Socarides Slammed by Gay Reporters Over DOMA Role

(Homosexual, hack and hypocrite.)

The shameless self-serving Democratic Party hack Richard Socarides continues to lower the prestige of the New Yorker magazine's web site. His latest blog post, "Why Bill Clinton Signed the Defense of Marriage Act", has brought forth constructive and much-needed criticism from veteran gay journalists and activists.

First up is Andy Humm, co-host of the Gay USA cable and online show:

Once again, Richard Socarides fails to come clean on the role he played in advising President Clinton on whether or not to sign the Defense of Marriage Act--other than to sign it late at night. Any self-respecting gay aide would have felt compelled to resign in protest after his or her boss signed an anti-gay law--but Socarides went to work for Clinton after he enacted Don't Ask, Don't Tell and stayed after he signed the Defense of Marriage Act. Why?

Had Clinton stood up at the beginning of his term signed an executive order ending the ban on gays in the military as promised and not let himself get rolled by the generals, he might have gotten some respect even if the Congress went ahead and enacted a ban (at which point he could have vetoed it even if he was going to be overridden).

But Socarides has never been one much for principle. He campaigned hard for Bloomberg in 2005, the year the mayor appealed a court order to issue marriage licenses for gay couples in New York. Oh, yeah. Everyone is on board now. But we are judged how we behave when doing right is not the easy thing to do. And on that, Clinton, Socarides and Bloomberg all failed.

All this is particularly rich coming from Socarides who spent the last several years going on TV to chide Obama for not moving fast enough on undoing the bad laws passed by Clinton without public objection from Socarides.

Andy speaks much truth. Homosexual hypocrite are the words that frequently come to mind when considering anything to do with Socarides and there can never be enough holding him to account.

From Duncan Osborne, reporter for the Gay City News, who quotes this passage of Socarides' from the New Yorker and then reminds us of the Aloha State lawsuit:

"What we didn’t fully comprehend was that, sooner than anyone imagined, there would be thousands of families who would be harmed by DOMA—denied federal benefits, recognition, and security, or kept apart by immigration laws."

To believe this, one would have to believe that the White House was entirely unaware of the lawsuit in Hawaii brought in 1991 by same sex couples seeking to marry there. That lawsuit was a significant part of the motivation for passing DOMA and that case was still live when DOMA was enacted.

Next we have the editor of Gay City News, Paul Schindler, weighing in:

Here's the most important phrase in this Socarides posting: "the President’s chief political advisers were not willing to take any chances." Clinton beat Dole by 8.5 %, won 31 states and DC, for a total of 379 electoral votes, a surplus of 109 over what he needed. And I did not mention the absurdity of the phrase that it also reflected: "a failure to imagine... how difficult it would be to undo the damage that DOMA did." So, their prospective repeal plans were poorly put together? Jeez. 

From Allen Roskoff, president of the Jim Owles Gay Democratic Club of Manhattan, who has this say:

Socarides is not a long time gay rights activist, as claimed by the New Yorker. He is a political activist who, when convenient has advocated against the gay community. Not only was he Obama's chief gay antagonist,criticizing Obama for not cleaning up the mess Socraides helped create fast enough, but I also found his support of Bloomberg in 2009 against a progressive Black Democrat, Bill Thompsom, equally appalling. Socarides is a disgrace. So many have sacrificed so much for the movement but when Socarides could have made a difference he did what was he felt was best for his career. Socarides continues to do us harm by endorsing candidates whose politics are hurtful to progressive causes. Socarides has no shame. 

Duncan, Paul and Allen offer cogent rebuttals to and reminders about Socarides' bullshit. Their comments and those from Andy, are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of all the damage this Democratic Party hack has forced on us. David Remnick should dump Socarides from the New Yorker's site.

Socarides one day will be publicly held to answer for his deceit, lies and hypocrisy that have harmed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people for decades.

9th Unsolved Cape Town Gay Murder Reported

(Graham Flax, one-year ago, as he appeared in his Badoo meetup profile photo.)

The murders of nine gay men, of several races, in the Cape Town, South Africa, region in the past two years was brought to my attention this week by Denis Nzokia of Identity Kenya and the group's news site. Nzioka recounts the recent death and the larger pattern of killings:

In an incident similar to a spate of recent attacks on gay men in South Africa, another gay man has been murdered in his home, apparently after meeting someone online. The Rapport paper reported on Wednesday that the body of Graham Flax (65) was discovered in the hallway of his apartment in the Costa Bravo apartment building in Sea Point, Cape Town, on Sunday night. He appeared to have suffered a blow to the head and was blue in the face . . . Rapport said that police have a suspect in custody but he has not yet appeared in court. 

In January, the body of 50-year-old Graham Collop was found in his ransacked flat in Plumstead, Cape Town. He had been bound and strangled. There was also no sign of forced entry. 

 (Names and photos, except for two, of the murdered gays. Photo courtesy of Eye Witness News.)

Nzioka goes on to say:

The circumstances of these attacks are similar to those of a series of murders of gay men in Gauteng, pictured, over the past two years. Police have previously said that they believe that a gang targeting gay men has been operating in Gauteng and Cape Town. 

In December, Maxwell Nyathi, Mthokozisi Ndlovu and Themba Maseko, pictured, appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrates' Court in connection with the murder of Orange Grove resident, Barney van Heerden. Photo provided courtesy of OUT South Africa.

Van Heerden (39) was found dead in his home in September 2011. He had been tied up and appeared to have been strangled. There was no sign of forced entry. The suspects’ case has been postponed by the courts as police are still investigating the men's possible connection to seven other murders in Gauteng. 

The authorities have also not ruled out that other members of the alleged gang might still be active, possibly in Cape Town. Police believe that, at least in some of the cases, the criminals may have used chat rooms or online dating services to target their gay victims.

According to the Eye Witness News service, the director of the advocacy group OUT South Africa, Dawie Nel, expressed deep frustration with the failure of law enforcement personnel solve the nine murders. He said:

I think it's definitely a case of police either being homophobic, incompetent or not doing their job.

Nel and OUT South Africa urge gays to exercise caution when cruising online and in hookups, and have created a web page offering advice to remain safe and protect themselves.

May the dead gay men rest in peace, and their killers brought to justice expeditiously.

SF AIDS Foundation's Giuliano's Pay is How High?

(Neil Giuliano, former executive director at GLAAD and current head of the SFAF.)

Many moons ago, the executives at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation of their own volition began posting several years' worth of IRS 990s along with audited statements and annual reports. Currently, the foundation provides six years' of those documents at their financial information page.

On top of that fantastic voluntary fiscal transparency, the foundation posts their latest IRS 990 on their web site within days of filing it with the feds.

Yesterday, after checking previous IRS 990s and seeing they were filed by the end of each February, I contacted the foundation's communications director James Loduca and requested the 2012 filing because it wasn't available for public inspection on their site. He replied:

You’re right [about the 2012 filing was submitted to the IRS]. In fact, your timing is impeccable because it was just uploaded to our website and released today. You can access it, and all of our financial records here: http://www.sfaf.org/about-us/financial-information/. Please let me know if you have any questions.

If only Paul Kawata's National Minority AIDS Council were as committed to transparency as the foundation. NMAC refuses to share a single IRS 990 or audited statement on their site, a situation that will likely change only when Kawata is no longer executive director of the group.

What were the top executives at the SF AIDS Foundation paid last year? The 2012 tax filing provides the answers:

Neil Giuliano, executive director
$270,000

Bob Rybicki, program director
$210,000

Judith Auerbach, science director (retired)
$198,000

Barbara Kimport, development director
$186,000

James Loduca, communications director
$167,000

Jonathan Zinman, finance director
$156,000

Ernest Hopkins, federal affairs director
$141,000

Total compensation amount paid to the seven top executives: $1,328,000.

How are these pay levels determined? I thought it was the board of directors that directly set the pay, but that is not the case according to this disclosure on page 45 of the IRS 990:

All staff compensation is reviewed by an independent consultant for market rate comparison. The CEO's compensation is also approved by the board, based on the consultant's recommendation.

Sure would be nice to know how much that consultant earns for looking at the IRS 990s of other AIDS Inc groups, which can't take up more than a few hours of time, then make a recommendation. The fee paid to the consultant could be better used providing housing vouchers or hot meals to people with AIDS.

As I reported last August for the Edge on the Net news site, the SF AIDS Foundation contracts with Craig Miller's MZA Events commercial fundraising firm to produce the annual AIDS Walk in Golden Gate Park. The foundation's 2011 walk, according to the California attorney general's division of charities, raised $2.8 million and a whopping 58% of the proceeds went for production costs.

I'm just saying an awful lot of money goes into paying the executives at the foundation, while they also spend robust sums on outside consultants and a commercial fundraiser, and those are funds that I believe should be going to directly assist people with AIDS.

Feds, Colliers Realty Leave Blight at Closed SF Pot Club

When U.S. federal prosecutor Melinda Haag forced the Mr. Nice Guy pot club at 176 Valencia Street in late 2011 to close, she didn't do our neighborhood a favor. The club employed dozens, paid the rent on what had been a long vacant storefront and kept the building free from graffiti.

Since the club went out of business because the Obama administration's war on medical marijuana clubs, Mike and I, who live two-blocks from the site, along with a few neighbors, have been displeased the store remains empty and its facade serves as a canvas for graffiti and blight.

Today I called 311, San Francisco's municipal service hotline, to register a complaint about the ugly situation and the service agent took the info and soon found that someone else called in a complaint yesterday. Many thanks to that neighbor! The agent assured me he would note the second complaint on the record that will be sent to the graffiti-abatement program.

One solution to this blight would be for Colliers International Real Estate, the firm trying to lease the property, and its agent Karen Hoke who is the realtor for it, to regularly visit the property and clean up the graffiti within days of it appearing.

After months of seeing this blight, I label Colliers a bad neighbor for allowing the storefront to stay ugly for so long. It would help our neighborhood, not to mention Colliers having an attractive property to show potential renters.

White House AIDS Blog Video: Czar Colfax from CROI



One day after I kvetched in this post that it had been 76-days since President Obama's special assistant for HIV/AIDS issues, Dr. Grant Colfax, last had anything to say on the Office of National AIDS Policy blog, I'm very pleased to see the blog has been updated.

Earlier today, the White House cross-posted from AIDS.gov a short written introduction by former HIV prevention chief at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Ron Valdiserri, and a four-minute video chat he had with Colfax. Both of them are at the 20th annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta.

Permit me to express gratitude to Colfax for finally engaging with the AIDS community via his ONAP blog. Knowing Colfax from his time at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, he's always impressed me with his low-key style of speaking about AIDS matters that isn't overly technical and lacks a smarty-pants attitude.

Valdiserri is a good interviewer, who poses a short question, then lets Colfax answer. They also speak briefly about how the cross-epidemic of hepatitis infections among people living with AIDS is on the agenda at CROI. Kudos for this effort.
 
One small complaint to lodge. The soft music playing in the background is totally unnecessary and should be eliminated.

Hey Grant, we need more such engagement from you on a regular basis!

SPLC Posts New IRS 990; NMAC Hides Tax Filing

In the past few years, I've been critical of the Southern Poverty Law Center in posts here and here, for not addressing poverty and amassing more than $230 million in assets, bank accounts in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, partially ownership in foreign firms and robust $300,000 executive salaries.

Yet none of the criticism stopped the SPLC this week from sharing their 2011 IRS 990 filing with me via email and also posting the latest tax filing on their site, after I requested they do so. From Brooke McDowell, their development associate:

Thank you for recently contacting the Southern Poverty Law Center. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your inquiry. Per your request, I have attached the most recent SPLC IRS 990. I am sorry you were unable to obtain this from our website. Please be assured that I have notified our web development department in hopes that our site can be updated as soon as possible. 

From their communications director Penny Weaver:

The 2011 IRS 990 is now posted on our website. Thanks for bringing to our attention the fact that it was not. 

When it comes to fiscal transparency, the SPLC gets good marks from me. Their financial information page contains their most current IRS 990, audited financial statement and annual report. However, I wish to push them to post three-to-five years of IRS 990 filings so the public can get a fuller financial picture.

Compare all that transparency with the National Minority AIDS Council and how its executive director Paul Kawata share not a single IRS 990 filing, audit statement or annual report on their About Us page.

NMAC is so behind the times on transparency and I wish they would follow the leadership of not just SPLC but many AIDS Inc groups who understand sharing fiscal info on their sites is a fundamental component of accountability to the community.

Maybe we need to propose term limits for executive directors of AIDS Inc groups. Kawata has been in charge of NMAC since 1989 and I suspect only such limits will bring new, much-needed thinking to this group. Since Kawata's been the top honcho of NMAC we've lived through the presidencies of George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama's first term.

Change in leadership is healthy and democratic, a lesson for the NMAC board to learn.

Silence = Doctor Grant Colfax, Obama's AIDS Czar

It's been 76-days since an original post appeared at the White House Office of National AIDS Policy blog written by Obama's special assistant, Dr. Grant Colfax, pictured. His last post on December 19 was titled "We Want to Hear From You" and solicited public comments regarding HIV, girls and women.

The deadline for comments was January 20th, and that page is operational today as I write this.

One month back, I complained to the White House about the then-two-month lack of engagement from Colfax at the ONAP blog, and the administration quickly cross-posted a "let's all work together" essay from senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. That was nice, but it was not the engagement I expected of Colfax and the administration in Obama's second term.

What has the AIDS Czar been up to in the past 76-days, who is he engaging with, can we learn his top three-issues taking up his time and when can we expect the administration to regularly use the blog to inform us of ONAP's activities?

Just a few questions I pose to Colfax and his White House colleagues. Communicate with us!

CROI Abstract: 'Functional HIV Cure' of Positive Infant

My good friend and science reporter Bob Roehr sent me email before heading to Atlanta for the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infection, and before the big news this weekend about the HIV positive baby in Mississippi being essentially cured of the virus. Can't recall the last time I paid attention to CROI and the abstracts presented, so thanks, Bob, for the reminder.

Like many others, I'm excited by the news of the infant's cure and want more information about it, which is why I read the abstract at the CROI site. I'm sure we'll be reading much more about this infant the apparent eradication of HIV from his or her body. Here's an excerpt:

Background: A single case of HIV cure occurred in an infected adult with a bone marrow transplant. We report a case of functional HIV cure in a 26-month-old infected child who initiated ART at 30 hours of age.

Methods: Infant exposure to HIV was confirmed through review of maternal HIV antibody and plasma viral load tests, including HIV drug resistance testing. Infant infection was documented using standard HIV DNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and plasma viral load. ART administration was confirmed with medical and pharmacy records and maternal report of medication adherence . . .

Results: Maternal infection with wild type subtype B HIV was verified. The mother and infant shared HLA haplotypes. Infant infection was confirmed by positive HIV DNA and RNA testing on 2 separate blood samples obtained on the 2^nd day of life. 3 additional plasma viral load tests (days of life 7, 12, and 20) were positive before reaching undetectable levels at age 29 days.Plasma HIV RNA remained undetectable . . . At age 26 months HIV DNA was detected at 4 copies/million PBMC but with no 2-LTR circles. Plasma viral load, PBMC DNA, and HIV-specific antibodies remained undetectable with standard clinical assays, confirming a state of functional HIV cure.

Conclusions: This is the first well-documented case of functional cure in an HIV⁺ child and suggests that very early ART may prevent establishment of a latent reservoir and achieve cure in children.

Weekend Woof #30: Furry Nudists, Mormon, Lawyer, Meter Man

San Francisco has been blessed this week with some fabulous weather and a higher than usual number of adorable boys and men, captured by my camera, so high I will more pix from this week in the future. Thanks to all the fellas, for striking poses for me.

Do you remember my post about the sexy skinny guy with the fine pelt on his chest, at City Hall on the first day of the nudity ban, helping a blind African-American woman up the steps, while fifteen uniformed cops stood around offering no assistance to her?

His name is Trey, pictured top and left, and he was in court yesterday to be arraigned for the arrest at City Hall. As adorable with clothes on as well as off! On the right is fellow nudist Pete, who was not rolling his over what Trey was saying.

I had a court appearance also yesterday, and before schlepping to the Hall of Justice, there was schmoozing at the cafe across the street for assorted defendants and supporters. Here are my two handsome nudist buddies, Woody, left, and Mitch on the right.

My cute attorney Derek was sporting a new haircut yesterday, and soaked up a few rays of sunlight on the courthouse steps after our hearing before the judge. Don't know how he stayed cool or comfortable in his suit and tie, when it was so warm and sunny yesterday afternoon.

This young and very friendly meter man for parking meters around town, had the best artistic facial fuzz I saw all day. Meter man may not be the right job title, but he was no meter maid!

This Mormon recruiter was with his buddy down at the UN Plaza farmers' market on Wednesday, and he wanted to chat about Jesus Christ. I asked if he could be recruited to come out and support gays, and he wasn't happy with that, but he was fine about me snapping these pix.

Click here for links to the previous twenty-nine editions in this series.

Bankrupt NAPWA 'Honored' by Corrupt AIDS United

 (Birds of a feather: Michael Kaplan, left, former member of NAPWA's board, and Jeff Crowley, right, former NAPWA executive and former director of the White House Office of Aids National Policy, on Feb. 26 in Washington, chirping praise for NAPWA. Credit: Aids United, Khalid Naji-Allah.)

Any HIV group that would bestow an honorary award on the National Association of People With AIDS, recently bankrupt and closed after years of scant transparency and overly beholden to the CDC, is corrupt in my book and gives me reason number 824 to loathe AIDS Inc.

I stand and salute the vital advocacy of Greg Milward, a fierce PWA accountability fighter from Madison, Wisconsin, and fully back every word and question mark in this post today at his HIV USA blog:

What does filing for bankruptcy, refusing to answer legitimate questions from members of the HIV community and an open investigation by the Maryland States Attorney’s office get you? What does the secrecy surrounding the retirement of the CEO and outstanding debts of over $700,000 get you? . . .

It gets you honored at AIDS United’s AIDSWatch 2013 Positive Leadership Reception. 

That’s right—less than two weeks after NAPWA ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy amid hundreds of unanswered questions, AIDS United saw fit to “honor” NAPWA at the Positive Leadership reception that was held in conjunction with AIDS Watch 2013 . . .

Hundreds of PWAs could have used that $700,000 pissed away for life-extending and opportunistic-infection-avoiding cocktails, housing rental vouchers and a whole hell of a lot of blood draws and visits with a physician. Greg continues:

This was a colossal blunder by Michael Kaplan, AIDS United’s CEO. To honor NAPWA at a time when there are so many outstanding questions regarding the circumstances about NAPWA’s demise is mind-boggling . . . Kaplan should have let the bankruptcy process and the law enforcement investigations play out before holding this public display of post-mortem sucking up to the past and present NAPWA leadership. 

It is doubly concerning given the fact that Kaplan was a member of the NAPWA Board of Directors from June 2006 until August 2008 . . .  Kaplan, newly arrived CEO at AIDS United, thumbed his nose at those who are asking legitimate questions regarding NAPWA and in doing so calls into question the organizational integrity of AIDS United.

Greg Milward needs to do much more writing on his blog and educating me, and other PWAs, about homo history that includes facts like Kaplan being a former NAPWA board member. AIDS Inc executives are again looking out for themselves first, their corrupt and inept buddies second, and people living with HIV last.

Across the groups that comprise AIDS Inc, the incestuousness of the executives and board members harms PWAs and has to be sunshined. Thank you, Greg, for the service you are providing to the AIDS community.

Shame on Michael Kaplan and AIDS United for the dubious honor they give NAPWA.