Sixth Int'l Conference on AIDS: Boycotted by activists and filled with discouraging news

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Reports highlight alarming spread of disease in face of gov't inaction 30,000-strong "United Call to Action" demonstration in San Francisco on June 23.

READS The Sixth International Conference on AIDS, held in San Francisco June 20-24, was filled with controversy.

Dozens of international and national organizations boycotted the conference due to U.S. immigration laws restricting entry of people infected with HIN.

According to Sue Balen of the Names Project-San Francisco, the Red Cross alerted the international community to the INS restrictions. Individuals entering the country would have to declare if they were HIV infected, have their passports posted with an indelible stamp, and only be allowed 10 days in the country.

Along with the INS restrictions, a 1950 McCarthy-era statute was enforced by the INS. The law denies entry to "people with a psychopathic personality, sexual deviations or mental defect." In 1967, homosexuals were included in the above provisions by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Operation Rescue came up with new tactics Saturday, July 21, in Northern California. For the first time they did not announce their plan to blockade a clinic, but secretly mobilized only their most trusted fanatics. Meeting in Fremont, Calif., they drove in a convoy to San Mateo, where they blockaded the front door of the Planned Parenthood clinic.

The police knew in advance of OR's plan and were prepared to cut a deal with the illegal blockaders! They let them sit on clinic property, blocking the front door, but allowed the clients to be escorted in through the clinic's back door.

The cops formed a solid line between OR and 100 angry pro-choice defenders, who converged on the clinic when they learned that it was being blockaded. The police prevented the clinic defenders from keeping the front doors accessible to clients.

All the clients were able to get into the clinic, but not without intolerable harassment by OR members. The police allowed the blockaders to defy a court injunction which prohibits them from coming within 15 feet of the clinic. Pro-choice organizations will have to intensify their mobilizations and put pressure on the police and city governments to uphold the laws.-C.S.

Faxe.

EPIDEMICS NEED DISASTER ROKE The boycott of the conference was not aimed at organizers of the conference but at the U.S. government. Some of the U.S. organizations involved in the boycott were the Names Project; Gay Men's Health Crisis-N.Y.; Shanti-S.F.; National Association of People with AIDS; National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; and several chapters of ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), with the exception of the New. York chapter. Organizations and individuals from Europe, Australia, and Canada also joined the boycott.

Conference organizers and attending delegates also noted that it was medically unsupportable to restrict travel by those we can learn from. As a result, the international dialogue among scientists was cut, as 50 scientific papers were withdrawn.

Discouraging international reports Inside the conference, news from the international community was very discouraging. This was particularly true of the reports from Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Due to the Stalinist position on homosexuality (homosexuality is viewed as a form of social deviancy), Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union have largely ignored the problem till now.

News reports concerning mothers catching AIDS from their babies also highlight the inadequate health-care procedures used in those countries. Apparently, the virus has been traced back to infection from re-used needles, giving the babies thrush (oral candidiasis, a manifestation of AIDS). The mothers then catch the virus through cracks SSC el Millie Gonzalez The lack of funds to purchase disposable needles has compounded the problem.

In the United States, enormous barriers also exist to solving the AIDS epidemic. These have been created by Congress, the Reagan and Bush administrations, and the health-care industry.

In his book, "And the Band Played On," Randy Shilts describes the policies of the Reagan administration:

"From 1980, when the first isolated gay men began falling ill from strange and exotic ailments, nearly five years passed before all these institutions-medicine, public health, the federal and private scientific research establishments, the mass media and the gay community's leadership—-mobilized the way they should in time of threat.

"The story of those first five years of AIDS in America is a drama of national failure, played out against a backdrop of needless deaths."

Today, the federal and health agencies are still mired in bureaucratic red tape, which impedes any real progress toward finding a cure or a vaccine.

While scientists at the Sixth International Conference noted the declining rate of deaths within the gay community, they also noted that unsafe sex practices were rising within the 18-25 age group among gay men.

According to a new study released by the Journal of American Medical Association (July 11, 1990), AIDS is the leading cause of death among Black women between the ages of 15 and 44 in New York and New Jersey.

In a New York Times op-ed piece (July 16, 1990), Larry Kramer, playwright, founder of both the Gay Men's Health Crisis and ACT-UP, further underscored how the epidemic is outpacing the federal government's response with these statistics:

"In America," he wrote, "212 new cases of full-blown AIDS are diagnosed every day; there is one AIDS death every 12 minutes, and a new case of infection every 54 seconds. At a minimum, 1 million to 1.5 million are infected."

Educational efforts to reach out to different communities have also been stymied. According to Donita Hicks of the AIDS Action Council (a lobbying group for AIDS concerns based in Washington, D.C.), "Jesse Helms is successful in attaching his amendment to any appropriations bill for AIDS. His amendment in essence states that any educational material should not promote homosexual activity, be too explicit in heterosexual activity, and not be too offensive to the general public."

For the most part AIDS has struck hardest in the oppressed sectors of the population: gays, IV drug users, minorities, and women.

To date, Hawaii is the only state to approve a needle-exchange program. San Francisco's Project Point has been around for several years, but it operates underground. This means that no federal monies are used to study its effectiveness.

Profits come before people And how has the U.S. drug industry reacted to this epidemic? According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle (June 19, 1990): "A seldom acknowledged reason for drug company reluctance to commit resources to AIDS research is that the AIDS market, despite its high visibility, is small compared to that of other diseases. Worldwide sales of AZT last year were $215 million."

When AZT first came out on the market it was priced prohibitively high. It wasn't until ACT-UP took over the floor of the stock exchange in protest that BurroughsWellcome lowered the price for AZT.

According to New York ACT-UP leader Peter Staley, in his address to the conference, "The gap between AIDS activists and scientists is widening." Little wonder this is occurring when you look at the priorities of the drug industry and some scientists in the medical community.

The U.S. government has not made a concerted effort to wage an all out war against this pandemic. Monies are tied up in red tape, and legislation, of a homophobic nature stymies any attempt to educate the public. The drug industry, concerned only with profits, clings to marketing AZT while ignoring the potential of experimental drugs-and the Federal Drug Administration delays the approval and release of new drugs.

An all-out effort—a Manhattan Project for AIDS research—is needed. This country has the medical, educational, and social resources to meet this epidemic. Unfortunately, the government puts profits before human needs.

Mobilizations like the "United Call to Action" on June 23 (which drew 30,000 in San Francisco) are needed. This march included AIDS researchers and delegates to the conference, ACT-UP members from around the country, as well as Black, lesbian and gay, and religious organizations, service providers, and members of the scientific community. Alliances such as this one can make a difference.

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