New threat to gay people Dangers in Tory Police Bill

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•SCIENCE IN MARLOWE'S "Tragical History of Edward the Second' an unusual and 'fitting' punishment is reserved for the openly homosexual king. Left to the devices of his murderers, the unfortunate man, has a red-hot poker shoved up his anus.

That scene dramatically and graphically illustrates straight suciety's obsession with anal sex, which is presumed to be what 'they" get up to whenever they get the chance. Of course, this concentration on the physical aspects of homosexuality (lesbians also suffer from the "I'll bet she's got a dildo" complex) neatly avoid any notion of feeling or love - far too dangerous!

How, you might be asking, does this relate to the Police and Criminal Evidence Bill now making its way through Parliamentary Committees?

Provisions have been laid down in the Bill for conducting intimate body searches and taking intimate body samples' from those held in detention. Obtaining samples would reSINCE I wrote about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS) at the beginning of the year, more light has been shed on this terrifying disease. AIDS is a condition where the body becomes unable to defend itself against even the mildest infections, and KS (the 'killer cancer' of my original article) is one of a number of rare diseases that have taken advantage of AIDS.

From first reports in 1978, AIDS has mushroomed, known cases roughly doubling in the last six months to 1339 by mid-April (notified to the US Centre for Disease Control), with 505 deaths (38%). Abroad, only about 100 cases have been reported so far.

When I wrote in January, scientists were divided over the causes of AIDS, but it is now fairly well accepted that it is caused by some infectious agent - probably a virus, spreading via body fluids such as blood, urine or semen.

The evidence for this is:

1. The vast majority of cases have been found in New York, Los Angeles and Miami, as if a disease were spreading out from single cases, 2. Most victims seem to do things which could allow a virus to spread.

For example, 70% quire a detainee's consent, and must be carried out by a doctor. But the searches can be performed without consent by a police officer of the same sex.

The searches are meant to be for concealed propert but it does not - I believe - take much imagination to see that they can be used in other ways to intimidate or even to torture a detainee. And if that person happens to be gay, what more fitting punishment could they have than getting something shoved up their anus. are gay men with lots of sexual partners. Frequent sex can cause soreness and cracks in the skin which could allow viruses into the blood stream. Interestingly, some of the few women victims of AIDS have been prostitutes.

A further 20% of victims came from people who inject drugs. Using dirty needles is already known to cause the spread of hepatitis virus.

Furthermore, a small but growing number of haemophiliacs (people whose blood will not clot, so that a tiny cut will bleed indefinitely) are turning up with AIDS. Many American haemophiliacs receive regular injections of 'Factor VIII' , a substance that helps blood clot.

Factor VIII is extracted from 'donated' blood in the US. I say 'donated' , but in fact blood is bought and sold in the US, so that blood 'donors' tend to be people who need the money and hence may not be in the peak of condition. Also, no way of testing blood for the presence of AIDS exists yet, so the AIDS virus may be passed on together with Factor VIII.

Factor VIII is exported to Europe, which may explain five cases of AIDS among British and Spanish haemophiliacs.

So, AIDS seems to be caused by a virus - but what virus? And where has it come from?

In fact, this is just what one gay man claimed happened to him when he was arrested in Liverpool at the time of the riots. The implement used by the police officer was said to have been a standard police truncheon.

Other areas of the Bill are much clearer in intent.

Only recently the Commons Committee on the Bill has accepted that constables should have a new power of arrest with. out warrant to prevent anyone causing "an affront to public decency"

Let me give you an example of what the police deem this to be.

'In Leeds Central railway station two lesbians were detained for half an hour by transport police after they had some parting kisses before one took a train to Bradford. Although they were not charged and were released after questioning the women were threatened with a charge of breach of the peace.

•'The officer made an announcement over the loudspeaker system apologising for the 'incident' that had occurred in the station entrance hall, and for any offence it had caused passengers". (From 'Gays and the Law', by Paul Crane, Pluto The latest theory, from Dr Jane Teas of the Harvard School of Public Health (Boston, Mass.) is that the AIDS virus is a form of the African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) which has mutated so that it is able to infect humans. A bizarre idea at first sight, but consider these facts.

1. The first cases of AIDS were found among Haitian refugees to the US, in 1978. Many Haitians were interned in Miami, where 7% of AIDS cases come from. Haitians are the other main group of AIDS victims.

2. ASF was confirmed in Haiti shortly after the first AIDS cases.

3. Both AIDS and ASF cause fever and loss of appetite and both seem to affect the immune system similarly. ASF is spread among pigs through blood, urine and faeces.

Dr Teas suggests that AIDS may have started with a Haitian person eating infected pork. If this person had a stomach ulcer or other break in the lining of the mouth or gut, the virus could have got into the blood, to be passed on to other humans in one of the ways previously suggested. This theory is now being tested by infecting pigs' blood with blood from AIDS patients.

A final twist to the story: how did ASFV reach the Caribbean from Africa?

Well, in 1971 ASF broke out in Press).

It is to be noted that no member of the public had actually complained about the display of affection. In fact, it was probably only the policeman who had noticed it.

Searches

The Bill also gives the police the power - on a magistrate's warrant - to enter and search ahy premises for evidence of a serious arrestable offence.

This lays the homes and meeting places of gays open to searches on the whim of the police, under the pretext of 'gross indecency', "soliciting', 'importuning' or 'under-age sex', etc. etc. - terms used by the law to describe homosexual activities.

For instance, last autumn we had the 'Chiswick Party Raid' in which police officers arrested, Cuba - as a result of biological warfare by the CIA against the Castro regime. This was the first detained and questioned 37 gay men who were guests at a private birthday party. A drunk who had become abusive - believed to be a gatecrasher -had been ejected from the house. He had gone to the police with tales of under-age sex.

No charges were brought yet the men had to endure humiliating questions on intimate details of their sex lives. Added to this, they were kept in appalling conditions, with 21 people in a cell less than eight feet square with just one hard bench and a toilet with an open door. The toilet in the other cell where the remainder were kept did not work. And, of course, the police were generally abusive.

One of the reasons I have for giving all these examples is that they have all occurred before the Police and Criminal Evidence Bill becomes law. There is little reason for believing it won't, despite the numerous objections made against it from such sources as the Law Society, the Legal Action Group, the Institute of Race Relations, the Children's Legal Centre, Jack Jones (former general secretary of the TGWU and member of the Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure), the British Medical Association and even Police Review.

We have every reason to fear that police oppression of gays will develop, with the aid of this despicable piece of legislation, into a full-scale campaign.

Labour Campaign for Gay Rights, c/o 61A Bloom St, Manchester

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Stephen Spurdon of the Labour Campaign for Gay Rights looks at a little-discuss ed aspect of the Tories' notorious new proposed lav