When I moved to the city to attend San Francisco State University it was not my intention to start Gay American Indians, nor did I have a vision that a killer virus would have a devastating effect on the local Native American community.
In June 2006, I read all the news coverage in our straight and queer press that mentioned how AIDS ravaged major organizations such as the Gay Men's Chorus, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and the Shanti Project. As a community historian and activist for 31 years I feel compelled to respond on how the AIDS virus impacted our GAI membership. To date we have lost 84 talented "warriors" to the virus. The majority were gay men active or affiliated with GAI over the years.
In the early 1980s I told the GAI Board of Directors that this killer virus would come our way, that we must be trained and educate ourselves about this foreign virus. The GAI board and its membership took it upon themselves to cross-train at Shanti Project and the SFAF volunteer hotline service. In the mid-1980s, under GAI leadership, we established the Indian AIDS Project to provide emotional, practical, and spiritual support for those men and women living with AIDS. Mixed with a little community politics a name change came about and the group became the American Indian AIDS Institute. Under AIAI we wrote and received our very first Department of Public Health AIDS Office grant to provide AIDS services to our community. GAI became the first queer Native American community-based organization to receive such funding. Furthermore, AIAI became a role model for other native community-based organizations providing AIDS services in the state and around the country.
Keep in mind that back then, most of the DPH monies were channeled to mainstream agencies like SFAF and Shanti. The people of color leadership took it upon themselves to become proactive with the AIDS Office and created the POC AIDS Advisory Committee. We advocated that the money designated for AIDS services, education, and prevention be fairly distributed. I must admit we made enemies among our peers and it was the very first time many of us empowered ourselves to challenge the status quo. In my observation and experience AIDS activists such as William Brandy Moore, Bart Amarillas (Pima), Hank Tavera, Preston Nicholson, Rodrigo Reyes (GALA), John Eric Teamer, and Ronnie Salazer brought AIDS awareness and AIDS policy and development to many of today's AIDS service organizations. Furthermore, it's my belief that these AIDS warriors coined the terms "culturally specific" and "cultural appropriateness" when applied to delivery of AIDS services to the community.
Through hard work and dedication we must never overlook our true AIDS history in San Francisco. Back then (and now) I realize that AIDS dollars are political and the history of AIDS is no longer local but global and we must never overlook any community as it relates new information on AIDS. For example, when people use the term people of color, let's look beyond just the African American and Latino communities. We must remember that the AIDS virus doesn't discriminate and the face of the virus is having an impact on women, men, children and families from all communities.
I have always believed in inclusion and not exclusion and this killer virus goes beyond the urban setting. There are many living on and off rural Indian reservations surviving with AIDS or dying in secret afraid of being ostracized for having the virus. Most people I met over the years still believe American Indians living on and off Indian reservations receive "free" medical services. This type of stereotyping or misinformation is totally faulty. Many native PWAs move to places like San Francisco to seek medical care, this includes social, emotional, and spiritual support they receive at places like the Native American AIDS Project.
As a community archivist and health care worker I have observed, experienced, and witnessed many changes in our LGBT community as it relates to the history of AIDS and the profound impact AIDS is having on our native population. Speaking as a community volunteer, we must continue to be compassionate for those who are living with AIDS.
As World AIDS Day approaches let's honor those who have walked before us and let's give thanks for those who care for the children, women, and men living with AIDS.
Randy T. Burns is the co-founder of Gay American Indians. For World AIDS Day events, see page 4.