Miami Herald - November 30, 2002
Steve Rothaus, srothaus@herald.com

When Boys Fly centers on four young gay men from Los Angeles and Orlando who came to Miami Beach three years ago for White Party, the Thanksgiving week fundraising ritual held by Care Resource, Florida's largest AIDS organization.

White Party Week raises about $1 million annually for Care Resource and is the agency's biggest fundraiser. About 7,000 gay men are currently in town for this year's events, Care Resource Executive Director Rick Siclari estimated.

The documentary doesn't discuss the fundraising aspects of White Party. AIDS and HIV are never mentioned.

Instead, the video dwells on the hedonism of some partygoers who are oblivious to safe sex -- and the intended message of White Party and Care Resource.

"Maybe they need to think of a different fundraiser because the one they created backfired," said Brandon Del Campo, one of the true-life stars of When Boys Fly, just released on DVD.

Del Campo, now 26, said that during White Party Week in 1999 he was "the only person out of 10,000 who was not on drugs."

Obviously an exaggeration, but the documentary does show several young men with overdoses.

"This is something that exists, and it's important to show it exists and the reason behind it," said Lenid Rolov, who coproduced and codirected When Boys Fly. "Being a secret and doing it in the dark is not going to help."

AGENCY'S REACTION

The people at Care Resource are mortified by When Boys Fly and call it a distortion.

None of the footage was shot at the agency's centerpiece fundraising event, the White Party at Vizcaya.

Much was taped a month after White Party Week -- on New Year's Eve, said Tony Miros, a Care Resource spokesman who helped Rolov on the video and received a production credit.

"They wanted to do a Real World-type of documentary on four guys from different parts of the country who were coming to Miami for the millennium," Miros said. 'Their whole shtick was, 'We want to see what gay men are like in the 21st century.' "

Rolov acknowledged that he also taped footage at the New Year's Millennium 2000 party at Miami Beach Convention Center and at another gay "circuit party" a few months later in Palm Springs, Calif.

Artistic license, Rolov said.

"I look at the film as about people, not about circuit parties," Rolov said.

Early in When Boys Fly, filmmakers define a circuit party as "a sequence of gay underground dance events" and "a weekend of debauchery where rules don't apply, boundaries are nonexistent and physical perfection is demanded."

Rolov, who lives in Los Angeles, contended that illicit drug use is rampant at gay circuit parties, including White Party.

Dr. Deborah Mash, a neurology and pharmacology professor at the University of Miami School of Medicine, agreed.

DRUGS OF CHOICE

Among the more popular drugs, according to Mash:

* G (gamma-hydroxybutyrate or GHB): Users can become comatose, completely unresponsive and can die from it.

* Special K (ketamine): Psychosis. Users can become agitated and psychotic.

* Ecstasy (methylenedioxyamphetamine or MDMA): It is addictive and can cause dehydration and hypothermia.

These drugs "disconnect the frontal lobes" of the brain, Mash said.

"It means you can do some rough things you wouldn't normally do. . . . You lose the ability to make good judgments," Mash said.

Mash, who researches drug abuse in Miami-Dade County, said, "We need an initiative locally to get the message out."

"People don't know the risks. They don't know what the consequence will be," he said.

Overdoses of these drugs can cause permanent damage to hearts, brains and other organs.

The worst risk, according to Mash: "The risk of unsafe sex."

That's particularly embarrassing for White Party organizers at Care Resource, where counselors work to educate the public about AIDS prevention. The agency has a $5.5 million annual operating budget.

The first White Party was held in 1985 by a Miami-Dade group of well-heeled gay men and women. The party evolved quickly into an international event on the gay party circuit.

"The circuit found us," said Siclari, Care Resource's executive director.

For several years, Care Resource has sought to limit drug use at its White Parties, Siclari said.

"People were actually upset last year that they were being frisked," he said. "If people get caught with drugs, they're removed. We don't make a legal issue of it, but we ask them to leave."

Siclari said he knows that many gay activists criticize his organization for holding a circuit party as its primary source of revenue. "If you do a fundraiser that's a party, you always take a risk that people will not behave properly. It's not just drugs, it's alcohol," he said.

"I don't want to appear completely naive to the public," Siclari said. "I can only say we are making a sincere effort to not be incongruous with the events we do and the message we are trying to get out."

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