Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Miami Herald - Tuesday, December 2, 2003
Ashley Fantz, afantz@herald.com
They listened to Fort Lauderdale's Gay Men's Chorus and toured the library, which was full of HIV-themed artwork by more than 30 visual artists and poets. The exhibit was inspired by a Day With(out) Art, conceived in 1989 to dramatize HIV's effect.
Some of those operating booths in the library's courtyard were disappointed by the size of the crowd.
Hispanic Unity of Florida HIV outreach worker Rafaele Narvaez, 33, who gave away condom lollipops and pamphlets, said AIDS educators face many obstacles, including conservative religious attitudes and traditional views held by some in Broward's burgeoning Latin community.
"You have all these confusing messages, and that's very difficult to battle as an educator," he said.
It was Philip Kinbar's first time at the event. The 61-year-old New York transplant has been living with HIV since 1989. After being diagnosed in New York and spending several years in San Francisco, he moved to Fort Lauderdale to be near his family. Unlike those areas, which have a history of political activism, he senses a different approach is needed in South Florida, where just last year a chapter of ACT UP, the activist group with roots in the early 1980s, failed to gain momentum. "This is a culture that seems to be a relaxed, do-it-on-your-own type of place," he said.
Bill Vaccaro, 56, and Steven Schmiedel, 46, both of Fort Lauderdale, agree. Schmiedel suspects the complacency can partly be blamed on a younger generation of gay residents who have not experienced losing their friends to the disease to the same extent that older gays have. "They never saw it," he said, "so they maybe don't appreciate the dangers as much."
The city of Miami set out a couple of hundred folding chairs at its service for the AIDS dead at the Torch of Freedom. The guests arrived, middle-aged and orderly, but their number didn't quite fill the seats. They were almost all African-American and Hispanic. The number of infected are on the rise again and minorities are getting hit hard.
"In the beginning, in '94, there were a lot more people that would come out to something like this," said Roslyn Allen, 52, a 10-year survivor of the virus. "Those gay white boys, they fought. My people, they'd rather die in silence. But I don't give a damn. I want to live."
Herald staff writer Nicholas Spangler contributed to this report.
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