Washington Blade - January 25, 2008
Joey DiGuglielmo

Maybe it bolted me to attention more than some because this was the first AIDS event I've attended since moving to Washington a little more than a year ago. Residents who've been in the District longer may not have been as disturbed by the proceedings because they've heard it all before.

Of course I was aware that HIV is a mammoth problem in Washington - that was solidified by our city's ignominious distinction as having the highest HIV rates of any U.S. city with one in 20 D.C. residents HIV positive and one in 50 having AIDS. To put that in perspective, Washington is the 25th largest U.S. city in terms of population and the eighth largest for number of same-sex households (though those rankings vary slightly among credible sources).

There's no nice way to say it - we have a serious problem.

Still, it's one thing to hear those numbers, but quite another to see the faces of these AIDS patients in person.

Ostensibly, it wasn't a gay event, though several gay and trans organizations, including Transgender Health Empowerment, Us Helping Us, D.C. Black Pride and the Stein Club staged it. This is appropriate as it's been widely documented the degree to which HIV disproportionately affects gay men (though not as much as previously thought, at least in Washington, as November's local AIDS report showed).

Several who spoke didn't out themselves at the microphone but told me later they're gay.

I was especially struck by speakers like Wesley Pinkney, a gay man and 21-year HIV survivor whose frustration and anger were palpable. His address to the panel of experts assembled was chilling.

"What do I have to do to get somebody's attention?" he said. "Kill myself? Kill somebody else?"

Morgan Short, another gay HIV-positive man, said a stint in San Francisco proved to him that with effective and responsive social services in place, people who want to improve their lot are able to do so. He said since moving back to Washington he's encountered little but red tape and unresponsive social service agents.

As I listened to these and other speakers and after the meeting, an ocean of thoughts flooded my mind.

In no order, then, here are a few thoughts that occurred to me as I've processed the evening.

* There really are two worlds of gay men in Washington. There's a large divide between the guys hanging out at Results and Town and those who were speaking at the town hall meeting. Superficially, it might seem as if the cut happens along racial lines, and to some degree, it does. But more striking to me is the class separation.

Washington seems to be a city losing its middle class as the chasm between the haves and the have-nots widens.

The tradeoff is that it's refreshing to see that homosexuality, and to a lesser degree AIDS, knows no socio-economic barriers.

* Making frustrated HIV patients feel they've been heard is important. The people who spoke at the town hall meeting weren't standing in line for their turn at the mic thinking that a member of the panel would whip out a pill or shot that would rid their body of HIV - they had much more basic, pressing and realisitic needs.

They just wanted to be heard. Thankfully, panel speaker Christopher Bates, director of the White House Office on AIDS Policy, announced the phone number of the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration shortly before the session adjourned.

One thing that struck me about the Washington Post's coverage of the Harriette Walters scandal (she's the former tax office employee accused of bilking the city of $20 million) was how helpful she could be to residents who knew the tax office to be a notorious time drain and exercise in frustration. Despite the charges against her, Walters was well-regarded by some for her willingness to spend hours sorting through complicated paperwork, willing to do whatever it took to get to the bottom of a complicated tax mess.

The city's AIDS office has, as regular Blade readers know, been a revolving door of directors and controversy whose problems seem almost as entrenched as those of D.C. Public Schools. I wouldn't have wanted to have been in Dr. Shannon Hader's shoes the night of the meeting as the claimed ineptitude of the AIDS office, where she's the latest head, was a recurring theme.

The jury's still out on her ability to streamline the office, just as time will tell how effective Michelle Rhee will be in sorting out the complicated mess that is the local public school system. But having friendly faces and sympathetic ears at the initial points of contact for the AIDS office would do wonders.

* There are plenty of gay Washingtonians who are willing to help. One balm on the evening was the presence of several local activists, salt-of-the-earth types like David Mariner and Earline Budd, who are willing to chip in. It would behoove Hader and others to maximize these volunteers.

* I was also struck by a sense of what I might be able to do to help. Several who spoke urged those in attendance to "spread the word" and help ensure AIDS is not a taboo issue, but one that's talked about with candor.

It's easy to leave an event like this and feel helpless. When there's no obvious answer to a mammoth problem like HIV, the only approach is to try to chip away at the beast a little bit at a time while others are trying other tools.

The Blade continues to have a role in helping to tame this monster. We're the oldest, largest, most established gay newspaper in the country in a city with the most chronic HIV problem. Surely we have a responsibility to help. In some ways, we do. Whether it's a news story about the ways to contract HIV or the practical advice of the Need Wood column, the Blade has been a reliable place to get trustworthy information about HIV prevention (Stephen Fallon's column on page 18 in this week's edition is a perfect example).

But not everybody in the gay community is reading. I'd like to shake the perception that we're a paper for privileged white gay men shopping for new condos or buying second homes in Rehoboth.

Other groups, like the ones that hosted the event, are doing their part. For many, it's their raison d'etre. The Blade exists for different reasons, but surely there's some role we can play in helping to reach local gays who are missing out on the safe-sex message.

Any suggestions?

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