THIS MONTH IN HISTORY-- May 2008

By Don Schwamb and Michail Takach
 

1978 – Thirty Years Ago  – Saugatuck Lodges, self-described as both the “Fire Island of the Midwest” and the “gayest resort in the Great Lakes” announced its opening for the 1978 summer season. Offering five acres of secluded woods, campsites, restaurants, a disco, and a nude beach, Saugatuck Lodges was a screaming deal by today’s standards, with camping at $4/night and summer rooms starting at $17/night. The resort offered monthly events all season long, including Leather Week, Mr. Jockey Shorts Contest, and of course, the “famous giggle weed parties.”

1988 – Twenty Years Ago

LGBT activists were outraged when a cereal commercial for Kellogg’s Nut’N’Honey seemed to encourage gay-bashing. As the memorable Old West scene played out, an effeminate chuck wagon cook is asked by a butch cowboy what’s for breakfast. When he responds, “Nut’N’Honey,” the entire cowboy camp quickly draw their guns on the cook for what they understand to be a romantic pass.  
The Coalition against Media/Marketing Prejudice (CAMMP), a Chicago-based media watchdog group, called for the immediate withdrawal of the ad campaign. “These commercials are not merely offensive, but they send a serious and dangerous message: that gays and lesbians, or anyone perceived as sexually or behaviorally different, are easy and acceptable targets for trivialization and/or direct violence.”
Kellogg’s vice-president for public affairs assured the media that there was no intention to promote violence against the LGBT community. CAMMP quickly countered with a statement that “any commercial in which gun-toting cowboys threaten to kill a cook who they think has called them ‘honey’ implicitly promotes a dangerous message endorsing violent intimidation of gays and lesbians.” Kellogg’s later pulled the ad.

1993 – Fifteen Years Ago

Following a two-week cryptosporidium epidemic that caused over 100 deaths, infected over 400,000 Milwaukee residents with gastrointestinal illness, and attracted negative media attention for the city, the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin disclosed a five-month-old study suggesting that Milwaukee had a long-standing problem with cryptosporidium contamination.   
Originally mistaken for a flu epidemic, the cryptosporidium outbreak was especially cruel to persons with weakened immune systems. During the crisis, 48% of Milwaukee AIDS Project patients reported illnesses, 12 were hospitalized for dehydration, and four actually died.  Although it was never determined if the four deaths were caused by water contamination, the Milwaukee AIDS Project continued to advise its clients to use only boiled or bottled water for years after the outbreak.
Although a malfunctioning water treatment plant received most of the blame, the root cause of the contamination was never fully isolated. To this day, Milwaukee’s cryptosporidium crisis remains the largest waterborne disease outbreak ever documented in American history.

1998 – Ten Years Ago

A decade ago, Viagra was released by the FDA and became instantly popular for its affects on erectile dysfunction. However, the medical health community asked ground-breaking questions about Viagra’s safe interaction with other medications, notably protease inhibitors and antibiotics commonly used by HIV patients. It was rumored that combining Viagra and amyl nitrate (i.e., poppers) could be deadly – and this was later validated by researchers, who proved a Viagra-nitrate combination could cause a fatal drop in blood pressure. In May 1998, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) met with drug manufacturer Pfizer, Inc. to lobby for improved consumer education on Viagra’s health risks.

Find out about these and other historical events in Wisconsin’s GLBT community at the Milwaukee History Project website: www.wisconsingayhistory.org