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D5 candidates on transit
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Vol. 49 • No. 38 • September 19-25, 2019
Hong Kong Gay Games may be in jeopardy by Roger Brigham
Liz Highleyman
Robert Vasquez, left, joined Brenda Goodrow and Peter Staley outside the federal courthouse in San Francisco after last week’s hearing.
Advocates say Gilead broke antitrust laws by Liz Highleyman
A
group of advocates has filed a federal class action lawsuit against Gilead Sciences Inc. and its partner companies, alleging that they violated antitrust laws and established an HIV treatment monopoly by agreeing to combine their medications in exclusive coformulations. “It got to a point where a monopoly started happening in HIV antiretrovirals – 89% of newly infected people now take a Gilead drug,” lead plaintiff and longtime activist Peter Staley told the Bay Area Reporter. “They didn’t get there through research. They created one novel product in 1992, they bought up a few others, and they’ve been using teams of lawyers ever since to corner the market.” At an initial hearing in United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco September 5, the plaintiffs requested a jury trial and asked to begin the process of discovery, seeking a slew of legal and marketing documents and personal communications from Gilead and its co-defendants, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Janssen (part of Johnson & Johnson), and Japan Tobacco. Contending that the lawsuit is baseless, lawyers for the defendants sought to have the case transferred to another judge and to delay providing documents. They argued that providing documentation spanning more than a decade would impose an undue burden. Judge Edward M. Chen denied both requests. “The lawsuit filed against Gilead and three companies we partnered with to develop new medicines distorts and misstates Gilead’s history and its collaborations with these partners,” Gilead said in a statement provided to the B.A.R. “Gilead believes this lawsuit and its antitrust allegations are without merit and we have therefore filed a motion to dismiss. The allegations against Gilead are misguided and do not accurately reflect antitrust laws or Gilead’s history of innovative collaboration and competition in HIV medicines.” Gilead, based in Foster City, is also the subject of unrelated legal actions by activists, including patent challenges against Truvada for PrEP and a lawsuit alleging that the company kept a new safer version of one of its drugs off the market until the patent was about to run out on the older version. See page 14 >>
W
hen Hong Kong was selected in 2017 to host the 2022 Gay Games, several Federation of Gay Games sports organizations and stakeholders expressed concerns that the changing political scene in the semi-autonomous Chinese province would complicate staging a successful event. Now, after months of seemingly nonstop clashes between Hong Kong police and prodemocracy protesters, many Gay Games supporters are doubting the quadrennial event can be held there at all – with some calling for a decision as soon as early November. “Canceling the Gay Games would be hugely disruptive and unfortunate,” Ken Craig, a local martial artist and board member of both Team San Francisco and International Association of Gay and Lesbian Martial Artists, wrote in an email. Craig said much would depend on the timing of such a move. “If the announcement was made early enough to prevent financial losses on the part of attendees, then it would simply be an organizational challenge for the Federation of Gay Games as to why the games could not be re-located,” he added. “If the games
Courtesy EPA-EFE
Protesters rally inside the arrivals hall of Hong Kong International Airport on August 9.
were canceled at the last minute, much as the Outgames in Florida were, it would be a catastrophe for LGBT international sporting events in general as it would encourage many to consider the FGG as inept and incapable as the (now-defunct) GLISA organization.” (The Gay and Lesbian International Sport
Association was the licensing body for the rival World Outgames, which began with an event in Montreal in 2006 that lost millions of dollars and ended with a last minute cancellation in 2017 of the event in Miami because of financial and organizational mismanagement, leaving thousands of LGBT See page 12 >>
Israel sends gay diplomat to SF
by Heather Cassell
S
an Francisco recently welcomed its latest gay diplomat. Matan Zamir, the deputy consul general of the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest in San Francisco, started his new post August 1. The consulate serves Israelis living in Northern California, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, according to its website. This is Zamir’s second posting in the United States. He spent four years in Boston before returning to Tel Aviv for a year, where he assisted with Israel hosting and promoting this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, the global music festival that Israel won in 2018. He also worked with Tel Aviv Pride. Zamir, who turns 38 next week, and his American partner of nearly three years, Dylan Chuilli, 24, are excited to be in San Francisco. Zamir has already become a Warriors fan and the couple, who are avid wine connoisseurs, can’t wait to explore California’s wine country. As an interfaith couple – Chuilli is a nonpracticing Christian – Zamir told the Bay Area Reporter during an interview earlier this month that he looks forward to working with the San Francisco Bay Area’s large interfaith community. “One of the reasons I was extremely happy to come to San Francisco is because of the way that the community is working together,” said
Rick Gerharter
Matan Zamir is the new deputy consul general of Israel in San Francisco.
Zamir, who said he participated in Boston’s interfaith community. Zamir enjoys traveling the world and discovering new places and people. It is one of his favorite aspects of his job. “What I love the most is the opportunity to not only to visit a place, but to really live in it and get to know a culture that is extremely different than mine,” said Zamir. He is usually assigned diplomatic stints of up to five years. Zamir enjoys the “sense of freedom” San Fran-
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cisco represents, which he said is similar to Boston and Tel Aviv.
Vision and goals
Zamir has three main goals he wants to accomplish in his new role as the consulate’s second-incommand. He wants to highlight shared Israeli and American values and work on business, especially entrepreneurship and technology; cultural exchanges; and humanitarian work. Israel is known as the “startup nation” due to the See page 13 >>
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