No time for modesty
While seeing the Democrats take back control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives is a great relief ["Dems take House," November 9], Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi has a lot more to do than to merely "stop anti-gay legislation from coming to the floor," as you report. She needs to make sure pro-gay legislation comes to the floor.
This is especially important, since San Francisco Examiner columnist Ken Garcia noted on November 8 that Pelosi has called for "a relatively modest [legislative] agenda."
This is no time for Pelosi to play the "modest" card. She needs to act, and act quickly, even before she assumes duties as speaker of the House in January. The Ryan White CARE Act – which funds both access to AIDS medications under the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, and health services under Title 1 of the CARE Act – was not reauthorized prior to the November election. The CARE Act's fate is in the hands of a lame-duck Congress. At stake are services to thousands of Americans relying on the CARE Act reauthorization for access to life-saving AIDS medications and primary medical care.
Pelosi's spin-meisters are saying that in her first 100 hours on the job as speaker, she will go after the pharmaceutical industry to permit the federal government to negotiate prices directly, as if she hasn't heard that both the Department of Defense and the Veteran's Administration already obtain deep discounted pricing under the federal "340-B" program. DoD and the VA, however, don't want the rest of the federal government to get the 340-B deep discounts they already enjoy. Pelosi must surely know of this program.
There's just six short weeks before the end of the year, when the CARE Act is set to expire. Pelosi can't permit lame "lame ducks" the chance to halt CARE Act reauthorization in their last six weeks in office.
If she fails to ensure passage of the CARE Act before January, even before assuming her duties as speaker of the House, it will bode ill for HIV/AIDS patients across the country, and bode ill for her chances of actually being able to broker other bipartisan legislation during her upcoming tenure. First steps first, congresswoman: Get the CARE Act reauthorized, then pursue the 340-B program for Medicare Part D and the ADAP program.
Patrick Monette-Shaw
San Francisco
Housing, not ad campaigns
In your story on the Department of Public Health's AIDS Office's latest in a never-ending series of social marketing campaigns manufactured to force people with AIDS to break their alleged silence about HIV, you reported that the men behind the ads provoking folks to disclose their HIV status couldn't disclose the amount of the city's general fund dollars being spent on this effort ["HIV social marketing campaigns spark debate," November 9].
I filed a Sunshine Act request for the contract and it turns out the total cost, in city funds, for the ads is a whopping $190,985, to be spent over a six-month period. Of that amount, $61,600 went to pay the salaries of the five campaign coordinators, $13,552 was for their fringe benefits, bringing the figure for total personnel expenses to $75,152.
That figure is probably small potatoes to the local multi-billion dollar AIDS industry, but I consider it a large sum that probably could have been better spent on helping people with AIDS keep, or get, a roof over their heads.
I believe the city should have spent the $190,985 not on fattening the wallets of executives at Better World Advertising, but instead put the funds into shallow, one-time housing subsidies for PWAs.
If we divided the $190,985 into $200 one-time grants, we could have provided 954 PWAs with assistance at this holiday time to pay their rent, if they have housing, or get a few nights in a hotel, if they're living in the shelters or on the streets.
The San Francisco AIDS community needs to better prioritize how general fund dollars are used for anything related to HIV/AIDS, putting the needs of PWAs and at-risk folks first, wealthy ad agency executives last.
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Michael Petrelis
San Francisco
Political maneuvers
Thank the goddess that someone is looking deeper into Barack Obama's considerable charisma ["Untangling Barack Obama's audacious mumbo jumbo," Guest Opinion, November 16]. I wish I could qualify the source but I read somewhere that right after our mayor cleared the decks for gay marriage he (the mayor) went to Washington, D.C., where Barack Obama refused to have his photo taken with our mayor. Tilt! Politician stuff? How about John McCain's announcing to George Stephanopoulos on ABC that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is working very well? And when Stephanopoulos asked him three times about his position on gay marriage he wrapped himself with GOP mantra – "I believe we should not deny any citizen equal rights and I don't support gay marriage."
There are foxes in our coop now, and it's time to take part in the political process.
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Richard Piro
San Francisco
Advice for Haggard
Now that Ted Haggard has time on his hands he might want to start working on his apology to the millions of American citizens he has demonized. I noticed that he didn't actually give his farewell sermon himself, and I am afraid he's going to need a lot of support. A word of advice from this faggot: Don't stay in hiding for too long, it's bad for your self-esteem, and you might want to consider being part of the solution to a problem, for a change. I know, it feels strange to actually make a difference in somebody else's life – you just have to trust me on this one. If you have to face your demons head on, you can start by asking your Republican cronies for some research money for methamphetamine addiction. And if you can't do any of the above-mentioned suggestions, at least make sure you don't walk it alone.
Heinz Voss
San Francisco
Bishops' ambiguity
The Roman Catholic Bishops certainly are comfortable with ambiguity. They are against the current war in Iraq. Then they are against sex outside of marriage, homosexual sex, and the joys of sex using birth control. They are against wars killing people and are blind to the hurt and danger toward gays caused by their anti-gay stance.
Robert Warren Cromey
San Francisco
Jon Sugar rocks
Jon Sugar is the opposite of ennui. He's a stage mother right out of Gypsy. (Raspy Ethel Merman voice) Louder, Louise! He's Rosalind Russell all right, a real "Auntie Mame." Many a young musician has arrived from the Midwest at Sugar's doorstep to find himself in the middle of (pronounce slowly, clearly) La tofu vida loca.
His record, "Gay Type Thang" satirizes Debbie Harry's "Rapture" and rap in general with aggressive gay lyrics and a hot tune. Mr. Sugar raps about putting Krazy Glu in the KY jelly and "the straight boys fertilize those eggs, but we've got Crisco for those golden legs."
I met John on the 5 Fulton in 1973. We were on opposite ends of the bus. I had recently arrived in the city from Chico, California. The first thing I said to him was "I know you." Who doesn't know Auntie Mame?
Jon Sugar, musician, singer, harmonica player, comedian, writer, performer, conduit, record producer, arts promoter, publisher, DJ, and founder of GAWK (Gay Artists and Writers Kollective). He also produces and hosts events at Magnet, the gay men's health clinic in the Castro.
And speaking of the Magnet, Jon Sugar will be hosting GAWK's free Hanukkah party December 16 at 7 p.m.
Lloyd Stensrud
San Francisco
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