Breaking Baniers Just a Few Weeks Ago at 33 Remains the Tunes's Praaice to Guard Diseased Pariah News

traguc. Mosi or tnem arc legitmute enterpnsc >oiiau^ s REAL 12bSFWeeklyBMay 1,1991 PETER LAUFER

Breaking baniers just a few weeks ago at 33 remains The Tunes's praaice to guard Diseased Pariah News. Not The magazine has a broader appeal the identities of sex crime complain¬ only is the staff of the San than the two thought it would. Sub¬ ants so long as that is possible and Francisco-based quarterly fac¬ scription orders arc coming in from conforms to fair journalistic stan¬ 1itings deadlinea stressfulpressuretimetoatcom¬the across the country and not just from dards." What makes that statement plete issue number three, co-founder AIDS sufferers. Thorne says people silly, and what makes it clear that the and co-editor Tom Shearer just died who are HIV-negative read DPN Times isn't sure what to do about the from AIDS. because "they want to leara what tness it's created, is that Bowman's The magazine, known as DPN, is a others are experiencing. We take on name has suddenly disappeared from sobering humor magazine. "Of, by, serious subjeas with humor and irony the Times' vocabulary. In this "Edi¬ and for and that people with HIV disease," just transforms it." tor's Note" she is again referred to as reads the masthead statement of pur¬ Right now Thorne is looking for a "the woman," even though the of¬ pose. "We arc a forum for infected new business partner to keep DPNgo¬ fending profile from the week before people to share their thoughts, feel¬ ing and for volunteer proofreaders had printed her name 12 times. ings, art, writing, and brownie recipes and office staff. Or as the ad for help Another follow-up piece in the in an atmosphere free of teddy bears, in the second issue puts it, "Your Times last week summarizes the magic rocks, and sero negative guilt. Diligent Editors could always use a debate the initial profile started and We encourage infected people to sub¬ few more bubble-butt surfboy slaves acknowledges that the Times decision mit material." to help us fold, staple, stuff envelopes, to use Bowman's name was influ¬ Inside is a bizarre potpourri of black lick stamps, and otherwise satisfy our enced by "competitive pressures." humor and constructive advice. depraved whims." The Chronicle — which reprinted DPjVfeatures contests: "Congratu¬ the original Times profile — dealt lations to Mike Cannon. Mike entered, with the problem in an editorial, say¬ and thereby won, the Guess Tommy's bling around trying to recover ing that in the best of all possible T-Cell Count contest. Also, thanks to ThefromNewthe YorkdisgustTimesso manyis stum¬read¬ worlds rape would not be a crime Mike for guessing optimistically ers feel for the newspaper's profile of with a stigma. It also "regrets" using high." Patty Bowman, the woman accusing Bowman's name. "Our basic policy," There arc health care innovations: William Kennedy Smith of raping her. concludes the Chronicle editorial, "Having trouble holding those little The Times is suffering on two counts. "will remain, as it has been for many Dixie cups and snaring the stool sam¬ First for its competitive decision to years, not to name the victims in such ple before it hits the water in the toilet print Bowman's name, a move sharp¬ cases." What the editorial fails to ex¬ bowl? Put a sheet of Saran Wrap loose¬ ly criticized by many rape counselors plain is why that policy was violated ly across the bowl, underneath the and journalism professionals. But in the first place. "Of-'- th"' r»iir-ir>v " even harsher criticism is aimed -'t **-' UPls also includes sophomoric one-sided and innuendo-ridden na¬ quasi-pornographic stories and verse, ture of the profile. Not only was there the weekend by one of the Bay high-calorie cooking ideas to help no equivalent profile of Smith, but ImpressiveArea's Spanish-languagework was donebroad¬over keep weight on and serious resource Bowman's charaaer was assaulted casters, radio station KIQI, La Grande material for people with AIDS. repeatedly in the piece by unnamed Diez Diez. The station's fast-talking The idea for DPN was Shearer's, sources and irrelevant information. DJs pre-empted the usual music mix who became convinced last year that Late last week the Times responded and instead did a grand job of raising there was a need for an HIV humor to the prestige-damaging controversy money and supplies from listeners for magazine. Co-editor and graphic art¬ with a page three box that apologized victims of the recent eanhquake in ist Wulf Thome agreed that the time for nothing. Instead, under the head¬ Costa Rica and Panama. B1 was right and the first issue rolled off line "Editor's Note," the paper ex¬ the presses last September, selling out presses "regret" if readers concluded ► News Real wants to hear your its first printing of a couple of hun¬ from the article that the Times ques¬ questions, concerns and comments dred and going into a second press tioned Bowman's character. about the media —- not just news¬ run of over a thousand. In a silly attempt to explain away papers, radio and TV, but media in "He wanted to create a community the Times' gleeful public announce¬ its broadest interpretations. Send for those who did not feel comfor¬ ment of Bowman's name in the em¬ your correspondence to News Real at table with existing support groups," barrassing profile just the week be¬ SF VC'eeklv, 425 Brannan Street, S.F. says Thorne of his partner, who died fore, the regret piece claims, "It 94I(r. photo-fiction essay, and "the per¬ sonal is political" personals, « Girljock, "for the athletic lesbian with a political consciousness," de¬ livers neither heavy athletics nor political tirades, but self-effacing humor — like cartoon qm'ps about the simultaneously indecisive and incestuous nature ofwomen's soft- ball teams. It's a magazine for women who like to get muddy, sweaty, and to bed early. The real humor in both ofthese 'zines is not only the introduction of a new generation of stereotypes (the era of the butch, leather-dad dyke and the high-heeled drag queen has been on its way out for a long time), but the realization that the 'zine-makers can't quite live up to their own hyperbolic expecta¬ tions. They'rejust "normal people." Brains admits the possibility of spelling errors and unashamedly offers a "bonus question" to its quiz

— "Do you give head?" — then advises the reader to slap scoring the test and move ahead if the an¬ APRIL 1991 ifa THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN/lit. ^ 3 swer is yes. Girljock includes plenty ofstories by Sunah (Dherwin, self-described unathletic "Girl- Jell(o)," and cartoons about not 'ZINE SCENE really making it as a jock. These 'zines are the publishing equivalent of a Queer Nation "mall action" — parading stereotypes so outra¬ geously that the notion of stereo¬ type itself dissolves. And it's not just these "single- 'Homozine' issue" 'zines that are transforming their chunk of the world. Wffile these homozines on AIDS, athlet¬ ics, and intellecmals careen through stereotypes with humor and anger, punk homozines (J.D.s, Hamocore, Nation Bimhox) trash attempts at "gay ide¬ ology" — the reliance of main¬ BY SUSAN GERHARD article), I found more variation than stream gay glossies on political commonality: some trash, some correcmess. Sex homozines (Taste of 'ZiNES ARE to publishing what vi¬ eloquence, and plenty ofrebellion. Latex, Slut.Mag, My Comrade/Sis¬ brators are to the world of rela¬ The best of the lot was far and ter!) present multiple variations on tionships: When you can't find the away DPN(DiseasedPariah News), a simpleminded photo-filled main¬ 'zine that takes on the colossal task right connection, plug in and do it stream gay and straight pom. Other yourself. Many writers and pub¬ of creating "AIDS humor." It's a 'zines like Fogtown Rag, Whispering lishers are doing just that. The up¬ proposition that puzzles editors Campaign, Frighten the Horses, and start Tom Shearer and BeowulfThome gay publications (referred to Homoture fill odd gaps in written here as as much "homozines") found in free- any new reader, but some¬ discourse with works that range how the writer-artist team as¬ thinking bookstores (like San from purposefully humble to ag¬ Francisco's A Different Light) or sembles a collection of works that gressively highbrow. mailed bite hard at institutions through personal networks (hospitals, Obviously, it's a world of many across the the country use a do-it- government) and the AIDS- minds and many Macintosh com- yourselfspirit to express themselves phobic while poking gentle fun at puterSj so if you don't like the PWAs themselves. and, in the process, spit in the face DPNîndulges in browsing selection, make your own. of both the gay and straight pub¬ neither sanctimonious anger nor lishing worlds. mind-numbing "warm fuzzies." Susan Gerhard is an editor at the Bay V\^th In addition to punk attitudes, intellectual Captain Côndom's Guardian. She has written on gay sex, or just plain humor, the 'zines adventures in snotty nightclubs, the events and issues ofsexuality. rush in where advertising-driven "Pom Potato's" inspired video re¬ entities fear to tread. Since 'zines views, and Shearer's wry prose, are often produced on tattered- DPNoffers plenty ofinformational shoestring budgets by labor-of-love pieces on services for PWAs, news, writers/editors/publishers/cut- Biffy Mae's "Get Fat, Don't Die!" and-paste artists, things like pro- recipes, and tips on condoms. With duc^^ and, of the cover's Palmolive detergent- course, profits can slip through the parody — "The blood of over cracks. 100,000 Americans who have died Editorial intent, however, comes of AIDS, xMr. President.^ You're across as strongly as the sentiments soaking in it!" — this 'zine is one 'zine Scene/3 in an eighth-grade love note. The step ahead of its rage. generally straightforward nature of If any trend characterizes the Conjure Man/4 the 'zines draws audiences in with homozine world, it's insider humor Reviews: sincerity rather than underhanded that tums unsavory stereotypes into marketing tactics, cartoons and sexy new lifestyles. Brains, "The Sailor's Holiday/9 rough collage rather than sublimi¬ Journal of Egghead Sexuality" How Could You.5/9 nal seduction. There's no time for (soon to come out with IQ, a sister Confessions of an Eco the sublime when you've got revo¬ publication on its backside), Warrior/10 lutions to start on your own promises "horny, smart, naked Editor; Miriam Wolf xMacintosh (or IBM Selectric). guys" and delivers plenty of egg- Design/Production: In a survey of homozines mosdy chasing tips, including the "How Guardian Art Department produced here in FogtowTi (ofwhich To Tell If Your Trick Is Really Sales Manager Bethann Seide j only a fraction are mentioned in this Smart" quiz, a sex-in-the-library developed a more 'healing' attitude, or / increasingly activist line, saw the issue of WASHINCTON ' he may just have croaked." aids as a mixture of political scandal and personal tragedy: the government was MA\BE YOU HAVE TO HAVE HALE doing nothing (or worse, was guilty of your friends in their 20s and 30s infected murder, genocide, etc.) and everyone or sick or dead to find this was hysterically dying. His posthumous cri de coeur, funn)', but, anway, I did. I became a dpn \ "Whatever Happened to aids?," in The bore for a couple of days, hooting with Nero York Thnes Magazine was a classic of laughter at the latest turn of phrase I the genre. President Clinton, ever eager uncovered, sharing the jokes with my to feel rather than think, loved it; the Relentless nonplussed straight colleagues, most of \Times reveled in another spasm of whom winced politely at the parody-ad minority goop (and has subsequently, I WAS TAKING SOME BOSTON for aids Barbies—"And she thought IS if to honor the memory of Schmalz, Chicken pot pie to my friend Patrick the math class was tough!"—and the calorie- eported overwhelmingly doom-laden other night (Patrick has aids and wasn't rich recipes for pwas in the regular news about the epidemic); ^d those feeling too well, whether it was a reaction feature "Get Eat, Don't Die!" Then, for )f us who knew and cared for Jeff, and to the hefty new round of antibiotics good measure, there's the who found the article, he'd been taking or the massive sinus fetching "Page Nine oddly, if understandably, infection he'd been hoping the antibi¬ Boy" pinup: "Age: 28; off-key, kept appropri¬ otics would counter or maybe—who Height: 6' 1"; Weight: 172 ately quiet. knows?—a new opportunistic infection pounds; CD4 Count: 5; that was about to play havoc with his Infections: You name AFTER TmnriMENi 30-year-old body or the old opportunistic 'em!" Or the trend com¬ sentimentalism. dpn is infections—Pneumocystis and crypto- parison chart—like the breath of morbidly bri -1 sporidiosis—that he was already taking ones they have in des¬ liant air. The magazin : twenty-seven pills a day to control, we— perate Style sections—of exudes a sense that Hiv is and his doctors—^weren't completely "New Clones" vs. "aids a virus, not a governA sure) and I came across a publication I'd Clones": "New Clone: Eas¬ ment conspiracy; that its) heard of but never actually read before. ily Bored, aids Clone: Tires Easily. New a complex scientific problem,' It's called dpn, short for Diseased Pariah Clone: Bald as a Eashion Statement. aids hich inevitably takes time; and that the Nexos, and for the next couple of days, it Clone: Bald from Radiation Therapy." nain task of people with Hiv, in the more than lifted Or my mood; it gave me you can browse the beginning of a neantime, is not simply to mope or grounds for more hope than I'd yet piece of generally lively fiction: "I'm on protest or complain or scream, but to allowed the myself in the years of the plague. phone with ti~,c chnii. The counseloi live. The magazine is as devoid of self- says, 'Well, you're positive.' Blood rushed jpity, as crackling with self-possessed "INSIDE THIS ISSUE: HOW TO TELL up from my gut—my face hot. 'Swing energy, as PWAs and other terminally ill if Your Loved One is Dead," teases the low, sweet char-i-o-ot.' " people often are. Above all, its tone is cover-line. And the article lives up to its t me. "How does Aunt Kaposi do it?" asks billing. The author. Editor Michael GET IT? OH, WELL, TOO BAD. DPN riy favorite columnist (named for the is the latest Botkin, has come across a new sensitive and most fully formed prod¬ 1 ;sions) about her comeback from a uct of a view of encoun¬ guide for caregivers of PWAs (people with the world I first aasty bout of Cryptosporidium, an intes- aids), "written from a 'death-teddy' (i.e., tered a few years ago when reporting a ;ine-exploding parasite (her tip for deal- 'let me share the spiritual charge of your story on the rifts between Hiv-positive ng with which is keeping a lot of books death and and/or terminal "healing" by hug¬ Hiv-negative gay men. It reflects the ear the John). In a very un-Schmalzy ging you while you slowly expire') per¬ way positives—of all shapes and sizes— ntence, she replies: "The answer, my spective." Among the signs in the pam¬ often view the virus not as a permanent pariahs, is the same for each and phlet are: "increased sleeping during the affliction, or a prelude to dying, but as a one ^voii. .Stigraa-with stvl^ child, day, difficult to arouse," "no breathing," herald to a new—and newly intense— o time to hate." "no heartbeat," "loss of control of bowel way of living. This isn't mere rationaliza¬ and bladder" and "no response to shak¬ tion. I remember particularly a positive STIGMA WITH STYLE. MAYBE ON- ing or shouting." Botkin comments: "I friend of mine who a few years ago sim¬ ly a post-cryptosporidial homosexual have some misgivings about that last ply decided not to date negatives any¬ could ironize his own death, but the item, 'no response to shaking or shout¬ more. He didn't pretend he was glad spectacle is inspiring. If the culture of ing,' as it conjures up uncomfortable he'd sero-converted. It was just that he'd complaint is eventually overturned, if images of the slightly inept caregiver gotten beyond the immediate shock of the issue of pain is ever to be wrested slapping a pwa corpse while yelling 'Yo, diagnosis and didn't have the time to intelligently from the pining, wit-free dude! Are deal with you alive or what? Yoi'" The sero-negative guilt and misun¬ left, it will surely begin with the sar¬ author suggests a few additions to the list: derstanding and panic. donic voice of Aunt Kaposi, "shake and ''Raptors Devouring Corpse. The presence bake i.v. on the right arm, blood trans¬ of large scavenger birds (e.g., crows, vul¬ dpn^dûnyrstepycrther. fusion on the left ... cackling away, tures, bald eagles) nibbling on your ex- doesn't have the time to deal with sero- putting dementia to good use beneath lover's body generally indicates death. In positive guilt and misunderstanding and the gaze of the solemn hospital atten¬ the future, when housekeeping for ter¬ panic. Eor a long time, aids discussions dants watching me write on a yellow minal Hivers, avoid leaving unscreened were all variants on what might best be legal pad to all my beloved pariahs." windows open Abrupt Cessation ofSar¬ called the Schmalz Syndrome, after The May it be a long time before she finally casm. If your caregivee no longer makes New York Times reporterJeffrey Schmalz, rests in peace. And may her beloved nasty comments when you perform who, diagnosed with aids, became a cru¬ pariahs get fatter. Louise Hay-style affirmations over him sading journalist on the subject for the with your crystal, it may be that he's paper of record. Schmalz, following an ANDREW SULUVAN

50 The New Republic October id, 1994 I Dallas Times Her^

Monday, April 8, 1991 QuarterlyAIDS magazine treats patients to humor It showed a ticket clerk asking NEWSWEEK a customer, "And would you like the smoking, non-smoking or SAN ^FRANCISCO — AIDS diseased pariah section?" patient "'Tom Shearer and HIV- .When he began work on the positive Beowulf Thorne are publishing an magazine a year ago, he recalled, irreverent desktop all his HIV-negative friends were quarterly called Diseased Pariah News that claims to be the appalled, "but those who were world's only humor magazine HIV-positive thought: 'Wonder¬ ful!"" about AIDS. Shearer's companion and co- Thirty pages long, the San Francisco-based peri^ical swift¬ publisher Thorne, 26, said he sees the magazine as "being ly sold out its initial printing of somewhere between Spy 200 copies, requiring a run of and Good Housekeeping." 1,100 more. Issue No. 2, out last week, is Most of all, the two seem de¬ selling well and has mail-order termined to cast off the martyr subscribers from as far away as image that AIDS patients bear.- Alabama. For Shearer, DPN's abrasive The instant success ^suggests style sends a clear message to the magazine is tapping into those who view infected people something AIDS patients have as "languishing saints" or "hug missed badly amid the grim facts objects." of their illness. The magazine is not all laughs. If there is comedy to be Reality st^ks the comic-strip ad¬ benched from the jaws of the ventures of "Captain Condom," a AIDS scourge. Shearer and kind of gay Superman who dis¬ Thome seem eager to have the tributes condoms to the needy. first laugh. "Strange," the captain muses over the death of yet another Shearer, 32, said the nlaga- friend, "it seems a little less gut- zine's flippant name comes from wrenching every time. ... Am I a cartoon he saw after an airline losing my humanity as I lose my had refused a seat to an AIDS friends?" patient. Diseased Pariah News* humor is blacker than black

Continuedfrom page 45 with gum. us, just to prove that we're not as gentler nucleocide analog," but without of that caped crusader, Captain Condom. In No. 1, Shearer launched a contest boring as we look." (But, it's occurred to success; they all make him sick. So it's "1 think the fact that she's probably asking readers to guess his T-cell count. him, a box is also a boring place to keep double doses of AZT, which also make getting federal money is obscene," In the next number, the winner was cremains. What about those little snow him sick. Thome said of Hale. "I imagine that thanked "for guessing optimistically globes the souvenir shops peddle? "When Thome's biggest concern has been en¬ we've probably done more to save high." In fact. Shearer's T-cell count had you shake it, it would just get muiicy and listing someone to tote that DPN barge people's lives, or at least to dwindled to a improve the lonely nine. That's enough take hours to settle," he suggested, "a lit¬ after he's gone. To his vast relief, Tom quality of them with what little for a baseball capital we team, though, so he con¬ tle landscape with some gray ashes rain¬ Ace, one of DPN's two other editors, has have, than whatever she's cocted another putting out contest; Name that team! ing down.") declared his determination to do just that. there in her On 'family HIV clinic.'" April 9 of last year, before No. 3 came Just before Shearer died, Newsweek "It'll change. But I'll be dead, I won't For DPN No. 5, Thome out, he died at ran a predictably, however, age 32. "Dam! startlingly perceptive piece on Dis¬ care," Thome said. 'Ten years from now, emblazoned Hale's feedback on the "Not One of Our Editors is Dead!" was the eased Pariah News. Thome's mother in I'd like to see DPN with three living Sanitized for your Protection" headline over Thome's paper strip wry and moving Los Angeles, who had never seen DPN it¬ editors and half a dozen in boxes that they that seals take on every copy of the 'zine. "Then I Shearer's death and cremation. self, did see the Newsweek piece. She have to haul everywhere with them."T figured the best A note in No. 5 claims that the thing that what I could do called and "left this message: 'I hope this was to immortalize her forever," he "cremains of your Dusty Deaditor have doesn't impact any future career For a one-year, four-issue subscription to added. "So I'm been going to base one of Cap¬ ground up and mixed into the ink decisions'," Thome reported. "And I Diseased ^riah News, send $10 (or $3 tain Condom's future enemies on her. I'm used in this issue." Hey, just kidding. Ac¬ thought. What future? You don't get the for a sample issue) to DPN, do Men's going to call her Flat Woman and she'll tually, Thome and Shearer's mother split point!" After "a really bad year last year," Support Center, P.O. Box 30564, Oak¬ come from Jurassic Junction or Cambrian the ashes. he thinks that "this one will be better." land, CA 94604. Comers or something." In No. 6, Thome "Usually when we go to a small press But his "AZT honeymoon" is over after promises, the crusading Captain will also or 'zine convention, we're the most four David years, and his T-cell count has C. Morrison is a stcff correspon¬ beat up a disguised Louise thinly Hay, the ragingly moderate people there," Thome started a "hyperbolic dive." dent for National Journal here in guiltmongering New Age "wellness" said. "Ocassionally, I'll take Tom in a box Now Thome is searching for "a kinder. Washington. mm

correspondence DBEAiiai HWAH li'UM between the two that culminated in a comment from Wulf IS Thome on the layout desigg of another of Tom Shearer's con¬ frontational 'zines called GAWK (the journal of the Gay Artists and Writers Kollective). BURNING "What an ugly little newsletter," Thome declared, offering ideas for its improvement. Next thing he knew, Thome got the following issue of GAWK in the mail on disk and was dared to do something with its design. A partnership BEARS was fostered from there via more critical correspondence. The title of this mutual venture came from an Advocate magazine comic, in which an airline stewardess asks a passenger; "Would you like smoking, non-smoking or the diseased pariah section?" Beowulf Thome and Tom Shearer are the two people (This was during Northwest Airlines' controversial, and thus far who can be credited with starting the most outra¬ mistaken, declaration that geous backlash to having AIDS. Both of these PWAs they would not transport PWAs.) Diseased Pariah News l)ecame a unapologetically hate teddy bears and the sentiment that grassroots phenomenon very quickly when it was finished. An initial run is associated with the stuffed poly-nonsense. When Tom printing of 200 copies was Shearer died in April gone in two weeks, then was increased to 1300, and then 1991, the funeral cere¬ "they went up pretty mony Included a teddy fast." Currently, DPN bear-burning ritual. has a run of 1500 and Borne on the wings of Thome says he doesn't cynicism with an abso¬ want it to go beyond a 2000 lute distaste for the pon- AN IMAGE FOfl YOUR CONSIOERAYION: ceiling. "I don't CUY CARPEMTER. UMTIL RECEMUY A fAIRIY want it to be so tification of people who HAPPY. HEALTHY URBAN HOMOSEXUAL MAN common LIVING WITH HIV. UNFORTUNATELY. CLAY^ it'll be used want to sympathize with FIELD TRIP TO THE AMAZON HAS SEEN as coast¬ ENLIVENED BY A SAVAGE CASE OF TOXO¬ ers." In PWAs, Thome and PLASMOSIS. ANO HE'S NOT DOING WELL. NOT an interview with > DOING WEU AT ALL. the Shearer came up with Advocate, Thome WE SEE CUY IN ONE OF HIS LUCIO MOMENTS. Diseased Pariah News. HIS MIND RACING FROM THOUGHTS OF HIS related his personal phi¬ ACCELERAHNG OECREPfTUOE TO THE PROBLEM Both of them are from OF HOW HE'S GOING TO EXPLAIN TO THE losophy behind DPN: LOCALS THAT HE WANTS HIS ASHES SPRINXIEO the San Francisco OVER REX CHANDLER'S BODY. CUY IS ABOUT "Life is full of awful Bay TO RECEIVE A MOST UNUSUAL VISITOR... Area (the only place a experiences that you'll publication empire like laugh about later, but if Forge of God Press — or you don't have a future,

Fist or Fart — would you have to laugh now." dare be hatched). DPNs humorously Diseased Pariah confrontational take on News became manifest living with AIDS has rrot following an on-going gone unnoticed nation-

PWA Coalition Newsline -24- July1991, issue #67 \^im!P^NewsHne People With AIDS Coalition

July 1991 Published By and For People With AIDS and AIDS Related Conditions Issue #67

BY BREE SCOTT-HARTLAND

ally, even with its editor's desire to stay small and special. fere with - Newsweek also ran a story on the 'zine and its editors, the self' who are working to dispel the martyr image of people actualiza-"' with AIDS. The editors have often targeted the "gravely tion of eamest response to the epidemic" that makes up songs people with of our tragic experiences, or the "exquisite cathafrsis of AIDS, such your affliction." This kind of humor and self-adnfX)r^ion in as the image DPN, Thome told Newsline, "reminds them aljout their of Jesse own mortality. When you laugh at>out it, they freak out. Helms in a jar It's not out of concem for PWAs, it's about their own sen¬ of urine on the sibilities." Thome and Shearer had taken possession and cover of DPN #2. Included in ownership of their condition and created the tool that this issue are recipes ("Get Fat, Doni Die") for those of would exemplify their experiences and form their own us with seemingly inevitable myopathy, and lots of safer point of view, as sick as the squeamish might perceive it. sex advice as well as "baskets" for the lovelom. During his last days. Shearer cast upon the waters his Right now, Thome sees DPN as his hobby and own experiences of losing weight rapidly and the debili- doesm want it to grow explosively out of control. "Who knows when I tude of his Kaposi's sarcoma. If join the HIV we're to believe the philosophy retirement plan?" When of Norman Cousins then we can Newsline spoke to Thome from San Francisco about laugh ourselves back to good the health through this medium, or importance of this model of even into our graves. Tom self-empowerment for other Shearer was the "absolute people with AIDS, Thome was reluctant to mommy" of DPN and his recent stand on passing has left it in the hands any premise other of Thome (the "Mac wiz" who is than to say that, "DPN is responsible for the high-end self-actualizing and we grow from the reactton. It's still in graphics), Silicon Valley wizards like Tom Reilly, and other writers the process of development and including a retired porn star. probably will be for a For the most part, DPN is a long time." Or maybe it woni, gay-male-centric publication but it still stands as an exam¬ with sections and stories about ple of an entirely PWA-con- trolled sensibility, without gay men's experiences living with AIDS in their bodies and interference from govern¬ ment or the communities. As a devotee of good intentions condoms, Thome created with of uninfected pontificators. Shearer a comic strip character called "Captain Condom" who (SAY YOU WANT IT! coincidentally (perhaps) reflects Subscriptions are $7.00 (US) for 4 issues, or write for infor¬ very much the image of its cre¬ mation to: ator. (Don't all our heroes?) Forge of God Press, PO Box 31431, There are also political slights San Francisco, CO, 94131) against those who would inter¬ Look kiddioi! It'i CAPTAIN CONDOMI

PWA Coalition Newsline July 1991, Issue #67 -25- S3J5aUI.

£ZJ5UL

NHM.

"2 want people 10 crave us, no

Editor Tbm Shearer in his element "Owr philosophy oflaughing in the face ofdeath and debilitude is bound to unsettle the squeamish." This busy publishing maven practices tosh graphics wiz responsible for the crisp While the first issue of DPN sold out its what he preaches. Living on disability and high-end look ofthe 'zine, a cartoonist, and initial print mn of 2,000, Xeroxed surrep¬ benefit a writer with a checks, he currently splits the time definite thing for con¬ titiously, there are no plans to up the quan¬ hei's not in the hospital between tending to doms-will inherit DPNs editorial duties tity. "I want people to crave us, not use us as his after body and his two publishing ventures, in Shearer's demise It is an idea that coasters on the coffee table," Shearer say& which he serves as the "serene editor and Thome has mixed feelings about. "I guess The editor's audacity would seem to in¬ voice of reason" of DPN and the editor and life isn't all funny," he laments. vite certain controversy, but negative "absolute mommy" of the more broad- Their joint publishing empire. Forge of response to DPN has been almost nonexis¬ minded 'zine God Press GAWK, the journal of the Gay (the Forge can be replaced by tent. Offering no apologies. Shearer sug¬ Artists and Writers Kollectiva Lately, his either Fist or Fart, as the need arises), gests that any detractors continue to keep body seems to be taking up more time; after publishes DPN, GAWK, and Thome's pro¬ their distance: lific stream of rattling off a hefty list of physical afflictions. safe-sex propaganda out of a "Honey, I have a pretty good case of Shearer sa>'s he generally feels pretty good. tiny room wallpapered with pinup boys and AIDS. I wrote this stuff, and I think it's lb ease the unwieldy burdens of publish¬ activist stickers in the front of Shearer's funny." ing DPN, Shearer relies on Thome and sunny Castro district flat. These ventures Rielly along with various contributing have been well-received in the gay and At press time The ADVOCATE learned that writers (one ofwhom is an unnamed retired mainstream press. Even Newsweek recent¬ Tom Shearer hadjust died ofcomplications gay pom star) to keep the operation mn- ly profiled the editors, and an underground from AIDS. We chose to print this interview ning. Thome-the "cranky editor and ir¬ small press support foundation awarded to remind the community of its inherent resistible force" behind DPN, the Macin¬ them with a $75 publishing grant. strength-even in the face ofdeath. TimcsTribime

n -: A DIFFEPENT LOOK AT AIDS P.A. native SULA tries to find lighter side RUTHANN RICHTER / STAFF

Even while his friend lay dying in the hospital, Wulf Thome maintained his irrever¬ ent sense of humor about AIDS. He could not bring himself to cry as his friend slipped away. Instead, he laughed in the face of the disease. "If I squeeze your IV bag, do your eyes bug out?" he would ask Tom Shearer in his last days. Others failed to appreciate the humor: "The nurses gave me looks of horror," he said. It's with that same tragic irony that Thome and Shearer approached their joint venture, a quarterly "humor" magazine about AIDS called "Diseased Pariah News." Shearer's death April 8 hasn't stopped publication. Thome said he misses his friend, but the show must go on, if only to provide a continuing outlet for his own angst about the disease. The magazine, begun about a year ago, is part informational, part prurient and part enter¬ tainment for those who have AIDS or who simply want a bet¬ ter understanding of what it's like to suffer from the terrible, terminal illness. "It doesn't have 'ha ha' jokes. It's more ironic. Everything has a sense of irony," said Thome, 26, a former Palo Altan. The 32-page magazine can be deliberately provocative and very hard-edged, throwing darts at such figures as U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms and President Bush. The cover of the first issue which came out in September shows a bejeweied hand resting TIM BERGER / STAFF on another hand in a manicur- Wulf Thome is one of the originators of the "Diseased Pariah News." which he began last year with a friend, Tom Shearer, who died in April of AIDS. DPN may be the only Please see AIDS, B-3 magazine that pokes fun at AIDS. one another through a gay pub¬ AIDS lication called GAWK, Thome Humor with said.

Shearer, a former Silicon Continued from B-1 Valley a technical writer, suggested the bite ist's idea for the soaking bowl. magazine, which Even the gentler humor in "The blood of 86,000 Americans Thome heartily endorsed. DPN can be caustic, as these who have died of AIDS, Mr. Presi¬ The idea came at an apocalyptic excerpts from "Mister Man¬ dent? You're soaking in it!" the time: Thome had recently re¬ ners* Courteous Responses to caption reads. ceived the positive results of his Stupid Questions and Com¬ "It's sort of mean-spirited, nasty AIDS test and had decided to ments" by K. Reeves demon¬ and cranky," Thome said of the strate. make some major life changes. magazine's general tone. "But it He quit the molecular biology represents the feelings of aliena¬ ■ You're so brave, I don't program at the University of Cali- tion, anger and frustration of its know how you do it readers." fomia at Santa Cruz and moved from Palo Alto to San Francisco to He noted that the cover caption I dont Bravery is when you study something he loved — already is outdated; more than disrupt your everyday schedule graphic arts. He became the mag¬ 100,000 Americans have died of to save an infant from azine's resident artist a1)uming AIDS. In Santa Clara County, 783 building or a senior citizen from The people have been diagnosed with pair set up shop in the a mugger. Having AIDS is not the^ disease since 1983, and 525 home they shared in San Fran¬ brave... it's IRRITATING! have died. In San Mateo County, cisco's Castro District and spun there have been 576 cases report¬ out their first issue in September, ■ I feel guilty because I'm ed and 337 deaths. using a borrowed Xerox machine. HIV negative. The issue sold out in two weeks. It The magazine does reflect the now has a circulation of 1,500. stark reality of AIDS, drawing Alright, then hand over your passbook, upon some of the discomfitting Although Shearer's health was savings negotiable bonds and personal experiences of its editors on the decline, he continued to ed¬ any Certificates of and contributors. itorialize for the magazine from Deposit that are due to mature his SOON right over to me. Giving In its hospital bed at Kaiser Perman- "Captain Condom" car¬ is a divine ente Medical Center in San Fran¬ act which should toon strip, one of the characters ease cisco, a your conscience. wakes up in the morning to throw dictating to friend through a half-blind haze. up in the bathroom because of a ■ Look at this as a learning drug side-effect, and then is "AIDS certainly has its teeth in experience. harangued by one of his neigh¬ me, but I feel damn good and you bors, who tells him he would be can count on me for some while I do. I've leamed that insur¬ better off dead. yet I don't really expect things to ance companies consider a In another scene from the strip, get gruesome for at least a year," cough in 1987 a pre-existing one of the characters laments the he wrote, promising to appear in condition that will cancel my loss of yet another buddy. the next issue as a naked center¬ policies. Social Services re¬ fold. quires my death certificate as "Strange, it seems to get a lit¬ evidence of AIDS before dis¬ tle less gut-wrenching every time, His funeral preparations were but I don't know if that's a good like a scene out of the magazine. pensing benefits and that doc¬ tors always want more blood. thing or bad," he says. "Am I los¬ Thome and several of Shearer's ing my humanity as I lose my other close friends visited a cre¬ friends?" mation parlor, only to be struck by and its approach, but he believes In San Francisco, the magazine the rows and rows of funeral ums it's because of their own inability displayed there. has been well-received by the gay to confront their mortality. community, where it's admired "We lost re¬ control," Thome "We don't want to think about for its courage and grit called. "We were laughing on the death. We don't want to hear about "It's met with extreme success, floor." it," he said. "When you talk about mainly because it's very well put death and Thome could not bring himself laugh in the face of it, it together," said Darrell Alvarez at forces people to talk about their A Different Light book store. to cry over the loss of his friend, own mortality, which is something "Here at the store, it sells quickly. who was 32. they're not conditioned to think "I've made "Around here, people find it my peace with about" death," he said. "You have to. pretty righteous that they've taken The a Tom's gone. I'll really miss him, magazine carries dis¬ such a strong stand," Alvarez claimer but I can't indicating it's not for ev¬ added. "I don't know what the help it, so you've got to deal. eryone, as it contains blatant de¬ reaction would be if you put it in a pictions of homosexual activity. "What else can dentist's office, with more of a you do? You can The $2 publication is available in scale of people reading it" laugh or cry. And crying gives you some San Francisco bookstores or wrinkles." The magazine grew out of a can be obtained by writing Forge- friendship between Shearer and He said he knows some people of-God Press, P.O. Box 31431, San Thome, who had gotten to know will take offense at the magazine Francisco, 94131. PEOPLE

Not a Laughing Matter? Fanzine Editor Ibm Shearer Prescribes AIDS Humor as Medicine

titudes. "I think there are lots ofpeople out the reader to join his healing process:"... if BY GLEN HELFAND there who ought to be on lithium instead of you hope and pray and say your little rosary volunteering to help PWAs." beads every evening, I will purrrrrhaps be New Age responses irk him even mora "I your centerfold boy next issue. Don't miss dard '70s happy face tat¬ can't stand all that 'Let me hug you while this once in a lifetime opportunity to ex¬ tooed on his shoulder. you die/exquisite catharsis of your noble amine the plains and contours of my stick¬ When he says "Have a affliction' stuffor those show-tune celebra¬ like and slightly tattooed form...." nice day," he does it with tions of'AIDS! AIDS! AIDS! What a won¬ Shearer's sensibility comes through loud a hearty sneer. As a per- derful, beautiful thing!' Ugh!" Though there and clear in articles that are genuinely Tomson Shearerwith AIDS,hasShearera stan¬ are a few notable theater groups and stand- amusing, not to mention useful. We read about Shearer's finds his reasons for smiling have little to do up comics dealing with AIDS through wacky hospital adven¬ tures-"sissified" male with sunshine and light; in fact, some might humor. Shearer is unimpressed: "They nurses, elimination wonder how he could smile at all. But even probably arerft doingjokes about explosive bags, noisy and nosy neighbors-get high- caloric in a noticeably debilitated state. Shearer is diarrhea." recipes in the "Get Fat, Don't Die!" never at a loss for an acerbic comment. His Shearer's own fearless sense of humor section, and leam of lots of activities and devilish sense of humor is his constant goes beyond death's door with ideas for lots games like Connect the KS Lesions ("Can source of energy. of yet-to-be-produced tie-in products like you find the Liberty Bell in this picture?") or Last year the 33-year old San Francisco- Get Used to It greeting cards for the sick Tammy's T-Cell Count Contest that can make the bedridden feel like based Shearer, a comely hybrid of a thin¬ and flame-singed Postcards From Hell they're on a ning modem primitive and a computer death announcements His most valiant and family road trip. nerd from Colorado, decided to put his frighteningly generous idea, however, is to DPN is also healthfully pro-sex, as humor into action. After becoming too sick fill paperweights with his ashes as bonuses Shearer admits. "We like to think of it as a to work-and too sick of working in "San for the ten charter subscribers to DPN. politically correct stroke magazine for posi¬ Hoi" (his term of endearment for San Jose, "Life is full of awful experiences that tive people," he says. It may just live up to that Calif.) fixing circuit boards - Shearer found you'll laugh about later," says coeditor promise, featuring pom reviews by the time to enter the fertile, funky world of Thome, "but if you don't have a future, you Pom Potato, the "tragisexy" superhero of the lesbian and gay fanzines. have to laugh now." Celebrating the idea "Captain Condom" comic strip, wads of safe-sex "I figured, Vm not building a careerfor that humor is always therapeutic, and sick tips, and HIV-positive personal ads with such hook lines as when ZVn W" says Shearer."/might as well humor even more so, DPN ups the ante "My new AIDS diag¬ nosis hasn't affected do something I want to do" Teaming up with humor that is literally sick. As my honker. Cute young with former Silicon Valley cohorts Beowulf Shearer explains in the first issue, "Our buggerable post-twinkies should write me Thome and Ibm Rielly, Shearer launched philosophy oflaughing in the face of death quick, before I die or somethingf Such light- Diseased Pariah News (DPN), what he and debilitude is bound to unsettle the heartedness allows DPN to serve as an aid in sees as fomm for infected people to share squeamish." coming out about the "icky virus." their thoughts, feelings, art, writing, and DPNprovides Shearer with an open plat¬ All, of course, is not fun and games. Shearer also uses DPN as his brownie recipes in an atmosphere free of form for his own inimitable take on suffer¬ personal cor¬ teddy bears, magic rocks, and seronegative ing, self-pity, and physical torment. The rective to all that "hysterical garbage avail¬ guilt." self-mythologizing writing style of this able from the mainstream media." Like Experiencing the roller coaster phenom¬ "homo poet" sets the deliciously snide tone many "ACT UP types," Shearer is livid over enon of HIV from the driver's seat, Shearer, ofthe entire publication. In his editorial in delays in federal drug approvals. Sen. Jesse the Helms (w^hose face is bottled in piss on among other things, is not about to give up just-released second issue. Shearer la¬ the cover ofthe current issue), and laughing. His favorite target is the grave¬ ments, "I find myself once again dmgged people who lack sexual awareness. "There are still lots ly earnest response to the epidemic. A cynic and in pain and much more than halfblind. to the bone, he is quickly perturbed by what Luckily, I come from a long and dirty line of of crazy attitudes out there, but we don't he calls all that "s-e-e-erious" material poor-white-trash sharecroppers who have them," he says. "Drinking a bottle of published about AIDS, not to mention the evolved to live on dirt and rocks if Coke after you rim someone does not con¬ stitute safe sex." care givers who subscribe to those at¬ necessary." Clearly resourceful, he invites

V EMBER 20,1990 • THE NATIONAL BAY AND LESBIAN NEWSMA6AZINE • ISSUE 584

Articles feature reports on "So what is this? A bunch of ICKY VffiUS MAGAZINE AIDS in prison, high-calorie AIDS jokes?" Shearer asks in "A lot of people are fairly disen¬ recipes, condom updates, and DPNs premiere issua "What's franchised from more your standard highbrowed topics like so damn funny about a pan¬ care-giving support groups," video reviews for pom potatoes demic devastating the world?" says Tbm Shearer, editor of ("a pom poUto is a couch potato Find out for yourself. Quarter- Diseased Pariah News in the raw"). i (DPN). Captain Condom ly subscriptions are available by "They aren't into religion or I writing DPN, P.O. Box 31431, spirituality, and they dorft like San Francisco, CA 94131. magic or huggy bears. So where can they get a sense of commu¬ nity and belonging?" Well, for $1.50 they can get it from the pages ofDPN, the fan¬ zine focused on the crazed and kooky world of people with AIDS. DPN combines off-the- wall social commentary by Shearer, crisp graphics by coeditor Beowulf Thome, and cartoons, and "Guess Tbnfs T- Cell Count." "cranky, funny, insightful art and writing from infected peo¬ ple only" to "bring some much- needed A NEW levity to the experience BY-AND-FOR PUBLICATION of HIV infection." TO HIT THE STREETS D«P*N (Diseased Pariah News), an alternative quarterly magazine for people who are HIV-i-, will make its debut this fall. Here are some BEAR 13*23 quotes from the flyer: "We're tired of ourselves and crying, blaming being told not to discuss our durable over the powers of attorney dinner table...A lot of us feel if you're HIV-i- and you have or may AIDS, develop you can either laugh or cry, but uglier wrinldes...Get crying gives you BAY AREA REPORTER fat, don't die...D»P*N will be a forum for NOVEMBER 1, 1990 share their people to own ways of dealing with the I plague." liked what I saw in the prospectus and look forward to premier issue. Five bucks seeing the gets you four issues. Send to D*P*N, Box 31431, San Francisco, CA 94131.

The first Sick Humor issue includes an DPN is unabashedly na¬ eclectic mix of fiction, nasty I, however, cynical cur¬ Diseased Pariah tionalistic, political and anti- News (or humor ('T fisted Jesse Helms") mudgeon that I am, found it DPN), the new HIVer humor religious. and politics. A ex¬ amusing I still sexually "We should warn (although magazine, had my support you that haven't plicit Captain Condom car¬ our figured out why they editorial not group rolling on the floor toon policy does refer to HIV as "the explores the interaalized include the Danger (and if you knew what my concept that Penis"). homophobia of "the pure AIDS is a Wonderful floors look like, you would Learn¬ club," a sex arena for HlV-neg- DPN, a quarterly (if more understand what ing Opportunity and Spiritual than high praise atives whose motto is "safe the first issue is ever this Gift From Above," is). they cau¬ published), is available from people, not safe sex." Presum¬ tion. Those offended DPN describes itself as "a by this Tom ably regular features include Shearer (producer of a forum for infected attitude, or by "sick" humor similar people to "High calorie cooking with underground mag, share their (e.g., "it's my party and I'll die thoughts, feelings, Biffy Mae," "Condom Corner" GAWK) for $1.50 an issue if I want to") will (or art, writing and brownie and Porn probably $5 a "The Potato." not year) at PO Box 31431, recipes in em atmosphere free enjoy this publication. SF, 94131. ▼ of teddy bears, magic rocks and seronegative guilt." GelmanDavidwith

john harding Evenso, Thorne says Who much. DPN who he and 33, is I bed. dead clude Learning And not ity deathof little losing will the partner's realized and knows? by Anthony WonderfulisAIDSthattheconcepta WeOpportunityjustaare... PenisDangerintoacouple-o-guysranwho likedon'tverysomethingcaughtwe bears."HATEteddywe Real¬laughs.all theofadventurescomic-stripstalks SupermankindCondom,""Captaingayofa distributesthetocondomsneedy. "Strange,"theovermusescaptain friend,"itaseemsanotheryet Amlesstime...everygut-wrenching friends?"loseIhumanityasmy topublishcontinue histheofoutcomewhatevermagazine hospitalWritinghisfromillness. "IhimselfShearerseemsundaunted: beIlivetothattodaygoingam 35?is34theoutnotquestion.of beI'dIWhen27,1thoughtwas daidIandyet,ain'tsurenow, Shearerlast33buckaroo!"turnedweek. SanFranciscoinDuignan-Cabrera

Noteddy Most his of ment: a bears: off in magazine's toseat clerk like pariah the "but artist sees all, the bear. sends "hug "Our ThorneShearerImage:Dispellingthemartyrand latestinfection,bacterialdebilitatingthe longHeAIDS.bouthisthesayswith fromflippantcomesaname hadherefusedairlineanaftersawcartoon ItAIDSticketashowedpatient.an "Andcustomer,youwouldaasking diseasedtheornonsmokingsmoking, beganWhenheonworksection?" heallrecalls,ago,yearamagazine friendsHIV-negativeappalled,were HIV-positivethought:thosewerewho 'Wonderful!'" Shearer'sandcompanion Thorne,26-year-oldgraphiccopublishera heHIV-positive,himselfissayswho "beingthesomewhereasmagazine SpyGoodHousekeeping."betweenand determinedtotwothecastseem imageAIDSthatpatientsmartyr Shearer,DPN'sForabrasivestyle thosetomessageclearviewwhoa "languishinginfectedsaints"oraspeople Declarestheopeningstate¬objects." doesin¬notpolicyeditorial

HEALTH

What'sso demic So damn what With is funny If AIDS: and Anew Athis? about devastatingthe that isthere Shearer,a The a AIDS. of week, of have first have T-cell world? top tial is the Thorne away it in bunch it Diseased their advice lous zine's pan¬ Shearer and Just co-based 1,100 tapping same, "retired" of and death-defiant 30 instant comedy jaws seem fact Grin itBear humormagazine jokes?AIDS Well,we finditamusing."wesometimes Tomcredo, launchedThorneBeowulfand desk¬irreverentNews,Pariahan bethetothatworld'sclaimsquarterly humoraboutmagazineonly SanFrancis¬long,thepages itsini¬outsoldswiftlyperiodical 200runacopies,requiringofprinting lastIssuetwo,outnumbermore. hasmail-orderandwellselling TheAlabama.farfromoffassubscribers isthemagazinesuggestssuccess AIDSintopatientssomething factsbadlytheofgrimamidmissed illness. frombetowrenched ShearerAIDStheandscourge,of laugh.firsthavethetoeager issuemixpotluckacarriedstart-up includesfeaturesthatworldly-wisea give¬columnoutrageousanand fabu¬Wantkids!("Heytowinpromo DecemberTommy'sJustguessprizes? hasIssuethetwoofcount").more headlinebutthecapturesmaga¬one tone:darn,grinning-at-the-gallows sick!iscenterfoldourreads, istechnicalwriter, hospitalizedtheawithmomentat July 10, 1992 - THE WASHINGTON BLADE - 45 Th#Point DPN: not sanitized for your protection

by David C. Morrison Every November on the Day of the Dead, Mexicans flock to their cemeteries to eat, drink, and defiantly make merry on the graves of their loved ones. Not a bad tradition. As the AIDS disaster drags the Gay community into a second Decade of the Dead, however, there's no shortage of graves, but making merry is just hard to do. On the other hand, one can spend only so much time and energy coimting T- cells, moping over the obits, and thinking up telling anecdotes to recount at memorial services. Thank God, then, for Diseased Pariah News (DPN), the rag that's "more than just an HIV humor magazine." There's black humor — Gary Larson's "Far Side" cartoons, say. And then there's the mind-puckeringly bitter, French- roasted stuff — such as this quarterly 'zine, desktop-published in the Bay Area. The latest issue. No. 5, bears a romantic cover portrait of America's most notorious self-loathing Gay bigot and its most shrilly accusatory "innocent victim," both dead of AIDS complications, with the banner coverline: 'Together for Eter¬ nity: Roy Cohn & Kimberly Bergalis." The "Centerfold Boy" feature in the The latest issue of DPN and a few bits of DPN same issue has the standard nudie shots. paraphernalia. But the model is HIV-positive, and the standard "interview" is a far screaming cry from those bland, upbeat Blueboy produced in Thome's Palo Alto flat, is far called "Get Fat, Don't Die!" — which has base." and away the best looking of a generally featured taste-tests of nutritional supple¬ Some subscribers didn't re-up, doubt¬ bios: "What OI's [opportunistic infec¬ scruffy lot.) ments ("Our entirely objective opinion is: less, because they found the whole thing tions] do you most look forward to? Around this time, Thome also em¬ they stink"), instmctions for marijuana in dubious taste. Toxoplasmosis and TB; very nostalgic.* barked upon a collaboration with a friend, treats to combat chemo-nausea, eating "When I've been at conferences and What do you want to be when you grow Tom Shearer, a technical writer who was tips for pariahs cursed with oral thmsh, things representing DPN, and even at the up? *Alive.*" turning out a Gay arts 'zine, GAWK: A and such high-calorie recipes as Gretchen [Gay Pride] parade, people wijl come up "While civility is appreciated even Fagazine of the Yarts. Shearer idly tossed Mae's Fat Man's Delight. and say that they don't think it's very within out an Centerfolds are another the harshest of medical offices," idea he'd been toying with — an perennial, funny," Thome said. "And I'll ask them if the reader is advised in a primer on ex¬ HIV humor magazine called Diseased though they don't always pan out. "Dam! they're HIV positive and they kind of clam amining room etiquette, "cheerfulness and Pariah News. Thome jumped in with both Our Centerfold is Sick!" DPN dolefully up, because they aren't. It always levity can "be disconcerting to the feet and has been running with that idea reported in No. 2. Thome manfully seems to be the seronegative ones who are physician. According to many patients, ever since. stepped into the breech with some none- judging us harshly. I've had a couple of 200 mgs of AZT can do much to curtail The name comes from one of The Ad¬ too-revealing personal shots. He has been people, HlVers, say that it wasn't for these counterproductive attitudes." vocate's "It's a Gay Life" cartoohs. Rip¬ approached by two HIV-positives, one them, but it provided help for other No. 5 also boasts one of those flimsy ping Delta Airlines's refusal to fly some¬ who contracted the vims sexually and the people. Because we aren't very nice," he "soundsheet" records, with two DPN one with HIV, cartoonist Donelan showed other via clotting agent transfusions, who added, laying a nasty little twist on the word. "There are nice tunes: "They're Called Diseased Pariahs!" a disconcerted fellow at a check-in want to pose nude for No. 6 as Guilty people out there." When Thome backed with "Pus (The Septic Dragon)." counter being asked, "Would you like Victim and Innocent Victim. recently sent a specula¬ And then there's the tive mailing to AIDS groups around the That cheery ditty kicks off so: "Pus the smoking, nonsmoking or diseas^ pariah ever-popular "Further Adventures of country, he got a particularly starchy septic dragon/lived health care free/all section?" He latched onto the phrase. Captain Con¬ response from Carol A. Hale, executive covered with awesome cysts/of a pox Shearer reported in DPN No. 1, "to much dom," the computer-generated cartoon director of the Permian Basin AIDS called Kaposi's." dismayed fluttering from [my] friends. At chronicles of a safer-sex superhero, which Thome Coalition in Odessa, Texas. "You can either laugh or cry about this time, remember, the only acceptable originated for an AIDS project at "We believe that a these things," Beowulf Thome, DPN's role for an infected person was Languish¬ Santa Cruz. (Captain Condom's sidekick, publications such as sole surviving founder, commented ing Saint and Hug Object." for reasons that remain obscure, is a yours is not the appropriate vehicle for three-foot during a recent interview in San Francis¬ That first issue finally appeared in late slug.) teaching HIV prevention," Hale wrote. "Rather it co. "And I say that crying gives you 1990. Thome and Shearer ran off 200 copies encourages a free wheeling life uglier wrinkles." "We are a forum for infected people to of No. 1, laboriously photocopied at Stan¬ style which helped bring this disease to the A self-confessed "failed molecular share their thoughts, feelings, art, writing, ford University and hand-stapled. Those epidemic proportions we are now sold out within a week. So facing." biology student," the 27-year-old tested and brownie recipes in an atmosphere free they quickly positive in 1988 while laboring on an un¬ of teddy bears, magic rocks, and chumed out another 1,100 copies. DPN's Unabashedly, DPN is Gay sex-posi¬ current tive. "One of of our goals is to eroticize dergraduate degree at the University of seronegative guilt," the statement of pur¬ press run is 3,000 — 1,0(X) for the person with HIV," it has proclaimed. Califomia at Santa Cmz. pose in that and all subsequent DPNs bookstores, another 1,2(X) for back issues, and 800 for And so DPN runs photos of buck-naked "I had my moment of gestalt in the reads. (A how-to photo feature on torch¬ paid subscribers. studbunnies and a basement lab of the science building," ing teddy bears in DPN No. 3 explains "We have this problem with attrition of page of randy personals called the "Meat Market." It also has been Thome recalled. "I was preparing some that "Louise Hay literature makes the best our subscriber base," Thome groused. specimens. You take fmit fly eyes and kindling.") After getting only a 70 percent response printing a running series called "How I Got AIDS," the memoirs of then you smash them and do an electro- Many regular DPN features bowed rate to renewal notices mailed out with pomstar Scott O'Hara, as well reviews of X-raied male freezÛb separate out the proteins. And I their debut in No. 1, its omnipresent mas¬ issue No. 4, he figured out that the earlier films by "Pom Potato" (a.k.a. Thome). was tltitjking, What am I doing here!" cot, a grinning rodent, for one. An "On- folks had subscribed, the less likely they were But DPN is militantly safer-sex positive, Ta|ijiig a leave of absence, he enrolled comouse" is a strain of lab rat guaranteed to have renewed. So, he concludes, too, as wimessed at thakcademy of Art College in San to develop organic tumors within two not unreasonably, they had died. by Aunt Kaposi's advice column, a resource Francreco to consumate a long-running yeara. In other words, "they're nature's "The least they could have done is will guide to HIV-related services, a "Condom Comer" chock full love affair with graphic design. (He now pariahs," DPN explains. "They cost $75 their estate to us," he joked. "We were o' fun facts about latex and lubricants supports himself as a freelance graphic ar¬ apiece, and are the perfect pet for some- thinking that DPN should have an official and, of course, the educational tist, and it shows; when it comes, to self-"^ jê v^bctnceduo-pUy^WOTStbingJ' . .policy against safer sex so that we could escapades Continued on published 'zines, the 30-page DPN, And then there is the food section — ensure that we always have a subscriber page 47 Paul Kitagaki Jr. - Mercury News iiit> COllilUCl UlUKUl iiJîtoULC. urut ... ^ .. .. . „ . discrimination. And now, Lisac and a group of gay Lisac, for one, said its time that Stanford took a Andrew Lisac wants Stanford to take a bold step '«««>, «.d«atl,nemben,.r.nghUngu.dusg. tot See GAYS, Page sist

'Pariahs' thumb noses at death

Tom Shearer, right, a former. computer tech-' / ' nician, and his .Y friend Beowulf; Thorne pub¬ lish their 2,000-circulation magazine i< for people with AIDS out of Shearer's San;'" \ Francisco home. Gary Parker

— Mercury Newt ,.j

By David Bank at high-tech firms in Palo Alto, an Intensely personal window on on a Macintosh personal computer Mercury News Staff Writer Cupotino and San Jose before he the macabre and twisted experi¬ and Illicitly photocopied at friends' "retired" last ences common in "AIDS offices, included AIDS is A new magazine by and for peo¬ year, and his part¬ culture." recipes, resourc¬ es, advice ple infected with the AIDS virus ner, graphic artist Beowulf "I am columns, r^e^ons and probably going to die of comics. has staked out a clear editorial Thome, say is After five "Diseased Pariah" AIDS relatively soon, but relative exhausting the first arid printings. Shearer and Thome have x position on an increasingly divisive <»ly humor magazine is a relative concept," Shearer no reason about AIDS. increased the issue among those dealing with tte wrote in the editorial fcur the press run to 2,000 for f up¬ the second issue. epidemic: teddy bears. "Don't you dare tell me not to coming second issue. Shearer, 32, "It always sells out," said "We hate teddy bears," said Tom laugh when Tm dying," is how they was told he had Ray ^jbout three years Reich of A Differoit to Shearer, who is listed as "Your sum up the magazine's editorial to live when he learned he was Light book-if store in San Francisco. stop Serene Editor" in the masthead of policy. suffering from acquired immune "Diseased Pariah News." "We call With more than 100,000 people deficiency syndrome seven years Warning: The magazine is not them death teddies." in the United States already d^d ago. for everybody, .with its reproduced ' laughing Shearer, a technician and writer from AIDS, the magazine prWides The flrst S2-page issue, produced See PARIAH, Page 3B

fvich fico aorninet nortrflivnls ns rlriiiilcs § Magazine tells 'pariahs' Transit n AIDS has its funny side STREETWISE, from Page IB PARIAH, from Page IB sions when you get them," said ment in which the people hold the photographs and drawings of na¬ Thome, 26, who dropped his mo¬ ruling power ked either directly or men and frank discussions of lecular biolo^ studies at the Uni¬ through elected sex acts representatives; and bodily functions. versity of California, Santa Cruz to rule by the ruled." Shearer, who pursue his dream of sports a tattooed being an art¬ As I read that, it says either/or. happy face on his ist. "That was the bony right shoul¬ appropriate re¬ Not both. And certainly der, dictated the nothing editorial from a sponse." about the Save Peninsula Area hospital bed at That sense of Kaiser-Permanente humor shocked Rail Commuter Citizens' Commit¬ in San Francisco. many of their other friends, how¬ tee, not to be confused with the Now back home in his suiuiy ever, and at first they were afraid Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers apartment near Castro Street in the magazine would fail because it Board the heart of offended Rig^t of Way Acquisition San Francisco's gay nearly everyone. Subcommittee, not to be confused "For a community, he runs his modest long time, the whole atti¬ with the San Jose Station/Tamien tude publishing empire in pajama bot¬ (toward AIDS) was breast- CalTrain Extension Project Joint toms and red socks from a bed beating, horrible, oh no, oh no," Policy Board. cluttered Shearer said. with papers and with You want to know why it took medication "Then to treat his AlDS-relat- there's the Diseased Pari¬ nine years to plan light rail for ed ah complications. He's letting his school, which is more gonzo and downtown San Jose? Why it has bleached-blond hair grow out, re¬ over-the-top," he continued. "I taken 22 to figure out how to bring think it's fun vealing his natural, thinning brown we've foiuided a new BART into S^ta Clara County? roots. It's type of literature." democracy gone mad: "ITie The For Shearer magazine offered prizes to and Thome, hiunor iiKufferable combination of politi¬ the reader who is an end in most closely itself, not part of some cians who can't make a decision new guessed Shearer's latest T-cell laugh therapy or power-of- and an informed public that takes count, a measure of a type of white positive-thinking theory. them up (Ml their offer for blood cell "A input. critical to ^e immune lot of this is ril-look-back-on- Just ask San Jose City Council- system. For non-infected people, this-and-laugh-someday type of hu¬ nian Jim Beall. The man collects T-cell counts typically range from mor," Thome said. "Well, if you transportation committees like 500 to won't be able 1,800. liie contest winner to look back on it, Cher (toes tattoos. He's on 20 trans¬ guessed 65. Shearer's actual T-cell •you can still look back on it now." portation-related (Ximmissions count: nine. Shearer's response was to give pet names to each T-cell. "I'm going to start a baseball team," said Shearer, whose soft voice lends credibility to his irrev¬ erence. "Who knows? Pretty soon it wiU be a bridge club, then a shuffleboard team." Shearer was raised in Colorado, played bass in a rock band, drove Do.youwantas his 1963 Mercury Comet west to Silicon Valley "to make big bucks in the electronics industry" and for 10 years was a "toiling drone." "I a time orjustaspecia spent lot of getting drunk in gay bars," he said, "which is basically responsible for my cur¬ rent situation." Along the way, he learned about desk-top publishing and spent many late nights surreptitiously photocopj^g a gay literary maga¬ zine on ^ employers' office ma¬ chines. The name of the new magazine comes from the tag line of a politi¬ cal cartoon that satirized a one¬ time airline policy of refusing to board travelers with AIDS. "Would you like smoking, non-smoking or the diseased paiiah section?" the ticket agent asked in the cartoon. The idea languished until last year, when Shearer teamed up with Thome, an old Palo Alto friend, who had become a wizard at using the Macinto^ for graph¬ ics. Thome himself had recently received the results of his HIV an¬ tibody test: positive. "I told one friend who said, 'Oh good, now I can bring an erasable marker and connect the dots be¬ tween your Kaposi's sarcoma le¬ and zine on sex ous of and free HIV P. dams Now, you're zines the O. surfboy surgery, you busted info, of brownie Beowulf let's at "How infected Box I thoughts, Bitusa clunky, not were gay, most publication "Diseased mwmmk I slaves get and teddy disease. $IO/Canada; $ and Got amounts around. of, 510/891-0455. mri^nfmrn oral of recipes people We 31431, Thome, Diseased real by, UO have our shouldn't ACT-UP very DPN seronegative in feelings, to Pariah sex. originally straight bears, are San witfeifTnni or an AIDS" black art ' here, a and miss. bi, beautifully guilt." editor. The rallies. share for News fearless and dishes It's magic is moo. 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CQ H _c o ,0 = c "3 w =3 2 If all that weren't enough, there's also a socially redeeming aspect to this feisty rag. Ain't (It is testimony to the Nobody's Included are recipes ("Get Fat! Don't Die!") integrity of DPN's sense of irony that there is to alleviate such HIV-related ailments as Business no reason not to take this message seriously.) diarrhea, nausea, weight loss and thrush; a Beowulf, who attributes his Dorian resource column and Meat Market ("Leftist ByJon Nalley Grey-like longevity to the preservatives in the Mensch," "Back Door Boys" and "Come Nib¬ Twinkies he eats, lives by the motto "If you ble on the Crumbs Left Over From a Bacte¬ can't be rich, be published." Having hooked pariah (puh-RYE-uh; also PEAR-ee-uh) n. rial Banquet" are three recent personals); [Tamil paraiyan, drummer parai, drum; up with now-deceased Shearer, Beowulf told not to mention articles about making stool QW that the idea for the zine's name came pariahs were hereditary drumbeaters] 1. A samples easy and "Examining Room Eti¬ member of one of the lowest social classes from a cartoon in the Advocate (in the after¬ quette." (To wear B.U.M. "equipment" and of India. 2. Any math of Delta Airlines' to person despised or rejected refusing fly people inverted G-string tank tops is not only to with AIDS) that depicted a guy at the ticket by others. 3. Any "guilty" victim of HIV. snigger at fate but to trivialize the work of counter asking if the customer would like to sit the medical establishment.) With ardcles like 'The Hostess With the Toxo- in the or smoking, non-smoking pariah sec¬ DPN IS run as a dictatorship. "I've learned tion. plasmostest," "Porn Potato" and "Ask Aunt from Queer Nation and ACT UP," said Beowulf Kaposi: Advice for the Loveworn," the San shmgs off criticism of DPN, claim¬ Beowulf. "There's no consensus here. Howev¬ Francisco-based Diseased Pariah News (DNP) ing most comes are that of it from people who er, I can be swayed by the learned advice of has made its defiant mark as the HIV-negative. "I've gone to health confer¬ the other editors." Much of how an issue turns most tasteless zine this side of Bim- ences, and me people have told it's the out, the dictator adds, is determined by the Box. Yet thousands of most horrible thing in the world." eager HIV- readers. "It's funny, but we really aren't del¬ When he asked people positive readers—here and uged with a lot of stuff....Each issue will have a abroad—await each their sero-status, irregular different flavor depending on what was sub¬ issue (five have been pub¬ they would mitted." Beowulf is largely responsible for the lished to slink off. date). A mordant mechanical aspects of the zine—the layout, and morbid HIV humor Its bevy of photoediting, drawing, etc. Under his direc¬ tasty-looking magazine, DPN solicits tion, DPiVhas assumed a genuinely sex-posi¬ material from HIV-infect¬ HIV beef-cake tive stance, something that had caused ten¬ ! in each issue ed people, including sion between him and founding editor (such as issue no. QW writers Michael Shearer. Originally, the two had worked Callen and David B. 5's centerfold. Matt together at GAWK, a leftist San Francisco- Chappel) notwith¬ Feinberg, that is off¬ based lesbian and gay artsjournal. beat, irreverent and standing, Beowulf As for the eagerly anticipated issue no. 6, often states "We aren't outrageous! Beowulf reports that "We're going to be exclusively for homo- QW spoke doing a photoshoot with an 'innocent vic¬ with boys at Cranky Edi¬ here DPN....Vd tim' and a 'guilty victim.' The guilty victim is tor and Irre¬ really like to hear from a male bisexual, and the innocent victim is a sistible Force Beowulf girl pariahs." hemophiliac (who asked if he could do the DPNs first-anniversary ("Biffy") Thorne, "the sole shoot in a loincloth!)." Beowulf explains issue confirms its outre sensi¬ surviving founder of DPN" to get the that readers had complained about the lack scoop on what makes this magazine so popular bility and style. The infamous of sex and violence in DPNs Captain Con¬ for those of us cover looking for love while a lot of couple are the winners of dom cartoon. "There'll be lots of sex and oui fellow the new Golden Pariah Awards, accolades for faggots look on us as "damaged violence [in issue no. 6]," he promises. In goods." Beowulf put out the current "first people with HIV who are traitors to the com¬ addition to the usual dystopic treasures anniversary" issue no. 5, which features Roy munity—Cohn won the Golden Pariah and (including endmarks that are HIV viral cap- Cohn and Kimberly Bergalis "Together for Bergalis the second-place Silver Sniveller sids), it'll have another installment in the award; the awards originated from the editors' Eternity" on the cover, with Humpy Editor perpetual saga of "How I Got AIDS." and International Liaison Tommy Ace and musing on a Lancet report that a truck-driver Available at 25 bookstores worldwide, the was infected with HIV while bashing some Sleazy Editor and Protector of the Streets supply runs from five copies at Berlin's Prinz Mikey Botkin. "Don't let our colophon fool fags. The zine's operations are as out-of- Eisenherz to hundreds of copies ordered by bounds as its content: The you," the editor's letter begins. 'The primary paper and photo¬ the A Different Light chain. To subscribe to reason for any publication is to get our editors copier time for the first issue were pilfered DPN, write a check for $10 to FOG Press, c/o laid...." And from a then, beneath the photographs of major university at taxpayer expense; Men's Support Center, PC Box 30564, Oak¬ its scanner time and Thome, Ace and Botkin, this alert: "The cre- image-setter galleys are land, CA 94604. mains of Dusty Deaditor [Tom Shearer] (for¬ stolen; its software is mooched; and the zine's film is developed outside laboratory regula¬ merly the Serene Editor) have been ground Jon NaUey is a contributing writer at QW. up and mixed into the ink used in this issue." tions.