DA candidates court LGBTs
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Help for LGBT seniors
ARTS
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SF Opera opens
Charo!
The
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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 49 • No. 37 • September 12-18, 2019
SFAF releases new strategic plan by Liz Highleyman
T
he San Francisco AIDS Foundation has released a five-year strategic plan that includes a new mission statement for the long-lived organization, reflecting its focus on the population groups most heavily impacted by the HIV epidemic today. The new plan outlines four strategic priorities including prevention and treatment of HIV, hepatitis C, and other sexually transmitted infections, especially among people of color; harm reduction for people who use drugs; services for HIV-positive people over 50; and a commitment to racial justice. “Progress over the last 37 years has been substantial but our work is far from complete,” SFAF CEO Joe Hollendoner told the Bay Area Reporter. “During the process of building this strategic plan, we heard from community members what we know to be true about the public health system: There are health disparities that persist, inequities that have not been addressed, and trauma that has been ignored. That has to change if we want to ensure everyone can have a highquality, healthy life regardless of their race, gender, HIV status, or economic situation.” SFAF was founded in 1982 as the Kaposi’s Sarcoma Research and Education Founda-
Liz Highleyman
San Francisco Mayor London Breed announces the city had fewer than 200 new HIV diagnoses last year.
New SF HIV cases fall below 200 by Liz Highleyman
Bill Wilson
San Francisco AIDS Foundation board chair Mary Cha-Caswell, center, is flanked by Cleve Jones, who helped found the AIDS service organization, and honoree Sister Roma at SFAF’s Tribute Celebration held September 7, just before the release of its new strategic plan.
tion, the year after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report about an outbreak of rare pneumonia among gay men in Los Angeles. It was the first report about a disease that would go on to claim the lives of more than 21,000 people in San Fran-
cisco, nearly 700,000 in the United States and an estimated 32 million worldwide. The agency’s new mission statement reads, “San Francisco AIDS Foundation promotes health, wellness, and social justice for communities most impacted by HIV through See page 12 >>
Dem prez hopefuls court LGBTs by Lisa Keen
L
GBT voters: Mark your calendars. Over the next month, there will be four Democratic presidential candidate forums – two of them devoted exclusively to LGBT issues. And one of those LGBT forums will be the first-ever to be broadcast by a major cable network. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is partnering with CNN to host a nationally televised LGBT presidential town hall, October 10, similar to the climate change town hall CNN held September 3. As with the climate change event, the LGBT forum will have each candidate on stage with a CNN moderator for a set period of time to answer questions from the moderator and members of the audience. Lucas Acosta, HRC’s national press secretary, said some details are still being worked out but any candidate who meets the Democratic Party’s threshold criteria for participating in the party’s debates will be invited to participate in the LGBT forum. Acosta said HRC has already received indications from many of the top polling candidates that they will participate: former vice president Joseph R. Biden Jr.; Senators Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), Kamala Harris (California), and Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota); former housing secretary Julian Castro; and gay South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg. This will not be the first HRC presidential
Jane Philomen Cleland
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren will participate in two town halls geared toward LGBT issues.
candidate forum. The group staged similar forums during the 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns. The 2008 HRC presidential forum (held in August 2007) was broadcast live on MTV’s newly launched LGBT cable channel Logo. Six of the eight major Democratic candidates at
the time participated, but then-senator Biden declined, citing a scheduling conflict. Republicans were invited in 2007, but none agreed to participate. Acosta said HRC has decided not to invite Republicans this year. See page 12 >>
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he San Francisco Department of Public Health released its latest HIV epidemiology report Tuesday, showing that new HIV diagnoses have fallen below 200 a year for the first time, putting San Francisco on track to achieve its goal of becoming the first city in the United States to get to zero new infections. Most indicators of HIV care have improved as well, and more than 90% of newly diagnosed people are now being linked to care within a month and starting antiretroviral treatment promptly, which reduces disease progression and lowers the risk of transmitting the virus. But some notable disparities remain, including rising HIV rates among African American and Latino men and a high rate of new infections and low rate of viral suppression among homeless people. Mayor London Breed and DPH Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax unveiled the report September 10 during a news conference at the Ward 86 HIV clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. The report will be presented to the city’s Health Commission September 17. Colfax, a gay man, was the city’s former HIV prevention director. “We in San Francisco have been at the forefront of pushing for innovative new policies, new science, and new technologies to get us to this milestone,” Breed said. “We’re showing real progress that we should all be so proud of, but we know that disparities still exist.” There were 197 new HIV diagnoses in 2018, a 13% decrease from 227 in 2017 and the lowest number ever reported. “Dropping under 200 new infections reminds me of 20 years ago when the Bay Area Reporter had its ‘No obits’ issue. Now we’re trying to get to the next step of no [HIV/ AIDS] deaths and no new infections,” said gay District 8 supervisor Rafael Mandelman. “We will not get to zero until we really get a handle on getting care to people who are out on the streets and who are living with so many challenges.” As has historically been the case in San Francisco, most newly diagnosed people are men (88%) and nearly two-thirds are gay or bisexual. See page 6 >>
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