1980. Media: The New York Native
The New York Native began publication in December 1980 as a fortnightly newspaper for that city’s LGBT community.
It’s founders would undoubtedly have planned to reflect the community’s diverse activities and interests in its columns. But it was its coverage of the AIDS crisis that made it memorable and, many have argued, ultimately led to its demise.
The first issues were barely off the press when the AIDS crisis hit, so it found itself with the ambiguous honour of being the first publication to print an article about AIDS.
Admittedly, it was about the Centers for Diseases Control’s (CDC) denial on May 18th 1981, that a ‘gay cancer’ was developing:
“Last week there were rumors that an exotic new disease had hit the gay community in New York. Here are the facts. From the New York City Department of Health, Dr Steve Phillips explained that , for the most part, the rumors are unfounded. Each year approximately 12 to 24 cases of infection with a protozoa -like organism, Pneumocystis Carinii, are reported in New York City Area. The organism is not exotic; in fact, it’s ubiquitous. But most of of us have a natural or easily acquired immunity.”
If only! Less than four weeks later, on June 5th 1981, the CDC published their first ever report on the immune suppressing condition that was to become known as AIDS.
As those of us who were around at that time know, it was a time of great fear; nobody knew what caused it let alone how to start treating it. And, in part borne out of that fear, a number of strange theories developed. Most of these were developed by our enemies – ‘the wrath of God’ and all of that rubbish.
But, in November 1982, the Native published an article by Richard Berkowitz and Michael Callen We Know Who We Are: Two Gay Men Declare War on Promiscuity. In it, the two men argued that AIDS was not caused by a single causative agent but was down to the combination of factors associated with gay men’s ‘promiscuous’ lifestyles – drug use, multiple sexual partners and repeated exposure to other sexually-transmissible infections. It was widely criticised – not least because it had no scientific basis and also because it assumed that all gay men with AIDS had lived so-called ‘promiscuous’ lifestyles.
But other controversial articles did seem better informed. For example, on June 1st, 1987, it published an article on AZT, which had been approved for use on people with AIDS on March 20th. The author, John Lauritsen, had acquired documents relating to the clinical tests that had led to its approval and was in no doubt that the results had been doctored. He listed a range of concerns, including the fact that the drug’s toxicity had been seriously under-stated. Consequently, he warned:
“Recovery from AIDS will come from strengthening the body, not poisoning it. Do not take, prescribe or recommend AZT.”
In March 1983, the paper published a seminal article by AIDS activist Larry Kramer. 1,112 and Counting was Kramer’s furious attack on the apathy and neglect from politicians, clinicians and parts of the community in the face of the emerging AIDS crisis. Kramer was subsequently criticised for appearing to blame just about everybody but, given the situation at that time, it’s hard not to sympathise with his fury and his plea for a more effective response.
Sadly, there seems to be a general consensus (including the view of its founder, Charles Orteb) that the Native seriously lost the plot at some point and came across as paranoid and embittered. Central to the criticisms was the view that the Native eschewed the growing wealth of scientific data on causation and possible treatments in favour of the latest fad or conspiracy theory. The newspaper, it seemed, just wanted to find the negativity in everything.
Little surprise then that, by the mid-1980’s, ACT UP were boycotting the publication and its circulation went from a high of 20,000 in 1985 to 8,000 in 1996. It closed on 13th January 1997.
It’s amazing how bizarre Charles Ortleb really was. I was the first managing editor for The New York Native and at the same time, Christopher Street Magazine. Ortleb was so self loathing that he did not believe there could be such things as gay teens. The Native pulled articles on gay parenting as inappropriate for children to have gay parents. He was a firm supporter of Molestation Breeds Homosexuality and it was his attempt to skew the articles his staff wrote to promote being gay as the problem that led to his combatting the scientific community regarding AIDS. It as also why after the second year the entire staff had left and he replaced what could have been a great team with the weird crew that eventually brought the paper to its knees.
Conspiracies and those who promote medical misinformation are more dangerous that one might realize.
I worked for Charles Ortleb, a conspiracy theorist, who believed the HIV/AIDS was a hoax instead he believed that it was HHV6 African Swine Flu Virus. It has long since been disproved that HHV6 African Swine Fever Virus) is the cause of AIDS. It has been proven that HIV is the cause of AIDS.
I worked for That New Magazine, Inc. Chuck Ortleb was the Publisher-in-Chief. I watched as he funneled money from both Christopher Street Magazine as well as TheaterWeek into the struggling New York Native. At one time, That New Magazine, Inc. published The New York Native, CityWeek, TheaterWeek, Opera Monthly and Night & Day Entertainment Guide.
I served as their Administrative Assistant and I tried in the worst way to get Neenyah Ostrom (One-time Managing Editor and journalist) and Chuck Ortleb to stop publishing about AIDS and HHV6 and focus on local events in the LGBTQIA community, all no absolutely no avail.
In all fairness and to give credit where it is due, I will say that the article by Larry Kramer which appeared in the March 27, 1983 edition of the New York Native entitled 1,112 and Counting was groundbreaking. The Native was the first newspaper to even publish a story on the AIDS epidemic.
The Native could no longer get advertisers to advertise with them because of the obsessive articles about HIV not being the cause of AIDS. Every issue had more and more misleading information. I watched as an increasing number of community centers bars rejected the New York Native. Advertisers refused to advertise in the Native, so he took the successful TheaterWeek and Christopher Street Magazine and sadly dragged them down along with the Native. It all blew up when in January 1997 TNM, Inc and all its publications went bankrupt. It was sad and pathetic really. I watched as he went deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. He believed that this was all a government conspiracy designed to kill off all the gay men.
It is really sad that many good people lost their jobs because he refused to budge. He surrounded himself with yes-people who would or could not stand up to him. Reminds me of someone in the Oval Office.
I’ve lost two close friends because they, believing this harmful nonsense, took themselves off the medications that were saving and prolonging their lives. They read and believed Chuck’s books, were subscribers to the Native. They believed in these long disproven theories.
I cannot stress enough how irresponsible writing like this can be, especially in these horrid times. As children die due to diseases that were one irradiated because they refuse vaccines. As they endanger the public health by creating measles, mumps and rubella outbreaks across the country. As HIV patients reject treatment and medicines because they believe that HHV6 is the actual cause of AIDS, and this nonsense only serves to give voice to those who refuse to wear a mask. A simple thing that can prevent many deaths is currently being fought by US citizens because they wrongfully believe Mikovits that the masks cause the illness.
I am sorry, I work in healthcare. I wear a mask all day long for 12 hour shifts. I see the results of quackery like this being touted. My goal is to help protect lives not harm them.
This information is dangerous to the unsuspecting public who is already looking for something to give assurances of life. This is medically and socially irresponsible.
Charles Ortleb should go back to being a playwright, which he is qualified to be, and stay away from medical advice. He has, since the 1980s and 1990s tried, and failed repeatedly, to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci who is a prominent American physician and immunologist who has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.
I had a ‘long,short story’ published in a sister magazine called, “Stonewall Press”. There was an Editor there named, Neenya Ostrom (my spelling might be wrong).There are some new developments concerning my writing that I’d like to tell her about (or possibly YOU, if you’d care to know). Do you know who she is,and how to contacts her?
Any help would be of course most appreciated.
Stuart Lee
If anyone can help here I’d be happy to pass on informtion to Stuart. Colin
NONYN@AOL.COM is Neenyah Ostrom email address. I haven’t from her in a long while.
I produced a weekly gay and lesbian news report for the Pacifica Radio station in Los Angeles in the 1980s and tapped the Native as a key source of news from New York. Kramer’s “1,112 and Counting” was, in my opinion, one of the most important features to run in the LGBT media ever. It certainly added to the sense of urgency I felt about the epidemic and drove much of my subsequent work as a journalist and as a producer of health education videos in the 1980s and 1990s. I think many of us believed we had a responsibility – and a limited amount of time – to save the next generation. Whatever its failings, the Native holds an important place in the history of LGBT journalism. Thanks for this article.
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