| In order to thank its well-heeled contributors, the Stop AIDS Project hands out its “HIV Prevention Hero” awards at an annual fundraiser. There is no other point to these award ceremonies than to fete so-called philanthropists with a useless trophy, or a plaque to hang on the wall; an upscale, catered gourmet light supper; a chance to schmooze with other well-connected donors; and the subtle grab of money to benefit SAPs coffers. |
These award functions never cite the number of new HIV/AIDS cases that have possibly have been prevented, whether real, hallucinated, or estimated numbers. That would be too much for this well-heeled crowd to endure, because they are there to schmooze, and not actually there to reflect on whether the Stop AIDS Projects’ interventions are actually driving down the number of AIDS cases. After all, you can’t expect all those well-starched shirts and polished Gucci loafers to have to confront the fact that SAPs prevention efforts are widely viewed as failures, especially not while these philathropists are munching on gourmet delicacies and sipping fine wine.
In 2002, SAP rolled out its “first ever ” National HIV Prevention Leadership Award at this fundraising event, which it awarded to schmooze kingpin House Whip Nancy Pelosi to thank her for having attempted to thwart federal audits of the Stop AIDS Project. Laughably, at SAPs 2003 “Honor Heroes” event held September 15, 2003, the National HIV Prevention Leadership Award simply vanished, as if there were no other slate of candidates twelve months later worthy of handing out a “second ever” plaque to another hero. Who knows? Maybe SAP came to its senses in the interim, realizing that since national rates of new AIDS cases have not fallen below 40,000 annually for each of the past ten years, that perhaps the award had been misguidedly ill-conceived, and that its “first ever” recognition had been a mistake.
Alternatively, perhaps in the past twelve months there has not been another national-level individual who has done anything even remotely and prominently relevant towards preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. Which implies one of two things: Either that SAPs prevention interventions which serve as the model for other jurisdictions nationwide have been horribly ineffective, or that there are no national heroes who have lifted a finger to benefit SAP directly, as Pelosi attempted to do. If the latter case is true, TheLastWatch wonders whether SAP reserves this award for those who have directly benefited only the Stop AIDS Project, or whether SAP really cares about driving down national incidence and prevalence HIV/AIDS rates, rather than caring just its own fat checkbook.
| Partial Transcript of 2002 Prevention Awards | |
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On October 1, 2002, the Stop AIDS Project and its supporters closed ranks against its enemies of the the suffering masses by gathering at the trendy Ruby Skye in order to raise funds and dole out awards to heroes working in prevention. A key message repeated throughout the evening was that SAP was unfairly being picked on with federal audits, and that SAP could do no wrong. Another theme repeated throughout the evening was a call to permit gay men to have unrestrained choice of men in their sex lives — including diverse and multiple sex partners — without consequence. One of the award luminaries present was, Mike Shriver, the former AIDS “Czar” to Mayor Willie Brown, who awarded Steven Tierney, the Director of HIV Prevention for San Francisco’s Department of Public Health, the Chuck Frutchey Memorial Board of Directors Award. Shriver (who has left the Czar’s duties untended for two years as of September 2003 while on a leave of absence but was able to show up at the awards banquet a year into his leave), asserted that Tierney deserved the award because Tierney had seen a “trial by fire” from the “dissident movement,” the CDC, and the current [federal] government during the previous year. For his part, Tierney repeated the theme that gay men have a fundamental right to a diverse sex life, and stated that a government which denies him the right to marry [another man] has little credibility in telling him how to have [safe] sex. Jeesh! Does this mean the government has no credible healthcare information to share with those gay men who could care less about the institution of marriage, and that we should simply ignore altogether government information that could save lives simply because we’re not allowed to walk down an aisle to the tune “Here Comes the Bride”? Or is Tierney simply telling us that he’s sick of being just a bridesmaid, and that he wants to be a bride before he’ll listen, as the City’s director of HIV prevention, to anything the government says? The Honorary Board of Directors Humanitarian Award was presented to activist Hank Wilson, whose prepared remarks informed the well-heeled schmoozers and donors that there is a right of passage for gay men moving to the City, a welcome wagon that says “You don't have to buy your drugs, they’re offered.” TheLastWatch does not believe Wilson was referring to a prescription drug benefit, but rather street drugs, from his further remarks on experimenting with drugs and getting off-track. Hank, too, waxed nostalgic about multiple sex partners, claiming “that’s our strength” and ignoring a key tenant of harm reduction prevention efforts has urged people to reduce their number of sex partners. Hand someone a microphone in front of a large contingent intent of feeling aggrieved over federal audits, and you never know what foot-in-mouth tom-foolery you’ll witness. Wilson went on to state:
So there you have it: A clear admission that prevention funds may be being diverted to community-building activities, hoping against hope that building strong social networks will halt the spread of AIDS. What’s next, community-building to prevent Parkinson’s and breast cancer? As for truth in advertising, although the pre-publicity posters had Nancy Pelosi’s mug plastered all over them announcing she was to receive the “frist ever” National HIV Prevention Leadership Award intimating she would attend, she couldn’t bother to show up for the awards, disappointing many of the well-heeled in their spit-polish Gucci loafers. Pelosi’s stand-in blathered about “morality” in her behalf, when she should have been talking about “ethics.” The last frontier — or if you believe
the Stop AIDS Projects’ approach to prevention, the first
frontier — in turning around the AIDS epidemic appears to
be a welcome wagon approach to handing communities community
centers and free drugs. What else can you expect from a
contingent hell-bent on feeling aggrieved when they decide that
truth is expendable? The 2002 partial transcript … |
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| Partial Transcript of 2003 Prevention Awards | |
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In pre-publicity materials, the SAPs “Honor Heroes” event held September 15, 2003 omitted the National HIV Prevention Leadership Award that SAP had dreamed up as a new category in 2002, which was first awarded to Nancy Pelosi for her efforts in trying to derail federal audit dogs. Were there were no other worthy candidates twelve months later to hand out a “second ever” National Leadership Award? Is national-level prevention so “over” that nothing significant enough happened on the prevention front inbetween awards banquets to honor someone else? The 2003 transcript (forthcoming) will feature the acceptance speech of Dan Wohlfeiler who received the Chuck Frutchy Award. Wohlfeiler stated during a fish-bowl brainstorming session at a San Francisco AIDS Foundation meeting on September 8, 2001 that “AIDS prevention is over.” At this meeting, TheLastWatch observed while taking notes: “How is Wohlfeiler’s remakr any different from Eric Rofes’ use of “AIDS is over” throughout Rofes’ book Dry Bones Breathe? In hindsight, for that matter, how is Wohlfeiler’s statement any different than the so-called dissidents who are attacked for their claim that “AIDS is over,” or was Wohlfeiler just laying the groundwork for UCSFs Tom Coates to subsequently speculate that possibly we should just give up on HIV prevention completely? In the egg-before-the-chicken department, was it Rofes or the dissidents who first coined the term “AIDS is over,” and why is Rofes allowed to drone on with the term, uncriticized, when others using the same term are vilified unmercifully? And why is Dan this year’s Chuck Frutchy Award receipient from a prevention organization if he really believes prevention is over? Wohlfeiler was the prevention director at
the Stop AIDS Project for eight years, leaving SAP in 1998. Wohlfeiler’s
work at SAP lead to the “Mpowerment Project” concept,
which has become “the” model to be emulated nationwide.
Sadly, a new analysis of the Mpowerment Project conducted
by the Center for AIDS Prevention Research at UCSF determined
that only half of participants at one Mpowerment Project found
the experience to be positive; fully 21% of attendees found their
experience with the Project negative, and another 28% were either
neutral or mixed. If only 50% found the experience useful,
that would be a failing grade unworthy of being deemed a prevention
“success story”
worthy of an award. Further discussion of the Mpowerment
Project is located elsewhere on this site.
The 2003 partial transcript … |
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