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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 43 • No. 40 • October 3-9, 2013
Prop D targets drug prices
Streets were packed at last year’s Castro Street Fair.
by Seth Hemmelgarn
S
an Francisco voters will have a chance on Election Day, November 5, to weigh in on a ballot measure that would make it city policy for officials to continue to directly negotiate with drug manufacturers for cheaper prescription drug prices, including those used to treat HIV and AIDS. The city purchases prescription drugs for medical programs it runs and spends over $23 million a year on the medications. Current law authorizes the health department to use outside companies to negotiate in order to ensure that the city gets the lowest possible prices. If voters pass Proposition D, it would be city policy to “use all available opportunities to reduce the city’s cost of prescription drugs and to ask state and federal representatives to sponsor legislation to reduce drug prices paid by the government,” according to the ballot pamphlet. The measure requires a simple majority to pass. AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which is based in Los Angeles but does work in Oakland and San Francisco, including its Out of the Closet thrift stores, is spearheading the Prop D campaign. Officials with the nonprofit have said the measure was spurred by Gilead Sciences pricing Stribild, its recent four-in-one AIDS treatment, at $28,500 per patient, per year, more than the annual income of many people living with the disease. Requests for comment from Gilead weren’t immediately returned. In a Friday, September 27 meeting with the Bay Area Reporter editorial board, Yes on D campaign manager John Baldo referred to “skyrocketing” drug prices. Asked about what teeth the measure, which is a policy declaration, has, Baldo said, “This is not by any means a symbolic policy declaration.” “We wanted the city to have a mandate from voters” that residents want city officials, including the Board of Supervisors, to fight the high costs, he added. The hope is such a mandate would send a clearer message to drug companies than complaints from city government alone would. Baldo said Prop D’s supporters are aware that pharmaceutical companies have to have money to pay for research and development and other costs, but “We want price controls to be talked about and discussed,” he said. AHF had to gather more than 9,000 valid signatures to get its measure on the ballot. Officials with the agency announced plans for the measure with a November 2012 news conference on the steps of City Hall. The nonprofit See page 21 >>
Rick Gerharter
High-flying Folsom fair
Rick Gerharter
T
he 30th annual Folsom Street Fair was a fetish lover’s paradise Sunday, September 29 as warm weather brought out the kink in attendees who descended on San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood. Above, dancing in an elevated cage returned to the fair after an absence
See page 21 >>
See page 21 >>
Liz Highleyman
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I
collaborative efforts funded by the National Institutes of Health to work on various cure approaches. A cure for HIV has garnered a great deal of recent attention, in part due to overly enthusiastic media reports. “The good news is that these reports are real, but the sobering news is that making a cure that’s safe and available for everyone remains a huge challenge,” said CIRM board member
of several years and one of several flaggers added to the color. Folsom Street Events Executive Director Demetri Moshoyannis estimated that 400,000 people attended and said that gate donations and beverage sales were high. Ticket sales were also up for the fair’s official parties, he added.
Researchers Mike McCune and Hans-Peter Kiem discuss the latest in HIV cure efforts at a town hall meeting.
early 100 people gathered at the State Building in San Francisco on Tuesday to hear the latest news on HIV cure research, a field that has seen remarkable, if slow, progress over the past few years. Sponsored by the UCSF AIDS Research Institute, the Gladstone Institutes, and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the town hall featured researchers from three
by Matthew S. Bajko
t began four decades ago as a way to promote San Francisco’s new gay neighborhood in the Castro. Over the years it has maintained its community celebration roots but also evolved into a major fundraiser for local nonprofits. The Castro Street Fair is marking its 40th anniversary Sunday, October 6 with a look back at its past as it celebrates its future. And in honor of its ruby birthday, the event’s organizers are asking attendees to wear red. Harvey Milk, a gay man who owned a camera shop on Castro Street, organized the first fair to drum up some excitement in the business district catering to the city’s Eureka Valley area. To honor Milk, who later went on to become the first out person elected to public office in San Francisco only to be murdered a year later, the fair is promoting found footage of him filmed during the 1976 street fair on its website. “We have posted a short clip of Milk discussing the fair and we are excited it came together,” said Fred Lopez, the current president of the fair’s board of directors. It is the first time the video of Milk has been shown online free for public viewing. A different clip of past fairs from the Daniel A. Smith/ Queer Blue Light Collection in the archives of the GLBT Historical Society will also be played throughout the day at the archival group’s museum space on 18th Street. “We have previously posted excerpts of the Queer Blue Light video from the 1976 Castro Street Fair on YouTube but not the interview with Milk,” society spokesman Gerard Koskovich told the Bay Area Reporter. Due to the fiscal sponsorship of Bank of the West, which recently opened a branch in a new building at 16th, Market and Noe streets, admission to the GLBT History Museum will be free Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Another nod to Milk, who 40 years ago this week debuted his political column in the pages of the B.A.R., can be found at this year’s incar-
Packed meeting for HIV cure talk
by Liz Highleyman
Castro fair marks 40 years
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