San Francisco Chronicle - Tuesday, August 13, 2002
Christopher Heredia, Chronicle Staff Writer

A four-person team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spent four hours Monday in meetings with employees of the Stop AIDS Project in the Castro.

The visit came after conservative members of Congress questioned the propriety and scientific value of some of the group's workshops, which have carried such titles as "Great Sex," "Sex Toys for Leather Boys" and "A Walk on the Wildside."

"Do you believe that such programs are effective HIV prevention?" wrote Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., in a July 30 letter to new CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding, who ordered the site visit. "Under your leadership, will CDC continue its financial support to the Stop AIDS Project or other organizations that have violated federal laws or misused federal funds?"

CDC guidelines require federally funded AIDS prevention programs to neither encourage sexual activity nor be considered "obscene" by community standards.

The Stop AIDS Project received $686,000, or 38 percent of its $1.8 million budget, in federal funds for 2000. The U.S. government spends an estimated $400 million annually on AIDS prevention.

Program defenders suggested that a national political agenda, combined with local AIDS activists opposed to government-paid prevention workshops, were behind the investigation. They said explicit content was the only approach that had been proved to work.

"Of course it raises eyebrows," said Steven Tierney, head of HIV prevention at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. "The fact of the matter is gay and bisexual men are getting HIV from insertive anal intercourse with people who are HIV positive. It'd be nice if we could do AIDS 101 in a pristine setting and talk epidemiology, but to reach the folks who are getting infected, we have to talk about sex and what they're doing."

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic whip from San Francisco, came to the group's defense: "Targeted HIV prevention that can reach those most at- risk for infection is vital, particularly as AIDS medications successfully keep people healthy and the overall number of people living with HIV grows. Local organizations, such as Stop AIDS Project, which are a part of the community they are trying to reach, are best positioned to combine programmatic expertise with extensive knowledge of the target populations they serve."

The CDC investigators said little as they emerged from the group's offices Monday afternoon, but they described Stop AIDS employees as "very responsive."

Tom Coates, director of the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, called the CDC visit -- as well as an audit by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services -- a time-wasting distraction for health workers trying to spread the disease-prevention message.

"This level of scrutiny could cripple these agencies, especially agencies serving minorities," Coates said. "It looks like a witch-hunt."

CDC officials were expected to meet today with San Francisco Department of Public Health officials to determine whether Stop AIDS' workshop materials had been given proper approvals by a local review panel.

Tierney predicted that the Stop AIDS materials would pass muster, despite their graphic content. Given the political realities, he said, the CDC had no choice but to respond to complaints.

San Francisco AIDS activist Michael Petrelis wrote to members of Congress complaining about taxpayer dollars being spent on what he characterized as ineffective, sexually explicit workshops. Petrelis did not return phone calls Monday. (Later, his attorney said Petrelis was prevented from calling by a court order. The Chronicle obtained a restraining order against Petrelis last year after a series of alleged threats made against employees at the newspaper. )

Tierney said the complaints were part of "a campaign to bog down the prevention process with constant inquiries."

"I look forward to the day when we're not spending all this time responding to inquiries and instead spending that time preventing some people from getting HIV," he said.

Shana Krochmal, spokeswoman for Stop AIDS Project, said some changes had been implemented since the federal health inquiries began last year. For example, she said, the organization has agreed to account more accurately for employee time spent doing federally funded work.

"We've been continually funded by the CDC for 10 years," Krochmal said. "We have any number of evaluating mechanisms to prove our workshop and outreach interventions help prevent the spread of AIDS."

Ronald Johnson, associate executive director of the Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York City, said he was disturbed by the Stop AIDS audit, which he said reflected the political clout of arch-conservative members of Congress.

"The trend seems to be targeting programs that work with gay and bisexual men," Johnson said. "It's having a chilling effect on programmatic interventions. These audits are going beyond fiscal accountability and legitimate programming. Talking about stopping HIV in its tracks, we need to be able to talk explicitly about sex and risk reduction."

E-mail Christopher Heredia at cheredia@sfchronicle.com.
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