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NEWS CLINTON CALLS FOR CURE AT HISTORIC AIDS CONFERENCE By KAREN OCAMB science and Jonathan Mann, public relations stunt" to appease gay PRESIDENT DEFENDS It was a moment many had lost founding director of the World men and lesbians angry over Clinton's RECORD, SETS GOALS ON hope of ever witnessing. After 14 Health Organization's Global broken promises. ACT-UP members AIDS years, 300,000 dead Americans, program on AIDS, to HIV-posi- passed out a 50-point agenda, the first In staging the first-ever White House another 500,000 diagnosed with tive 21-year-old Jamie Silva, rep- point of which was to veto any legisla- Conference on AIDS, one of President Clinton's AIDS and estimates of a million HEY more living with HIV, a president BILL: resenting the Pedro Zamora tion "that inadequately funds or elimi- self-professed goals was to use his office as a ACTIONS Youth Clinic at the Los Angeles nates federal entitlements to Medicaid, of the United States finally seemed NOT "bully pulpit" to WORDS Gay and Lesbian Community Medicare or welfare. People living focus national intent on marshaling the powers of Housing for Services, and 15-year-old with HIV/AIDS depend on these bene- efforts to elimi- his office to combat the deadly Homeless Maryland student activist Kinnon fits to survive." Unknown to them, nate the dis- disease. with AIDS Ryan, who works with intra- Clinton had already scheduled a cere- ease. The ovation that followed ACTUP venous-drug users. mony, which took place an hour after "I do not President Clinton's speech to those While Clinton was drawing his speech, in which he vetoed the con- want to wait gathered at the first-ever White applause, about 75 protesters gressional budget proposal that would until every sin- House Conference on HIV and organized by ACT UP/New have cut Medicaid. gle family has AIDS lasted one full minute and York, Housing Works Inc., and Later, Richard Sorian, coordinator somebody die seemed genuine, despite the skep- Sean Strub and David Drake of of the Office of National AIDS Policy, before we have ticism with which some activists POZ magazine demonstrated a good policy," greeted the event. Not all 250 woutside the conference, chanting he told confer- AIDS experts that crammed into İslogans such as "Conferences are ence attendees the Cash Room at the Treasury in a Dec. 6 President Clinton ACT UP protester holds signs outside confer- not enough! AIDS action now!" Building on Dec. 6 left the one- ence. and "Fourteen years, seven speech that day conference fully satisfied, but commissions-do something contained a strong defense of his record and out- most found something to applaud in are living with HIV, and a vaccine to already!" lined his policies on AIDS. The following are high- Clinton's call for a stepped-up protect all the rest of us from the virus. Sensitive to such criticism was Los lights from his speech: response, not only to AIDS, but to the A cure and a vaccine, that must be our Angeles physician R. Scott Hitt, who Research: Clinton said he would protect the fear, prejudice and homophobia that first and top priority." chairs the President's Advisory research budget and the Office of AIDS Re- has fueled its spread. In an unscripted moment, Clinton Council on AIDS and HIV. The con- search, which has been targeted for elimination "I've lived a long time to hear the referred to comments made by openly ference was scheduled in response to by congressional Republicans, and would ask president say that,' said San Fran- gay, 27-year-old, HIV-positive Afri- the council's call in August for Clinton AIDS czar Patsy Fleming to form a committee to ciscan Randy Moore of the National can-American Sean Sasser who helped to convene a summit on AIDS by develop, within 90 days, a coordinated plan and Task Force on AIDS Prevention. introduce the president to Eileen budget for HIV and AIDS research across every year's end. Hitt was disappointed with single federal department. Clinton also said he In his speech, televised live on Mitzman, who lost her 26-year-old the president's limited presence at the would ask Vice President AI Gore to convene a CNN and frequently interrupted by daughter Marni to AIDS. "We simply conference, but said it was understand- Phill Wilson, AIDS Project Los meeting of scientists and leaders in the pharma- applause, Clinton set goals, defended cannot let our fears outweigh our com- able in light of the budget battle, Angeles public policy director, ceutical industry to find ways speed the develop- his record and offered hope. mon sense or our compassion. And as Bosnian crisis and other issues attends Dec. 6 meeting. ment of treatments and vaccines. "We have never before had a dis- Sean said, we can't let our bigotry-to demanding Clinton's attention. Prevention: Clinton asked the Centers for ease we could not conquer. We can use his word, we can't let our homo- "He should spend all day [at the said in an interview that each depart- Disease Control to convene a meeting of state conquer this. believe that. In my life- phobia blind us to our obligations," conference], of course," Hitt said. "But ment had been asked to review the and local people involved in public health and time, we've eliminated smallpox from Clinton said. he spent two hours of his time listening ACT-UP agenda to determine if each drug prevention to develop a plan integrating HIV the planet and polio from our hemi- The conference brought together and talking to America. I was of the items had been accomplished, prevention and substance-abuse prevention. He sphere," Clinton said. "We can do bet- for the first time some of the most bril- impressed." was underway or could be accom- praised Department of Health and Human ter, and we can do better until we pre- liant, prominent and frontline figures Hitt said he was pleased with the plished in the future. "They were sub- Services ads, released Nov. 30, that target young vail. Our common goal must ultimate- in the AIDS war-from Dr. David scope of agenda, but the ACT-UP pro- stantive suggestions and we took them adults and include the first ad by the federal gov- ly be a cure, a cure for all those who Baltimore who won a Nobel Prize in testers called the event a "political CONTINUED ON PAGE 26 emment to feature gay characters. "We have to find better ways, and maybe more help from dif- ferent people, to get inside their minds, to shake GRIPPING TALE OF SUICIDE BRINGS REALISM TO HEARINGS their spirits, to make them know we care about them and we want them to have a future." By KAREN OCAMB Opportunities Subcommittee how she, her school "ignorance and narrow-mindedness" added to her Health Care: Clinton vowed to stand firm in Judging by the looks on their faces, it was Mary system and the community failed to help her son han- son's pain. his opposition to GOP efforts to restructure and Griffith's anguish over the suicide of her gay son that dle the pressures that drove him to jump off a free- "Suicide is the ultimate form of censorship," she reduce funding for Medicaid, which nearly half of most moved the members of Congress, who, on Dec. way overpass in front of an 18-wheel truck. Griffith, testified. "Daily, our children are being accused, all people with AIDS rely upon. He pledged to 5 and 6, heard testim on whose story in protrayed in the judged, convicted and sentenced to a life of spiritual continue to try to provide, through the how moral issues are ad- book, "Prayers for Bobby," by poverty, degradation of self-esteem and personal Department of Housing and Urban Development, dressed in the nation's public Leroy Aarons, was one of three worth. "dignified, adequate, compassionate housing school programs. witnesses to testify on behalf of "Bobby needed an education free of the nagging opportunities for people with AIDS." "I have learned all too gay-positive and AIDS education fear that his difference would be discovered. He Homophobia: Clinton cited homophobia as well that hell has no fury like that programs. needed to be respected and valued by his family, and a major impediment to the nation's effective of ignorance and its twin brother, Many activists have charged his community,' she said. "No one should be exclud- response to AIDS. "The fastest growing group of fear. Special interest groups use that the hearings, officially named ed from this pursuit of happiness. Everyone should people with the HIV virus are not gay men. This is not a disease that fits into the homophobic view them to promote prejudice, dis- "Parents, Schools and Values," have an equal opportunity to learn and live by these of the world," he said. "Every person with HIV or crimination, rejection, and vio- were staged at the request of the values. Including children like my son Bobby." AIDS is somebody's son or daughter, some- lence against our children," Rev. Lou Sheldon to provide a While many hoped testimony like Griffith's Griffith said in emotional testimo- body's brother or sister, somebody's parent, forum for the anti-gay agenda would blunt the anti-gay impact the hearings were somebody's grandparent. When we forget that ny Dec. 6. pursued by his Traditional Values allegedly designed to have, committee members still all the people who deal with this are our fellow With all the hype and contro- Coalition. Griffith, at one time, heard from a series of angry witnesses who charged Americans and that most of them share our val- versy that surrounded what many might have been among those on that the education system has been substituting its ues and our hopes and our dreams, and deserve have dubbed the "Sheldon hear- Sheldon's side of the aisle. Her values for those practiced by the parents. dignity and decency in the treatment we give ings," the mother's simple story response to Bobby's struggles Sandra B. Martinez complained about a "shock- them, we forget a very great thing that makes this brought a depth of realism to testi- Mary Griffith, with son Bobby. with his sexuality was to use the ing" experience endured by her 15-year-old niece a special country. And we forget it at our own mony that, at times, seemed to Bible to try to turn him into a het- who was made to attend an assembly on AIDS. peril." drift off into another, surreal world. Griffith told erosexual. Griffith, who wore a button on her lapel Minnesota father Warren Grantham also com- members of the House Economic and Education bearing her son's photograph, freely conceded her CONTINUED ON PAGE 26 December 29, 1995 FRONTIERS 13