County Supervisors’ Vote on AIDS Anti-Bias Measure

June 13 found me, the mother of an AIDS patient, sitting in the Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting room awaiting a vote on a proposed AIDS anti-discrimination ordinance. After one hour and 15 minutes of listening to the public express fear, anger, ignorance and a desire for revenge, I knew I had to take my turn at the podium.

I was later to find out that the three supervisors--Gaddi H. Vasquez, Don R. Roth, and Roger R. Stanton--who voted against the ordinance had already made up their minds and read from prepared statements. Insult to injury! They hid their fear and prejudice behind “existing federal laws.” Shame on you, gentlemen. One more time you have failed the community that elected you. Come on, wake up and smell the issue: It’s life and death, not a moral issue.

I’d like to share my child’s story here, but space does not permit. An AIDS patient is running out of time minute by minute, not month by month. A local ordinance would add muscle to existing federal laws and make it easier for the AIDS patient to seek and receive help on a local level. More important, on a local level it would be illegal to discriminate against people who either test positive for HIV virus or have ARC or AIDS. Like the rest of us, they only want to work and live without a cloud of fear hanging over them.

I am a member of Mothers of AIDS Patients, and we are angry. Orange County is hurting our already injured children. We have chosen to pick up the gauntlet for our children. Shame on you, Vasquez, Roth and Stanton. You had the opportunity to change the face of human rights in Orange County. You could have seized the day, pulled the cord and brought us out from behind the Orange Curtain.

MICHELLE C. MEYERS

Fountain Valley