CHEST Community Spotlight: The GMHC Mayoral Candidate Forum Focusing on HIV/AIDS
This week New York City’s Mayoral Candidates (minus Christine Quinn) discussed NYC HIV/AIDS policy at Chelsea's GMHC -- in the midst of a sudden re-eruption of the Weiner sexting scandal
By Joshua Aaron Guthals, with contributions from Will Beischel & Andy Tuck
This past Tuesday Hunter College’s Center for HIV Educational Studies and Training (CHEST) co-sponsored a Mayoral Candidate Forum focusing on HIV and AIDS, hosted by the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GHMC). It provided a rare chance for New York citizens to engage in a discourse with political leaders on a topic that deeply impacts thousands of New Yorkers. GMHC was filled to peak capacity, with an additional overflow room added for citizens who couldn’t fit in the main area.
Throughout the two-hour event the mayoral candidates answered questions covering different aspects of HIV/AIDS policy in New York City. (Front-runner Christine Quinn was unable to attend due to a family emergency.) The Forum's questions were put together by GMHC’s Community Advisory Board and members of the audience. Some examples: “How would you respond to the proposed cuts to HIV services? How would you approach budgeting for HIV programs?”
Some relevant points were made by the candidates, such as when Anthony Weiner said that he found the HIV/AIDS Services Administration’s (HASA) policy of mandatory drug testing and drug counseling to be condescending. From Weiner’s perspective, HASA’s clients want help with their substance use, which HASA should view as an opportunity to provide support, not as an obstacle to offering housing aid. Also, many of the candidates stated their concerns about HASA’s policy of requiring impoverished HIV+ residents to pay 50% of the broker’s fee for apartments sourced for them through HASA.
At another point in the forum, numerous candidates voiced that failing to tackle NYC’s continuing HIV/AIDS crisis would have far greater social cost than would improving and expanding current HIV testing, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment services. Frequently they were highly critical of the current mayor’s approach to the funding and policy management of the city's HIV/AIDS-related programs.
It is worth noting, however, that many of the candidates’ answers during the event seemed wildly unrelated to the intended topics. At several points the audience began impatiently chanting “Answer the Question!” and moderator Oriol Gutierrez – the editor-in-chief of POZ Magazine – repeatedly cut off candidates to demand coherent responses, which mostly led to more mumblings and meanderings. Many of the candidates seemed to stubbornly stick to pre-determined talking points (especially around NYC’s “Stop and Frisk” policies and its prohibitively expensive housing costs) rather than responding to whatever question about HIV/AIDS they had been asked.
The large showing by the press at the forum – while certainly welcome – seemed partially due to overflow from an earlier impromptu press conference in GHMC’s front office. That hastily arranged media conference significantly delayed the start of actually scheduled HIV/AIDS Forum, with Weiner and his wife acknowledging to the press that he had continued sexting women over the Internet long after choosing to resign from his position as a U.S. Representative in 2011 due to the scandal. During the press conference at GMHC, Weiner stated that he does not plan to drop out of the mayoral race regardless of the public's reactions to the revelations. (Read more here.)
As a result of the backdrop of continuing scandal, many of Weiner’s responses throughout the night included reference to his personal imperfections and he made multiple pleas for compassion from the audience. Other mayoral candidates made various direct and indirect remarks about the Weiner scandal (as the news began its spread across the national media right in the midst of the HIV/AIDS forum), with one candidate calling is a "sexual psycho-drama". On the plus side, Weiner’s scandal generated vastly more press coverage of the GHMC Forum (and/or led to press that at least passingly referenced the GMHC event because of the timing of Weiner's disclosure) than would likely have occurred otherwise.
Returning now to the somewhat overshadowed HIV/AIDS Forum, perhaps the most heartfelt moments of the Forum itself came when candidates spoke about friends or loved ones who have been impacted by HIV/AIDS. Late activist and former NYC human rights commissioner Dennis deLeon and former State Senator Thomas Duane -- the nation's first openly HIV-positive person elected to office -- were mentioned as inspirations by several candidates. And candidate Adolfo Carrion told of his cousin who overcame a heroin addiction in Carrion’s basement, but not before becoming infected with HIV.
The candidates had also selected responses about their stance on key topics that affect New Yorker’s living with HIV/AIDS and their caregivers, which is available here. (For example, Christine Quinn is the only candidate opposing removal of the aforementioned HASA requirement that clients must seek drug counseling in order to qualify for enhanced rental assistance. And candidate John Liu is the only one who supports reforming New York City police department’s current controversial “stop and frisk” policy.)
As the Forum drew to a close, the press immediately surrounded Weiner as he left the room, leaving the other mayoral candidates -- and the evening's original purpose -- in the wake of their pandemoniac quest for headlines.
CHEST members Andy Tuck, Will Beischel, and Joshua Guthals at GHMC's Mayoral Candidate Forum, July 23rd, 2013.
