Subject: NGLTF Press-Coroner Outrage
From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 1995 17:16:14 -0400

SPOKANE COUNTY CORONER BLAMES GAYS FOR RAPE AND MURDER OF NINE-YEAR-OLD GIRL

OFFICIAL RAILS AGAINST HOMOSEXUALS, PEOPLE WITH AIDS FOLLOWING AUTOPSY

STATEMENT FROM NATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN TASK FORCE

AUGUST 11, 1995...Dr. Dexter Amend, Spokane County Coroner in Washington
State, has invoked gays-and-child-molestation stereotypes by blaming the
sexual abuse and murder of a nine-year-old girl on homosexuals because an
autopsy showed the victim had been sexually molested, including sodomized.

 "She's been sodomized over and over and sodomy is a homosexual act, it is,"
said Dr. Amend, an elected official.  "To have everybody think homosexuality
is OK is a bunch of baloney.  I don't care what the political ramifications
are on this.  It's a horrible, unbelievable thing that this child went
through and they (homosexuals) destroyed her life."

 His comments have outraged local human rights commission members and gay and
lesbian citizens in Spokane and nationwide, and have called into question Dr.
Amend's ability to perform his job as a medical official. The controversy has
also stirred up scrutiny of homophobia and AIDSphobia in the medical
profession in general.

 The body of young Rachel Carver was found near the Spokane River on June 15.
 The girl's disappearance and murder has shocked the local community.  Police
arrested her uncle, Jason Wickenhagen, who confessed to the killing.  The
autopsy indicated the girl had been beaten to death and repeatedly sexually
assaulted.  KXLY Television local news reported that court records show
Rachel's father, uncle and her mother's boyfriend are all suspected of
molesting her over the years.

 Although there is no evidence whatsoever that Rachel Carver was ever abused
by a homosexual, Dr. Amend took the opportunity of releasing his autopsy
report to condemn gays and blame them for the spread of AIDS.

 Dr. Amend's comments, as reported by KXLY and the Spokesman-Review, include:
 "It's a crime that we don't expose the homosexual community, and it is not
just a simple...aberrant sexual activity.  It is significant when it takes in
innocent minds like this Carver gal.

 "I think it (homosexuality) is an aberrant sex activity that is promoted by
the thoughts and sensations that are associated with the sex act that drive
people to do...abnormal things and animalistic things and as a result bring
about cancers and death on the part of the recipients and the active
individuals."

 Until now, nobody has ever blamed or linked the death of Rachel Carver to
homosexuality or AIDS.  In follow-up interviews in the Spokesman-Review and
other local media, Dr. Amend said, "AIDS is a disease that comes from anal
intercourse and homosexuals have anal intercourse.  As a physician, my job is
to try to control disease.

 "It can't be normal considering the impact it has on the lifestyle and death
of people with AIDS...the bottom line, it (AIDS) wouldn't have started if
there wasn't homosexual activity that brought whatever causes
AIDS...reactivity of sperm in the rectum or whatever," said Amend.  There was
no indication from the autopsy report whether Rachel Carver had HIV or AIDS,
nor was there an explanation from Dr. Amend of why he was directly linking
HIV to this murder case.

 The Spokane Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has called for Dr. Amend's
resignation, saying, "Dr. Amend has scapegoated an entire group of people.
 His comments are personal in nature and devoid of fact.  Most sex crimes are
not perpetrated by gays or lesbians, but by heterosexual males. Homosexuality
and pedophilia are not the same thing.  The SHRC welcomes the opportunity to
help the public distinguish between the myth and reality regarding our gay
and lesbian neighbors."  Members of the local gay community are now
considering a recall campaign against Amend.

 Following is a statement from Robert Bray, spokesperson and field organizer
with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), the nation's oldest
gay, lesbian and bisexual civil rights group.

***

Dr. Amend's bigoted and unconscionable comments are revolting, medically
unsound and dangerous.  He is fueling an environment of harassment and
violence and has endangered the lesbian, gay and bisexual citizens of
Spokane.  His poisonous prejudice and erroneous "facts" prevent him from
serving the health and medical well-being of his community.  We call on
citizens of Spokane, the scientific and health professions, and all people of
conscience to stop this medical monstrosity.

 Dr. Amend makes two wildly inaccurate assumptions.  First, that sexual abuse
is only a gay phenomenon, and, second, being gay equals AIDS.

 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and
numerous national and international medical groups report that HIV affects
men, women and children regardless of their sexual orientation.  AIDS is the
leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 40.  HIV does
not discriminate, Dr. Amend does.

 The July 1994 issues of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of
Pediatrics and child welfare workers, reports that a child's risk of being
molested by a heterosexual may be more than 100 times greater than being
abused by a homosexual, lesbian or  bisexual.  The report, conducted by the
University of Colorado, states,  "No evidence is available from this data
that children are at greater risk to be molested by identifiable homosexuals
than by other adults," said the report.

 Dr. Amend's assertions about the victimization of young Rachel are based on
loathsome and medically indefensible stereotypes and mistruths.  They are
also seriously insensitive.  Although he is entitled to his personal
opinions, he cannot use his public health position to spew bigotry.  Imagine
if you are the traumatized parent of a person who has died of AIDS, or of a
deceased gay son or daughter, and you must take the body to Dr. Amend.  It
boggles the mind at how shocking, tragic and incompassionate Dr. Amend's
statements are to the family of Rachel Carver and the citizens of Spokane.   

 We support the call for his immediate resignation.  We also call on public
officials of Spokane -- particular the County Commissioners -- and clergy,
elected officials, the media, medical, child welfare and educational leaders
of the community to condemn the doctor's statements.  Silence equals
complicity and allows bigotry to perpetuate.

 Unfortunately, Dr. Amend's comments reveal a larger problem not endemic to
Spokane.  He is a licensed doctor as well as an elected official. Despite the
advances in medical and scientific research on AIDS and homosexuality,
prejudice and bigotry still permeate the medical profession.  Blind prejudice
allows physicians such as Dr. Amend to practice medicine and matriculate
through the medical academic system.  Therefore, we also call on the American
Medical Association and other professional coroner, medical school and health
professional groups, especially those in the state of Washington, to condemn
homophobic and AIDSphobic rhetoric of its practitioners such as Dr. Amend.
 We urge them to implement ongoing trainings that sensitize medical
practitioners to the facts about being gay.

 Finally we call on citizens of conscience around the nation to protest Dr.
Amend's comments, urge local officials to respond, and support the local gay
and human rights community.

 Write or call Dr. Amend at the Spokane County Coroner's Office, West 1201
Broadway, Spokane, Wash., 99206, (509)456-2296.  Write the County
Commissioners to protest Dr. Amend's position.  The County Commissioners are
George Marlton, Steve Hasson and Phil Harris, County Commission, 1116 W.
Broadway, County Courthouse, First Floor, Spokane, Wash., 99260-0100,
(509)456-2265 phone, (509)456-2274 fax.  Let Mayor Jack Geraghty know how you
feel, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd., Spokane, Wash., 99201,
(509)625-6250.

 Support the local gay community and the Human Rights Commission (HRC).
 Contact Craig Peterson, openly gay HRC vice chair, Spokane Human Rights
Commission, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd., Spokane, Wash., 99201-3322,
(509)625-6263 phone, fax (509)625-6217.  Also contact the Rev. Charles Wood,
Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG-Spokane), P.O. Box 40122,
Spokane, Wash., 99202-0901, (509)624-6671 phone.  Copy letters and faxes to
the Stonewall News, P.O. Box 3994, Spokane, Wash., 99220-3994, (509)456-8011
phone, (509)455-7013 fax; and the Spokesman-Review, editorial page editor, W.
999 Riverside, Spokane, Wash., 99201, (509)459-5000 phone, (509)459-5482 fax.
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