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SF Chronicle: No gay male voices in gay STD story

by Michael Petrelis (MPetrelis [at] aol.com)
SF Chronicle: No gay male voices in gay STD story
For Immediate Release
May 10, 2002

Contact:
Michael Petrelis
MPetrelis [at] aol.com

SF Chronicle fails to include gay male quotes in gay STD story



Dear friends:

Imagine a major daily newspaper running a high profile story about woman and breast cancer, and not one woman is quoted. Or the paper runs a piece on the ramifications of the government's Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment on black folks, but no single black person is quoted. Maybe the paper would run a story about men over forty with prostate cancer, and the voices of men with this cancer are blithely missing from the piece. Sort of hard to think such omissions would happen these days, right? What with issues of political correctness and identity politics pervading news rooms, it is beyond odd that the San Francisco Chronicle has committed a sin of omission in today's paper.

The Chronicle has a story about new federal recommendation for gay and bisexual men to get test annually for sexually transmitted diseases, and to consider getting injected with hepatitis vaccines.

But not a single gay or bisexual man is given the chance to articulate some views on the recommendation in the Chronicle. The only individuals quoted are Dr. Ron Valdiserri of the CDC, Shana Krochman who is the spokeswoman for the gay men's Stop AIDS Project, and Dr. Lisa Capaldini who is a doctor connected to the UCSF AIDS programs.

Now, all of them are more than entitled to have their points of views on the new STD report and recommendations targeting men who have sex with men.

However, in America's, and some say the world's gay Mecca, the major daily paper did not think gay male voices should be included in their story directly about gays and gay sexuality. Are there no more homosexuals in San Francisco? Have all the fags fled to Fresno? Any queers still sipping coffee at cafes in the Castro? What about men who have sex with men on Polk Street for financial reasons? Think we could find ANY gay man to have an opinion on the CDC report? Not in the San Francisco Chronicle.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands of gay men working in AIDS Inc in San Francisco, so even if the Chronicle reporter was too lazy to get out of his ivory tower and talk to average gays on the street about developments affecting gay men, all Chronicle writers know many of the gay toiling on the AIDS plantation. It does not appear to me that there could be valid reasons to exclude any gay male voice from a Chronicle piece about gays.

The San Francisco Chronicle has a duty to include the voices of affected communities when the communities are the topic of an important story in the paper.

Just like the Atlanta Journal Constitution did in its story today on the CDC suggestions for gay men. Even though the Atlanta Journal Constitution does not identify either of the two men quoted as being openly gay, both gay men are well known as out gay men.

So the mainstream paper of record for San Francisco has not one gay male voice in their story, while the Atlanta Journal Constitution thought to include two voices from the affected community under discussion by the CDC and news reporters.

Does not say much for the Chronicle today, but thank you Atlanta Journal Constitution for including comments and concerns from openly gay men.

Keep in mind it is bad journalism when reporters recycle press releases from the government about gay sex related issues and no voices or community members are quoted challenging the government's claim. What once made AIDS activism so strong a force to be reckoned with was the way in which reporters were challenged over what they wrote, when it appeared in print, why it was on page one or twentyone, who was allowed to be quoted, and in the process the gay and AIDS communities articulated for ourselves what our agendas were going to be. The empowerment generated from forcing the media to do better journalism around AIDS and gay issues can't be stated too highly.

While I applaud the Atlanta paper for absorbing two gay male voices into the piece, both of the men quoted receive federal government funding for their HIV programs, so they aren't exactly free from conflicts of interests in this matter.

It is time to get more community voices in the media regarding the issues of gay sex, STDs, HIV infections, and AIDS.





- - -


http://www.sfgate.com
May 10, 2002

Gay men urged to get annual tests for STDs
by Christopher Heredia
The San Francisco Chronicle

[snip]

"The CDC is reaching out to the private medical sector, beyond public health clinics, to try and make doctors more aware of the risks of undiagnosed and untreated (STDs)," said Dr. Ronald O. Valdiserri, deputy director of the CDC's national center for HIV, STD and tuberculosis prevention.

[snip]

Shana Krochmal, a spokeswoman for the Stop AIDS Project in San Francisco, said the group welcomed what she described as a new tone on the part of federal health officials, who in the past have appeared skittish about talking about sexual health, particularly gay men's issues.

[snip]

"We're saying to a broad audience of health care providers, 'You have an important role to play. You may not be a clinic, but you are seeing patients some of whom are at risk for diseases that are of great importance from a public health perspective, and we need your support.' " Dr. Lisa Capaldini, an HIV specialist at UCSF, said time and cost constraints may hinder some doctors from engaging in in-depth discussions about sexual histories, but in the long run she has found such inquiries worth the effort.

[snip]

- - -

http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/news/0502/10STD.html
May 10, 2002

CDC urges annual HIV tests for gay, bisexual men
By NICK TATE
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

Citing a rise in sexually transmitted diseases among homosexual men, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that all sexually active gay and bisexual men be tested at least once a year for the AIDS virus and other STDs.

[snip]

"I think it's a good thing," said Tony Braswell, executive director of AID Atlanta, the Southeast's largest AIDS service organization. "The CDC is to be applauded for mainstreaming preventive health care among gay men, and recognizing that sometimes the relationship between a doctor and especially a young gay man doesn't allow a doctor to encourage testing."

Jeff Graham, executive director of the Atlanta-based AIDS Survival Project, said many sexually active men already get routinely screened for STDs, but not all. "What's very important about this is it is helping to get the message out to those people who might not recognize the need for annual testing," he said. The CDC updates its guidelines on sexually transmitted diseases about every four years.

[snip]

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