Dean on Pot
Howard Dean, who as Vermont governor killed a medical marijuana bill modeled on the successful laws of eight states, continues to put out misleading spin on the issue (‘Candidate Howard Dean Campaigns at Sidetrack,’ Dec. 10).
Dean said he wants the FDA and NIH to ‘review the studies that have already been done’ to ‘make sure [marijuana] works.’ But just such a review was commissioned by the White House six years ago and published by the Institute of Medicine in 1999. The IOM’s report concluded, ‘Nausea, appetite loss, pain and anxiety … all can be mitigated by marijuana.’
Medical marijuana laws don’t confer FDA approval or licensing as a prescription drug; they simply keep seriously ill people from being jailed for trying to relieve there suffering. The question that Dean keeps dodging is a simple one: Should patients who use marijuana to relieve the nausea, appetite loss and pain caused by AIDS, cancer and other serious illness face arrest and jail? Though asked repeatedly, Dean has yet to give a straight answer.
A detailed guide to the candidates’ positions on medical marijuana is available at www.granitestaters.com.
Bruce Mirken, Director of Communications, Marijuana Policy Project, P.O. Box 77492, Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. 20013, www.mpp.org
Big Chicks help
Don’t forget, Big Chicks still needs the help of the community.
As a straight man, I’m disgusted by the non-interest of the city for the possible closing of this establishment. I’m a resident of Uptown and regard Big Chicks as a solid business that deserves to survive. Michelle [Fire] deserves a huge amount of credit for the resurgence of this neighborhood.
Get in touch with Michelle and see how you can help and create attention to her plight. This is bullshit and we all know it.
Jeremy du Brul, Chicago
[The next city status hearing is Jan. 13.]
Gay Games
After our bidding organization, Chicago Games, Inc. presented a proposed budget and business plan at [Dec. 11’s] ‘town hall’ meeting, there was little disagreement that a Gay Games in Chicago is financially viable. Some questioned the amount of licensing fees that would come in, but on the whole, the plan was impressive. They have built in a 10% margin of error, the participant registration fees are significantly lower than Montreal’s and they still show a projected profit of over a million dollars. This model was built around the hard lessons learned from previous Gay Games which ended in financial disaster. Resource drainers such as conferences, dance parties and auxiliary cultural exhibitions are gone.
The organizers have taken into account that there will be virtually no participants from Canada, and few participants from many European countries. In the current plan, the bulk of the break-even number of 12,000 participants will come from the U.S. Instead of relying on large numbers of international visitors, they will simply add to the success of the event.
The consensus among those who spoke out against bringing the games to Chicago was that we’ve ‘already lost the P.R. war.’ They believe that Chicago will be perceived as the ‘spoilers’ of the Games. These are valid fears. They could be right.
And they could be wrong. Two years from now, will the world remember the details of the failed negotiations? How will they judge who was right and who was wrong? What will be clear is that they will have to choose between a sports and cultural festival or Gay Games VII. Sure the dollar is stronger in Canada but, come on, this is Chicago! Even considering the current anti-American sentiment, I don’t think we should underestimate the draw that this city has to tourists around the world.
Considering what we have to lose (a fleeting perception), what we have to gain as a community is tremendous. Hundreds of Chicagoans’ lives will be changed as they compete for the first time. Our local sports organizations will swell with people that want to be a part of this epic event. Our businesses and our city will benefit financially. But more importantly, our community will come together like it never has. Hundreds—thousands of us will step up to make this happen.
Together we will answer phones, lick stamps, fold T-shirts, answer e-mails and welcome the world to the Gay Games that saved the movement.
Jefferson McCarley, Chicago
Wockner’s Wire
Rex Wockner’s article [Dec. 10] made some good points but some of his pollyanna statements made me furious. Life may be peachy for a wealthy elitist gay like Wockner, but for him to suggest that ‘most of us, most of the time are accepted by the straight people we interact with’ or that ‘the gay rights movement is crossing the finish line’ makes the unfounded assumption that his and his friends lives are typical of gay lives—they most certainly are not. As many gays live secretly and are unknown to surveys, researchers, or the public, no one can claim to know what is typical for gays as a group.
Large cities tend to be more accepting of gays but for those of us with a same-sex attraction living in smaller centers or rural areas it’s a very different story. I am certainly not accepted by most straight people I interact with and neither is any gay person I know. I expect this is true for many gays—I would like to live more openly but my boyfriend doesn’t and fears for his livelihood —he recently warned me not to display a rainbow flag at my house; my own brother stranded me 40 miles from home because he was upset about me being too open about my bisexuality. These sorts of experiences are probably much more typical of gays that live in many smaller towns without populations in the millions. Society can make substantial symbolic changes but that doesn’t force anyone to change their anti-gay attitudes and many, maybe most of us still encounter a daily barrage of subtle and not so subtle oppression
Randi Schimnosky, Odessa, Saskatchewan