Washington Blade - August 31, 2007

Campaigns for marriage equality have stolen too much attention from the nation's AIDS epidemic, according to some gay activists.

H. Alexander Robinson, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, said in a column posted last week on the Bilerico Project web site that presidential candidates have spent more time discussing same-sex marriage than AIDS.

"While marriage is clearly a major civil rights priority for our community and I dare say the nation," he said, "it is hardly the only issue and should not in my view define our movement." Phill Wilson, chief executive officer at the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles, agreed.

Wilson, a 51-year-old gay man who's lived with HIV for 26 years, said many gay Americans have overlooked the fight against HIV/AIDS as they work toward marriage equality.

"I don't think that AIDS is even on the radar in a meaningful way today, at least among LGBT institutions," he said. "I think to the degree that it's being addressed at all, it's being addressed as lip service." But Allison Herwitt, legislative director at the Human Rights Campaign, said the epidemic is a top priority for the nation's largest gay advocacy organization.

"When you look at our top-tier lobby issues, HIV/AIDS is one of those," she said. "It's very, very key and important work for us here at HRC." Brad Luna, the organization's media relations director, said HRC has long worked with other groups to garner more funding and attention to fight the epidemic.

He said those Capitol Hill pleas are not always heard, though, and that "we feel the frustration" when lawmakers fail to adequately address "a disease that needs much more of our attention and resources dedicated to its end." Luna said HRC nonetheless pushes politicians on the issue, notably through congressional scorecards and presidential candidates questionnaires.

HRC included three questions regarding HIV/AIDS in its last questionnaire, including queries about the Ryan White CARE Act and the proposed Early Treatment for HIV Act.

All eight Democratic candidates who responded to the HRC questionnaire support the programs, along with increased funding for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and research.

But Robinson, who did not respond this week to an interview request, said in his column that AIDS received "relatively superficial" attention during an Aug. 9 candidate forum.

He said the forum, which focused on gay issues and aired on the Logo network, drew no comments from the candidates "in the way of ideas about how to invigorate our nation's response to AIDS or any expressions of a commitment to end AIDS or find a vaccine." Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio was the only candidate to robustly discuss treatment issues. He said people living with HIV/AIDS would benefit from his proposed "not-for-profit health care system" that covers long-term care.

"So under the plan that I have," he said, "if someone has AIDS, they're totally covered." But Kucinich, like other candidates, did not discuss during the forum any comprehensive plan to fight the epidemic.

Wilson chided the candidates for that omission - and gay Americans for not demanding more.

"Four years ago, you had to address HIV and AIDS, and eight years ago, if you were a Democrat, you couldn't even announce [a presidential campaign] without having some kind of AIDS plan," he said. "What's happened is if we're not putting pressure on these candidates, why should they, you know?" Wilson said the candidates must formulate a larger plan to combat HIV/AIDS.

"At the end of the day, we have to be calling for a national plan to fight AIDS," he said. "It has to include a mechanism to mobilize people of color and put HIV and AIDS front and center in those communities. We need to revitalize our prevention efforts and retool our treatment efforts." And if the call for that plan steals the spotlight from marriage equality, Wilson said, so be it.

"I think the bottom line is - in addition to the fact that AIDS still impacts us and, quite frankly, working to end the AIDS epidemic is the right thing to do - it's in our interest to stay focused on HIV and AIDS."