Has Activism About Marriage Pushed AIDS to the Curb?

As gays and lesbians push for marriage equality and other rights, some say they are neglecting another important issue. Are same-sex marriage and AIDS activism mutually incompatible?

On the surface, that may seem to be the case. After all, one goal of the LGBT movement is to be treated like straight people. Gays and lesbians want to enjoy the rights and responsibilities of marriage and raise children, their own or adopted. Sex doesn't enter the conversation, except among opponents.

HIV is all about sex. On the 30th anniversary of the epidemic, as many as 20 percent of young men who have sex with men in major urban areas of the U.S. are HIV positive. Many don't know they are.

A recent story in the Village Voice by EDGE contributor Joe Erbentraut asks: When was the last time you heard about a large contingent of young queers taking part in a street action about AIDS?

"For them to talk about HIV as a gay disease or a disease that predominately impacts the LGBT community sort of flies against the sort of narrative behind the marriage equality movement," activist Kenyon Farrow is quoted as saying about the leaders of gay organizations. "They are situating gay people as 'normal' and middle class and white, like they are just like everybody else."
But that may be an oversimplification.

Are Changing Epidemic Demographics the Reason?

Sean Strub, longtime AIDS activist and founder of Poz magazine, acknowledged in an e-mail to EDGE that the LGBT community isn't as engaged in the epidemic as it used to be, but the reasons vary.

It's not just the preoccupation with marriage equality and other hot-button issues. Part of it has to do with race and class, Strub contends.

"As the epidemic settled into communities of color and communities of poverty it became less urgent," he said. "Unfortunately, our LGBT community isn't immune to racism and economic elitism."

Another reason is that activism in the early days of AIDS grew around a crisis mentality. That's no longer true, as infection ceased to become a death sentence, thanks to antiretroviral and other drugs.

Growing invisibility also plays a role, Strub maintains. "The visibly ill amongst us aren't as many as they once were, especially at gala fundraisers."

Marginalizing the HIV+
The stigma of being HIV positive "is greater than it's ever been," according to the writer-activist.

The fear of contagion no longer causes the stigma. Now it's about prejudgment, marginalization and discrimination, Strub explained.

Unlike in the early days of the epidemic, a person with HIV "is more likely to be judged, suspected of being promiscuous (whatever that means), using drugs, etc.," he observed. "The peer support groups and shared community commitment that we had through the 80s and early 90s is largely gone. I think it is more isolating for young queers to test positive today than it was years ago."

Young Gay Men's Inexperience With the Epidemic
Possibly the key reason why young gay men ignore HIV/AIDS as they fight for middle-class values like marriage and raising children is that they know (or at least think they know) few peers who are positive.

Young people often tell Strub that he is the first openly HIV positive person they have met. His experience is far from unique.

Stephen Hartley, development director at AIDS Care Ocean State in Rhode Island, said in an interview that many have a blas� attitude about HIV/AIDS. "A lot of the younger kids look it more as a disease like diabetes," he said. "Just take a pill and everything will be fine."

Hartley sees no decline in support of his organization, however. It's still receiving healthy contributions and plenty of volunteers from the community.

Michael Petrelis, a longtime San Francisco activist living with AIDS, said in an interview that marriage equality "forces every other gay issue off the agenda."

He believes many gays have forgotten about issues such as affordable healthcare and housing. "There's an over-emphasis on couple-dom," Petrelis said.

In his state, the issue is now in the courts and will not be on the ballot next year, yet Equality California recently held town hall meetings about marriage, he observed.

"Everyone said they were looking for a way to be relevant. What is their reason for being?"

Among the issues related to HIV that the organization appears to be ignoring is cutbacks in the state budget, according to Petrelis.

The state's contribution to Social Security disability insurance will decline sharply on July 1.

"Thousands of gay seniors, gay blind, gay disabled and gays with AIDS are affected," Petrelis points out. "We've not had an increase in the Social Security cost of living allowance in three years. Why isn't Equality California raising a ruckus about this?"

While the community has fought for gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, "Has GetEQUAL or Dan Choi ever held a news conference saying cut the defense budget?" he asked.

AIDS & Marriage Intertwined Issues
National organization leaders believe the LGBT community isn't preoccupied with marriage equality. It can and does focus on more than one thing at a time, as some put it.

They also believe HIV/AIDS and same-sex marriage are both public health issues, said Krishna Stone, spokesperson for Gay Men's Health Crisis. The New York -based GMHC is the world's largest private AIDS service organization.

"We can't exclude HIV because of marriage and frankly not the other way around, either," Darlene Nipper, deputy executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said in an interview.

Freedom to Marry, the national organization fighting for same-sex marriage, agrees.

"Every mainstream public health organization in America is making the case for providing the freedom to marry - and the critical safety-net that comes with marriage - to loving, committed same-sex couples, President Evan Wolfson said in a statement to EDGE. "Additionally, GMHC, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and others are partners with us in this fight because they recognize that securing equal treatment and protection under the law and shattering stigma, as the marriage work does so powerfully, are important engines of public health."

Part of the fight for marriage equality centers on giving gay and lesbian couples the more than 1,100 rights and benefits straight married people have, including healthcare, Nipper pointed out.

"Folks who are raising families, who are together but not benefitting from partners' health insurance are really disproportionately affected," she said.

Securing marriage equality also will help educate healthcare providers about the community and its unique requirements.

"The reality is that without marriage equality doctors and other specialists don't have to be knowledgeable," she said.

National groups are not ignoring the epidemic while they focus on rights issues, Nipper argued.

The NGLTF is collaborating with other organizations to implement the Obama administration's National AIDS Strategy, which beefs up prevention education programs, she reported.

Getting Data on Us Is Key
Obama has ordered all the federal government's agencies to develop a strategy and determine implementation priorities with external partners.

One problem is providing members of the community with education tools and research, Nipper reported. The NGLTF and others are trying to get the government to include LGBTs in HIV data collection surveys.

"We only show up in the CDC data and by then it's too late," she said. "We're trying to educate the policy makers and advocates so they can make the changes to open up resources. Shockingly, the thing that is interesting about young folks, particularly on college campuses, is we don't think of them as those that need it, but it is an extraordinary time."