Petrelis Files

DPH Gay STD Summit: Public Excluded

On December 4, in keeping with its policy of devising HIV and STD prevention strategies in the dark without any sunshine, the San Francisco Department of Public Health's STD control unit held a "Community Meeting" that excluded the public. Two participants have informed me of what was on the agenda, shared the print outs of the PowerPoint slides, and complained to me that this sort of closed-door approach is not healthy for sexually active gay men.

Of course, once I heard about this meeting I checked recent editions of our two local gay rags, the BAR and the Bay Times, in addition to re-reading the minutes of the October and November meetings of the HIV prevention planning council, and didn't see anything announcing the December forum.

Click here to see that the meeting was not promoted at the HIV meetings, click here to see no announcement in the BAR and click here for the same at the Bay Times.

The gay lapdog who is kept on a very short leash and sits on the prevention council, Frank Strona, apparently didn't lift a paw to make the meeting a true community-driven event. Can't have actual gay men who are concerned about prevention programs but don't work for DPH or an agency dependent on the DPH for funding attend the meeting.

What was discussed? Issues included new epidemiology on gay men, new social marketing campaigns targeting sexually active gay men, evaluations of recent older ad efforts, oh, and that troubling matter of engaging and involving gay men to avert new STDs and HIV.

I wish I could say the December 4 meeting was an aberration and that it is not the standard operating procedure of DPH to conduct its gay HIV and STD programs out of public view, or that the decisions made behind closet doors are not then presented to the at-risk gay community as a done deal, but I can't.

Need I mention a Sunshine Act request has been filed for the minutes, official agenda, list of attendees, and copies of the PowerPoint slides?

The December 4 invitation-only meeting is DPH and AIDS Inc conducting business as usual.