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FINAL edition: Christopher Street and the New York Native pay the. ultimate price for promoting maverick theories about AIDS
When the New York Native folded January 13 after 16 years of publication, few were surprised. Operating a gay newsmagazine in New York City is a herculean task. Publications go in and out of style -- and solvency -- faster than the latest fashions. Costs are high, and competition for readers from nongay media is intense. But the Native's demise may actually have had more to do with its unpopular crusade to disprove the widely accepted notion that HIV is the cause of AIDS.
"Over the past year the myth that the epidemic is over because of new drugs has meant that we are perceived as unnecessary to readers and advertisers," says Charles Ortleb, the editor and publisher of the weekly. "I'm afraid people are going to learn the hard way that the new AIDS drugs are a lethal combination of toxic activists and fraudulent...