Press room ... 2000 archive
Tails Between Their Legs:
AIDS Denialists Lose Ground
April 18, 2000
San Francisco, CA—A small group of AIDS denialists,
calling themselves "ACT UP/San Francisco" attempted to shut down
a community educational forum for people living with HIV on Monday
night in San Francisco's Mission District.
The forum, addressing a new anti-HIV treatment strategy called
Structured Therapy Interruptions, was co-sponsored by Project Inform
and the newly formed AIDS advocacy group, Survive AIDS! The forum's
panel included AIDS researchers from U.C. San Francisco.
A Project Inform staff member, who is a woman and mother of two
young children, was physically harmed when an ACT UP/San Francisco
member knocked her to the ground after bursting into the meeting
room brandishing signs claiming that the anti-HIV medication AZT
and other HIV treatments were killing people. They began spitting
and screaming slogans at the panel members and the approximately
100 people living with AIDS in attendance.
In recent days, various members of the AIDS denialist movement
have been reinvigorated by news that South African President Mbeki
has been listening to the claims of people like Peter Duesberg and
David Rasnick, who question if HIV causes AIDS or whether AIDS exists
at all. Subsequent to contact with the denialists, South Africa
has refused to supply readily available treatment to prevent mother-to-child
transmission of HIV, or wider treatment for South African's with
AIDS.
While ACT-UP San Francisco is certainly not in President Mbeki's
rolodex, they are in fact the San Francisco contingent of the AIDS
denialist movement. On other occasions they have papered San Francisco
with posters, apparently targeting poorer neighborhoods like the
Mission, claiming "AIDS is Over". Some members have met with conservative
forces urging the U.S. Congress to cut back on AIDS funding.
Matt Sharpe, a member of Survive AIDS! and a person living with
HIV further noted, "People with HIV/AIDS came to the forum to learn
and share their experiences. This small right-wing faction of homophobic
and AIDS-phobic individuals attempted to disrupt the free flow of
information among people facing a life-threatening illness."
Martin Delaney of Project Inform, a speaker at the meeting who
was personally targeted by the demonstrators, commented, "Everyone
in this city has shown remarkable restraint for years in dealing
with ACT UP/San Francisco's infantile and illegal behavior, hoping
they would eventually grow up or just get a life. Other cities ran
them out of town much more quickly. But their time here is over
and their full spectrum of activities will now be brought out into
the light."
"It's ironic," said Brenda Lein of Project Inform, moderator of
the program, "that of all the forces we have fought against in the
battle against AIDS, nothing short of the virus, HIV itself, has
been directly responsible for more deaths and suffering than the
message being preached by these people. They are sowing the seeds
of the future of the epidemic while attempting to divert those already
ill from taking advantage of advances in therapy. It's mind boggling."
Meetings are being set up with City Officials to discuss putting
a halt to this continued discrimination and violence against people
living with AIDS by this handful of heretics.
Additional useful press contacts:
- Matt Sharpe, Survive AIDS! 415-292-3420 x337
- Survive AIDS! 415-252-9200
- Hank Wilson 415-947-1083 x110
