Gay Today: World

ACT UP San Francisco
Accuses 'Alarmist' Government

Compiled by GayToday

A member of ACT UP-San Francisco interupts a meeting of the Senate Appropriations Committee

San Francisco—A dozen angry activists were ejected from a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing that convened here yesterday as it discussed AIDS complacency and increased funding for HIV research and prevention.

The San Francisco protestors charged that government officials had staged the hearing in secret and had invited only AIDS bureaucrats whose job it was to promote alarmist rhetoric in order to garner more federal funding.

The hearing had not been publicized through any community newspapers or AIDS-related web sites, they said. U.S. Senators Arlen Specter and Barbara Boxer, Representative Nancy Pelosi and California Assemblywoman Carole Migden joined UCSF AIDS researcher Thomas Coates in calling for expanded AIDS funding.

Activists entered the hearing, positioning themselves throughout the small audience of 30 AIDS industry insiders. As Specter began the proceedings they leapt to their feet and began chanting "AIDS disappears as CDC funds fear!" and "Corruption not complacency is the real AIDS news!"

Several ACT UP members stormed the stage and held signs reading "Stop Funding AIDS Terror" while other activists plastered the walls with stickers reading "AIDS is Over."

The ACT UPers argued that despite drops in new U.S. AIDS cases beginning in 1993, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), AIDS organizations and health departments receiving CDC money, were promoting "unfounded AIDS paranoia" in order to justify federal dollar increases to their groups.

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U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer,(Democrat-California) disagreed, however. She said:

"Anyone that goes around saying there's no AIDS is doing a disservice."

San Francisco's Department of Public Health's AIDS Office statistics show that The City has the highest rate of total AIDS cases per 100,000 residents in the United States. More than 15,000 people in San Francisco currently have the HIV virus, according to recent reports.

But ACT UP San Francisco remains adamant about large AIDS organizations that they insist are on the dole.

A Switch: At the San Francisco meeting, a U.S. Senator, Barbara Boxer (above), argued against ACT UP San Francisco members who claim 'AIDS is Over'

"It's a disgrace. The Senate holds a secret hearing excluding people who aren't on the AIDS gravy train. If this is indicative of how Congress plans to conduct Ryan White hearings this spring the American public is in trouble," warned ACT UP member David Pasquarelli.

"Instead of private hearings on AIDS complacency, Congress should conduct a public investigation of AIDS fraud."

Furthermore, the protestors said that AIDS is receiving "a disproportionately excessive amount of funding given its relatively small impact on America's health compared to heart disease, cancer and even car accidents." Most of the money, they say, never reaches patients but is instead spent on high non-profit salaries and overheads.

This accusation moved other AIDS activists to suggest that ACT UP San Francisco has been high-jacked by right-wing forces "in league with Senator Jesse Helms," and who are eager to derail all of the U.S. government's financial ties to the AIDS struggle.