Lambda Legal turns 40
6
Out Wheels column debuts
ARTS
3
13
'Let My People Go'
The
www.ebar.com
Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 43 • No. 16 • April 18-24, 2013
A reporter’s journey: Living with HIV by Ed Walsh
A Rick Gerharter
Chipotle is eyeing the former Home Restaurant at Church and Market streets but may face opposition from city planners.
Despite new policy, chains seek permits by Matthew S. Bajko
A
new policy aimed at curbing the number of chain stores along upper Market Street has not deterred several national retailers from seeking to open along the main thoroughfare in San Francisco’s gay Castro district. Both coffee brewer Starbucks and burrito chain Chipotle, founded by a gay chef, plan to seek permits for prime corner storefronts on Market despite vocal opposition to their applications. Planning officials had already stated they plan to recommend both be rejected, even prior to the adoption last week of the new formula retail guidelines. As reported online Thursday, April 11 by the Bay Area Reporter, the Planning Commission unanimously adopted a new provision requiring planning staff to recommend any retailer that brings the concentration of chain stores within a 300-foot radius to 20 percent or greater not be recommended for approval. The policy applies to the stretch of Market Street between Octavia and Castro. Retailers in violation of the cap can still seek approval from the Planning Commission, though projects disapproved by staffers rarely receive a favorable vote. The wiggle room in the policy is meant to ensure that chain stores that do have significant community backing can still open along the retail corridor. One such example of a company facing minimal opposition is pharmacy chain CVS, which is seeking to open in a large ground floor space at the Market Noe Center where Tower Records had been located. The company dropped plans to sell alcohol and has been working with neighSee page 8 >>
s a nurse drew my blood last Friday, the significance of what was happening and the date was lost on me. My biggest concern was trying to remember the words in Spanish to explain the procedure. As the blood was being taken from my left arm, I held my camera up with my right hand to show to my Facebook friends in Guadalajara, Mexico, what was happening. I hate needles, so making the video was a good distraction. The blood test was the second-to-last hurdle before the main event next month when I will spend a day undergoing light chemotherapy. Then, three days later, I will get an infusion of genetically altered T-cells that were manufactured in a laboratory to be resistant to HIV. The cells were taken from me in October and treated with something called zinc finger nucleases, which severs the CCR-5 receptor, a door that HIV uses to enter the cells. The procedure effectively makes those cells impermeable to HIV. It is part of a study aimed at curing HIV, a concept that seemed out of reach just a few years ago. That Friday date was significant because exactly two years earlier, on April 12, 2011, while I was living in Guadalajara and attendSee page 12 >>
Ed Walsh
Quest Clinical Research nurse Priscila “Grace” Gonzaga, right, administers a preliminary blood test on Ed Walsh Friday, April 12, as part of a study aimed at curing HIV.
Legal group sees 30 years of HIV changes by Seth Hemmelgarn
A
San Francisco nonprofit that helps people living with HIV and AIDS with their legal needs has seen a lot of change since it started in 1983, when the AIDS epidemic was still new and death was often imminent for those infected. Bill Hirsh, 51, who started at AIDS Legal Referral Panel in the late 1980s as a volunteer fresh out of law school, estimated that 80 percent of the nonprofit’s work once involved preparing simple wills. Now, he said, that number is probably about 10 percent. “Because our clients are living longer, the issues they bring to us are more related to living with HIV than dying of AIDS,” Hirsh said of the agency, which provides free or low-cost services to people in the Bay Area. Over the years, ALRP has helped thousands of people keep their homes, stay in their jobs, address debt, and secure legal status in the United States, among other services, he said. “Housing is now far and away the single biggest legal issue for our clients,” Hirsh said. The agency now handles more than 600 housing cases a year that include evictions, discrimination and habitability issues, and rent increases. “The folks who are least able to deal with the system are the folks who are forced to deal with it the most,” Hirsh said. “When you’re sick and you get that eviction notice in the
Jane Philomen Cleland
Kirsten Scott, left, and Kendall Hancock were among the attendees at ALRP’s kickoff party earlier this year at the LGBT Community Center for its 30th anniversary. In the background, Supervisor Scott Wiener talked with ALRP Executive Director Bill Hirsh.
mail sometimes it’s overwhelming ... if you don’t have access to a good attorney, you
{ FIRST OF TWO SECTIONS }
could lose your home.” Like many nonprofits, the agency, which handles about 1,500 unduplicated clients annually, faces funding challenges of its own as demand for services rises. Aging and finances can be critical issues for the people with whom ALRP works. About 80 percent of the people the agency works with are LGBT, and “increasingly, our clients are getting older, but we serve folks under 30 as well,” Hirsh said. One man, who asked that his name not be published, said ALRP helped him get $200,000 in student loans discharged. The 43-year-old San Francisco resident said he has HIV and bipolar II and is unable to work. “I’m in a much better place than I was before,” he said, adding that the nonprofit is “a great resource,” and he didn’t think he would have been able to get the help he needed without it. ALRP has 11 paid staff, including attorneys and other employees, as well as many volunteers. Additionally, there are usually at least five law clerks. Sometimes the agency has money to pay for those positions, and sometimes the clerks work as volunteers. The nonprofit has a panel of over 700 attorneys who volunteer their time.
Looking ahead
“There has been an increase in demand for See page 8 >>