Broadway Cares Donates $20,000 to ACT UP Anniversary Actions

Thanks much, Tom Viola and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS!

Dear Michael:

Thank you for sending me your e-mail. I know we've met - or at least been in the same rooms a couple of times, but I don't think we've ever really had a conversation.

Nevertheless, I feel like we have now after reading your blog. You quote from Kusher's ANGELS IN AMERICA brought me to tears as well. I'd seen the play and movie, but forgotten the line. Certainly that rush of emotion is part of what prompted me to call Eric Sawyer.

He told me a bit about your fledgling plans and the meeting planned for January 11th. I won't be at the meeting. But I told Eric that he could count Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS for $20,000 in support of your efforts. He is writing a letter that I will attached to your blog to request the check. It has to be made out to a 501(c)(3) - which will be AFRICAN COMMUNITY SERVICES. So perhaps I should be in touch with someone there to make sure they create a "budget line" for the ACT UP events.

Michael, I often feel like I play an odd part in these last 20 years up here in the middle of "show queen heaven". While I have never been in action at places like the NIH, Wall Street, Jesse Helm's home or outside the White House (and the quilt displays I've been to just don't count), I admire the in your face courage of forcing people in action with their own discomfort, even as what we do up here often means I must be much more polite, grateful and ensuring a "win-win" for all.

(While never arrested for ACTING UP - I do have the distinction once in my somewhat hazy youth being arrested for "acting out". 2 days lock-up downtown. Fun.) So like I said, we've been in some of the same rooms.

Nevertheless, I am proud that BC/EFA can often use the millions it raises from very middle-of-the road theatre audiences and - and get it to the men and women on the front lines - who, as I told the BC/EFA, Board when they took me to task for an ACT UP donation a number of years back, "had the guts, comption and most importantly, smarts" to raise hell in a way that allows up all to sit here comfortably and feel good about being generous to people whose lives at one time were considered expendable by church, state and many we live and work with.

All the best, Michael. To you and all at ACT UP. Perhaps we will run into each other at one or the other events - and hopefully not over baloney sandwichs and apple juice.

Sincerely,
Tom Viola
Executive Director
Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS

ACT UP Turns 20 in March 2007; Actions Planned

Ten random notes for a column on ACT UP:

No 1.

It all started because writer Nora Ephron had a cold. She was supposed to hold a reading at the NYC gay and lesbian community center at its monthly guest speakers series for February 1987, but a case of the sniffles forced her to cancel about a week before the talk.

Yes, the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power would have come into existence even if Ephron had delivered her speech, but her small role in the birth of ACT UP is something that has always given me special pleasure, because I've been a fan of her writing since the 1970s and feel part of her sterling wit, ferocious intelligence, liberal political leanings and humor, are qualities that ACT UP embodied.

Ephron is that rare individual, who all because of a runny nose, changed human history for the better at the end of the last century. I think only rulers of the old Soviet Politburo affected history, for the worse, when they caught colds.


No 2.

Prior to ACT UP coming around, I was in the Mob, as in the Lavender Hill Mob, a group of queer and AIDS activists, numbering no more than a dozen individuals, that engaged in zaps against religious, government, media institutions and, occasionally, gay leaders and AIDS executives.

A week or so before Larry Kramer stood in for Ephron and roused a crowd into anger, getting organized and hitting the streets to get arrested, a handful of us Mobsters descended on Atlanta for a CDC conference to consider routine HIV testing of all people entering hospitals.

Wearing drab gray shirts with streaks of black stripes, stenciled numbers and pink triangles sewn above the numbers, and painters' caps also dyed gray on our heads, evoking homosexuals in Nazi concentration camps, we disrupted the federal conference.

Actually, just showing up at the amFAR cocktail reception the night before the meeting started made many gay leaders and government officials nervous and tense. All we Mobsters wanted was to change the agenda to one about drugs for the infected.


No 3.

Since I'm name-dropping, let me mention that actor Martin Sheen, a friend of Larry's who had performed as Ned Weeks in his play "The Normal Heart," was at ACT UP's first meeting. Time magazine's medical reporter Christine Gorman was also there. I'd love to read the notes she took that night. Can we count Sheen and Gorman as among the first ACT UPpers?


No 4.

This is an important name to file away for the historical footnotes. The man who gave us the acronym ACT UP, may he rest in peace, was named Steve Bohrer. Here's another name to remember -- Mike Salinas. He wrote the first story on ACT UP while serving as news editor at the NY Native.


No 5.

As 2006 drew to a close, I made phone calls over the last weekend of the year to surviving ACT UP veterans in New York City to get the ball rolling on a speak out and action back there to mark our twentieth anniversary.

To my activist heart's absolute pleasure, I quickly found out from Bob Lederer that his partner John Riley is putting out a call with Eric Sawyer for folks to start thinking about the anniversary.

James Wentzy reminded me about the tenth anniversary, which encompassed a speak out and remembrance of our missing and dead loved ones at Judson Memorial Church, and march on Wall Street over drug access and pricing. When I got Sarah Schulman on the horn, she had just walked in the door, back from a trip to Europe, and good sister that she is, even with jet lag, she expressed support for getting something going.

I think it was Andy Humm who may have said Eric Sawyer is making phone calls, stirring up the pot on the anniversary. Actually, it was at least one other person I spoke to who mentioned Eric, so, of course, I found his number and left him a message.

And Larry Kramer has a voice mail from me, asking what he's planning for the twentieth anniversary. I can't recall if he put in an appearance at the tenth's actions. Brother Jay Blotcher also received voice mail from me today, asking him to starting spreading the word that the twentieth anniversary is coming up.

In between calls, I looked up Nora Ephron's number and plan to ring her up in the new year. First, to thank her for her tangential role in ACT UP's founding, and, to invite her to join the actions, whatever they may turn out to be, in March.


(Photo credit: NY Times. Larry, in tee shirt, with his brother Arthur in 2006.)

No 6.

When was ACT UP founded, the exact date? Some say it was the night Larry screamed us into action, March 10, 1987, at the community center, and others declare our founding day as March 24, 1987, when we protested on Wall Street and seventeen of us were arrested.


No 7.

In the honorable ACT UP tradition of asking everyone for proposals, I'd like to issue my suggestions for how best to organize around the twentieth anniversary:

a) Hold a speak out, emphasizing emotions and camaraderie, to remember where we came from and our to honor the dead and fallen;

b) Organize a meeting with a strong focus on today's HIV/AIDS issues that need addressing, and rekindling or strengthening existing networks of fellow activists;

c) Stage a raucous demonstration at a drug company's office, or a UN health agency, or in front of the New York Times, or at Sen. Clinton or Mayor Bloomberg's office, or any number of other worthy targets;

d) Make sure there's something people beyond NYC can do to participate in the anniversary actions.

No 8.

I've never told this to anyone but my partner. For years, I avoided seeing or reading Tony Kushner's play "Angels in America." Sure, everyone of my friends raved how wonderful it was and critics heaped praised sky high upon it, I just didn't want to go on the journey the play takes the audience.

When HBO produced the fabulous movie version, the cable giant allowed an advanced screening for the members of the SF gay film festival organization, Frameline, at the Castro theatre, where I finally experienced Tony's play.

One scrap of dialogue reduced me to tears. It comes when the pill-popping Mormon wife Harper, in a Valium induced haze, tells the gay man with AIDS, Prior, in his nightmare as he sweats from fever.

"Deep inside you, there's a part of you, the most inner part, entirely free of disease. I can see that," she says.

Being someone who keenly remembers the vile condemnations on people with AIDS in those horrible days, when too many powerful people couldn't resist loudly reinforcing hateful notions of "homosexuality equals deadly disease," Harper's lines got to me.

Makes total sense to me that only in a PWA's hallucination, can he hear that he has a part of him that is free of AIDS, and that a nutty chick strung out on downs is the person to tell him.


No 9.

It's a great shame that a book by ACT UP members, for and about us and our incredible activism, has not yet been written. My nominees to spearhead and coordinate a book to commemorate our comrades, demands and influences? Sean Strub, founder of POZ magazine; Walter Armstrong, former editor of POZ; and Ann Northrop, a smarty-pants former debutante who facilitated many ACT UP meetings, keeping the group's agenda and purpose very clear, during some crazy and murky times.


(Photo credit: NY Times. The paper's first bit of coverage on ACT UP, from March 1987.)

No 10.

This announcement came my way today:

ACT UP 20th ANNIVERSARY EVENT - MARCH 2007
Join the Planning Meeting! Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007

March 2007 will be the 20th anniversary of ACT UP's fight as an organization committed to ending the AIDS crisis. Our bold history of fearlessly speaking truth to power through direct action has brought about numerous important victories for people living with HIV and AIDS and inspired countless individuals to engage in all aspects of the struggle against the pandemic.

As we mark 20 years of ACT UP's strong and visionary efforts, we would like to bring our community together to recognize our historic work, and recharge the organization for it to be a force in the pressing fights which still lie before us. Indeed, people with AIDS are very much under attack, from the present attempt to force major rent hikes on PWAs in HASA-supported housing in NYC to the battle for providing universal access to treatment for the millions of PWAs in need around the world.

For this to be a success, we need folks to come together, regardless of how long you have been away, to take part in planning and producing a 20th anniversary event. The idea is that this event will include fundraising efforts to strengthen ACT UP as well as an energizing action which can involve many participants, new and old to
the group.

Please mark your calendars and get involved at the meeting and through the listserv. And please, spread the word to all our friends. This is our time to celebrate our fierce tradition of fighting for the rights of people living with HIV and AIDS and to let it be known to all that ACT UP will not be history until AIDS is.

We will also be hosting a broader planning meeting on Thursday, Jan. 11, at the NYC gay and lesbian community center to draw folks together and begin the steps of creating a successful event.

Thank you - see you soon!

Eric Sawyer & John Riley

What else can I add to what Eric and John have said, except the words of that always appropriate chant: ACT UP! Fight Back! Fight AIDS!

Soon-To-Be Ex-Gay GOP Rep Kolbe: No Regret Over DOMA Vote

(Kolbe, left, in awful shirt, with constituent and lobbyist Matt Russell.)

Retiring gay GOP Arizona Rep. Jim Kolbe, after he was outed, did some favors on behalf of gays and lesbians, though nothing notable readily springs to mind, but, in my opinion, there's no reason we should place Kolbe in the pantheon of gay political leaders, of any party affiliation, who deserve special credit for advancing full equality for the gay community in all arenas of modern life.

When all is said and done and history evaluates Kolbe's achievements as a gay Republican Congressman, it may be said that he greatest achievement was his symbolic role as the only such person in Congress.

With his career coming to an end, Kolbe granted an interview to the Arizona Daily Star and he expressed remorse over his vote to go to war in Iraq, but absolutely no regrets over his vote in favor of the hideous Defense of Marriage Act, an act that relegates him and all gays to second class citizenship status.

On the invasion of Iraq:

Kolbe said if he'd known then what he knows now about Iraq, he wouldn't have voted to authorize going to war in 2002. But he said he still believes the best information available at that time made a good case for the invasion then.

Regarding marriage equality for gays and lesbians and his DOMA vote:

However, Kolbe said he didn't regret his 1996 vote in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, which allows states to refuse recognition of gay marriages approved in other states. His vote on that bill prompted a gay-oriented magazine to prepare an article outing him as a homosexual, which led Kolbe to publicly declare that he is gay.

"I could make a very good argument that marriage belongs in the hands of the state," he said. "I don't think that should be changed."

So Kolbe regrets his vote on Iraq, but in his homosexual heart, he can't find room to say he's the least bit sorry for his shameful in the enactment of DOMA. Well, allow me to return the sentiment and say, as a key architect of the 1996 campaign to out him, I in no way regret working to force open Kolbe's closet door.

From the 1996 article by J. Jennings Moss in the Advocate referred to by the Arizona Daily Star:

But while Kolbe and Foley told The Advocate that a member of Congress's sexual orientation should not be an issue, activists were saying otherwise. Michael Petrelis—who gained notoriety for throwing a drink on Gunderson at a gay bar in 1991 and then publicizing the incident in an attempt to force the congressman to come out—used his computer to raise questions about several lawmakers he said were in the closet. Petrelis sent his own reports or forwarded others to a mailing list that included more than 100 activists, writers, and publications.

Goodbye, Jim Kolbe. As you leave the House of Representatives, don't let the heavy doors smack you too hard in the butt. And may the next gay Congressman from the Republican Party do a better job of articulating the need for America to embrace equality for gays, and the votes championing a gay agenda and doing no harm to the vast gay community. That isn't asking too much, now, is it?

UK'S Pink News: Saddam Hussein and The Homosexuals

Across the pond, London's premier gay news publication Pink News today published a fascinating article about Saddam Hussein and his record on homosexuals. The article has apparently generated some criticism about the tone and content from readers, and the owner of the news service, Benjamin Cohen, responded with this statement on his site:

Since this article was posted, we have received a number of emails in relation to Saddam Hussein. I must make it clear that we were not defending this brutal dictator in any way. We were simply reporting his death as relevant to the LGBT community.

Here are several excerpts from the story:

The former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been executed but questions remain over his attitude towards homosexuality.

While it is true at during the 1990s Saddam's representatives at the United Nations opposed discussions of international gay rights or welcoming gay groups as observers to the UN, the actual position of gay people within the country remains sketchy at best.

During Iraq's period of isolation following the last Gulf War, it is believed that the regime tolerated an active gay night-life particularly within Baghdad. Although it is also claimed that Saddam and his ministers turned a blind eye to gay honour killings. It must be noted though that most observers now believe that killings of gay people have increased following the American lead invasion.

In an exclusive interview with PinkNews.co.uk earlier this year, George Galloway, the anti-war Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow defended Saddam's record on gay rights.

“"There are a very large number of homosexuals in the Arab world, the official rhetoric is often well short of the actual practical situation is on the ground."

He added: “We took a prominent Canadian politician, Sven Robinson [to Iraq], who made a speech which opposed sanctions, opposed the upcoming war, and then launched an attack on Iraq for a perceived witch-hunt against gays and many people said to us afterwards, if you had only have spoken to us about that you would have found out in practice that's not true at all."

Following the execution, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said: “Justice, in the name of the people, has carried out the death sentence against the criminal Saddam, who faced his fate like all tyrants, frightened and terrified during a hard day which he did not expect.”

In a letter published before his death, Saddam said: “To the great nation, to the people of our country, and humanity,

“Many of you have known the writer of this letter to be faithful, honest, caring for others, wise, of sound judgement, just, decisive, careful with the wealth of the people and the state ... and that his heart is big enough to embrace all without discrimination.

“You have known your brother and leader very well and he never bowed to the despots and, in accordance with the wishes of those who loved him, remained a sword and a banner. [...]

He added: “I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave a space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking and keeps away one from balanced thinking and making the right choice.

“I also call on you not to hate the peoples of the other countries that attacked us and differentiate between the decision-makers and people ...Anyone who repents - whether in Iraq or abroad - you must forgive him [...]

The British Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett expressed concern over the use of the death penalty: “The British government does not support the use of the death penalty, in Iraq or anywhere else. We have made our position very clear to the Iraqi authorities, but we respect their decision as that of a sovereign nation.”

Click here to read the full story.

FOIA Request for Disclosure Forms of NIH HIV Drug Panel

[The year is coming to a close, so this FOIA request is my last one of 2006.

Some AIDS activists familiar with the NIH HIV drug Panel may wonder why I'm filing this FOIA when the Panel members, at the end of their treatment recommendations guidelines, dislosure basic conflict and financial information.

The reason for the request is to learn what exactly the members put on their forms for NIAID and compare it with what is released in the guidelines. I doubt that it is simply a list of drug companies who've showered the members with grants and honoraria, but I may be wrong.

NIAID releasing the actual forms will do much to increase transparency over the Panel and the forces that influence it.]


December 29, 2006

Karin Lohman, Acting Chief
Freedom of Information Office
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Bethesda, MD

Dear Ms. Lohman:

Pursuant to the full provisions of the Freedom of Information Act and all its revisions, I hereby request in electronic format the most recent financial disclosure forms and conflict of interest declarations, during calendar years 2005 and 2006, by all members of the Panel on Clinical Practices for Treatment of HIV Infection, and the Panel's support staff and advisors to the body.

Here is the list of individuals whose disclosure forms I am requesting:

1. John G. Bartlett (co-chair), Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD;

2. H. Clifford Lane (co-chair), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD

3. Jean Anderson, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD;

4. A. Cornelius Baker, Washington, DC;

5. Samuel A. Bozzette, San Diego Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Diego, CA;

6. Charles Carpenter, Brown Medical School, Providence, RI;

7. Lawrence Deyton, Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC;

8. Mark Dybul, Office of Global AIDS Coordinator, Department of State, Washington, DC;

9. Wafaa El-Sadr, Harlem Hospital Center & Columbia University, New York, NY;

10. Courtney V. Fletcher, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO;

11. Gregg Gonsalves, Gay Men's Health Crisis, New York, NY;

12. Eric P. Goosby, Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, San Francisco, CA;

13. Fred Gordin, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Washington, DC;
14. Roy M. Gulick, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY;

15. Mark Harrington, Treatment Action Group, New York, NY;

16. Martin S. Hirsch, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, Boston, MA;

17. John W. Mellors, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA;

18. James Neaton, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN;

19. Heidi Nass, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI;

20. James Oleske, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, NJ;

21. Robert T. Schooley, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA;

22. Renslow Sherer, Project HOPE, Midland, VA;

23. Stephen A. Spector, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA;

24. Sharilyn K. Stanley, Texas House of Representatives, Austin, TX;

25. Paul Volberding, University of California San Franscisco & VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA;

26. Suzanne Willard, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA

27. Debra Birnkrant, Food and Drug Administration;

28. Victoria Cargill-Swiren, National Institutes of Health;

29. Laura Cheever, Health Resources and Services Administration;

30. Mark Dybul, National Institutes of Health (Co-Executive Secretary);

31. Jonathan Kaplan, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;

32. Henry Masur, National Institutes of Health;

33. Lynne Mofenson, National Institutes of Health;

34. Jeffrey Murray, Food and Drug Administration;

35. Alice Pau, National Institutes of Health (Executive Secretary)

If at all possible, please provide me with the requested forms and declarations for the Panel members and advisors in digital format via email.

On the other hand, if the documents are not available for transmission via email or exist only on paper and can't easily be put into PDF formatting, you can send the documents to mm through my snail mail address.

No matter what the format is for the documents, they should be readily available for quick release in response to this FOIA request, as NIAID requires such disclosure forms are regularly updated.

Should you have any questions or need clarification, contact me at 415-621-xxxx.

Sincerely yours,
Michael Petrelis

2007 Meeting Schedule of NIH HIV Drug Panel Requested

This letter was sent today:

Dr. Alice K. Pau
Executive Secretary
Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents
Office of AIDS Research
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Bethesda, MD

Dear Dr. Pau,

As a person living with AIDS who takes a twice-daily cocktail of drugs recommended by your Panel, after much consultation with my personal doctor and community activists, I am very interested in monitoring and influencing the important work the Panel will perform on behalf of the US government and people with AIDS in 2007.

In order to carry out those two tasks I need the following information from you:

1. Dates, times and locations of all Panel meetings will hold either at the NIH campus, or anywhere in the USA;

2. Dates and times of all monthly teleconference calls the Panel will hold;

3. For both the in-person meetings and teleconference calls, amount of time each member of the public will be allowed to present testimony;

4. Advance agendas for the meetings and calls;

5. The URLs on the NIAID web site where all the above requested information will be available for public inspection.

6. A copy of all federally-mandated rules and regulations governing the Panel;

7. An explanation of who decides the membership of the Panel, if term limits exist for Panel membership, if any members have lifetime appointments to the Panel, how to lodge complaints against members, existing mechanisms to remove a member;

8. The name of the person I need to contact to demand that all Panel members, in addition to disclosing any links to pharmaceutical or medical diagnostic companies, that they must also reveal exact dollar amounts of any grants, honoraria, stock options, reimbursements travel, lodging and associated expenses when appearing at conferences or any HIV-related meetings on behalf of a company;

In the interest of government transparency, please provide me with the requested documents and information at your earliest convenience.

A prompt reply is appreciated.

Best regards,
Michael Petrelis
San Francisco, CA

White House/DoD Photo: The Decider Dithers

Season's greetings to all. I hope you're having as wonderful an Xmas-time with dear friends and beloved families as my partner and I are having this holiday. Like hundreds of other political bloggers, I've had a light blogging load of late, but I feel the need to kick some butt about Bush's war that drags on and on in Iraq.

Seeing this official photo from the Bush war machine, of the Decider dithering on Xmas Eve with DoD Secretary Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs' general Peter Pace, one thought came to mind:

These are not three wise men!Can anyone explain to me why the Commander in Chief needs more time to get his act together on Iraq and present us with a plan, ANY plan?

CDC-Funded HIV Group Won't Disclose IRS 990 Files

December 21, 2006

Frank Darby
Sunshine Ordinance Task Force
City Hall
San Francisco, CA

Dear Mr. Darby,

I wish to lodge a complaint against the Native American AIDS Project, NAAP, for possible violation of the city's Nonprofit Public Access Ordinance, specifically Section 12L.5 of the ordinance, which requires nonprofits receiving municipal dollars to make financial documents available to the public.

On December 14 and 15 I left voice mail messages for Ms. Joan Benoit, the executive director of NAAP, requesting copies of her most recent IRS 990 filings. The reason why I did this was because NAAP was not listed on the GuideStar.com site, nor were it's IRS 990 reports posted on that site.

On December 19 I placed another call to NAAP and the receptionist informed me Ms. Benoit would not be returning my calls and she demanded to know why I wanted their tax returns. I told the receptionist that her group was required by both federal and city statutes to make the IRS 990's available for public inspection, and I was simply asking NAAP to comply with the law.

The receptionist then told me I had to call Mr. Ernest J. Fazio Jr, at 415-777-xxxx, extension 316.

I reached Mr. Fazio and he informed me in no uncertain terms that it "will take a court order before I give you any of our financial records." When I asked Mr. Fazio about complying with the law on behalf of his client NAAP, he told me "to go court and tell it to a judge."

Of course, I have no intention of going to court to ask a judge to issue a ruling requiring Mr. Fazio, Ms. Benoit and NAAP to make their IRS 990 filings available for public inspection.

Instead, I ask the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force to take up this complaint, as soon as possible, to force NAAP and its executives to comply with city and federal statutes.

Additionally, as you know, Section 12L.7 of the city's ordinance states: "In the event that a nonprofit organization materially fails to comply with any contract provision required by this Chapter, the City agency or department which is a party to such contract shall consider such failure a material breach of the contract."

Since NAAP has many contracts, totaling more than $300,000, with the city through the Department of Public Health's AIDS Office, and I believe NAAP is violating the law, thereby breaching the contract, as a courtesy to the DPH, I will send a copy of this complaint to Mr. Jimmy Loyce, the director of the DPH's AIDS Office. It my hope that Mr. Loyce will force NAAP to comply with all public disclosure laws.

Also, since NAAP receives money from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for some of its programs, a courtesy copy of this complaint will be sent to CDC officials, Dr. Kevin Fenton and Mr. Walter Chow, responsible for monitoring San Francisco HIV prevention contractors. Maybe between directors at SF DPH and the CDC, a message will be sent to NAAP forcing them to comply with disclosing their IRS 990s to the public.

A prompt reply is requested and appreciated.

Sincerely,
Michael Petrelis
San Francisco, CA

Cc:
Mr. Jimmy Loyce, SF DPH AIDS Office
Mr. Walter Chow, CDC HIV Prevention Project Officer for SF
Dr. Kevin Fenton, CDC Chief for HIV Prevention

Peter Tatchell, Gay Campaigner Extraordinaire, Needs Your Vote to "Blogger of the Year" Commendation


A true hero and longtime leader of many global gay rights battles, Peter Tatchell, a man I look to for inspiration and guidance, has been nominated by The Guardian newspaper's web site as Blogger of the Year.

I hope you'll agree with me that Peter deserves such an honor from the paper's Comment is Free section and that you'll cast a vote for him.

Click here to vote for Peter, and click here to read his blog.

Voting closes at 12 noon (London time) on Friday, so go vote now, please!

Let's do what we can to give Peter some recognition by The Guardian for his years of incredible work for too many causes and people to name here. I'm sure if he wins this distinction from The Guardian, he will do what he usually does in such instances -- use it to bring attention to gay and AIDS and human rights issues too often ignored by the media and political leaders.

And a note to Peter. Dear boy, thanks so much for your decades of tireless volunteering and protesting to bring dignity and equality to gays around the globe. I'm glad you're my friend and that I've had the privilege of working with you.

NIH Wants $538 for 5,000 Pages on HIV Drug Panel

[This letter was sent yesterday to the NIH.]

December 18, 2006

Karin Lohman
NIAID FOIA Office, Acting Chief
Bethesda, MD

Re: FOI Case No. 32469

Dear Ms. Lohman:

This letter is acknowledging receipt of the December 11, 2006, letter from your colleague Ms. Lauren Price.

That letter states the following: "At this time we have located at least 4,931 pages responsive to your request, with fees totaling $538.11. These fees may increase as the processing of your records continues, as more records may be released to you. At this time we are requesting a promise to pay the above fees before we continue processing your request."

As you know, I've requested copies of many documents related to the National Institutes of Health's Panel on Clinical Practices for Treatment of HIV infection, hereafter referred to as the "Panel," and am keen to receive all files the NIAID FOIA office has located.

However, at this point, I am requesting a fee waiver, as permitted under the provisions of FOIA, for several reasons that apply in my case.

First, I am both a news blogger and a columnist for the HIV/AIDS monthly publication POZ magazine, and as a member of the media, I ask that the processing and copy fees be waived.

You can verify my news blogger status by visiting my site: http://petrelisfiles.com/ . And you can read my columns for POZ magazine at these links: POZ, August 2006 and also POZ, April 2006.

Second, I seek the records for strict non-commercial reasons and disclosure of the information is in the public interest, especially to people with AIDS, our doctors and other caregivers, and because it will contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government.

Third, I have previously requested of the Panel's executive secretary and Panel members that they web-post all of the documents and minutes on the NIAID web site. This request has not been met, and if it had, and the pertinent files were available on NIAID's site, for public inspection without any fee, my FOIA request for the Panel's records would be moot and unnecessary. Frankly, I believe the Panel and NIAID must reconsider its policy of not making such Panel documents available on the web, on a regularly updated basis, so that the information contained therein, will shed light on this important government function, the recommendations by federal officials to keep people with AIDS alive and well.

Fourth, I wish to amend my original request and ask that the NIAID FOIA office, to reduce or totally negate any processing and copying fees, provide me with any and all responsive records found in electronic format that can be sent to me via email, or, on CD discs, which can be mailed to me.

Fifth, and maybe the most important reason to waive all fees, I am a person with AIDS seeking these records to share with my doctor, longtime partner, friends and family, so I can make the most informed health choices in living with HIV disease.

If you wish to discuss this request for a fee waiver, please call me at 415-xxx-xxxx.

A prompt reply is requested and appreciated.

Sincerely yours,
Michael Petrelis
San Francisco, CA