"There's a lot of inaccurate information out there that exists in the world [about] people who are HIV-positive or people who have AIDS that tends to be limiting rather than affirming," says Rick Peterson, co-president of the Federation of Gay Games. "I think the Games IV is going to provide a venue where people who are HIV-positive from outside the U.S. can still come in to participate in these Games, which I think sends a good signal in terms of self-empowerment."
If you're a person with AIDS without a lot of cash, you, like other Games participants, can apply for "scholarship" funds to ease the financial burden. (No one's been turned down yet, but sometimes there's a process of give-and-take to fit people's needs into the finite pool of money.) Unity '94 has assembled a volunteer medical committee comprising chiropractors, massage therapists, psychologists, and plain ol' doctors to staff medical tents at most every venue. New York's Emergency Medical Services has been trained too, and just-in-case ambulances will be stationed at some venues (principally the outdoor ones). There may also be a storefront drop-in centre staffed by members of the People with AIDS Coalition's mother's support group.
Caretakers and other staff at a Unity nerve centre, the Hotel Pennsylvania, have been given AIDS-education courses. As Unity boardmember/AIDS activist Ann Northrop explains, "There was some rumour going around that their housekeeping staff was getting nervous about having diseased perverts coming to town." Many of those diseased perverts will be from outside the country, and while U.S. laws would ordinarily subject incoming PWAs to expulsion if their condition is discovered by customs officials, those attending the Gay Games needn't worry: As noted in these pages before, Unity '94 finagled a ten-day waiver to the ban. The formerly antagonistic U.S. Olympic Committee, which took Games founder Tom Waddell to court in the '80s to prevent the use of the name "Gay Olympics," actually briefed Unity personnel on whom to talk to in government circles to circumvent the ban. ("We're starting to get a benefit from a better relationship with them," observes Peterson.) Unity will also engage a network of "volunteer lawyers with immigration experience throughout the U.S. to assist people with visa questions or travel problems at port of entry," Northrop says.
Fabulous. But Northrop wonders why only the Gay Games pursued a waiver. "The real tragedy here is the World Cup coming-- and did they ask for a waiver and did they do [AIDS] education?" she asks. "Are we so naïve as to believe that no one coming for the World Cup, either as players or as spectators, would be living with HIV? That's very hard for me to believe." She continues: "It's the classic stereotyping. It's only the gay community that gets stigmatized in these terms. The HIV ban is not about HIV. It's about gay people-- and Haitians, of course.
"We think we're honest and straightforward about dealing with it. We want to know if the U.S. government has talked with the World Cup about all these thousands of spectators coming in and the ban.... Are [the feds] serious about this ban or are they only applying it to gay people?"
Good question. World Cup senior press officer John Griffin tells the Voice that a waiver "was not amongst the government assurances that we were required to receive" by Fédération internationale de football association, the soccer governing body. In fact, even with paid lobbyists in Washington, the HIV ban didn't occur to the World Cup at all until the Voice brought it up. "The government-relations people thought it was a fantastic question," Griffin says.