Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Bay Area Reporter - June 4, 1999
Cynthia Laird
Approximately a dozen of SFAF's 19 board members attended. Only four speakers showed up of the six who signed up for four minutes to address the board. Photographs and recording devices were not allowed at the meeting.
First up was Bay Area Reporter news editor Mike Salinas, who suggested board members "break the silence," quoting from Christen's op-ed piece in the San Francisco Chronicle , if they were privately unhappy with the practice of awarding double-digit raises to SFAF executives.
AIDS activist Michael Petrelis was next; he had wanted to offer Christen a handful of bread crumbs, but alert security people prevented that from happening. As a person with AIDS in San Francisco, Petrelis said, "All I get are crumbs." He said plans are in the works for a picnic in front of Christen's East Bay home some Sunday afternoon. "We hope you'll talk to us and end the silence," he said.
Next, AIDS dissident David Pasquarelli criticized Christen's guest opinion piece, in which she discussed the need for gay men to communicate with respect to sexual encounters and the conflicts that arise over disclosing one's HIV status.
"You are reviled in the gay community," Pasquarelli said. "You have no right to speak about me. You don't know about gay male sex."
Batting clean-up was Dana Van Gorder, the Department of Public Health (DPH) coordinator for lesbian and gay health services. "I want to commend the board, staff, and Pat [Christen] for the piece in the Chronicle. It's the beginning of a much-needed discussion in San Francisco. Gay men are having a difficult time having conversations around serostatus. It's time for us to have a dialogue with gay men about how to take care of one another."
Neither the board nor Christen had any comments following the public testimony.
Board members and guests then broke into small groups and heard presentations on a variety of indicators of the AIDS epidemic, both in San Francisco and the U.S. All of the material was sourced and easy to understand. It included information on current estimates of HIV in San Francisco, based on DPH's 1997 HIV Consensus Report, AIDS cases in the city, hepatitis B and rectal gonorrhea rates in the city, state and federal HIV/AIDS-related legislation and spending, HIV-related housing issues, and AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) drug information.
SFAF's next public board meeting takes place Thursday, June 24 starting at 5:30 p.m. at 995 Market Street. To attend or speak, call (415) 487-3053.
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