U.S. blocks solution to AIDS PEOPLE WITH AIDS

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Marchers in San Francisco gay-rights demonstration in July 1984. 20 SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1985 In order to get a broad picture. of the AIDS crisis, Socialist Action interviewed Paul Boneberg, coordinator of the Mobilization Against AIDS. Boneberg outlined the policies his organization calls for to combat the disease. These include:

1) a national commitment to coordinate and fund a program which would set a deadline to find a cure for AIDS;

2) a national eriucation program to prevent the spread of AIDS by making people aware that AIDS is preventable and what factors put a person at risk;

3) guaranteed adequate services including medical care, housing, and social services for AIDS victims;

4) an end to the use of the AIDS crisis to promote anti-gay "In 48 of 50 states there are no education programs on AIDS."

bigotry or to attack the civil rights of anyone.

Socialist Action asked Boneberg if the current policy of the U.S. government was actually hindering the quest for an AIDS cure. The answer was an emphatic "yes."

Figures for federal spending on the epidemic are revealing. The first two years after AIDS was detected in the United States-1979 and 1980—there was no funding by the federal government. In 1981, however, the government spent $5 million for research.

"Five million dollars is nothing in terms of medical response to any disease,, Boneberg pointed out.

The government spent $20 million in 1982 and $50 million the following year. The Reagan administration proposed that they keep funding at $50 million in 1984 despite the spread of the disease and despite recommendations from their own government researchers that double that figure was needed.

Only after an internal memo from the Health and Human Services Department was leaked on the floor of the U.S. Senate was the AIDS budget brought up to $94 million for last year.

In the seven-year course of the epidemic, the U.S. government has spent about $175 million. By contrast, the government spent $135 million in six weeks in 1976 in response to the swineflu epidemic.

The dollar figures don't tell the whole story on government inaction, however. AIDS is a preventable disease. According to Boneberg, this fact has been known for several years and "almost every researcher agrees that education-telling people what they can do to put themselves less at risk for getting AIDS—will save many lives."

He emphasized that education about prevention should be a top priority of any national policy relating to AIDS. Yet in 48 out of 50 states there are no educational programs. The city of San Francisco has spent more money on education about how to prevent getting AIDS than the federal government has spent in its entirety.

Boneberg deplored the competition of international researchers in "personal rivalries" for the Nobel Prize. He spoke instead of the need for governmentenforced cooperation and coordination among reseachers and for five to 10 times the current amount of federal spending for research.

The Mobilization Against AIDS calls for a national "moon launch mentality."

By that they mean a federal commitment to fund research to cure AIDS that is similar in scale to government programs in space and military research.

AIDS is a civil rights issue Boneberg told Socialist Action that gay rights organizations are concerned that AIDS will be used as an excuse to attack the civil rights of gay people and other groups that are traditionally stigmatized.

Although the Mobilization does not oppose the screening of potential donors to blood banks, for example, it does demand that the results remain confidential. Raising this issue is clearly not a scare tactic. The U.S. military already has asked for the names of military blood donors whose blood tests positive for the HTLV-3 antibodies.

The military threw out 5000 people for homosexuality in 1983. Persons testing positive for HTLV-3 antibodies could be assumed to be gay, bisexual, IV drug users, or prostitutes. Without confidentiality, these persons would be open to discrimination by the government, employers, or insurance companjes.

So far, however, California is the only state that has a law protecting confidentiality. The California law was passed after prodding by the Mobilization Against Aids.

On May 20 Boneberg met with Dr. James Mason, acting National Director of Health and the number-one person in the federal government on the AIDS issue. Boneberg told Socialist Action that Mason admitted to him that the Reagan administration was considering a quarantine of AIDS patients. Mason revealed that he had been in a meeting that discussed quarantine that very morning.

In response, Mobilization Against AIDS is demanding that the federal government commit itself to oppose any quarantine or internment policy. While several officials have "personally" opposed these extreme measures as being "ridiculous," ineffective, or inappropriate, there is no official policy to this effect.

Boneberg pointed out that the Nazi concentration camps were used to murder homosexuals as well as Jews, communists, and Gypsies. "This is part of the collective memory of the gay community, Boneberg said. "So we are always concerned about issues dealing with internment or quarantine."

Gays are not the only victims AIDS is not a "gay disease."

In Central Africa, where the disease seems to have begun, AIDS is transmitted heterosexually and its victims are both men and women in equal numbers.

In the United States and Europe, AIDS is also transmitted heterosexually but at a slower rate than among gay men. Boneberg believes that "ultimately, the tragedy alone of AIDS will "AIDS is not a 'gay disease' mobilize this country" as it spreads the general population.

"What the gay community is trying to say is 'don't wait," Boneberg said. "The broader mainstream of America should recognize the danger to the population as a whole, draw upon the experience of the gay community, and start now to mobilize against the disease."

Mobilization activists believe that Black Americans will be moved to join the fight for a cure because of their concern for the plight of Africans suffering from this disease as well as their concern for the high number of Black Americans with AIDS.

"We believe that if this disease had not begun in Africa the international community would have responded differently in terms of trying to find a cure, Boneberg remarked.

A non-partisan approach The Mobilization Against AIDS is distinguished by a strong non-partisan stance. "Almost no elected officials have a good response to this crisis— including Democrats, Republicans, and independents, Boneberg stressed.

Mobilization Against AIDS has been criticized in some of the gay press for picketing liberals. But the urgency of representing AIDS victims who have a very limited life span has led the organization to see through the lip-service of liberal politicians who promise help "next year."

Boneberg also pointed to the Reagan administration's proposed freeze on AIDS spending in 1986 and to the most recent budget hearing in San Francisco where the Democratic Party-controlled city government did not even put AIDS funding on the agenda.

"We don't see anywhere the appropriate sense of urgency in the political process... and if that means we've got to picket Democrats, then we picket Democrats, Boneberg remarked. "If it means we've got to occupy the offices of Margaret Heckler [head of the Department of Health and Human Services], then we'll occupy her offices."

He mentioned, for example, that nationally no elected officials spoke out in protest at a Houston, Texas, hearing on gay-rights legislation in which participants called for the quarantining of all gay men, bisexuals, and lesbians.

The approach that the Mobilization activists take is one of demanding government action on all levels, administrative and legislative, without regard for whether Republicans or Democrats may be in control.

In this way, they are trying to exert maximum pressure and win maximum support from the general population for a national program of research, education, treatment, and services that can find a cure and put an end to AIDS.

Mobilization Against AIDS may be contacted at 335 Noe St., San Francisco, CA 94114. Tel. (415) 431-4660. 1