Petrelis Files

Forwarded Message:

Subj: What have you done?
Date: 6/17/2004 3:21:35 PM Central Daylight Time
From: Scott.Evertz@hhs.gov
To: MPetrelis@aol.com
Sent from the Internet (Details)



Hi Michael,

In an e-mail you state:
"Now come this story about Evertz making a donation to the Stop AIDS
Project. Perhaps he needs to be reminded the agency's programs have done
little to reverse San Francisco's sub-Saharan levels of new HIV
transmissions, an exploding syphilis epidemic and increases of other STDs."
You too are in San Francisco, correct? Can you tell me what you have done
to "reverse San Francisco's sub-Saharan levels of new HIV transmissions, an
exploding syphilis epidemic and increases of other STDs?"
Thank you,
Scott

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott H. Evertz
Special Assistant to the Secretary for Global HIV/AIDS Initiatives
Office of the Secretary
Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
- - -


Dear Mr. Evertz:

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns.

Regarding the matter of what I've done to prevent HIV and STDs among sexually active gay men, I wish to bring two things to your attention.

First of all, when I learned about the Reality polyurethane pouch, sold as a female vaginal condom, which can also be used for anal sex, I used and publicized Reality as a device for gay men to use as a way of halting HIV transmission.

Second, in 1997, I led the effort to persuade the San Francisco Department of Public Health to distribute penile condoms to all of the gay bars.

But don't take my word for it. Read the excerpts below from a 1996 Bay Area Reporter story about my efforts regarding Reality, and a 1997 press release from the Stop AIDS Project about putting penile condoms in gay venues. [1, 2]

Finally, while I have never served as an AIDS czar, or czarina, I have been known to wear a tiara during my drag queen days.

Regards,
Michael Petrelis

Sources:

1. www.aegis.org
Bay Area Reporter, February 29, 1996
[snip]

San Francisco AIDS activists Michael Petrelis became the first male to ask for the internal condoms at the city health clinics, which lead to a brief inquiry by the city's Human Rights Commission into whether the refusal to his request constituted sex discrimination, before the policy was changed.

Petrelis said he is outraged that the federal government stopped progress on the Aegis because of homophobia, and also derided health officials for not fully investigating the Reality, which he blamed on "the de-gaying of AIDS" and homophobia.

"According to the most recent annual report put out by the San Francisco AIDS Office (in 1991-92) people with AIDS in this city are 98 percent male," he said in a recent interview. "Eighty-six percent of them got it through male-male sex - and there's this wonderful thing out there that can save lives, but because they're called `female condoms' even out gay public health officials don't know what they are, or that they've already been studied for anal sex."

Next, he said, he may file a class action lawsuit to make the internal condoms available to men statewide.

"How many gay people must contract HIV/AIDS through anal sex," he asked, "before the authorities think we can handle Reality?"

[snip]

2. http://www.qrd.org/qrd/aids/1997/

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: Contacts: 415.621.7177
Friday, November 7, 1997 Steven Gibson, x.258
Robert A. Pérez, x.236

C O N D O M S N O W ! !

STOP AIDS Distributes Over 150,000 Condom in First 6 Weeks of New Program;
Gay & Bi Men Are Snatching Them Up Left & Right at Their Favorite Bars &
Clubs

San Francisco -- In just six weeks, the STOP AIDS Project has successfully
distributed over 150,000 condoms to 71 bars, clubs and retail stores as a
part of its new program to offer free condoms year round to gay and bisexual
men. Gay and bi men are eagerly helping themselves to the free condoms. The
new program represents one of the most successful collaborations to date
between businesses and a community based organization.

[snip]
Michael Petrelis, one of the community activists who led the effort to get
condoms into the bars, applauded the success of the program and called for
its continued funding.

"I hope the AIDS Office will permanently fund this necessary project. I
applaud the collaboration between the STOP AIDS Project and the bar owners.
Condoms in the bars remind all of us that sex is good and that the AIDS
crisis is not over," said Michael Petrelis, a member of ACT UP Golden Gate.

[snip]