Michael Siever, Ph.D., a gay man and psychologist who once led the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s behavioral health program, died April 10 at an assisted living facility in Seattle. He was 74.
Scott Pando, a gay man and longtime friend who used to be a caregiver, said that Dr. Siever had suffered various health issues in recent years.
“He was such a mensch,” Pando said in a phone interview. “He was an absolute love and a dear, dear friend of mine.”
As director of behavioral health at the AIDS foundation, Dr. Siever co-founded the Stonewall Project, a drug and alcohol drug treatment harm reduction program for gay and bi men in San Francisco that continues today. He also ran the foundation’s Speed Project and co-founded, with Steve Gibson, Magnet, a sexual health clinic that is now run out of the foundation’s Strut health center in the LGBTQ Castro neighborhood.
“We at San Francisco AIDS Foundation are saddened to hear of the passing of Dr. Siever,” stated Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D., CEO of SFAF, to the Bay Area Reporter. “Michael was an incredible champion for the queer community – dedicating his life and career to building programs and services for gay, bi, and trans men who have sex with men and others at risk for HIV.
“His deep expertise, and care, in crafting these services lives on today through two programs at SFAF he co-founded more than 20 years ago: The Stonewall Project, which provides substance use treatment and counseling, and Magnet, our sexual health clinic at Strut. Michael’s legacy lives on, and we are so grateful for his contributions to our community,” TerMeer added.
Dr. Siever retired from SFAF in 2014, according to the foundation’s records.
During his tenure, Dr. Siever was not afraid to take on San Francisco policies and officials. In 2014, he wrote a Guest Opinion piece for the B.A.R. that called out the city’s commitment to harm reduction. His words could be relevant today as Mayor Daniel Lurie has rolled back nonprofits’ abilities to distribute things like clean foil, pipes, and plastic straws.
“The [Treatment on Demand] Planning Council advocated a harm reduction approach to helping folks who do drugs (including alcohol) even if they were not ready or willing to endorse abstinence as their goal,” Dr. Siever wrote. “A harm reduction approach views any step toward improved health as a positive step.
“In 2000, the Health Commission endorsed harm reduction and made it the policy of the Department of Public Health and a guiding principle for all DPH contractors,” he continued. “Fast forward to 2014 and we find Mayor Ed Lee and Health Director Barbara Garcia balking at a recommendation by the HIV Prevention Planning Council that DPH consider the evidence supporting the distribution of crack pipes, a harm reduction approach with aims similar to those of needle exchange.”
In May 1999, Dr. Siever was critical of then-mayor Willie Brown for interfering with community planning.
“Dr. Michael Siever, who co-chairs the city’s Treatment on Demand Planning Council, encouraged people to contact Brown to express their support for the community planning process,” the B.A.R. reported at the time. “‘The mayor and DPH are highly ambivalent about community planning,’ Siever said. ‘We need to continue to put pressure on the mayor, supervisors, and DPH that we need community planning.’”
And in 2004, Dr. Siever disagreed with Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, then a top DPH official, over Klausner’s position that Viagra, then a new drug to help men with erectile dysfunction, should be a controlled substance and would lead to an increase in sexually transmitted infections among men who have sex with men.
As the B.A.R. reported, “I think once again Jeff is barking up the wrong tree,” said Michael Siever, Ph.D., director of the Stonewall Project and a national expert on crystal use among gay men. “Clearly, Viagra is involved in sex, obviously that is what it is for. People are using it in a context of sexual behavior that puts them at risk and that is something to talk about. But it certainly is not the main culprit and seems misplaced energy to go after making Viagra a controlled substance and I don’t think it is going to stop people from getting Viagra anyway.”
Laura Thomas, director of harm reduction policy at SFAF, paid tribute to Dr. Siever.
“Michael was a fierce advocate for harm reduction and for people who use drugs,” Thomas wrote in an email. “He was the first board chair for the San Francisco Drug Users Union and a leader in the movement for supervised consumption services. He was a nationally-known expert on gay men and methamphetamine.
“He had a big heart and a wicked sense of humor and brought a sense of joy to everything he did,” Thomas added. “I think he would be so outraged at how San Francisco is backing away from all of the evidence-based HIV prevention and harm reduction work that he helped to build, including Stonewall and the Drug Users Union.”
Gibson, a gay man who co-founded Magnet with Dr. Siever, recalled those early days. At the time, Gibson was at the Stop AIDS Program, which was later merged with the foundation.
“Michael was a visionary,” Gibson said in a phone interview. “The way he saw gay men relative to methamphetamine, and enabling gay men’s health beyond the paradigm of HIV-positive or HIV-negative. Michael and I had a vision to change that.”
Gibson said that Dr. Siever was always trying to get to “yes.” “To figure out a way to do this,” Gibson said.
Matthew Denckla, a gay man who used to work with Dr. Siever and helped start Magnet, said that he will be missed “by many overlapping communities.”
“He was a real pillar in the prevention world of HIV and STIs and had a huge understanding of harm reduction,” Denckla said in a phone interview.
Denckla said that Dr. Siever was able to inspire others.
“What was unique about Dr. Siever was that he would gently encourage people to do things that were way beyond their capabilities,” he said. “Many people shined because he said, ‘I think you can do this.’”
Michael Discepola, now senior director for Glide’s Health Empowerment Access Team, succeeded Dr. Siever as director of the Stonewall Project in August 2008, he wrote in an email. Before that, he served as associate director. He became director of the foundation’s behavioral health services in 2015, following Dr. Siever’s retirement.
He noted that Dr. Siever was a “savior” to many.
“Michael was a generous, caring, and brilliant individual whose impact on the lives of countless people cannot be overstated,” Discepola wrote. “He was a trailblazer in his field, dedicated to helping thousands improve their health, well-being, and happiness. On a personal level, Michael was my mentor, my friend, and a cherished member of my chosen family.”
And Discepola echoed Denckla in how Dr. Siever worked to help those around him realize their potential.
“I had the profound honor of building upon his incredible legacy at the Stonewall Project, carrying forward the vision that Michael and I passionately shared. Michael had an extraordinary gift for believing in people, especially when everyone else had given up or simply couldn't,” he wrote.
Longtime AIDS survivor Matt Sharp, a gay man, said that Dr. Siever “was a harm reduction icon.”
“Not only did he start and support Tweaker.org and the Stonewall Project, but he also led gay men who were shamed for their substance use a sense of hope and health in a system that stigmatized them and left them for naught,” Sharp wrote. “Michael was a beloved friend and offered me a place to stay when I was homeless. His loss is huge.”
Family life
Dr. Siever helped raise Ethan Treber, and adopted him when Treber was 40. Growing up, Treber said in a phone interview, Dr. Siever served as an adult male role model starting when he was about 7 years old.
“He was always an academic,” Treber said, recalling a time when he asked his mom and Siever and Siever’s late partner how long he had to go to school.
“My mom said 12 years, and Michael chimed in 16,” Treber said.
He said that Dr. Siever and his partner started a college fund for him.
The two were close, attending Burning Man together several years in a row, said Treber, who identifies as “mostly straight” and is currently single. While Dr. Siever advocated for, and was an expert in, harm reduction, Treber said his dad “liked dark coffee, dark chocolate, and liked his celebratory options as well. Everything in moderation.”
Treber, 54, lives in Seattle and helped care for Dr. Siever for the last couple of years. When test results came back earlier this year, they confirmed bone marrow cancer, he said. He had taken Dr. Siever in for transfusions weekly but, last month, Dr. Siever made the decision that he was “done with transfusions,” his son said.
Dr. Siever was born April 29, 1950. He is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Washington in Seattle. He is the former director of Operation Recovery, the substance abuse treatment program of the old Operation Concern, a community-based organization that provided mental health, substance abuse, and HIV services to the LGBTQ community in San Francisco.
Dr. Siever is the author of articles in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology and Focus: A Guide to AIDS Research and Counseling and a chapter in “Gay and Lesbian Mental Health: A Sourcebook for Practitioners.” He also has presented at several American Psychological Association conventions, the first National Harm Reduction Conference, several National AIDS Update Conferences, and the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Conference on Stimulant Abuse.
Dr. Siever received many accolades over the years. These included recognition by gay former state Assemblymember Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) in 2004; a Community Excellence Award from SFAF in 2018; and recognition by the San Francisco Department of Public Health for his service on the Treatment on Demand Council and for being a Public Health Hero.
Treber said it had been hoped that Dr. Siever would be in good enough health to travel to Costa Rica at the end of this month to celebrate his 75th birthday. Now, Treber said he is planning to take the trip and, hopefully, bring some of his father’s ashes with him.
A celebration of Dr. Siever’s life will likely be held in San Francisco at a later date, his son said.
Updated, 4/16/25: This article has been updated with comments from Steve Gibson and Matthew Denckla.
Updated, 4/17/25: This article has been updated with comments from Michael Discepola and Matt Sharp.
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