As I was writing what I thought would be an objective post in which I would not take sides on whether the ad was an effective or ineffective ad, I found myself admiring the willingness to shake up the status-quo and the use of shock tactics to wake up gay men - and particularly young gay men - out of the complacency that seems to have settled over the community when it comes to HIV/AIDS.
I've seen a lot of the leading gay bloggers write non-committal posts asking readers to express whether they find the ad effective or ineffective. But a few have taken sides.
..and, ehm, me? At least that's what I sorta said in my last post.
Expressing outrage about the ad were:
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) which released a joint statement calling for the ad to be withdrawn
There are also all the telling pro- and anti-ad reader remarks posted by readers at Joe.My.God. and Towleroad, among others.
Tonight, though, there is a great opinion piece by POZ Magazine copy editor Trenton Straube which nails exactly why the ad has drawn such divergent reactions as well as why the hunger for a frank discussion of the issues that lead to HIV transmission among gay men in this day and age still do not excuse the use of scare tactics for the sake of it.
From his essay:
Personally, I oppose sugarcoating reality--if the facts are scary, then so be it--and I suspect that most people, especially young men who have sex with men, are oblivious to the accurate statement "It's never just HIV." Let's tell that truth. It's important, especially in light of the bareback pornification and sexualization of, well, most everything nowadays, and in light of the growing believe that HIV is a manageable disease (surely, all the recent news about Truvada as a pre-exposure prophylaxis will convince some folks that high-risk behavior isn't so high risk after all).
However, let's talk about the PSA's tone and presentation. This 30-second horror show is one thunderclap away from parodying those "Gathering Storm" ads that warned about the impeding dangers of marriage equality. Such melodramatic delivery overshadows the important message. I get that the campaign is in line with the city's other fear-based PSAs against smoking, which relish in images of clogged arties, diseased lungs and amputated fingers.
But do we really need to see a mutilated anus in association with HIV and men who have sex with men (MSM)? The ad does more to stigmatize anal sex than people living with HIV. Cigarettes and HIV aren't synonymous and the two shouldn't be treated identically in a campaign. As other online commentators pointed out, smoking, unlike sexuality, isn't part of your intrinsic identity as a person. Sexuality subjects you to discrimination in terms of human rights, religious equality, loving relationships, etc.
Read the entire piece here. It's certainly worth it. And my easily impressionable mind is back on the 'no to the NYC DOH ad' column.
If you've lived in NYC over the last few years, particularly if you are a smoker, you are probably highly aware of a series of increasingly graphic print and television campaigns the New York City Department of Health developed to discourage people from smoking and encourage smokers to quit.
In its first incarnation, you saw "Ronaldo Martinez" speak to the camera and talk about getting a cancerous growth removed from his throat and taking his ability to speak away without the help of a machine (surprisingly, I haven't been able to find the televised version of the ad anywhere except in a different version apparently appropriated by an anti-smoking agency in Australia of all places).
I'm not a cigarette smoker but that specific ad seemed to have a punch to it. Sure, I changed the channel every time it came on, but you could certainly understand the ad's plausibility when it comes to long-term cigarette smoking.
The ads made an immediate impact, specially among friends who smoked. They called NYC's #311 help line and ordered the expensive smoking-cessation kits that the Department of Health offered on a limited basis.
Researchers called the campaign a "huge success", at least in its early stages. But it's not clear to me whether they took into account that the Department of Health was initially offering access to nicotine patches for free nor the fact that the city was increasing taxes on cigarettes
Not that I'm complaining. As an infrequent cigar smoker, I can say that one of better legacies of the Bloomberg administration is having barred smoking in bars. And, apparently, some statewide programs still offer free nicotine patch or gum "starter kits" (click here).
But then came the other ads. The ones that said that smoking would make you lose your fingers (I kid you not). Or give you brain tumors. Or promote cavities. And I personally thought they'd gone off their rocker and gone punch-happy on negative messaging. Truthfully, the more graphic and preposterous it got, the less effective I felt the campaign was.
They even tried to replicate the scare tactics - laughably some may say - with campaigns to stem consumption of sugary drinks and the way they make people fatter. Gross, yes. Effective? Eh...
Which brings us to...
I've long been a critic of the public health policies developed by the New York City Department of Health under the Bloomberg administration and their reliance on scare tactics. And yet, I am inclined to like this ad. Why?
Well, it's certainly graphic and gross. But it speaks to the potentially horrible side-effects of being HIV positive. Does it say that everyone with HIV will develop these symptoms? No. But the ad does strongly imply that people with HIV are at a higher risk of being at risk of these illnesses - which I believe does act as a forceful HIV-prevention message.
Now, call me when the NYC Department of Health starts running messages saying that people with HIV are more prone to cut off their fingers as a scare tactic but, if memory serves me well, just a couple of years ago HIV prevention advocates were bemoaning that HIV prevention messages portrayed people with HIV as being all happy-happy and ultra-healthy when the reality of living with HIV wasn't nearly as cheerful.
Interestingly, a few of Michael Bloomberg's most vociferous critics seem to be backing this campaign while a number of advocates and organizations are calling for the Department of Health to pull the ads.
As the leading video attests, openly gay New York City Councilmember Danny Dromm is asking for the ads to be removed immediately as does the South Asian Lesbian and Gay Association (SALGA).
Tonight, they've been joined by the Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) which released this statement. An excerpt:
Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), the nation's oldest HIV/AIDS prevention, care and advocacy provider, today joined the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the nation's leading lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) media advocacy and anti-defamation organization, to demand that the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene pull a sensationalistic and stigmatizing television public service announcement aimed at gay and bisexual men.
The PSA, which is intended to encourage condom usage among gay and bisexual men, claims that those with HIV face a higher risk of bone loss, dementia, and anal cancer. While older adults living with HIV may be at greater risk of these conditions, the PSA creates a grim picture of what it is like to live with HIV that could further stigmatize HIV/AIDS, as well as gay and bisexual men.
"We know from our longstanding HIV prevention work that portraying gay and bisexual men as dispensing diseases is counterproductive," said Marjorie Hill, PhD, GMHC's Chief Executive Officer. "Studies have shown that using scare tactics is not effective. Including gay men's input, while recognizing their strength and resiliency, in the creation of HIV prevention education is effective. Gay men are part of the prevention solution, not the problem."
Both GLAAD and GMHC have reached out to the department to demand that the commercial be pulled and to offer assistance with framing the conversation around HIV/AIDS more accurately.
"While it's extremely important that we continue to educate New Yorkers about HIV/AIDS prevention, the sensationalized nature of the commercial, including its tabloid-like fear tactics, misses the mark in fairly and accurately representing what it's like to live with HIV/AIDS," said GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios. "It's our hope that the department will work with us to create a PSA that promotes safety and solutions, rather than stigma and stereotype."
The funny thing (as funny things go when discussing these issues) is that one of the top Bloomberg administration critics when it comes to HIV prevention seems to be bending over-backwards not to say a bad thing about this.
And that, my friends, is truly as bizarre as it gets. As for the ad... do you think it's effective? Do you think it sucks? I am inclined to like it but haven't yet made up my mind. What are your thoughts?
Update: Via my friend Michael Petrelis, Larry Kramer chimes in:
to the nyc dept of health:
thank you. it's about time. this ad is honest and true and scary, all of which it should be. hiv is scary and all attempts to curtail it via lily-livered nicey-nicey "prevention" tactics have failed. dr hill knows this and her remarks below, once again, show her to be living on another planet. and since when is GLAAD in the hiv-prevention business? god help us if it is. gmhc is bad enough.
can we finally get real here? we are in the 32nd year, more or less, of a plague.
ONE OUT OF EVERY FIVE GAY MEN IN AMERICA IS HIV POSITIVE. AND FIFTY PER CENT OF US DON'T KNOW IT!
these are appalling statistics.
And dr hill and some dude at glaad is telling me that prevention efforts, as they are presently constituted, are working.
of course people have to get scared. i have said this since day one and i say it today. they need to be scared into using condoms. into getting tested, into being responsible human beings. nothing so far has been able to bring a sufficient result to these requirements. why can't anyone see that? why can't our oldest aids organization see that? to say as dr hill does below that "studies have shown that using scare tactics is not effective" is, i believe, an out and out lie. i have never seen such research. if it exists, then it is as irresponsible as dr. hill and mr/s glaad.
i see a lot of doctors regularly during the course of looking after my own health. every single one of them is telling me that they are seeing more and more young and usually white men who are educated and should know better, sero-converting.
and with all the hoopla over hiv negative people taking this new once-a-day truvada "miracle cure" just so they can have sex without a condom, is going to be a nightmare of the highest order. i firmly believe this.
just as i firmly believe that NO prevention efforts can be rendered with the sugar coating it has been receiving since 1981.
i congratulate the nyc board of health for finally getting real. i look forward to even more and scarier public service announcements.
larry kramer
Michael actually does not like the ad. For his comments, go over to his blog.
Lucé Vela, wife of Republican Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuño, says there is a cure for AIDS.
At least that's what Vela told a reporter today while participating at a World AIDS Day event in San Juan (Primera Hora currently lists it as their lead story on their web portal and has video of the brief interview as well).
This could have just been a slip of the tongue or some sort of unfortunate brain fart but, even if it was, it shows terrible lack of awareness about HIV/AIDS today of all days!
There has yet to be a statement from Vela or the island's governor explaining her comments. If there is a forthcoming statement, expect the power couple to laugh it off as an unfortunate slip up.
I wasn't planning on writing about World AIDS Day. I know the date is meant to raise awareness about the issue and there is some merit to that. But, as someone who worked at an HIV prevention agency for almost fifteen years of my life, I also find a lot of the World AIDS Day observances to be self serving and - to a surprising degree - homophobic as well - particularly among those agencies that work with communities of color. Agencies will highlight their work with children and women with HIV/AIDS or talk about their faith-based HIV prevention work while downplaying the gay angle to the disease.
And so governments will organize very special ceremonies and mourn the dead very respectfully. And the White House will hang a huge red AIDS ribbon while President Barack Obama addresses the topic in a 45 second video. And corporations will chime in: The Gap resuscitates it's (RED)™ campaign. Stars like Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga - who are as gay friendly as they come - will play dead ans silence their Twitter accounts for a "Keep a Child Alive" campaign that doesn't mention gays at all.
And so, on to Puerto Rico's first lady and her comments. Here is my translation of the interview caught on camera at Primera Hora:
Reporter: This is, eh, the First Lady, your comments, please, regarding this [World AIDS Day] march... Lucé Vela: Look, this is the second time that I participate in these marches to create awareness about HIV. We did it last year. We are also present this year and we want, in this way, with all the people who have shown up this morning, to create awareness and that people know that this has a cure. That we can - if detected on time - if we can test people who are at high risk on time - look, that there is a cure for this. That it could be people like the many people who are here with us this morning could be of benefit... Reporter: Of benefit to society... Lucé Vela: ...it could be of benefit to society that they get tested to be able to get the necessary treatment to push ahead and be healthy.
Yes, she said it twice.
What ads insult to injury is that Puerto Rico has such a sorry track record in providing appropriate care to people living with HIV/AIDS in the island.
Three years ago, I was able to assist New York Times reporter Erik Eckholm in translating interviews with HIV positive individuals in Puerto Rico during three-way telephone calls he made as the groundwork for a groundbreaking article titled "Puerto Rico's AIDS Care in Disarray over funds".
In that respect, Lucé Vela should be ashamed of implying people should get tested in order to be cured of AIDS.
One of the persons who blew the whistle on the 2007 scandal featured in the New York Times is José Colón, a longtime hero of mine, who could very well be described as the Larry Kramer of Puerto Rico. He posted the following Spanish-language video on YouTube today in observance of World AIDS Day and I am posting it here just in case the Puerto Rican Governor's Office checks in:
As for Larry Kramer himself, my friend Rex Wockner just alerted me to the fact that he is also none too happy with the Obama administration's World AIDS Day response. You can check out an interview he did with the New York Daily News here.
Weird! Life circumstances ruined my chance to celebrate the presidential election results on Nov. 4th after months of pushing for Obama. So things like this still send chills up my spine and make me tear up a li'l bit.
In any case, Rex Wockner has begun a series of blog posts on reactions from what he calls 'Gay VIP's' to Obama's nomination as president to the United States..
So far here is the breakdown (I'll keep updating the post as he updates his):
The Queer Justice League apparently had their first ever action last night at the West Side Piers.
I had heard that group members had finally agreed on keeping the Queer Justice League name (which at one point carried an asterisk to designate activist dissatisfaction with the supposed military connotations of the name or with the word queer or with the comic-bookishness of it - trust me, process sometimes gets ugly). Ultimately I guess the name stuck and QJL prevailed. Super-homos unite!
I also knew that they had settled on some sort of public kiss-in as a first action (you'd think that New York City is full of public demonstrations of good ol' same-sex saliva swappin' but you'd be surprised) AND that they had also decided to do it in support of the Fabulous Independent Educated Radicals for Community Empowerment (or FIERCE for short) and their efforts to keep the West Side Piers safe and open for queer youth of color. And what can be wrong about bringing together some upscale Chelsea gay glamour with some radical queer youth radicalis of color? They are usually at odds with each other so all's good for mending the bridges.
I would have been there, I really would. Except that the action announcement and date was never sent through the Queer Justice League e-mail list or posted on the QJL blog. What's up with that? (Or maybe I missed something?).
Joe.My.God does have evidence that something did happen. Not sure there was any saliva swappin' though.
Not sure I can make it to any of tonight's two meetings or even next week's meetings but...
Calling it the Queer Justice League (asterisk*) might be inappropriate because some people have reservations about the (*) name and it was supposed to be an interim name (*) anyway, but there's a bunch of people meeting at 7pm tonight at the LGBT Center on 13th Street. It's the 2nd meeting since a speech by Larry Kramer riled up the masses. I can't promise that the issue of whether to use Robert's Rules of Order will be resolved by meeting's end. Do try to take a chill pill beforehand so you can be in the right mood to deal with different levels of oppression and the tension level that a few hundred e-mail messages have ratcheted up. Maybe, just maybe, something will come out of it. If there seems to be consensus on one thing it's that they want some freakin' direct action, NOW! So at the very least maybe you too can throw your pet cause into the ring and see if it sticks. It's been billed as a "working meeting" to address some remaining process issues with a "full meeting" to follow at 8pm on April 26th, also at the Center. For updates click here [NOTE: Gay City News has more on what went on druring the first meeting here].
Not to be confused with the (non-asterisk *) ACT-UP meetings that still take place every Monday at 8pm also at the Center.
Tonight, though, ACT-UPers and ACT-UP allies can also head over to the City University of New York for "CLAGS LGBTQ Studies Panel: Discussions Around the History of ACTUP." That also takes place at 7pm tonight (not sure if some asterisks * will make it should the meeting at the Center end up early). What is the CLAGS meeting about?
"To mark the 20th anniversary of ACT UP, this round table discussion features Sarah Schulman and Jim Hubbard, co-coordinators of the ACT UP Oral History Project and co-founders of the MIX New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival, and invited guests. The conversation will focus on the early history of AIDS activism in New York City, the birth and history of ACT UP, and the needs in/for AIDS activism today."
It's free and open to the public and will take place at the Skylight Room (#9100) of the Graduate Center at CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street) in Manhattan. Need more info? Call 212 817-1955 or click here.
Speaking of April 26th, you might want to make it to the Center a couple of hours earlier before the 3rd Queer Justice League (asterisk *) meeting: The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control and the Bureau of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (whew! THEY should have an asterisk!) is presenting "A Community Discussion on Male Circumcision and HIV Prevention."
If it turns out to be half as interesting as the one a few of us held with them a few days ago in the wake of this, it should be a hoot.
Dupree's troubles:Things for gay Dallas constable Mike Dupreeget thornier - according to the Dallas Voice - as the Texas State Attorney General's Office mulls prosecution in a series of charges that have arisen since the Dallas Observerreported last year that the fifty year old man had apparently had his deputies arrest a twenty year old Honduran ex-lover and arranged to have him deported. Santo Gayhighlights a more recent Dallas Observer story in which they detect a pattern in the type of guys Dupree goes for and how he gets his way with them.
Rev. Diaz' purse strings:The homophobic Reverend (and State Senator) Ruben Diaz, Sr. hasn't let an FBI probe disturb the way he channels state funding towards projects in which he is directly associated. On April 4, the New York Daily Newsreported that the recently approved state budget includes two grants worth close to $300K for the Christian Community Benevolent Association.
Reactions to Kramer: Following the ACT UP Wall Street demonstration a week ago Thursday, Gay City News has a cover page story on the rally this week. In the same issue, CHAMP Executive Director Julie Davids has an essay on the role of women in ACT UP throughout the years and Larry Kramer's failiure to aknowledge them in his recent rable-rousing speech.
Over at the New York Blade Paul Varnell argues, in an OpEd piece, that Kramer's speeches are "characterized by substantial exaggerations of fact, hyperbolic rhetoric and a certain amount of vulgarity" and that his most recent statements are incoherent.
PS - By the way, speaking about local gay media, Gay City News also inaugurated it's first webcast this week featuring editor in chief Paul Schindler.
About 400 t0 500 people showed up on a magnificently sunny day to act up once again on what was planned as the 20th year anniversary action of the organization ACT UP.
Larry Kramer, who was among the people who jump started the direct action group twenty years ago addressed reporters at the rally's start (YouTube video here). Clients from organizations such as Housing Works, African Services Committee, the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project, the New York City AIDS Housing Network, People of Color in Crisis and GMHC joined the crowd. There was also a large contingent from ACT UP Philadelphia.
The well-behaved crowd shouted slogans such as "No more bullshit, health care for all," "Health care for people, not for profit" and "Same old bullshit, 20 years later."
Marchers made their way from the Federal Building down to City Hall with a stop at Trinity Church (just off the World Trade Center site) through the narrow building canyons in front of the New York Stock Exchange ending up at the big bull statue at Bowling Green, long a symbol of Wall Street.
Organizers threw plastic body bags in front of the statute, two ACT UP'ers also mounted the bull and flew a banner that read "ACT UP: Health care for all."
After addressing the crowd and reporters, a group of 20 to 25 activists crossed the police barriers surrounding the Bowling Green park and laid down on the street in a "die-in." They were arrested for disrupting traffic and are currently in custody.
When it was all said and done the bull was left standing alone with a pair of condoms adorning its horns.
Future meetings: According to a message left tonight on my voice mail by Andrew Velez, ACT UP will mark its anniversary with a $20 celebration/fundraiser on Saturday, March 31 at 8 p.m. at the LGBT Community Center, 208 West 13th Street.
There will also be a follow-up organizing meeting on Thursday, April 12th at 7:30PM - also at the LGBT Community Center - for the first ever meeting of the Queer Justice League (although the name of the group is subject to change). Questions should be directed at queerjusticeleague@gmail.com.
Police picked Rabbi Klein- baum and Matt up off the ground and arrested them. They took them away for standing up against the immorality of an administration that has denied full citizenship to LGBT people, that has engaged in an immoral war killing hundreds of thousands and injuring many thousands more, that has been accomplice to the homophobia that destroys the moral fabric of this country. Indeed, not everything that is legal is moral and not everything that is moral is legal.
It's been a while since I told a story in pictures. So here it goes:
Having followed the recent developments regarding the 20th anniversary of ACT UP but having yet to attend one of the planning meetings, this morning I headed over to the first of several demos being planned to mark the occasion. The reason behind it? General Peter Pace's recent comments to the Chicago Tribune in which he called homosexuality "immoral."
With home made-signs that read "Being gay is not immoral, being bigoted is," "Torture is Immoral, Love is Fabulous," "Pace = Hate," and "Don't Ask Don't Tell, General Pace Go to Hell," a lively and lovely crowd of about 200 to 250 people showed up to the protest following Larry Kramer's call to arms on Tuesday.
Rainbow flag creator Gilbert Baker brought along a 100 foot flag that participants used to frame the protest and surround the recruitment center.
This was the same flag that Matt Foreman and Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum used at the end of the protest to stop traffic in an act of civil disobedience as they extended it across 7th Avenue. Mr. Foreman and Rabbi Kleinbaum were first warned by police officers and then quickly arrested after they sat down and would not budge.
The flag was also taken into custody.
As he promised after the Larry Kramer speech on Tuesday, former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey also showed up (that's me next to him in the bottom pic). Actually, he was amongst the first to arrive and offered to pick up coffee for me at Starbucks, alas, by the time he got back from Starbucks the protest was in full swing. Gay City News and Gay USA reporter Andy Humm spent most of his time doing an extensive interview with the former Governor so expect a detailed report in the next issue of GCN.
The earth shook up a bit on Tuesday but I wonder if enough people noticed. Sure, in this blogging age you can certainly check what some thought about it.
Larry Kramer's latest speech at the standing-room only LGBT Center in commemoration of the 20th year anniversary of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) seems to be sending a few shock waves among those who were around during the seminal activist organization's glory days - and miss the good ol' direct action demonstrations that literally changed national and international policy on HIV/AIDS and saved or extended hundreds of lives. It might also be reverberating among a small group of nascent activists, including - hm - Jim McGreevey (!?).
The keepers of the flame, among them Eric Sawyer (pictured above), Ann Northrop and John Riley, had recently activated the ACT UP phone tree to gear up for the anniversary. An initial brainstorming meeting in January drew more than fifty people but the number had dwindled at recent meetings (the group had apparently had settled on "healthcare for all" as their main focus for their 20th anniversary action, which might be a laudable issue but not necessarily a sexy one).
The speech itself, christened "We are not crumbs, we must not accept crumbs" was pure Kramer if only a bit more hopeful than the last time he opened his mouth and chastised the gays (the less-well received "The Tragedy of Today's Gays" which he unveiled at Cooper Union on November 7, 2007).
You can read the text of both speeches at the above links but I'll point out that on Tuesday's speech Larry quoted Eric and said:
In the age of the internet we can do much of what we did in our meetings and on the streets, on the world wide web. The information technology available today could help end the need for those endless meetings. Creating a blog could, in fact, incorporate even more voices and varieties of opinions and ideas than any meeting ever could. Where ACT UP once had chapters in many cities, we could now involve thousands more via simple list-serves and blogs. We can draw in students and schools and colleges all over the world. It is the young we have to get to once again. Creating a blog would allow for expression and refinement of ideas and policies, like a Queer Justice League for denouncing our enemies. A well organized website could function as an electronic clearing house for sharing information, for posting problems, for demanding solutions, for developing and communicating action plans
My friend Rex actually has a link to the video of Larry Kramer's speech here as well as updates on upcoming ACT UP actions fed to him by Andy Humm here. But for up to the minute stuff you better keep your eye on the Queer Justice League. The Queer whats-a-magibit you say?
Anyway, going back to McGreevey, does anyone else find it really funny that it took the former New Jersey Governor to try to get specifics from Larry? Left Behind, who was there, reflects on the moment and remembers "what it was like being a queer newbie, all excited about your first gay protest" as he more than welcomes McGreevy into the fold.
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