UCLA's PWA 'Chicken Little'
Study Irks SF DPH

The latest in more than a decade of Chicken Little mathematical models created by Sally Blower of UCLA (pictured above), about HIV drug resistance among gay people with AIDS in San Francisco, came out at the end of January.

A press release from UCLA on the new findings, headlined "Study predicts HIV drug resistance will surge," was remarkably similar to the August 2001 headline on a UCSF release about another Blower-created model on drug resistance, which read "Researchers predict future of drug-resistant HIV epidemic."

All such Blower models follow the same gloom-and-doom pattern, in which she uses complex factors to project worst-case scenarios. After she and her team have completed their model, and it's published in a peer-review journal, the media specialists at UC with her to craft sensationalistic releases.

Blower then almost without fail gets a puff article in the SF Chronicle, that rarely challenges her methodology or findings, and serve as fine examples of media stenography. Click here to read the mouthpiece history the Chronicle has had with her.

Contradicting for once, that stenographic relationship, the January Chronicle story on the latest Blower model quoted a medical authority, Dr. Grant Colfax, expressing concerns with the study and how it might be used. Colfax is the head of SF DPH's HIV prevention programs and also treats PWAs at an SF General Hospital clinic.

The Chronicle said Blower's research showed the potential for PWAs to create "mini-epidemics." Do these folks know how to whip up hysteria out of crystal ball predictions, or what?

Over at the Bay Area Reporter, the gay paper quoted Colfax going further to minimize the sensationalism being peddled by Blower and UCLA, emphasis mine:

"At this point, HIV drug resistance is not a public health crisis. The sky is not falling. In San Francisco, as more people have gone on treatment, we've seen dramatic drops in morbidity and mortality, and we're starting to see a decline in newly reported HIV infections."

Thank you very much, Dr. Colfax, for calling out the "Chicken Little" aspects to Blower and her claims.

I want to point out that Blower's efforts, along with those of her colleagues, to sensationalize their findings is very consistent. They generally tout the complexity or complicated nature of their work, which they, being supposed great brainy types, will distill into alarmist sound-bites. This was the fear-driven quote in their January release:

"Our model showed that what is going on in San Francisco is very complicated — but in a nutshell, it is due to the bug, the drugs and sex," [researcher Justin Okano] said.

Translation: "Those disease-riddled, sex-crazed homos infected with HIV are still alive and having sexual relations." BTW, "the bug" is gay slang for HIV.

Not only are the HIV poz homos of San Francisco and supposed drug-resistance a complicated problem for this city, but according to Blower, the ripple effect is world-wide:

"It's basically about many other communities in resource-rich countries and has significant implications for global health."

Even though Blower and her colleagues make incredibly stigmatizing and demonizing statements about gay PWAs in San Francisco, I give them reluctant credit for always extrapolating alarming predictions from here for people around the globe.

In 2000, when Blower was garnering attention for another math model allegedly showing potential harm to society from AIDS drugs, the Chronicle allowed her to get into print her standard sort of alarmist quote:

"It's a complicated picture, but the bottom line is we really could make things a lot better with these antiviral medicines."

It bears repeating: Sally Blower has been saying the same doomsday stuff about AIDS drugs, potential resistance to them, reducing the complex lives and medical needs of PWAs for a decade to suit her craving for media attention. Occasionally, she offers a variation on her standard quote, such as this one from 2000, which betrays her anti-gay sex agenda:

“It’s a complex interaction, but a simple outcome, really [...] Our results indicate it is imperative that bath houses not be re-opened and that people practice protected sex, particularly those who are on treatment."

Let's be honest here. It's not complex or complicated to see that part of Blower's agenda is to create the same scary math models, stigmatize gays and PWAs with hyped-up UC press releases, get some mainstream media attention, and keep the foundation and institutional grants flowing into her coffers.

But are her "Chicken Little" predictions about AIDS drug resistance contradicted by another study, one based on reality and not some math model? That question will be answered in a follow-up post, and the answer may surprise you.

Second CA Concert by
Jamaican Hate Singer Canceled

What's the good word from about another cancellation for a Jamaican hate singer trying to profit off his incitement to bash and kill gay people? The answer comes from the CalCoastNews story posted this afternoon:

Capleton’s concert at Downtown Brewing Company on Feb. 17 has been canceled. The club’s management and the show’s promoter, Numbskull Productions, said in an e-mail on Feb. 14 to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of the Central Coast (GALA) that they were canceling because of information provided by concerned citizens.

Capleton is watching his United States tour crumble as groups against hate have put pressure on venues that planned to host the Reggae singer who advocates for the murder of gay people. A concert planned for earlier this month in Humboldt was also canceled. [...]

The concert venue has posted a cancellation notice on their web site. Click here to read it. Unfortunately, the notice gives no explanation as to why the plug was pulled.

From across the pond, Peter Tatchell, the veteran international gay campaigner who was the first to urge California gays to organize, protest and attempt to stop the Capleton money-making performances, offered praise for the activism leading to a change of mind by venue owners:

"Congratulations to LGBT activists in San Luis Obispo and Humboldt for protesting against 'murder music' singer Capleton, and forcing cancellations of his shows in those areas. This issue is not about mere homophobia. Capleton advocates killing LGBT people. What he says is worse than hatred. It's incitement to murder.

"Shame on the venue owners that have not canceled. They would never host a white supremacist singer who advocated the killing of black people. Why the double
standards? There should be a zero tolerance of racism and homophobia. Capleton's concerts everywhere should be canceled," said Tatchell.

Here's the info on the hate singer's remaining concerts in the U.S.:

San Diego, CA, on Monday, February 15, at the San Diego Sports Arena.

Crystal Bay, Nevada, on Thursday, February 18, at the Tahoe Biltmore.

Oakland, CA, on Saturday, February 20, at the Fox Theatre.

Long Beach, CA, on Sunday, February 21, at the Long Beach Arena.

Miami, FL, on Saturday, February 27, at Bayfront Park.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that activists in those areas either get the shows nixed, or stage protests at the arenas and theaters where Capleton will sing. And kudos to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of the Central Coast who persuaded the San Luis Obispo theater owner to cancel the February 17 performance.

And the folks at GLAAD, for whom gay advocacy is strictly done only Monday - Friday, during business hours, have nothing on their site about this positive development in California.

Guide: GLAAD = Toothless Watchdog

The latest issue of the Guide, a monthly publication based in Boston, contains excoriating editorial penned by Mark Sullivan ripping into GLAAD. He has nothing positive to say about this org. From Sullivan's column:

If gay people cheer when one of their national organizations is revealed to be powerless, it's clear there's something wrong.

But that's exactly what happened recently when the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation issued a sharp rebuke to Comedy Central for airing what it called a "well-intentioned" but "harmful" episode of South Park. [...]

It was a very funny episode, but GLAAD didn't seem to get the joke. [...]

GLAAD stepped in it again more recently, when it commented on a television network's blackballing of out gay singer Adam Lambert. [...]

After much public outcry, GLAAD issued two clarifications within the next 24 hours trying to get out of the hole it had dug itself. [...]

[GLAAD's executive director Jarrett] Barrios, who was named to his position late in 2009, says he accepts full responsibility for the organization's gaffes. He says that rather than just responding to events, he wants GLAAD to help shape them. [...]

So far, Barrios has revealed little of what he plans for GLAAD. It's great that he sees that change is needed. But he has a lot to do to convince the community that GLAAD is anything but a toothless watchdog.

Not only has Barrios kept his plans for his org private, he's also not revealed what his salary is. I bring up this subject, which was not addressed by the Guide, because I believe GLAAD is not fully transparent with the community, regarding its agenda for change and stewardship of gay dollars.

I further want to suggest that GLAAD's leaders begin holding town hall meetings, on a regular basis, that take advantage of new technology that would allow gays anywhere in the country to participate via the web.

As with the Human Rights Campaign, another component to Gay Inc in need of providing more accountability and better community engagement, GLAAD must do more to communicate with ordinary gays. It's simply not politically wise to operate from ivory towers, and expect support from a wide segment of the community.

Let's make 2010 the year in which GLAAD, HRC and other orgs begin a series of public forums, where the community can directly dialogue with the orgs' executives. Queer Question Time with these orgs would go far to advance a robust gay agenda.

CA's HIV Rate Drops 23%?

Dr. Michelle Roland, the director of California's Office of AIDS, and her dedicated staff deserve much public gratitude for their hard work in the past year. They have effectively engaged people with AIDS and advocacy orgs as Governor Schwarzenegger threatened deep cuts to medicines and services, through dozens of conference calls and email alerts.

The transparent and respectful processes of Roland and her team, impresses even a skeptic like me. I applaud all of the folks at Office of AIDS for their tireless outreach and work.

But the point of this post is really about the Integrated Epidemiologic Profile of HIV/AIDS in California, 2001-2005 with 2007 Update, which was published this week. It will be the key document guiding Ryan White and prevention councils, local health departments, and AIDS orgs, as they make decisions allocating dwindling resources.

The stats of most interest to me are the preliminary numbers of HIV diagnoses for 2003, 2004 and 2005. The epi profile makes it abundantly clear that the state's HIV stats are not mature, and in flux, as the state has integrated data from when we had a unique-identifier reporting system, with the newer names-based stats.

Even with the many caveats, I believe we can still find encouraging news in the prelim HIV numbers for those three years. Let's walk through the stats.

Table 30 presents HIV diagnoses for males, while table 31 is for females (see pages 76 and 77). I combined the sub-totals to come up with these collective annual numbers:

2003 / 4,715
2004 / 4,019
2005 / 3,616

On the surface, the stats, which will evolve as lab reporting delays are cleared up, are in and of themselves glimmers of good news. The stats, as is, represent a 24% reduction in HIV diagnoses.

(Annual Transmission Rates per 100 Persons Living with HIV, 1977–2006. Source: CDC.)

These new 2003-2005 stats for California fit in nicely with the long-reported on sustained drop in HIV infections in San Francisco, and the December 2008 analysis from the CDC titled, "A Dramatic Declines Indicate Success in U.S. HIV Prevention.

I believe California's declining HIV rate for 2003-2005 is mirrored in the national rate, as reflected in the small blue chart above, with the drooping white line. As the HIV epi stats mature, we can expect the Office of AIDS to keep the public informed on evolving figures.

Let's hope the 23% decline over 2003 - 2005 is substantiated with additional surveillance.

Many thanks to Mark Damesyn, the Office of AIDS staffer, for creating the new epi profile for California.

CA Gays to Picket Jamaican
Hate Singer's Concert

Word comes today, via the CalCoastNews site, that gay activists will mount a picket next week to demonstrate their displeasure over the appearance of Capleton, a Jamaican hate singer. As far as I know this is the first and only such action scheduled. The announcement from San Luis Obispo organizers comes less than a week after Capleton's concert in Humboldt was canceled.

These two developments, in my opinion, send an important message to music promoters, booking agents and club owners that gay Americans will not silently stand by when homo-hating Jamaican singers come to our shores to tour and make money.

I hope activists in other CA, NV and FL areas where Capleton is soon to play, organize protests and educational campaigns. More info on his tour dates here.

This is excerpted from the CalCoastNews, emphases mine:

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance of the Central Coast (GALA) plans to protest the appearance of a Reggae singer known as “Capleton” because of his violent hate lyrics toward gays.

Capleton is scheduled to play at the San Luis Obispo Downtown Brewing Company on Feb. 17 at 7:30 p.m. GALA is asking for the community to come together and help them picket the event. [...]

GALA is asking supporters to meet at the GALA Center at 1060 Palm Street in San Luis Obispo at 5 p.m. on Feb. 16 to help make signs. On Feb. 17, protesters will leave the GALA Center at 5 p.m. for a peaceful march over to the Downtown Brewing Company.

“We want to stress, it is a peaceful protest,” Flores said. [...]

The news site also published some of the singer's lyrics that advocate death and violence against gay people:

“Shoulda know seh Capleton bun battyman
You should know that Capleton burns queers

“Dem same fire apply to di lesbian
The same fire applies to lesbians

“Seh mi bun everything from mi know seh dem gay
Say, I burn everything as long as I know that they’re gay

“All boogaman and sodemites fi get killed
All queers and sodomites should be killed”

Click here for details on the canceled concert that was supposed to happen in Humboldt, and the other scheduled tour stops for Capleton.

Luke Sissyfag's Haitian Relief Effort
For Quake Survivors Needs Funds

(Luke Montgomery, on the left, and his partner Nate Gudias.)

The radical gay and AIDS activist formerly known as Luke Sissyfag, my friend from the ACT UP days of the early 1990s, is doing charitable work on behalf of Haitian earthquake survivors. Luke, whose real last name is Montgomery, and his boyfriend Nate Gudias, have experience on the ground helping Haitians before the latest calamity struck in January.

They're operating a relief effort from the Dominican Republic, known as Cause Commandos, and sent out a press release and solicitation for donations today. Here are excerpts:

When disaster struck the impoverished island nation of Haiti, it also struck close to the hearts of boyfriends Luke Montgomery and Nate Gudias. Having lived in Haiti and founded an AIDS orphanage in the coastal town of Jacmel, Montgomery feared the worst when no word was received from the orphanage. Within 48 hours the couple raised over $10,000 from family and friends in the gay community and were on a plane bound for the Dominican Republic which borders Haiti. [...]

Luke Montgomery says, "We're on a mission to help as many people as we can with medicine, food and tents for shelter. We're buying the supplies across the border in the Dominican Republic and running them by boat into the parts of Haiti that aid is still slow to get to. When a country is as poor as Haiti was before the quake, even the biggest relief effort is not enough. So we're stepping up to the plate and hoping that the gay community can join us."

"We're not disaster aid professionals but we just had to take action, so we simply got on a plane. After landing in the Dominican Republic we went to local medical supply stores and pharmacies and loaded up on antibiotics, prescription painkillers and other essentials from bandages to baby formula, from IV fluids to injection syringes. We crammed every inch of our big rented SUV full of supplies and every bag we had was overflowing with urgently-needed drugs. We then drove all through the night to the Haitian border. There we hooked up with the Dominican navy. We loaded our all of our supplies onto a relief ship and set sail for Haiti and have been running back and forth ever since." added Nate Guidas. [...]

"There are still families and handicapped people sleeping on the streets who need tents. There are still thousands of hungry children who have no food. There are still injured people with no medicine. What we are doing is simply buying what's needed and getting it the people who need it. What we need to make it all happen is for people in our community to spread the word about CauseCommandos.com and give if they can. Our costs are covered, so 100% goes to supplies for survivors," Montgomery said.

The couple hopes to not only inspire support for their mission, but to also show that ordinary people can make a difference even in the face of an extraordinary disaster. [...]

For more information, contact Luke Montgomery.
Phone: (829) 260-5409 (Dominican Republic)
Email: Luke@CauseCommandos.com
Web: CauseCommandos.com

Anyone interested in donating funds can do so at that site, through PayPal. And this is the videos promoting this worthwhile gay-driven relief effort for Haitian earthquake survivors:

SF Healthy Gay Men Forum:
Report and Pics

(From the left: Shane Snowdon, Michael Scarce, David Gonzalez, Bill Jesdale, and Clinton Fein.)

A robust and engaging town hall held last night on the positive aspects of gay wellness attracted 35 individuals from the gay community, in the ceremonial room at the local LGBT community center. The discussion was moderated by Shane Snowdon, UCSF's liaison for LGBT health issues.

First panelist to speak was Clinton Fein, political artist and activist, who presented slides of conservative web sites' coverage from February 2008, when the gays and staph-infection story was creating much hysteria. Fein directed criticism at former SF Chronicle science reporter Sabin Russell, for his story that got the alarm going around the world in 2008. I wasn't aware, until looking at the slides, of just how widespread, and nasty, the coverage was from the rightwing, often cribbed from the Chronicle.

Bill Jesdale, self-identified as a radical epidemiologist, was the next panelist up. His slides were from datasets showing gay men view themselves as healthier than straight men, which intrigued many of us. He asked how to see healthy gay men, even with all the fear and scary stats continually spewing from the media and AIDS Inc. We all were instructed to turn to the gay man next to us, introduce ourselves and shake hands. That is one way to make healthy gay men visible.

The third panelist was Michael Scarce, community organizer and writer. He spoke about the over-saturation of social marketing targeting gays in the Castro, that is being tuned out, and called for campaigns that use a lower volume to reach gay ears. Scarce said all researchers have a duty to actively monitor how their work is covered in the scientific and mainstream press, and when they're misquoted or their work taken out of context, must demand and get corrections to appear in print and online.


David Gonzalez (above), Latino health organizers, was the final panelist. Among his concerns were the ads that use condescending language targeting gay men of color, and reinforce a stereotype that such men don't know how to take care of themselves. Gonzalez address the need to craft gay health messages for Latinos, that are from the community, and not just translations of English-language based campaigns.

After a round of applause for the panelists, the discussion then opened up to hear from members of the audience, on any topic that impacts gay health.


The first speaker was Dr. Grant Colfax (above), who is director of HIV prevention programs for the SF Department of Public Health. He discussed his concerns over a recent press release from UC Los Angeles, about a mathematical model and study, containing unnecessary alarmist language stigmatizing gays. Colfax was satisfied the release failed to capture much media attention.

Other gay men from UCSF and community organizations spoke about good examples of public health institutions working with the community, to promote healthy behavior without hysteria.

Steven Gibson, director of the SF AIDS Foundation's Magnet facility in the Castro, told the audience about the DPH reaching out to his organization, which in turn organized a meeting with gay bar owners when a case of TB was diagnosed in the neighborhood. Collectively, these forces developed a low-key education campaign about TB, that reached at-risk individuals, without alarm.

There was a pronounced international presence at the forum, with several men in attendance from abroad.

One of them was Will Nutland (above), from London, where he used to be on staff at the Terrence Higgins Trust, an HIV and gay health org. He spoke about gay/bi/queer/trans men's health needs in the UK, and also mentioned that three years ago a gay health summit was held to look at issues beyond HIV/AIDS. Nutland is in SF for three months, looking at gay health matters, and lessons from here that might apply to the UK gay community.



Also from a foreign country was Mats (above), who hails from Sweden and is a public health student at UCSF. I didn't get his last name, but after the forum concluded we had a conversation about gay life in Sweden, where gay marriage is legal. Mats said that he and his husband have felt the social pressure at home, now that they're a married couple, to embrace monogamy and adopt children. That is not for them, he said, and he and his husband are quite fine about being children-free and creating their own relationship rules.

All in all, a very productive discussion among diverse members of the Bay Area gay community, with friends from other countries, about strengthening and expanding gay wellness. Much gratitude to the panelists and everyone who attended.

Foreign Office Shares Emails on UK Gay
Consul's Murder in Jamaica

My Freedom of Information Act request filed in December with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), for any documents related to the murder of honorary consul John Terry, has produced 49-pages of files.

They consist of emails to and from press officials, grappling with the death of Terry in Jamaica in early September. The exchanges primarily deal with expressing condolences to Terry's ex-wife and family, updates on the investigation, and his funeral.

But several of the emails reveal how the FCO developed a strategy for the gay angles inherent to the case, and how to contextualize questions posed by reporters regarding homo-hatred in Jamaica.

I'm not happy at all that someone in the FCO press office wanted to steer a reporter away from delving into and writing about the connection between Terry's murder and rabid hatred of gays in Jamaica. Needless to say, that angle has received coverage.

All that aside, I wish to make the point that this the latest rapid turn-around with the FCO, after receiving a request from me. In general, the FCO has released documents responsive to my FOIA requests within 4-6 weeks. I should receive such service from the FBI!

Below is the text of the emails. I've posted the letter from the FCO explaining why a few documents were withheld, due to an open investigation in Jamaica, along with the gay-specific emails. Click here to read those files. At the very bottom, is an image of one of the actual emails.

September 14, 2009

With a link apparently emerging between Terry's death and human rights issues, the Minister is keen to keep abreast of the investigation and for us to be able to marshall if necessary, and in due course, information about what we're doing in the Caribbean to support progress on human rights.

September 14, 2009

Called by Economist correspondent in Caribbean who has been asked for an article, in the light of what is suspected to be the homophobically-motivated killing of John Terry, on homophobia in Jamaica.

Standard structure of:
-A problem for a while, including within Jamaican authorities ([Correspondent] pointed to examples of leniency shown to the accused who say they thought the victim was gay).
- What's the response? Is anyone doing anything about it?
- What does the future hold?

He would like:
a) an update on how we see it. Do we acknowledge there is a problem?
b) details of anything we're doing to tackle it.
c) ideally, a chat with the Minister on background with a few choice quotes agreed afterwards.

What we want/ought to do:
- Highlight the work we're doing on human rights in general, region-wide
- Avoid crusading minister / Britain-wants-to-turn us gay stories.

I've asked [name redacted] to come up with policy line (regionwide, begins with human rights in broadest sense).
Example of broad HR work.
Also includes LGBT rights in e.g. Jamaica. A couple of examples: One from Jamaica, one from elsewhere.

September 15, 2009

We would suggest caution before the Minister commits to taking this on. Although we can do our best to steer The Economist away from making linkages between John Terry's murder and homophobia in Jamaica/the Caribbean, high profile comment could prove particularly unhelpful at this time and could even threaten the investigation. [...]

Our thoughts on lines to take are:

- Cannot comment on specifics of John Terry care. Following developments, Jamaican police still investigating and sub judice at this point. [...]

- Our close relationship with the Caribbean means that we can and do raise a range of human rights issues with governments in the region as often as we can.

- This includes LGBT rights, including with Jamaican government. [...]

On LGBT/Jamaica in particular:

- We have worked for a number of years with human rights groups in Jamaica (especially Jamaicans for Justice and Independent Jamaican Council for Human Rights) and including LGBT lobby (J-Flag). Discuss wide range of issues - police killings, death penalty and LGBT rights.

The investigation here is fluid and a homophobic motive is not the No. 1 angle at present. We need to avoid being seen to promote speculation that might prejudice the investigation - to say nothing of potentially undermining our duty of care and confidentiality to the Terry family.

GetMyFBIFile.com:
An Evaluation

I was recently made aware of two sites that make it very easy to generate Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), requests directed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Since I've long been interested in FOIA and using it to bring more sunshine to the federal government and how it functions, I looked at the sites and evaluated them.

The first site is GetGrandpasFBIFile.com and the other is GetMyFBIFile.com, and I am examining only the latter today. A review of the former will appear next week.


SITE LAYOUT & DESIGN

Let's start with some of what I like about the GetMyFBIFile.com site. The top incredibly fantastic thing about this site is how easy it is to use to create a request and get the search process going. The few steps required to generate the request are simple and go a long way in showing average citizens how to use FOIA with this federal agency.

The captions under the photos designed to get you to think of potential reasons why there may be a file with your name on it, they veer from the serious to the silly. As a leftist who believes not enough people use FOIA to get their files, I very much approve of using humor like this to pique curiosity and encourage people to make requests.


THE BOXES

The next page is broken into four boxed areas, and the second box about potential fees addresses worries filers may have about costs. Telling the FBI you're willing to pay a reasonable amount for processing the request, is strongly recommended. It's reassuring to filers that they're told they don't have to pay fee at this initial stage.

The final box for other three- and four-letter agencies, could be too esoteric for lots of average folks, but thumbs up for including the chance to file separately at those agencies. The agencies include:

National Security Agency (NSA)
Defense Security Service (DSS)
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
U.S. Marshals Service (USMS)
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
Secret Service (USSS)
Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID)

The option of generating letters to these agencies is unique to GetMyFBIFile.com, and is one more big example of how the site works to expand the number of requests on the federal government.


DEAD TREE LETTERS

I followed the request-generating directions, then two letters were printed. One was to my local FBI office and the other addressed to headquarters in DC.

It's troubling to see it suggested to provide one's Social Security number, and a copy of a state-issued driver's license or photo ID. Such items are not legally required in order to file and I don't believe citizen should share their Social Security numbers in requests. No need to give the feds more details than they need to begin searching.

Here are some definite strengths to the dead tree letters generated. It takes just a few minutes to follow the easy instructions. The postal addresses of the local FBI office and the central processing center in Virginia automatically appear on the letters. Total time to generate the letters, address two envelopes, put stamps on them and place in the mail box on corner? Less than half an hour.

I hope my analysis of GetMyFBIFile.com pushes the site's creators to tweak and improve their very good web site. The site demystifies the FBI's FOIA filing process and is a valuable resource helping more Americans to make requests.

Don't wait any longer. Cruise over to GetMyFBIFile.com now and start the ball rolling. The sooner you file a request, the quicker you'll learn if the FBI has a file on you.

BAR, Clinton Fein:
Healthy Gay Men Forum on Wednesday

An important town hall with the theme of Health Gay Men, is happening tomorrow night, Wednesday, February 10, starting at 7 pm at the San Francisco gay community center.

One of the panelists, longtime gay advocate and political advocate Clinton Fein, penned a great letter to the BAR, and I'm publishing it here to give it some extra attention. Clinton succinctly lays out why we're gathering for the meeting and the issues that will be discussed. Clinton also designed the fabulous banner ad image above, and you're free to copy and paste both the letter and ad to your site.

So stop by the LGBT center, hear what the panelists have to say, and add your own comments about any positive aspects of gay health today. We've set aside plenty of time to hear from community members.

Here's Clinton's letter, from the BAR, and click here to read his Wiki entry:

Remember that awful headline back in January 2008, "S.F. gay community an epicenter for new strain of virulent staph"?

It began with a San Francisco Chronicle article by Sabin Russell, which in essence "reported" on a University of California, San Francisco study published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine related to a MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) study, which resulted in widespread misinformation and fear of a "pandemic," which could magically spread from gay men in the Castro to the "general population" (of which gay men were supposedly not included).

Binh An Diep, a researcher at San Francisco General Hospital and lead author of the report, contributed to a UCSF press release that mischaracterized the results of the study, resulting in a global blizzard of sensational headlines, immediately seized upon by the likes of right wing groups, demonizing gay men, and endangering everyone else by its absurd implications that the virus was contained within the gay community, or could only be contracted through gay sex.

Whether a MRSA pandemic resulted seems unlikely, given how little attention has been given to the matter since. You would think.

But MRSA infections are not only on the rise, they're even being linked to H1N1 (swine flu), and a new study by the Henry Ford Hospital's division of infectious diseases, released Sunday, relating to USA600 is alarming. As expected, being gay has nothing to do with neither the transmission nor incidences.

At the time, together with activists Michael Petrelis and the late Hank Wilson, we demanded that UCSF meet with us to help understand how they could have released such an ill-informed press release, and figure out what concrete and immediate steps they could take to ensure such a debacle never happened again.

Following a request in November 2009, in which I asked UCSF for an update on progress that had been made based on recommendations from our original meeting, we agreed to form a panel to discuss gay men's health by focusing on what was working, rather than having to deal with the constant drumbeat that something was wrong. And most importantly, to open up the dialogue to the community.

Far too many gay men, from school kids to seniors, are fed a constant diet of misinformation that inspires guilt and ends up perpetuating myths and stereotypes through a process of self-fulfillment. Media images, sometimes with the best intentions, serve to alienate and condemn people, impacting health in ways both psychological and physiological.

Our panel, "Healthy Gay Men: Messages, Media & Messes," includes Francis Broome, Black Coalition on AIDS, HIV educator and athlete; David Gonzalez, SF LGBT Community Center, Latino health educator; Bill Jesdale, gay health writer and community activist; Michael Scarce, gay health writer and community activist; and myself. It will be moderated by Shane Snowdon, director, LGBT Resource Center, UCSF.

We encourage you to join us. The panel takes place in the Ceremonial Room at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street (at Octavia), on Wednesday, February 10, beginning at 7 p.m.