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Mayor Lee sworn in
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Meet the new D5 supe
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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 42 • No. 02 • January 12-18, 2012
LGBT issues on tap at SF City Hall by Matthew S. Bajko
A Jane Philomen Cleland
Supervisor David Campos speaks about the need for supplemental HIV/AIDS funding from the city at Tuesday’s press conference. He was joined by Supervisor Scott Wiener, Mayor Ed Lee, far left, and new Supervisor Christina Olague, right.
Mayor, supes seek AIDS funds by Seth Hemmelgarn
S
an Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and the city’s out supervisors have introduced a resolution to provide $1.8 million in supplemental funds for HIV/AIDS care and treatment to replace federal funding cuts. The measure, backed by gay Supervisors David Campos and Scott Wiener, and newly appointed bisexual Supervisor Christina Olague, is meant to maintain the level of services promised to people with HIV and AIDS until the end of the fiscal year, Lee said. Typically, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has been able to successfully roll back cuts to the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act. But this time, Congress eliminated funding in its most recent budget bill, and city officials had to devise their own plans. The city was awarded $25 million for March 2012 through February 2013. However, $5 million of that was cut. The $1.8 million supplemental funding would cover the part of the reduction affecting the rest of this fiscal year, which ends June 30. At a press conference on the steps of City Hall on Tuesday, January 10, hours before the resolution was introduced, Lee referred to the Ryan White cut as “a very serious challenge.” The Ryan White act “is a program we know has been effective,” Lee said. “It has saved lives. It has increased quality of life for so many people.” More than half of the people living with HIV and AIDS in San Francisco don’t have private health insurance, according to the mayor’s office. Like others, Lee credited Pelosi for her work over the years to maintain Ryan White See page 12 >>
number of issues important to the city’s LGBT community will be at the top of the agenda in 2012 under San Francisco’s gold-domed City Hall. Hearings will address the needs of LGBT seniors and look at issues impacting the entertainment industry. Concern is already growing on how a redistricting task force will map out supervisor districts, due by April, and several electoral reforms for local races are being floated. Affordable housing, especially for the middle class, will also receive attention from local lawmakers. In his inaugural address Sunday Mayor Ed Lee proposed creating a work-force housing trust fund that could go before voters in November. This week the board’s two gay male members, District 9 Supervisor David Campos and District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, called for a hearing to explore how, and if, the city is addressing the needs of LGBT seniors. They gained a strong ally on the board to help address the topic in newly appointed Supervisor Christina Olague, a bisexual Latina who had been a senior housing action collaborative coordinator at the Senior Action Network. The hearing is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. Thursday, January 26, before the board’s
Rick Gerharter
The scene was lively last weekend at Beatbox, one of the clubs along 11th Street in the South of Market area.
Government Audit and Oversight Committee. [See Guest Opinion, page 4.] “One thing we realized talking to many in our community is the large number of seniors within the LGBT community and issues specific to LGBT seniors that, quite frankly,
need to be addressed,” said Campos. “We in the LGBT community and city as well are not really thinking about those issues.” It is estimated that 25,000 LGBT people 60 years of age or older currently live in San See page 13 >>
Tenderloin Health scrambles to find providers, money by Seth Hemmelgarn
E
ven as officials work to shut down Tenderloin Health, the director of the San Francisco nonprofit said this week that he’s still trying to raise funds to keep it open. Until recently, Executive Director David Fernandez and others have said almost nothing publicly about the deep trouble threatening the nonprofit, which provides housing, medical, HIV/AIDS, and other services to some of the city’s poorest residents. The agency’s thousands of clients are among those who have been kept in the dark. Tenderloin Health, which took a huge funding hit last fall, announced its plans to close in a statement Thursday, January 5. The announcement – which made no mention of efforts to save the organization – came after repeated attempts by the Bay Area Reporter to get details on the agency’s condition, and more than two weeks after its board voted to shut down. Meanwhile, Fernandez and Pamela Fitzgerald, who as development director is tasked with fundraising, are at odds. In a Tuesday, January 10 interview, Fernandez See page 13 >>
Rick Gerharter
Clients of Tenderloin Health, above, have not been aware that the agency’s board voted to close the organization.
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