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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 46 • No. 6 • February 11-17, 2016
SF readies Raucous meeting over sex offender site condom campaigns to reduce STDs by Matthew S. Bajko
U
se a condom messaging is again being rolled out in San Francisco. But unlike during the early days of the AIDS epidemic, when condoms were the main focus of safe Rick Gerharter sex campaigns aimed Dr. Susan Philip at preventing HIV, the prophylactics are returning as a way to combat rising rates of other sexually transmitted diseases. “What we are hearing is the community wants to see messages about condom use, what the data says about STD rates, and how to incorporate that into a sexual health message,” said Tracey Packer, director of community health equity and promotion in the Population Health Division at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. For the last decade San Francisco has seen a relentless rise in STDs. And 2015 was no exception, with rates of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis all spiking. It is a trend that has been growing across California and the U.S., particularly as more gay and bisexual men abandon condoms for other HIV prevention methods, such as taking PrEP and/or serosorting their sexual partners, and sexual practices, based on HIV status. While that has led to a reduction of new HIV cases both in the city and across the state, the tools many men are using to protect themselves from becoming HIV-positive, or passing on the virus to their sexual partners, do not stop the spread of STDs. “Reportable STD cases are going up everywhere. We are not facing this in isolation, multiple factors throughout the country are contributing to this,” said Deputy Health Officer Dr. Susan Philip, the director of SFDPH’s Disease Prevention and Control Population Health Division. “In San Francisco we are seeing large numbers of STD cases. At the same time, we are happy to see declines in HIV infections. Those things are connected.” According to the health department’s preliminary year-end 2015 data on reportable STDs, chlamydia increased by 21.2 percent between 2014 and 2015, from 5,972 to 7,239 cases. Male rectal chlamydia increased from 1,408 to 1,788 cases, a 27 percent annual increase, according to the initial reports. Gonorrhea increased by 30.3 percent from 3,278 in 2014 to 4,270 cases last year, noted the health department’s monthly STD report published February 4. It also pointed out that, compared to a 10 percent increase seen in 2014, rectal gonorrhea among men See page 13 >>
Jane Philomen Cleland
Audience members raise their hands at Monday’s Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association meeting to show they signed a petition against Sharper Future.
by Sari Staver
A
fter a rowdy and raucous Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association community meeting Monday, the owners of a for-profit chain of sexual offender rehabilitation clinics promised to delay their plans to move into an empty storefront at 100 Church Street. The California chain, Sharper Future, had signed a lease with Maitri hospice to move into the former home of a thrift store and medical clinic that had been occupied by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Sharper Future treats offenders out on parole or probation from state or federal prison. “Our movers are on hold,” Sharper Future
President Mary-Perry Miller, Ph.D., a lesbian, told the Bay Area Reporter. At the standing-room-only meeting in the auditorium of California Pacific Medical Center, some 200 residents, many wearing nametags that said “I Have A Question,” heard gay Supervisor Scott Wiener promise that the move “was not a done deal.” “You have my word,” said Wiener, “that this is just the beginning” of the process to debate the subject. At issue was whether Sharper Future has gone through all the legal and regulatory channels necessary to move into the empty space. The city issues involve local zoning and permit regulations, which will be discussed at a
Board of Appeals hearing next week. The city had issued a letter of determination, essentially telling Sharper Future that given the limited information it supplied, zoning officials thought it appeared to meet the qualifications to occupy the small part of the space that had been occupied by AHF’s medical clinic. In response to the Sharper Future controversy, Wiener on Tuesday introduced legislation that would require new tenants offering medical services to receive a conditional use permit, which requires a public hearing, and an enforceable community outreach process. If approved by the Board of Supervisors and the mayor, the legislation would be retroactive to February 9 and would apply to Sharper Future, See page 13 >>
Sanders, Trump rack up big wins in New Hampshire by Lisa Keen
L
GBT news out of the New Hampshire presidential primary this week was both familiar and bizarre. The LGBT community in New Hampshire appeared to be split between the two Democratic candidates – Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. That was much like it was in 2008 between Clinton and Barack Obama. But on the odd side of the picture, Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump beckoned a woman in a rally audience Monday to shout out the word “pussy” to characterize another male GOP candidate. And at a diner in Manchester the same evening, a gay man chided Republican contender Marco Rubio for his opposition to same-sex marriage, and an elderly patron asked Rubio whether Senator Lindsey Graham (RSouth Carolina) is gay. When the results were in Tuesday night, Sanders had a wide margin of victory over Clinton; and Trump had a wide margin over the eightperson field of Republican candidates. Ohio Governor John Kasich, the closest thing to a moderate in the GOP field, came in second, ahead of the Iowa caucus winner Ted Cruz, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and Rubio. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had a dismal showing, finishing sixth, and media
Senator Bernie Sanders
Businessman Donald Trump
outlets Wednesday reported that he suspended his campaign. Carly Fiorina also suspended her campaign Wednesday. Clinton and Sanders gave speeches Tuesday night that included mention of LGBT people several times. In his speech, Trump promised to “take care of everything – it’s going to be great.” Kasich promised to “leave no one behind” and “to solve the problems in America, not by being extreme.” In his victory speech, Sanders said, “the people want real change” and that it’s “just too late for the same old, same old establishment politics.” That comment seemed to echo a remark Sanders made last month, when he characterized the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT political group that endorsed Clinton, as being part of “the political establishment.” But later in the speech, Sanders said, “We
must pursue the fight for women’s rights, for gay rights, for disability rights.” He said his campaign will bring together “black and white, Latino, Asian, Native American, straight and gay, male and female, people born in America and people who immigrated here.” In her concession speech Tuesday night, Clinton said she was committed to breaking through the barriers of discrimination, adding, “LGBT people shouldn’t be fired from their jobs because of who they are and who they love.” She also mentioned the rights of LGBT people in saying she would fight for the rights of many minorities.
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The community split
There was no survey data to indicate where the LGBT vote in Iowa or New Hampshire went, See page 12 >>