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February 03, 2016

San Francisco Democratic Party Opposes Weinstein Ballot Initiative

SAN FRANCISCO—AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) doesn't have quite the pull in San Francisco that it has down here in L.A.. After all, there's AHF president Michael Weinstein's war against drugs which provide pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against the HIV virus, going so far as to sue Gilead Pharmaceuticals, which makes the PrEP drug Truvada, over the patent for one of its anti-HIV treatment drugs. AHF also falsely claimed that a TV ad airing in Australia, which Gilead helped fund, was telling gay men that they could use PrEP intermittently rather than as prescribed (daily)—and that it doesn't really work anyway. And then there's AHF's problem with San Francisco's Board of Supervisors, which recently considered AHF's request to relocate its pharmacy on 18th Street in the Castro District into the storefront at 518 Castro, which currently houses AHF's HIV treatment center in its rear. Originally, the relocation permit was thought to be a no-brainer, but apparently AHF managed to piss off enough people on the Board that they required AHF to seek a conditional use permit from the city's Planning Commission. The Commission discussed the issue at its Jan. 14 Board meeting, and is expected to turn down the plan. So with all that baggage, it's hardly surprising that just one week ago, the San Francisco Democratic Party's County Central Committee voted unanimously to oppose Weinstein's "California Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act" ballot initiative, saying that, "in addition to condoms, it would mandate the use of eye goggles by porn actors. They also worry passage of the initiative would create a' sue-a-porn-star' provision in state law, as anyone could bring a lawsuit against those who violate it. And they are concerned that the state’s $6 billion porn industry would move to another state with less restrictive policies California has already enacted to protect the health of porn actors." "These issues aren't intuitive for a lot of people, especially when the measure is referred to as the 'condoms in porn measure.' The first question I would hear from people is, 'What is wrong with condoms?' Well, nothing," DCCC member Matt Dorsey, a gay man who is HIV positive and was the lead sponsor of the resolution, told the Bay Area Reporter's Matthew S. Bajko. "It really takes some going through the measure and understanding the context and larger narrative to get how dangerous this measure is. In the end everyone did their homework, and I applaud my colleagues on the DCCC for it." Sadly, the resolution places no requirement on the state Democratic Party to oppose the measure, since local county central committees can't officially support or oppose ballot measures unless the state's party heads decide against taking an official position on the issue—but if they don't, the central committee's resolution may be considered binding on the San Francisco branch at least, and may easily convince other Democratic county committees to take a similar position. "San Francisco is a globally-recognized leader on HIV/AIDS issues," said Dorsey. "This is a very strong statement from San Francisco’s Democratic Party, and I hope it will send an influential message to the California Democratic Party, and to voters statewide."

 
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