The Miami Herald, Inc.; a Knight Ridder publication. One Herald Plaza, Miami, FL 33132-1693 - Miami Herald (MH) - Saturday, November 30, 1996 Edition: Final Section: Front Page: 1A Word Count: 707
Peggy Rogers, Herald Staff Writer

The community is killing itself, a group of gay activists and South Beach leaders warned Friday, calling attention to a study of national import that documents the extraordinarily high rate of HIV among South Beach men.

Skaters, dog-walkers and bare-chested men stopped at the spectacle of an open-air news conference about AIDS prevention, staged on a sunny afternoon during the long holiday weekend from a microphone in the middle of bustling Lincoln Road Mall. "You can see glitzy night life, you see all the construction, you can say: `Where's the crisis?' " said speaker Robert Galante, owner of The Loading Zone nightclub. If residents don't adopt safe sexual practices, Galante said, "We're going to end up seeing South Beach as a graveyard."

Nearly two of every five gay and bisexual men age 30 and older on South Beach carry the AIDS virus, according to a study made public last week. Nearly eight out of every 10 of those residents have engaged in unprotected anal intercourse at least once in the preceding year, according to the survey, led by pioneering AIDS-tracker William Darrow at Florida International University.

South Beach can't continue promoting its attractions while ignoring its residents' health, warned a series of speakers, who ranged from a business owner to a porn star, a lauded filmmaker to a 19-year-old youth activist.

Finding solutions

In unusually frank and graphic terms for such a public forum, speakers talked about the necessary displeasures of using a condom, the hiding of diseased immune systems beneath sculpted bodies and the lack of open discussion about a virus that has killed so many in the community. Even in pornographic films, said porn actor and community activist Jason DiBiaso, "condoms are used all the time, every time and without fail." The facts about safe sexual practices must get out, DiBiaso said.

He talked about the need to widely distribute a graphic, pocket-size booklet, which he recently helped produce, showing safe forms of oral sex.

But more than 15 years into the AIDS epidemic, DiBiaso told a reporter after his speech, "This is the first time that people in the community have come forward to talk about what's being done and not done."

Filmmaker Robert Rosenberg, who also spoke to the gathering of onlookers, journalists and fellow activists, said he makes sure to use a condom, and remains free of the virus while it kills friends around him.

Spreading the word

The conference was organized by the AIDS Prevention Task Force. The group of prominent Dade activists and experts was formed about 18 months ago to spread the word of prevention, and it has made progress, members say.

The old "condom wars" among AIDS agencies -- competition to hand out condoms and collect donations at local bars -- has been settled with a "condom calendar" distribution schedule, said task force member Gary Knight.

The group also worked to prompt change at a few South Beach nightclubs that catered to homosexual customers but failed to check drug use, drunkenness and other behavior on the premises leading to unsafe sex.

Given the new AIDS study, community members who spoke out Friday said they must make prevention an ever-present message on South Beach -- visible in its businesses, in its art and even on its bathroom walls.

"There's a famous saying that came out of the '80s: Silence equals death," said Knight, the conference moderator. With the approach of World AIDS Day Sunday, he said, "That silence must end."

CAPTION: photo: Gary Knight speaks to the crowd about AIDS (a) Tim Barnum and Jason DiBiaso and Barbara Bonallo chat at the AIDS press conference (a)

Photos by AL DIAZ / Herald Staff SPEAKING TO THE CROWD: `There's a famous saying that came out of the '80s: Silence equals death,' says Gary Knight, above at far right, a member of the AIDS Prevention Task Force and moderator of a press conference on AIDS Friday at Lincoln Road Mall in Miami Beach. `That silence must end,' Knight says. At left, activists Tim Barnum, Jason DiBiaso and Barbara Bonallo, left to right, chat at the press conference.

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