Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - Friday, November 16, 2001
Larry Margasak, Associated Press Writer
The inspector general of the Health and Human Services Department, Janet Rehnquist, found that a workshop called "Booty Call" included material on the taboos of erotic sex along with information on avoiding injury and disease. A program called "Great Sex Workshop" examined ways of reducing the spread of HIV but also explored sex that was "safe, erotic, fun and satisfying."
Both San Francisco workshops, run by the Stop AIDS Project, included information that "could be viewed as directly promoting sexual activity" and as obscene, Rehnquist said.
Tommy Thompson, the health and human services secretary, said that Rehnquist will investigate all AIDS-prevention grants while his office will separately review all AIDS/HIV programs run by his department, including a much larger program for treatment of low-income victims of the disease.
Rehnquist's report, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, reviewed $698,000 in AIDS-prevention funding by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The AP reported last September on questionable AIDS-prevention funding.
Officials at the Stop AIDS Project said they had no immediate comment. However, community AIDS organizations in San Francisco and city health officials have said that course materials have to be provocative to attract gay men at risk of disease. They have insisted that the programs do stress AIDS prevention.
The CDC's guidelines for prevention programs state the material used cannot promote sexual activity or intravenous substance abuse, and cannot be obscene under standards set forth by the Supreme Court in 1973 in Miller v. California.
The court said the obscenity standard is whether an average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the material appeals to prurient interest, and whether the content lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
"Using this guidance, we believe that one might view the materials as encouraging directly sexual activity and as obscene," Rehnquist found. She said the San Francisco programs also were not approved by a local review committee as required by the CDC.
Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chairman of a House Government Reform subcommittee, had asked for the investigation.
The programs in question, most of them run by San Francisco AIDS groups, are funded in part from the nearly $400 million the federal government is spending on AIDS prevention. The government also spends $1.8 billion for medical treatment of low-income people with AIDS.
Some AIDS activists have criticized the prevention workshops, contending they promote gay sex rather than try to prevent disease.
"I'm heartened the inspector general of HHS is taking these issues seriously," said Wayne Turner, spokesman for the AIDS group Act Up in Washington.
Rehnquist said the "Great Sex Workshop" appears to include "information about HIV prevention, but it also appears to directly promote sexual activity."
The course outline for "Booty Call" indicates the workshop "discusses the harmful effects of promiscuous activity" but "nevertheless appears to focus equally on, and possibly to promote, sexual activity."
The AP previously reported on similar programs advertised to gay men and financed with CDC money. Advertisements said those attending would learn to write racy stories about sexual encounters, choose toys "for solo and partner sex" or share tales of erotic experiences.
Rehnquist is the daughter of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. --- On the Net:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov Stop AIDS Project: http://www.stopaids.org
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