Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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San Francisco Examiner - August 6, 2002
Adrienne Sanders Of The Examiner Staff
Health and Human Services investigated the controversial workshops, with titles such as "Booty Call" and "Great Sex," last year. Now the CDC's new director, Julie Gerberding, has placed the program at the top of her AIDS agenda.
Gerberding plans to send a team to her hometown next week to check whether the federally funded group's curricula is "scientifically sound," according to a letter sent to the Stop AIDS Project. The former UCSF medicine and epidemiology professor could not be reached for comment.
The move could threaten not only the group's federal funding, but HIV prevention programs across the country.
Stop AIDS spokeswoman Shana Krochma said surveys show its classes are effective. The CDC will need proof -- and will shine the national spotlight on the Castro in the interest of science.
The first audit, initiated after reviled AIDS activist Michael Petrelis lodged a complaint against the group, concluded some programs were obscene and encouraged sexual activity.
Local public health officials say the investigations have been launched under pressure from a coalition of conservatives on Capitol Hill, led by Mark Souder, a Republican congressman from Indiana.
Steven Tierney, director of HIV prevention for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said he welcomes Gerberding's expertise on the group's effectiveness, but said the repeated investigations are simply a new form of harassment from "a local crank (Petrelis) through his contacts in Congress."
Activists say the move represents the Bush administration's two-handed push to the right of national agencies.
Bush recently moved his AIDS adviser, Scott Evertz, from the White House to HHS to work on the international epidemic. Evertz said he supported Stop AIDS Project's work when he visited San Francisco in January.
"This is what the community asked for, this is what the community approved and this is what the community needs," Krochma said.
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