SF Appeal: Muni Ends 'Go Niners' & 'Equality for All' Bus Displays

(Some requests for Muni bus displays are more equal than others. Credit: USA Hostels.)

In the five months I've been dealing with Muni about having equal access to their bus readouts promoting the "Housing For All" message, I've found much humor in that the public transit system has had no written rules about the displays on buses that all too frequently were promoting professional sports teams. My previous posts on the readouts are here and here.

Today, over the SFAppeal.com, reporter Max A. Cherney has an excellent story up about Muni ending the non-transit related displays for everyone -- billionaires and activists alike. He dug deep to discover handicapped persons and ordinary riders have their own complaints with the readouts, and all of the headaches are remaking Muni policy.

From the SFAppeal.com:

Muni’s venerable fleet of 1,100 vehicles will no longer display promotional messages such as “Go Giants Go” or “Equality for All,” according to SFMTA officials.

The transit agency’s decision to terminate the program is the apparent result of increasing complaints from riders — some of whom are developmentally disabled — claiming that the messages distract from reading Muni route information, officials said. “The straw that broke the camel’s back was a complaint from the disabled community,” said SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin.

Interrupting route information with scrolling phrases like “Go Niners” confuses people with developmental difficulties, and “often” prevents them from boarding — especially at stops which serve multiple routes, according to internal SFMTA emails obtained by The Appeal. [...] In light of the concerns over disabled riders, SFMTA staff say they were also worried the messages might expose the agency to a lawsuit. [...]

[L]ast year “Equality for All” appeared in honor of Pride 2012’s theme. Matthew Bajko of the Bay Area Reporter worked with District Eight Supervisor Scott Weiner, and the SFMTA to add the Pride slogan to Muni’s fleet, according to Bajko. [...]

However, despite Muni’s apparent willingness to display certain non-route related messages in the past, Petrelis had little success adding his proposed Pride 2014 theme of “Housing for All” to Muni’s fleet over the summer. Petrelis’ request was ultimately rejected at around the same time the SFMTA eliminated the program. [...]

The intention was always to demonstrate “civic pride” and allow the transit agency to participate in some of the “feel-good stuff” of the city, Reiskin said. [...]

But, for community members such as Petrelis, the SFMTA’s policy represents a double standard. “[Terminating the program is] Just one more reminder of how there are two San Francisco’s when it comes public property and a set of unwritten rules for the rich and other more restrictive rules for ordinary citizens,” Petrelis said.

Sounds to me as though Muni and Reiskin only allowed what they deemed qualified as "civic pride" and "feel-good" speech on the displays, raising potential First Amendment concerns. In my view, promoting affordable housing for everyone is civic pride for social justice advocates and such a message should have been allowed to run on buses for an equal amount of time as the "Go Niners" messages.

NYC DOH: 2012 HIV Rate for Young Gays Drops

A new annual 2012 HIV epidemiological profile was issued recently by the New York City Department of Health and it contains lots of good news about continuing declines of new HIV transmissions. Click here to read the 2012 report.

This graph was used in a New York Times story last week about more condom-less anal sex among young gay men in 20 U.S. cities

However, this NYC DOH chart, Figure 9.2, on the right, shows that for gays under 30 the rate of new infections has dropped. Overall, the red lines show declines.

If you look at the lower right side of this NYC history of the epidemic chart, the dark blue line represents new HIV diagnoses and it continues to go down.

Since the DOH has not issued a release about the new report, I sent off the following concerns and questions to their spokeswoman Diane Hepps. She has promised to get back to me with answers by the close of business on Tuesday. What are your thoughts about the new NYC HIV stats?

1. When was the report published to the web? 

2. Will DOH issue a release about the report's release, call attention to the damn good news that HIV continues to decline in NYC and remind folks that while drops are laudable, HIV is far from over? If yes, please provide details about when and if the answer is no, explain the reasoning. 

3. How will DOH conduct public engagement -- town hall just on the report, say, at the gay center, agendized at appropriate advisory NYC panels, etc -- regarding the surveillance and stats? 

4. The CDC last week issued a report about increases of young gay men engaging in anal sex without condoms, thus putting themselves at greater risk of HIV transmission, yet DOH is reporting a decrease in new HIV diagnoses among that sub population. Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3806782/ 

Interesting that NYC is one of the cities in the national behavioral research from which the CDC's stats were gleaned, leading me to think the new HIV cases might be rising, but data does not bear out that anal sex among gays is bringing about more transmission. 

Source, http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/dires/surveillance-report-dec-2013.pdf
see Figures 9.1 and 9.2:: HIV Epidemiology & Field Services Surveillance Annual Report (December, 2013) Why are the data sets in conflict? 

5. The executive summary states that older white and Hispanic MSM, were also over represented among persons with acute HIV infection. What is this so? You also report the number of AHI cases is increasing, which means there are more older gays who are, in the report's words, "the leading edge of the HIV epidemic." Considering the focus of the CDC report on younger gays, it's jarring to say the least that in NYC it's not that population leading the epidemic. 

6. Transmitted drug resistance has gone from stable to a sizable increase. Why is this occurring? Given the large range of treatment options available to newly infected HIV poz people, I wonder what sort of medical counseling they receive about deciding on a cocktail.

BAR: World AIDS Day, Executive Pay & Profiteer Dan Pallotta

(Credit: Ben Sklar, the New York Times.)

Kudos to Bay Area Reporter editor Cynthia Laird for her column this week marking the observance of 25 years of World AIDS Day commemorations, and with too much blather from AIDS Inc soliciting sympathy and donations all over social media and print outlets, for throwing a cold bucket of water on all the warm fuzzies for December 1st.

Think twice before donating to any AIDS organization, look at their IRS 990s over a few years, question why compensation packages are so high and ask how satisfied are people with HIV and AIDS with how the group handles their revenue.

Cynthia reminds us that for too long, two major nonprofits stonewalled opening the books on the California AIDS Rides put on by profiteer (and proud of it), Dan Pallotta, and once the truth came out, only after years of dogged reporting by the BAR, POZ magazine and Philadelphia Gay News, we all learned how the biggest beneficiary of the rides was Pallotta. My post earlier this month on Pallotta in the New York Times boasting of being a profiteer but not a queen, is here.

Read the full BAR editorial and share it far and wide, please:

Some people never change or fade away: Dan Pallotta is back, seeking to profit by preaching his flawed management gospel to the nonprofit world through a new organization, the Charity Defense Council. Local nonprofit executives should run for the hills – quick! 

Pallotta, a gay man, made his name in the 1990s through the California AIDS Ride and other massive fundraising treks like the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. Eventually it became obvious over the years that the AIDS Ride in particular began to line Pallotta's pockets with increasing fees at the expense of the charities. [...] 

He created this new entity [the Charity Defense Council] to enrich himself by doing what he knows best: priming charities to believe in his flawed fundraising model in order to sign them up as future clients. Nonprofits shouldn't give him $1 to support his outdated, inefficient, ineffective, and failed organizational philosophy. [...] 

Pallotta talks about how when he was doing major fundraising his ego was bruised because other wealthier people his age were driving BMWs and taking European vacations. "There are things you are not able to afford," he said. "It makes you envious. It makes you wonder, 'Do I really want to give up all of those things in the name of helping other people?'" Um, yes, Dan, you do. [...] 

[We] continue to see in the HIV/AIDS field, as well as plenty of other organizations that cater to the LGBT community and nonprofits in general [that executive salaries . In our view, six-figure salaries are rarely warranted for nonprofits that don't have multimillion-dollar budgets. [...] Some AIDS organizations have reduced client services in recent years yet salaries have stayed the same or increased in the executive suite. [...] 

This World AIDS Day, the 25th annual observance of an epidemic that wiped out a generation of gay men and continues to ravage communities around the globe, let's think about that.

NYer Mag Nostalgic for AIDS Plague Era of S.F. Gays Dropping Like Flies

(NYC DOH's most recent HIV/AIDS stats document drops in new diagnoses, as shown in the light blue line on the right. Source: NYC DOH Epi Division.)

Tomorrow is Sunday, December 1, which is World AIDS Day and that means it's time for bashing gay men, young ones in particular, and shoveling doom-and-gloom reports and statistics down people's throats, and generally failing to acknowledge advances since the 1980s and the valor of longtime AIDS survivors.

Writer Michael Specter of the New Yorker magazine has penned a prime example of the kind of World AIDS Day essay editors and directors of HIV prevention groups and researchers adore, titled "What young gay men don't know about AIDS".

Using the latest CDC behavioral statistics about sexual liaisons between young gay men, alleging lots of anal sex without condoms, the New York Times started the ball rolling for Specter with a story full of fear from federal health officials. If there has ever been a World AIDS Day where the CDC and the Times reported a single damn good thing done by gay men in the twenty-five years of using December 1 to call attention to the epidemic, please send me links to proof of such reporting.

I'm not saying there is no reason to be concerned about HIV transmissions in any population, but when health authorities and the press annually cry AIDS wolf and the umpteenth second wave of the plague, the alarmist message is tuned out. And yes, there is a vital need to acknowledge the historical and current contributions of homosexuals in controlling and contending with AIDS.

From the start of his essay, Specter is out to remind us of what he saw during the plague years with a nostalgic air hanging over his every word:

I used to keep a picture on my desk, taken on Castro Street, in 1983, at the moment when it seemed as if gay life in San Francisco was ending forever. There were two men in the photograph: the first, tall and gaunt, was leaning over the other, who was in a wheelchair, tucking a blanket around what little was left of the wasted man. [...]

The Castro was lined with thirty-year-old men who walked, when they could, with canes or by leaning on the arms of their slightly healthier lovers and friends. Wheelchairs filled the sidewalks. San Francisco had become a city of cadavers.

Yes, those were horrible years and the dying all around us was a terrible thing to bear witness to and fight against, but what does this heavy-handed emotional look back have to do with reaching young gay men today and why does Specter think such dramatic language will have meaning for young gays?

Specter goes on to cite more history and drop a few names before raising the issue of gay anal sex and data:

In 2002, while writing a Profile of Larry Kramer, the dark prophet of the American AIDS epidemic, I spoke to Tony Kushner, who received a Pulitzer Prize for his brilliant play about that time, “Angels in America.” [...]

“Unprotected anal intercourse is in a league of its own as far as risk is concerned,’’ he said. Three decades of data demonstrate the truth of that statement. If unprotected anal intercourse is rising among gay men—a trend noted not just in America but in much of the Western world—the rates of HIV infection will surely follow. 

(New York State epi report shows drops in new HIV cases over a nine-year period. Source: New York State AIDS Institute.)

There is no argument from me about the risks of contracting HIV through anal sex without a penile or anal condom, but the most recent data from the New York City Department of Health about new HIV diagnoses shows a decline has been underway since 2001. This statement of Specter's is simply not borne out by the NYC or San Francisco HIV statistics and if he has data to back up his claim, we all should see it:

Then people began to combine crystal with Viagra, and a new surge of infections began.

What does Specter propose be done today to reverse what he says is a resurgent epidemic? Homosexual historical fear:

Can we halt this epidemic once again? Of course, or at least the dangers can be greatly reduced. [...]

The only appropriate conclusion here is to listen, again, to Larry Kramer’s warning. What was true in 1983 may well become true again. “If this article doesn’t scare the shit out of you,’’ he wrote in “1,112 and Counting,” “we are in real trouble. If this article doesn’t rouse you to anger, fury, rage and action, gay men have no future on this earth. Our continued existence depends on just how angry you can get… Unless we fight for our lives we shall die.”

Look, I'm also friends with Larry and love the man and his work as much as the next radical ACT UP member and gay man living with HIV who wants an end to AIDS, but it is wildly irresponsible to suggest what he wrote for the New York Native three decades ago is going to motivate gay men today of any age to don a condom for anal sex.

Reading Specter I heard coded dog-whistle message of nostalgia for the bad old days of gays dropping like flies in San Francisco and New York City and other places. Has he never heard of post- and pre-exposure prophylaxis, and other new methods of HIV prevention?

Specter and everyone else would greatly benefit from reading longtime AIDS survivor Mark S. King's fantastic essay "Stop bludgeoning young gay men with our AIDS tragedy", because he makes so many necessary and realistic points about HIV today and prevention that works:

Plenty of us are more than happy to rob graves, however, in an attempt to frighten gay men into certain behaviors. This kind of horror-by-proxy happens all the time. Concerned that misguided gay men of a certain age hear whatever the latest HIV infection rates are, and the pull out the AIDS Crisis Card.

"If their friends died like mine did, maybe they would think twice before having sex without a condom," goes a typical remark drenched in self-pity and tenuous logic. [...]

The 1980's are history. They are not a prevention strategy.

Michael Specter has a lot to learn from Mark King's wisdom.

Plenty of us are more than happy to rob graves, however, in an attempt to frighten gay men into acceptable behaviors. This kind of horror-by-proxy happens all the time. Concerned but misguided gay men of a certain age hear whatever the latest HIV infection rates are, and they pull the AIDS Crisis Card. “If their friends all died like mine did, maybe they would think twice before having sex without a condom,” goes a typical remark, drenched in self pity and tenuous logic. The 1980′s are history. They are not a prevention strategy. - See more at:

Critiquing the 35th Annual Milk/Moscone Vigil and March

(Bravo to the Eviction = Death banner at the front of the march! Local progressives need to keep an eye on great signage at demonstrations, so that an image does not need a caption for the viewer to see a message. Credit: Liz Highleyman.)

After speaking today with longtime affordable housing advocate and my friend Tommi Avicolli Mecca, who was key to organizing the November 27 vigil and street protest marking the 35th anniversary of the killing of Harvey Milk and George, I decided to critique the night of events and state what I believe was either good or poor about what I observed from my computer screen and after hearing from folks who were present.

Due to a retraining order exacted as part of a political  vendetta by the District 8 Supervisor, I was unable to attend the events. Regardless of my non-attendance, I believe my observations contain truth that needs to be spoken.

Let's begin with the good news. There was a fantastic and large turnout at 7 pm at Harvey Milk Plaza of LGBT community organizers, political club leaders, a sprinkling of elected and appointed officials, members of the Gay Men's Chorus and ordinary folks. Some estimates peg the number at the plaza and who marched from there down to City Hall near 2,000 and videos and photos show hordes in the streets.

Earlier, the Harvey Milk Foundation held its annual remembrance top-heavy with ambitious queer and straight politicians, with Stuart Milk serving as the host. Other than exploit his uncle's name, Stuart is a very minor actor in the modern gay movement who wouldn't attract nearly as much attention as he does if his family name were any other than Milk.

(Credit: Patrick Connors.)

(Credit: Steve Rhodes.)

(Credit: David Elliot Lewis.)

From all accounts, the community organizers who were allowed mic time at the plaza rally tapped into the fighting spirit of Harvey to decry the years of evictions that have led to a debilitating lack of affordable housing crisis. It pleases me no end that not a single self-serving elected official was invited to speak and that the focus was on San Francisco's greedy gentrification displacing hundreds of longtime residents. Hundreds gathered at the end of the march at City Hall, with candle of hope lighting the darkness.

In the minus column is the lack of signage for individuals to hold up. While the organizers put time and money into creating a decent-enough poster announcing the vigil, which I'm not sure it was wise to put so much effort into that when there was beaucoup free mainstream media and social networking awareness about the Nov. 27 date and round-year anniversary, no comparable effort was made to print up legal-sized message-appropriate signs.

FYI, the Harvey Milk Democratic Club has $4,500 in the bank, according to their latest filing with the Ethics Commission. For $100-$200 bucks they could have created powerful visual message with some printed signs and given individual another way to engage - by holding a candle of help and "Housing for All" signs.

Good to see a few folks created hand-made and readable signs, but imagine if hundreds of people held up small posters saying, Housing For All, and that crucial demand were part of the visual messaging from Wednesday night.

(Credit: Brian Chickpea Busta.)

A chance to hold the elitist 1 percent Human Rights Campaign, which never advocates locally or nationally for affordable housing for queers and remains silent about cuts to the food stamps program, just two example of how they don't contribute to solving economic justice issues for us, was dashed by two of the organizers.

On the Facebook event page, people piped up about how HRC is in bed with a hedge fund vulture and other problems with the group and I thought the criticism might transform into demands made on HRC before engaging with them on the vigil. Why not, say, demand HRC commit to lobby the Mayor and Supervisors for anti-eviction laws or put pro-tenant signs in their windows, something visible and tangle?

Big ego Brian Basinger who operates an AIDS housing organization that does fine work for clients, and a vigil organizer, quickly put an end to that hope. He responded to HRC critics thus:

One of the folks involved reached out to the HRC store and asked if we can use their space to store the collateral. They said yes immediately so he brought the news to the group. We do not have the luxury of time to have our energies redirected into that conversation, so I let it go. I invite everyone to come to the corner of 18th and Castro today to help distribute posters and flyers.

Cleve Jones said:

Many of us have had many issues with HRC over many years. Nonetheless, the local folks who staff the HRC store have offered us their support in this endeavor. It's helpful. 

So, for a crumb of space in their store for the posters Brian and Cleve silence discussion about HRC and woefully mischaracterizes things. It's no luxury to put pressure on HRC at all times. Now that the vigil is over, what assistance do Brian or Cleve or the activist community have in hand from HRC in creating affordable housing for queers?

(Credit: David Elliot Lewis.)

This may be the best news of all, which comes from Steven T. Jones over the Bay Guardian. Some social shunning of the most polarizing San Francisco politician who continually betrays the agenda and legacy of Harvey:

Housing activist Tony Robles, a board member of the Manilatown Heritage Foundation, recalled being a student at Mission High School when the news of the assassinations was announced, an event that profoundly affected him. He said they represented “the spirit of community and the spirit of fighting for what is right.”

Robles called out Sup. [redacted], a Milk successor representing the Castro, calling [redacted] unworthy of that legacy, citing [redacted]’s legislation allowing more apartments to be converted to condos and with closing the parks at night. “You were no Harvey Milk when you made that move, brother,” Robles said, closing with this hope: “Let the poetry of Harvey Milk’s struggle live on in the streets of San Francisco.” 

Tommi reports what happened next:

People booed when they heard "supervisor of this district."

Many thanks to all who made the people's vigil and march something to be proud of!

Happy Thanksgiving & Hanukkah, From Us & Grand-Niece Malina

From the home of Mike and Mike, wishing all of you a bountiful and peaceful dual holiday today. We hope you enjoy the great photo of my grand-niece Malina Rose modeling her father Kevin's tennis shoes. Seeing her in such footwear inspired me to buy Malina Rose her first pair of Birkenstock's!

As you can imagine, after an eventful year with legal challenges and health issues to contend, Mike and I have much to be grateful for today and we're still in love with each other and happy. How was your Turkey Day?

BAR: Candidacy Via Skype for Castro's Supervisor Seat?

(I promise a chicken in every pot, or tofu burgers for vegan voters!)

The Bay Area Reporter's veteran writer Matthew Bajko asked me on Monday about participating in candidate debates leading up to the November 4, 2014, election when I hope to be on the ballot vying for one of the three votes each voter in my district will have, and I hadn't thought about the potential use of Skype.

Makes sense to think of that and other ways of utilizing new media and communication tools to wage my campaign, and since San Francisco is both a hot-bed of new tech wonders not to mention also a bedroom community for Silicon Valley tech workers, it's not inconceivable new methods of engagement will aid in my effort.

My announcement about pulling papers to run for Supervisor of District 8 in the Castro area, is here.

Check out this extract from Matthew's story appearing on the BAR's site and in print this week:

Should longtime (and bullhorn-bearing) AIDS and LGBT global rights activist Michael Petrelis indeed run for District 8 supervisor next fall, it may be the city's first candidacy by Skype.

For due to a legal settlement stemming from criminal charges he faced, Petrelis is required to remain 150 feet away from the incumbent, gay District 8 Supervisor [redacted], who will be seeking a second term on the Board of Supervisors in 2014.

"Debates are going to be impossible," said Petrelis, who lives off Valencia Street with his partner, Mike Merrigan.

In June Petrelis pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge stemming from his taking a photograph of [redacted] inside a bathroom at City Hall. His stay away order expires June 12, 2016, and Petrelis can't contact [redacted] or his offices by any means including email or through a third party.

Asked about the possibility of participating via video screen through Skype or some other means of electronic communication in any debates regarding the supervisor race, Petrelis said he was unsure if that would be allowed.

"I think we would have to go to the judge to see about that," he said. [...]

GLAAD Silent on New Director's Salary Package

(Substitute GLAAD for Obama and this cartoon makes an important and painfully obvious point. Credit: Michael Ramirez.)

The leech upon the queer body politic known as GLAAD is refusing to divulge the compensation deal with their newly hired executive director Sarah Kate Ellis. Who is she? Someone with a very slender LGBT advocacy record.

What I'm concerned with is following the dollars that flow in and out of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, as it continues its slide into further irrelevancy. About the only people, gay or straight, who need this wasteful organization are vapid and insecure celebrities and politicians who need ego gratification with useless award ceremonies.

Conspicuously omitted from GLAAD's release heralding the hiring of the new head honcho is what her pay will be. My emails to and vmails for various GLAAD leaders seeking the salary details have gone unanswered.

This lapdog organization received a round of "coverage" from the straight and gay news and blogger outlets below, all of whom basically ran GLAAD's release almost verbatim and puffing up the group. Not a single one of these outlets bothered to raise the question of compensation.

Such "coverage" is a huge disservice to the audiences of these outlets. The question remains: What is GLAAD paying their new executive director?

From Google News:

LGBT Media Advocacy Group, GLAAD, Names Sarah Kate Ellis New ... BuzzFeed-by Tony Merevick-Nov 25, 2013 GLAAD announced Ellis will begin her new role in January 2014. posted ... NEW YORK CITY — The national Board of Directors of GLAAD has ...

GLAAD Names Sarah Kate Ellis as President, CEOHollywood Reporter-Nov 25, 2013Sarah Kate Ellis Is GLAAD's New President And CEOHuffington Post-Nov 25, 2013Media executive and LGBT advocate Sarah Kate Ellis named new ...Blog-MiamiHerald.com (blog)-Nov 25, 2013 all 24 news sources »

GLAAD announces selection of new President and CEO LGBTQ Nation-Nov 25, 2013 NEW YORK — The National Board of Directors of GLAAD, the nation's LGBT media advocacy organization, on Monday announced the ...

GLAAD Names Sarah Kate Ellis as New President SheWired-Nov 25, 2013 After a rigorous search, GLAAD's National Board of Directors has chosen Sarah Kate Ellis as the CEO and president of the media advocacy ...

Meet GLAAD's New CEO And President The New Civil Rights Movement-Nov 25, 2013 GLAAD has just announced their new CEO and president is award-winning media executive and communications strategist Sarah Kate Ellis.

GLAAD selects new president San Diego Gay & Lesbian News-Nov 25, 2013 NEW YORK -- GLAAD's National Board of Directors has elected Sarah Kate Ellis as the organization's new CEO and president. As a respected ...

GLAAD's What To Watch On Monday | VIDEO San Diego Gay & Lesbian News-5 hours ago GLAAD's What To Watch On Monday | VIDEO. Megan Townsend - Entertainment and Operations Coordinator, GLAAD November 25th, 2013. Tonight catch the ...

SF HIV Food Bank Open Hand ED's Exit Package = $317,000

(Credit: Phantom Cab Driver Phites Back.)

One of great unstated facts of City governance and AIDS Inc is that Tom Nolan, when he was executive director of the AIDS food bank Project Open Hand up until the end of 2011 when he retired from the agency, served more time performing his duties as chair of the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency than at the AIDS service organization.

POH post's their most recent IRS 990, for fiscal year 2012, and the report shows Nolan's total exit compensation package was $317,453. Nolan's base pay was $193,886 he also received $123,567 in retirement benefits he'd been banking for a few years.

The agency's revenue dropped from $9.2 million in 2011 to $8.8 million in 2012, while the deficit jumped from $600,000 to $1 million and their assets fell from $7.4 million down to $6.4 million.

No matter how you slice Nolan's take-home package of $317,453, it's a robust amount for an executive of an AIDS non-profit agency. These executive directors sure know how to take care of themselves.

WH Unsure: Person With AIDS Present When Obama Signed HIV Act?

(Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson) 

Since the web page for the White House's Office of National AIDS Policy, ONAP, is rarely updated or relevant, I don't check it regularly. Until last week, it hadn't been revised since September 27, two-months ago showing just how inactive the page is for ONAP folks.

On Thursday, November 21, President Obama signed a critical HIV piece of legislation, one that is very important to me and thousands of other people living with AIDS, in general, and particularly those of us over 50 years of age, called the HOPE Act. Extracts from Obama's statement at the bill signing:

Earlier today, I signed into law the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation that allows scientists to carry out research into organ donations from one person with HIV to another. [...] Our country has come a long way in our understanding of HIV and in developing effective treatments. And as our knowledge has grown, the possibility of successful organ transplants between HIV-positive people has become more real. The HOPE Act lifts the research ban. In time, it could lead to these organ donations for people living with HIV. And that, in turn, would help save and improve lives and strengthen the national supply of organs for all who need them. Improving care for people living with HIV is critical to fighting the epidemic, and it’s a key goal of my National HIV/AIDS Strategy.

I asked the White House if any people living with HIV were present at the signing and received only a list of the attendees standing behind Obama, pictured:

Left to right: Shamey Cramer, Bryan Boyarsky, Dr. Peter Stock, University of California San Francisco Medical Center, Representative Lois Capps, D-CA, Representative Barbara Lee, D-CA, Dr. Daniel R. Salomon, The Scripps Research Institute, Chris Collins, VP and Director of Public Policy, amfAR.

In response to my follow up question about who may be poz, the White House replied:

Michael – the only information I have is names, but have asked. (You may want to check with the folks directly as well).

If the President was signing a bill about breast cancer or women's reproductive health, I'd expect him to have women living with breast cancer present and for the White House to know that the women at the photo-op. It's just needlessly sloppy that the White House can spout politically correct words in a statement about people living with HIV, but when it comes to make sure we're participating in a photo-op that will offer hope and courage to PWAs, the Obama administration is remiss in touting PWA participation or knowing if a PWA was there.

The stigma PWAs live with could have been diminished if the White House information machine had mentioned that at least one person at the HOPE Act signing is openly HIV poz.

Shamey Cramer, who was instrumental in getting the HOPE Act enacted and signed into law, is a longtime survivor of AIDS and was originally diagnosed with HIV in 1985.

As a longtime AIDS survivor myself, I extend deep thanks to Congress, AIDS researchers, President Obama, Shamey Cramer and other PWAs who moved this bill to become reality and provide us with one more option for wellness and staying alive.