CDC funds HIV bar night at SF backroom venue

[This email sent to: sf.nancy [at] mail.house.gov, scott.boule [at] mail.house.gov (AIDS staffer for Pelosi)]


September 2, 2002

Honorable Nancy Pelosi
US House of Representatives
2457 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515


Dear Congresswoman Pelosi:

On September 3, the Stop AIDS Project will hold a federally funded HIV prevention program at the Powerhouse bar, which many gay men rank as the best backroom bar for anonymous, consensual and pleasurable congregate sex in the South of Market district.

Since you have been instrumental in securing funding for Stop AIDS and in defending the group's HIV prevention workshops targeting gay and bisexual men, I have several questions for you regarding the federal funds that will be used for the bar night at the Powerhouse.

1.
What hard evidence do you have in hand showing that a bar night in a backroom bar is scientifically sound as HIV prevention?

2.
Beer and alcoholic drinks will be purchased by Stop AIDS with federal money for participants, who want such drinks. Is this an effective way to spend HIV prevention dollars from the CDC?

3.
For three years now, Stop AIDS has poured CDC dollars into bar nights in different gay neighborhoods. But the HIV and STD rates for gay men in San Francisco have not declined. What exactly is accomplished by holding such bar nights for gay men?

4.
Both you and Stop AIDS claim the group is so successful at what it does that Stop AIDS is held up by the CDC as a model HIV prevention organization that should be emulated around the country. Do you know if any other HIV prevention groups receiving CDC grants spend their money on bar nights, at venues where there are backrooms?

5.
How exactly do bar nights get approved by the local review panel that rules on the appropriateness of such CDC funded activities?

I would appreciate a prompt reply from you regarding these questions. Your answers may help us gay men with HIV figure out how to reverse the sub-Saharan level of HIV and STD increases currently infecting the community, as shown in studies from the CDC and the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

If you wish, you can find more information about the September 3 Stop AIDS bar night on their web site, which is at http://www.stopaids.org.

Sincerely,
Michael Petrelis
2215-R Market Street, #413
SF, CA 94114
E: MPetrelis [at] aol.com
P: 1-415-621-6267

cc:
Secretary Tommy Thompson, Department of Health and Human Services
Dr. Julie Gerberding, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr. Joseph O'Neill, White House Office on National AIDS Policy
&
Assorted journalists

- - -

Subj: Reply from Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi
Date: 9/2/2002 10:19:09 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From: ca08.pub [at] mail.house.gov (Rep. Nancy Pelosi)
To: mpetrelis [at] aol.com




Thank you for contacting my office. Please accept this response as
acknowledgement that I have received your message and your comments have
been noted.

For constituents of the 8th Congressional District who have included their
name, postal address, and e-mail address, I will be responding to your
message as quickly as possible.

If you are a resident of the 8th district and have not included your
address, please do so with your original correspondence and I will respond
to your concerns.

- - -