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Gay Iraqi outraged at killings
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'Life & Death in Black & White'
Welts, Parker honored in SF
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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Packer takes over HIV prevention office by Seth Hemmelgarn
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familiar face is taking the lead at San Francisco’s HIV Prevention Section, at least temporarily. Tracey Packer became acting director of the agency after the departure last week Jane Philomen Cleland of Dr. Grant ColTracey Packer fax. President Barack Obama has selected Colfax as the new director of the Office of National AIDS Policy. Among other functions, the city’s HIV prevention office funnels money to numerous nonprofits that are trying to help reduce new infections by half by 2017. “I’m really excited to have this opportunity, and I’m really committed to ensuring that we’re [using] a collaborative approach with our clients, our communities, our providers, and the press to be successful in preventing new infections in San Francisco,” Packer, 52, said. “Having the voice of the consumer, the client drive our work is key to our success,” she added. Packer, an HIV-negative straight ally, has worked in HIV prevention for the city for 20 years. She began as a health educator and, before Colfax’s departure, served as the section’s deputy director. Packer was the unit’s interim director from the end of 2005 to September 2007. Her salary is approximately $100,000. San Francisco Health Director Barbara Garcia praised Packer in her recent written report to the city’s Health Commission. “Her background and experience in leading the community planning process will go a long way to helping us continue the successful HIV prevention program that has become a national model throughout the country,” Garcia said.
Challenges Packer has her work cut out for her. “We still have 500 to 1,000 new infections each year. We need to address that,” she said of perhaps the biggest challenge. Progress that the city’s made in reducing infections has meant it can be harder to get funding, however. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s allocation to San Francisco is being reduced as the federal agency shifts spending to places that “bear the greatest burden of new infections,” such as the southeastern U.S., Packer said. See page 12
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Vol. 42 • No. 12 • March 22-28, 2012
25 years later, activists recall ACT UP’s legacy by Liz Highleyman
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he AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, better known as ACT UP, held its first action on March 24, 1987, a protest on Wall Street demanding access to experimental drugs and an end to discrimination against people with AIDS. A quarter century later, many of ACT UP’s aims have been realized – at least for people in industrialized countries with money or good insurance. Activist pressure, along with the efforts of dedicated researchers and a dose of good luck, produced combination antiretroviral therapy that dramatically reduced death from AIDS and allows HIV-positive people who receive timely treatment to live a nearnormal lifespan. But some of ACT UP’s grander ambitions – including elimination of homophobia, racism, and sexism, and establishment of social and economic justice – proved harder to attain and remain goals for contemporary activists. “ACT UP brought thousands of powerful voices together, worldwide, crying out for ecoSee page 12 >>
Rick Gerharter
San Francisco activists David Stern, Camo, who only went by one name at the time, and Michael Ryan participate in the successful shut down of the national Food and Drug Administration headquarters on October 11, 1988 in Rockville, Maryland. Stern and Ryan have since passed away.
EQCA struggles for direction by Seth Hemmelgarn
months our community will come to understand that is indeed the case.”
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or the last several months, Equality California, the statewide LGBT lobbying organization, has struggled for direction. Since its founding more than 10 years ago, the organization has helped bring about state laws that address everything from student bullying to employment and housing protections for transgender people. But when former Executive Director Geoff Kors left in March 2011, after nine years in the post, EQCA appeared to lose its focus, and the leadership since then has been in flux. After a lengthy search, Roland Palencia became executive director last July, but he resigned just three months later. His departure came soon after EQCA’s board decided not to pursue a repeal of Proposition 8, the state’s same-sex marriage ban, this year. Last month, EQCA brought in interim Executive Director Laurie Hasencamp, who’s expected to be with the group for about four to six months. But the organization hasn’t announced any plans for what it will do after her stint is over. The cluster of bills that EQCA recently announced it’s backing this legislative session is smaller than in previous years. And people who’ve worked with the nonprofit are concerned that it continues to be a strong organization. Spokeswoman Rebekah Orr said EQCA re-
Slim slate of bills
Rick Gerharter
Equality California supporters marched in last year’s Pride Parade.
mains “an essential organization not only to the movement in California, but nationally. We continue to advance legislation that serves as a model for potential advances in equality.” She also pointed to EQCA’s support of elected officials, among other activities. “I think it’s understandable for people to wonder, ‘Where is Equality California?’” Orr said. She said recent months have been “very challenging,” but said, “We are in a position now to be very forward looking, and I think over the next several
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EQCA is so far formally backing only a handful of legislation this year. Assembly Bill 1505, introduced by Assemblyman Dr. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), would guarantee support for LGBT military families. Assemblywoman Betsy Butler’s (D-Marina Del Rey) AB 1700 is designed to keep LGBTs from losing their homes when a partner dies. AB 2356, introduced by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), would ensure that women in same-sex relationships can access fertility services on the same terms as women in opposite-sex relationships. Finally, gay state Senator Mark Leno’s (D-San Francisco) Senate Bill 1140 would clarify that religious leaders wouldn’t be punished by the state for refusing to marry same-sex couples. Most of the legislation isn’t new. Except for AB 2356, EQCA has previously backed the proposals in some form. Orr, who joined EQCA around the same time as Palencia, defended the organization’s slim list of legislation. “In the past, what we have done is come out with a whole bunch of bills at the beginning of the session,” she said. “ ... We’ll be announcing some additional legislative work in the coming weeks.” See page 12 >>