Fear of AIDS creates discrimination, officials say
By David Uczen
Staff Reporter
Just by getting an AIDS test done, Nebras
kans can be denied health or life insurance, said
John Taylor, the executive director of the
Nebraska Civil Liberties Union.
Taylor said Nebraska state laws indirectly
allow people to be denied insurance because
they have been tested for AIDS.
“State laws for Nebraska do not allow the
insurance commission to regulate the under
writing standards for insurance in this state,”
Taylor said, “unless that standard, is itself,
discriminatory.”
This was just one example Taylor used
Tuesday to tell about 50 people of the growing
problem of discrimination caused by the AIDS
epidemic.
Taylor and Anne Lamb, a medical social
worker at the Viral Syndrome Clinic at the
University of Nebraska Medical Center, spoke
at an AIDS in Nebraska symposium in the
Nebraska Union.
Lamb said the lack of knowledge and fear of
AIDS arc causes of discrimination.
“Fear is an issue we have to look at,” she
said.
Discrimination has occurred with all epi
demics throughout time, she said. Jokes about
AIDS indicate this, she said.
Taylor said people often are required to get
an AIDS test, for reasons such as entry into the
armed forces, ROTC or the Peace Corps. Lamb
said insurance companies won’t even consider
why the test was given, but will deny insurance
just because the AIDS lest was taken.
Lamb said she hopes to sec state and federal
governments regulate insurance underwriting
standards in the future.
New regulations would make sure compa
nies don’t discriminate against individuals
tested for AIDS.
Another form of discrimination, Taylor
said, is firing a person based indirectly on
sexual orientation.
“Frequently, what will happen,” Taylor
said, “is that the reason for the termination
finally given docs not mention sexual orienta
tion but because the employer knows that the
employee is gay ... they will assume he is a
carrier of the virus, and will find a way of
terminating him.”
Taylor said there is only one state which has
Dunlop: Conserving soil
crucial before efforts cut
By Lisa Richardson
Staff Reporter
Farmers should start conserving soil now
before government programs that help finance
conservation efforts arc axed, said George
Dunlop, U.S. assistant secretary of agriculture.
Dunlop spoke Tucsday at a soi 1 conservation
workshop at the University of Ncbraska-Lin
coln East Caippus. The workshop ends today.
Dunlop said government cost-sharing pro
grams and tax deductions exist to offset soil
conservation costs, but arc threatened by
budget pressures. He said the Gramm
Rudman-Hollings Act requires $40 billion per
year in federal budget cuts.
Under the 1985 farm bill, farmers must
develop a soil conservation plan by 1990 to
qualify for USDA programs such as price sup
ports and Farmer’s Home Administration
loans. They must use their conservation plan by
1995 to stay eligible for the programs.
Nebraska could lose more than $2 billion in
USDA farm program payments if farmers do
not develop soil conservation plans, said Pat
rick McGrane, public affairs specialist for the
USDA soil conservation service.
He said two-thirds of the state’s farmers
participate in the programs.
Dunlop said environmental protection
measures such as those in the farm bill are not
likely to change.
Conserving land and water now, he said,
may prevent future regulations.
“I want to see every farm with a plan — a
working, sensible plan,” he said.
Dunlop and McGranc suggested farmers
rotate crops, use low-till farming methods, or
build terraces and retaining walls to reduce soil
erosion, depending on land conditions.
Farmers whose land requires the most ex
pensive conservation measures should con
sider the 10-year Conservation Reserve Pro
gram, Dunlop said. The program pays farmers
yearly for each acre of erodable land planted
with grass or bushes, instead of crops.
McGranc said removing erodable cropland
from production will reduce surplus crops and
help the environment.
In Nebraska, 90,000 acres are currently
enrolled in the conservation reserve program,
McGranc said. He estimated that two million
acres in the state are eligible.
Dunlop said the Department of Agriculture
can enroll a maximum of45 million acres in the
program.
laws that prohibit discrimination based on
sexual orientation. Additionally, he said, there
are about 37 or 38 cities in the United States
with similar laws.
Taylor said no laws in Nebraska prohibit
discrimination on the basis of sexual orienta
tion.
WOMEN’S
: SWEIEK ‘88 upc
8 pm Keynote Speaker
TONI CADE BAMBARA
UNL City Campus Union-room to be
posted Childcare provided
Co-aponaora: Nebr. Committee for the Humanities
Common Woman, Women's Studies, English
Department, Multi cultural Affairs, and the
Institute for Ethnir Studies at UNL
Noon Video: Winnie Mandela
Women’s Resource Center
3 pm DEBORAH FINK
“Hidden History: Rural Midwestern
Women and the Market Economy’’
East Union-room to be posted
8 pm In Concert: PHRANC
Opening performance: JACI
AUGUSTINE and KATHY TEJCKA
East Union-Great Plains Room
Students $4 * Non-Students $5
Childcare provided *
Sign interpreted
Noon CHRISTINE MAMIYA
“Images and Issues: Feminist Art in
the 1970’s and 1980’s
City Union-room to be posted
3:30 pm Video: Maids and Madams
Women’s Resource Center
8 pm SONIA JOHNSON
“Going Out of Our Minds:
The Metaphysics of Liberation’’
City Union-room to be posted
Childcare provided * Sign
Interpreted
ECo-aponaora: CPC Talka and Topic* and
other community group*.
Noon Video: Maids and Madams
Women’s Resource Center
4 pm JANECONOLEY
“Sexual Harrassment”
City Union-room to be posted
7 pm Film: It’s Up To Us
(In recognition of International
Women’s Day) Multi-cultural center.
Noon DEBORAH McGRIFF
Speaking on the needs of Women of
Color on campus
Women’s Resource Center
Co-sponsor. Women’s Resource
Center (part of the
Women in Perspective series)
3:30 pm Video: Winona La Duke
“Beyond Duality: The Powers of
Diversity”
Women’s Resource Center
7:30 pm Video: Winona Mandela
City Union-room to be posted
Noon Video: Angela Davis
“Ideas and Experiences on the Theme
of Racism, Militarism and the Quest
for Women's Equality”
Women’s Resource Center
7:30 pm Films: DOMESTIC BUSS (a lesbian
sit-com/soap opera) and
WE AIM TO PLEASE (an early
feminist film on women’s
oppression)
City Union-room to be posted
Students Free * Non-Students $1
t Child-care provided
Co-sponsor. UPC Gay/Lesbian Program Committee
Noon Video: Winona La Duke
“Beyond Duality: The Power of
Diversity”
Women's Resource Center
8-12 pm Dance: With live music by
AMETHYST
East Union-Great Plains Room
Students $1.50 * Non-Students $2
Childcare provided
Unless noted, no admission
charged at events.
For more information, call the
Women’s Resource Center at
472-2597.
All events are wheel chair accessible.
Class sees prison
PRISON from Page 1
identification and had to leave to get
it. One student didn’t get in because
she could not find a photo ID.
Students were then frisked by a
security guard after removing all
loose articles from their clothing.
Janet Wilson, a graduate student
monitoring the class, said being
frisked was a unique experience.
Students then were escorted be
hind bars by security guards and saw
the main control room, which moni
tors the prison.
Walking into the courtyard, stu
dents were heckled by several prison
ers.
Students were taken to one of the
four residential units.
Several students remarked about
the size of the cells. i
“It’s smaller than my dorm room,”
Wilson said. ;
Jennifer Oconnor, a junior mem
ber of the class, said the inmates must
want to kill each other in that amount
of space.
After the tour, students gathered in
the visitors’ room to meet with the
Seventh Step group.
The group’s purpose is to work
with the community and assist con
victs irtto re-entering society produc
tively, explained Heze Kiah Pittman,
president of the Seventh Step Founda
tion.
Pittman said the group liked the
visit with students because his group
hopes to get rid of stereotypes about
prisoners.
“This was an opportunity for us to
be a part of the educational process,”
he said.
Ortega said she was impressed
with the trip and plans to lake students
to the penitentiary again.
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