Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bay Area Reporter - June 8, 2006
Cynthia Laird, c.laird@ebar.com
Bill Barnes, formerly the city's AIDS czar and currently an aide to Supervisor Fiona Ma, spoke of the influence of the late Dick Pabich on his decision to work on AIDS issues under then-Mayor Willie Brown.
"AIDS/HIV has been one of the great unifiers of San Francisco politics," Barnes said. "It's the one issue that [Supervisor] Chris Daly and Mayor Newsom agree on."
Barnes, 29, a former political columnist for the Bay Area Reporter, also spoke of his living with HIV since he tested positive at age 16.
Paul Wisotzky, 43, also addressed the audience. A former president of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation board of directors, he has been living with HIV for 21 years.
"I am humbled to be hear today and grateful," he said. "I did not expect to live as long as I have."
Wisotzky said he was visiting San Francisco from New Hampshire in 1989 when he found out he was HIV-positive. He then moved to the city.
"I believe San Francisco saved my life," he said. He urged city leaders to "recommit" to use difference to "make us stronger."
Supervisor Tom Ammiano called attention to the need for housing for PWAs. "Maybe it's time for more of those demonstrations," he said, recalling the activists who took to the streets in the early years of the epidemic to force change. "People are suffering," he said. "We suffer because there's not universal health care."
Jimmy Loyce, deputy director of the city's AIDS Office, offered an emotional oral history of the epidemic. "I watched family members disown brothers and sisters," he said.
Brett Andrews, executive director of the Positive Resource Center, noted the changes over the years that have enabled some PWAs to return to the workforce.
Mayor Gavin Newsom used his introduction of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) to reiterate his concern over the city's expected drop in federal Ryan White CARE Act dollars.
Pelosi recounted the early years of the epidemic, praising caregivers. She also mentioned her work on the CARE Act. "There have been so many people behind putting the Ryan White CARE Act together. It was community-based. It sprang from the people," Pelosi said.
She also mentioned working with Cleve Jones on the AIDS Memorial Quilt and of her work getting the National AIDS Memorial Grove designated with the federal government.
"I can tell you one thing, sadly, that when I went to Congress, I never thought we would still be standing here 25 years later without a cure," she said. "We have a moral responsibility where there is a need, so five years from now on the 30th anniversary we can say that AIDS was a terrible memory, one that we will never see again."
Supervisor Bevan Dufty announced awards to longtime volunteers Steven Abbott, Seth Lawrence, Nina Grossman, William Billy Cooper, Ruth Brinker, David Duncan, and Kaushik Roy.
The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus performed two numbers. Bishop Yvette Flunder from City of Refuge United Church of Christ closed out the program by inviting PWAs to join her on stage for a rendition of "We Shall Overcome." The stage filled as men and women stepped from the audience and joined her.
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