Subject: AIDS Cure TV spots made...to air Monday in Tennessee
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 1996 21:25:10 -0500

ACT UP'ers targets Tennessee & Gore
Activists to run HIV prevention focused radio spots on Christian Radio
for immediate release      November 3, 1996
contact Vice-Presidential candidate ANN NORTHROP at (212).727.8674
or Presidential Candidate STEVE MICHAEL at (202) 547.6780

 ACT UP member Wayne Turner is traveling to Vice-President Al Gore's hometown
of Carthage, Tennessee tonite (November 3, 1996) to purchase uncensorable
advertising on a Southern Christian Gospel radio station . The ads are being
paid for by the Steve Michael Presidential Campaign Committee to promote a
progressive national AIDS policy.  
 The campaign placed ads earlier this year on Manchester, New Hampshire's
WMUR where Michael challenged Bill Clinton on his AIDS record.  Those ads
were aired, then censored by WMUR when fundamentalist Christians called the
station and complained.  The Michael campaign then filed a complaint with the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)  On October 4, 1996 the FCC ruled in
favor of the Michael campaign saying that "the station violated the
no-censorship prohibition" of the Communications Act.  The FCC ruling
continued, saying that regulations "bar licensees from exercising censorship
of political advertising (for 'legally qualified' candidates for federal
office)."  Turner is traveling to the Volunteer State armed with a copy of
the ruling and expects no problems..  
 Turner, who is the national chair of the AIDS Cure Party is placing radio
and television spots in both Carthage and Nashville.  Turner describes the
radio advertisment this way --- "It exposes President Bill Clinton's string
of broken promises, notes the need of frank, open and honest HIV prevention
programs that stress the importance of latex condoms and water-based
lubricants for anal and vaginal sex, chastizes Bill Clinton for his signature
on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and, most importantly challenges
Vice-President Al Gore to get off his butt become a leader in the war on
AIDS."
 States Michael, "I've given up on Bill Clinton.  He has betrayed us time and
time again on both AIDS and Gay civil rights issues.  Al Gore could be
different.  Our time, effort and energy must be spent on the vice-president
with the hope that Al Gore will realize that his future political career
depends on AIDS leadership."
 Adds Northrop, "Expect us to maintain pressure on Gore and the other
potential Democratic nominees.  They will need our votes in 2000. Those votes
will be earned, not given."  Turner, Michael and Northrop were among the ACT
UP members that disrupted a speech by Al Gore in Chicago during the
Democratic National Convention.  After that disruption Turner met with the
vice-president.  Notes Turner, "Gore knows what we want.  I explained the
need for a cabinet-level AIDS czar, a Manhattan-style Project to Cure AIDS,
real HIV prevention that focus attention on sexually active Gay men and
injection drug users.  There is no excuse for further delay.  These radio ads
are the begining of our four year campaign to force the next Democratic
nominee for president to become an AIDS activist.
 The AIDS Cure Party will also place ads on Nashville television stations
that show two men kissing, discuss the importance of condoms and water-based
lubricant and, educate the public on syringe-cleaning techniques.  The
Clinton-Gore Administration has refused to fund needle exchange programs even
though there is universal consensus that needle exchange programs are a
valuable arsenal in the war on AIDS.  The Clinton-Gore Administration has
also refused to fund valuable research on anal microbicides that could
protect Gay men that are sexually active and anal receptive.
 Michael, Northrop and Turner were instrumental in putting on sufficent
political pressure by shaming the Clinton-Gore campaign into pulling their
recent radio ads on Christian radio stations that touted the presidential
signature on the Defense of Marriage Act.
 Allen Ritter, Washington, D.C. coordinator for the AIDS Cure Party disclosed
that, "Funding for the ads came from Gay and AIDS activists from across
America that believe politicians at all levels of government, both Republican
and Democratic understand our resolve in our fight for an AIDS cure and our
struggle for equal rights and liberation."
 "We believe that the presidency is the key to victory in the war on AIDS.
 We need a president that will keep the AIDS promises that Bill Clinton made
to mostly dead ACT UP members in 1992," states Michael.
 He concludes, "We are telling Al Gore, Dick Gephart Bob Kerrey and all the
other pretenders to the presidential throne that we will no longer settle for
a few crumbs, we demand the whole loaf.  The 2000 campaign has begun --- and
angry AIDS activists have fired the first shot of that campaign."

Note to Editors>>>>
Transcripts of both the televison and radio ads are available upon request.  

Cassette tapes of the radio ad are also available

Northrop, Michael and Turner are available for interviews.  

Call either (202) 547.6780. or (212) 727-8674.  Turner will be in Nashville
through November 6, 1996.