When I first heard about UCSF's gays and staph infections study, and the stigmatizing remarks of the lead researcher, my reaction was a big yawn. Another "gays = disease" flare-up that assaults us every few months was happening. No reason to get upset because San Francisco gays will again accept the punches from UCSF researchers as we have so often in the past.
But this study, publicized through a release from the powerful UCSF press office, with the resultant hysterical global headlines and unvarnished hatred from right-wingers, turned out to be much more than just another questionable study pathologizing gay men and our sexuality.
Gays on Castro Street and across the blogosphere reacted with swift anger, but our community-based organizations made no effort to extract an apology from UCSF and for four long days, UCSF allowed the lies to circle the planet without any challenge. It was only after I asked for an apology that the university issued a tepid retraction on its Web site. And that has been UCSF's only written response to its huge blunder.
UCSF leadership has not held one town hall forum with us, nor have they announced any plans to do so. No written explanation of what went wrong and how it's being corrected internally has been presented. Gay employees have spoken, as individuals, along with a co-author of the study, at the two forums held recently, expressing their personal regrets over what happened, and verbally assuring us constructive change has occurred behind the scenes.
In order for such a crisis never to befall us again, gay health advocates need to get tough with this rich and influential institution, by demanding some basic public accountability and transparency at the chancellor level.
Let's start with UCSF vice chancellors organizing a series of their own forums to bring sunshine to the public affairs processes that led to this media mess and wounding of the gay psyche. The university should issue a written report to the public on what steps have been taken to address the situation and how it will avoid a repeat. And the university leadership should ask for genuine and continuing respectful engagement with local gays.
Separate from those forums, we need to insist UCSF hold monthly meetings, open to everyone, to share information about gay-related research and all the HIV studies soon to hit the medical journals.
We need communication from the researchers and public affairs department, before findings are published. If the UCSF press office doesn't have a calendar showing when its researchers' work will hit the journals – and it should considering the journals' publication schedules are prepared far in advance – the PR folks should create such a calendar to share with us.
On too many occasions to count, UCSF, the AIDS Office of the health department, and "AIDS Inc." groups, created sensational media splashes about gay health only from the perspective of Fear!, Alarm!, Hysteria!
The community is given no advance notice when these panics are launched. Some object to this provocative way of addressing our complex health needs, only to be told by the experts, "You gays are complacent according to our research. The best way to start a dialogue with you all is through stormy apocalyptic language. We're so happy you're mad and talking."
No other community suffers such a skewed approach to its health from experts as we do, which also undermines sound public health policies for everyone, regardless of sexual orientation.
If UCSF had had a concurrent plan of its own, or in collaboration with the health department, encouraging hand washing for all San Franciscans, at the time the staph study was published, I would cut it some slack. After all, wasn't the take-home message simple – staph infections are at epidemic levels in the city? Reminding all citizens of the sanitary and life-saving importance of good hygiene was not a central part of UCSF's plan.
We also need to change the way community discussions are conducted. It is deeply troubling that at the recent San Francisco AIDS Foundation meeting at Magnet, after the three panelists had made their comments on the latest gays = disease panic, the moderator grandly announced that it was time for questions, no statements from the community would be allowed. No reason was given why the chat was to be so controlled, but audience members objected and the moderator relented.
My point is that an honest community debate must take place free of the constraints and agendas of AIDS service organizations, which seem too concerned with tamping down the legitimate revulsion we have over this UCSF debacle.
"Never again" was the angry cry of Jewish people after Germany's concentration camps were liberated, a cry I've heard whispered in the past decade every time San Francisco gays have faced a media and public health panic whipped up by UCSF, the health department, and AIDS Inc.
One way to guarantee gays never again suffer outrageous pathologizing by any powerful institution in this town is to require UCSF host public forums and issue a report on the mistakes learned from the gays and staph infection study controversy.
Michael Petrelis is a longtime AIDS and human rights activist.