspicion, the students returned to school the following day. But the school kept the boys out of class until one of the foster parents received a call on September 12 to pick up one of the boys and take him home because they had not produced the required documentation. 

Just this morning the Pea Ridge School District issued a statement:

"The Pea Ridge School District is dedicated to providing a safe environment for our students, teachers and staff. 

As reported in the media, the district has recently required some students to provide test results regarding their HIV status in order to formulate a safe and appropriate education plan for those children.  This rare requirement is due to certain actions and behaviors that place students and staff at risk.  The district respects the privacy and confidentiality of all students.  It's is very unfortunate that information regarding this situation is being released by outside organizations. 

Our goal is to provide the best education for every student, including those in questions, in a responsible, respectful and confidential manner."

Here’s the deal: this school district is discriminating against foster children because they do not require non-fostered children to prove their HIV status before they are allowed in class.

But what’s worse is that the school district is keeping alive the myth that HIV is easily transmitted, and it isn’t. Children sharing pencils are not in danger. Sitting next to an HIV-positive student doesn’t increase your risk. Sure, there are precautions, but they involve mostly the mingling of bodily fluids, not the mingling of students in a classroom.

You’d think we would have learned more than that by now, but I guess in places like Arkansas, and the Pea Ridge School District, it’s still 1987.

Suspended Siblings

The Ray Family